海明威是个酷爱户外运动的作家。除了喜欢打猎，他还喜欢捕鱼。在《老人与海》里，他充分展示了自己对捕鱼知识的了解，借助描写老人思绪的机会，把自己对大海的爱，对大自然的敬畏和盘托出，既增加了作品的真实感，又增强了作品的感染力。
在小说开头部分，海明威讲到了老人对大海的感情。与其他渔夫不同，老人不只是在风和日丽心情舒畅的时候把大海看作女人（la mar)，甚至在大海狂怒的时候，老人也依然像对自己喜爱的女人那样，予以谅解。按照老人的想法，大海就是阴性的，之所以会偶尔变得不可理喻，原因不在她自己，而在于她那受月亮影响的生理期：The moon affects her as it does a woman (就像月亮影响女人一样，月亮影响了她）。
而最能表现出老人热爱大海的应该是描写老人欣赏大海，以及老人捕到大鱼后的心理感受的那些段落。下面这一段是对老人欣赏大海的描述，给读者的感觉是老人很惬意，就仿佛晚饭后看着自己喜爱的电视节目的一位老头：
As he watched the bird dipped again slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and ineffectually as he followed the flying fish. The old man could see the slight bulge in the water that the big dolphin raised as they followed the escaping fish. The dolphin were cutting through the water below the flight of the fish and would be in the water, driving at speed, when the fish dropped. It is a big school of dolphin, he thought. They are wide spread and the flying fish have little chance. The bird has no chance. The flying fish are too big for him and they go too fast.
（他观望着。那只鸟再次倾斜着翅膀俯冲而下，然后疯狂地挥动翅膀，徒劳地追赶飞鱼。老人看见海水微微鼓起来，那是大海豚在追赶逃跑的飞鱼。海豚在飞鱼飞掠而过的水域急速切开水流，等飞鱼掉下来的时候，海豚已经抵达了。这是一大群海豚，他想。它们分散得很开，飞鱼几乎不可能逃脱。鸟毫无机会。对他来说，飞鱼太大了，飞得太快了。）
这是一副生动的海上生存场景，有点像人类的体育竞技比赛，而不是血腥屠杀。作为旁观者，老人一边欣赏，还一边做出了自己的判断。
再看下面这一段：
A small bird came toward the skiff from the north. He was a warbler and flying very low over the water. The old man could see that he was very tired.
The bird made the stern of the boat and rested there. Then he flew around the old man's head and rested on the line where he was more comfortable.
'How old are you?' the old man asked the bird. 'Is this your first trip?'
The bird looked at him when he spoke. He was too tired even to examine the line and he teetered on it as his delicate feet gripped it fast.
'It's steady,' the old man told him. 'It's too steady. You shouldn't be that tired after a windless night.'
(一只小鸟从北方飞向小船。他是一只莺，在水面上飞得很低。老人看得出他已经很累了。
鸟飞到船尾，停在那儿。然后，它在老人的脑袋上空飞了一圈，停在鱼线上。在那儿，它舒服了些。
“你多大了?” 老人问小鸟。“这是你第一次旅行吗?”
他说话时鸟看着他。他太累了，连鱼线都懒得检查，纤巧的脚牢牢抓着鱼线，摇摇晃晃地站在上面。
“它很结实，”老人告诉他。“它绝对结实。昨晚一夜无风，你不应该这么累呀。”)
船上偶尔飞来一只小鸟，惹得老人很开心，仿佛家里来了隔壁的一个小朋友似的。不仅观察它，跟他口气温柔地说话，还安慰它，关心它。
上述这段描写属于小说的细节。细节描写的重要性在于增加内容的真实感。通过上面这段文字的描写，海明威塑造了一个和蔼可亲的形象，他虽然是渔夫，是个以杀生为业的粗人，但他的内心却一点都不血腥，反而是充满着慈爱。
老人对大海的爱，对动物的慈悲之心在老人对捕到的一条马林鱼的回忆中显现得最为淋漓尽致。下面就是这段回忆文字：
He remembered the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin. The male fish always let the female fish feed first and the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her, and all the time the male had stayed with her,crossing the line and circling with her on the surface. He had stayed so close that the old man was afraid he would cut the line with his tail which was sharp as a scythe and almost of that size and shape. When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge and clubbing her across the top of her head until her colore turned to a color almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy's aid, hoisted her aboard, the male fish stayed by the side of the boat. Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.
（他记得有一对马林鱼，被他钓到一条。雄鱼总是让雌鱼先进食。而被钩住的雌鱼进行了一场疯狂的、惊慌的、绝望的搏斗，很快把自己弄得筋疲力尽。在这段时间里，雄鱼一直待在她身边，有时还会越过鱼线，陪她一起在水面兜圈。它靠得那么近，老人担心它那大小和形状都像大镰刀一样的锋利的尾巴会把鱼线剪断。当老人用挽钩把雌鱼捞出水面，用棍子打它，抓住边缘如沙纸的轻剑般的长嘴，连连朝它头顶击打，直到它的颜色几乎变成像镜子背面的红色，然后由孩子帮忙拉上小船，雄鱼一直都待在船边。后来在老人清理鱼线，收拾鱼叉时，雄鱼跳到了船舷边的空中，看了看雌鱼所在的位置，接着游向了大海的深处。他那淡紫色的翅膀，也就是他的胸鳍，宽阔地伸展着，露出淡紫色条纹。老人记得，他很漂亮，而且一直都没有离开。）
上述回忆非常美好，仿佛不是关于马林鱼而是关于一对恋人的。在老人的回忆中，画面很唯美，但背景音乐却饱含着恻隐。
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