The Old Man and the Sea: Luck

            In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago brings up luck frequently. He says that he is in the middle of a bad luck streak and we learn that it is not the first one that he has had. We learn from Manolin that the old man has had an over eighty day streak without catching fish. Manolin’s parents say the old man has bad salao, or luck (Hemingway). His parents then say that Manolin can no longer work with the old man, because of his bad luck reputation. The reader has to wonder what it means to be lucky, and if this streak is bad luck or just unfortunate. Some believe that luck decides many things, and others think that things happen by chance. In the novel, Santiago believes with the people that he is unlucky and by the end of the book he remains the same. Personally I do not think he is unlucky in the end because he regains his reputation and his bad luck streak did end. He does not believe that it did end because he technically did not catch the fish and  bring it all the way home, but he did get the remains of the fish to prove he can still catch fish. Luck plays a large part of the novel, but in reality if you consider luck it seems more and more silly. Things happen if they are going to happen and we have to just live our lives like this, and not hoping our luck will reverse. “But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready" (Hemingway 29).

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.