The Old Man and the Sea uses a third-person omniscient narration style, where the narrator is not a separate character in the story but instead observing the action from afar. Since the narrator has no subjective opinions about the story, characters, or events, the narration cannot influence the reader in interpreting the story. Instead, the events of the story are clearly and simply stated, without hyperbole, and without unnecessary explanation or digression into backstory or meaning. The reader is given the opportunity to define the story according to personal opinion, instead of being told what to think, and so the final effect of the story depends entirely on what the reader thinks, instead of what the author may have wanted the reader to get from it.