The Old Man and the Sea: Santiago

            The main character in The Old Man and the Sea is Santiago, the old man. Santiago is an old man who lives in Cuba near the Gulf of Mexico. He is a fisherman and from his stories that he has been a fisher for the majority of his life. Through Manolin’s memory of a picture, we know that the old man once had a wife who had died several years back (Hemingway 20). Santiago often speaks about baseball, and more specifically of the great DiMaggio. DiMaggio was a very popular baseball player during the forties, so Santiago followed the great player and his team in the papers and radio. Santiago was a very generous and thoughtful person. Several of the townspeople give him dinner, and he tells mandolin he must pay them pack, but mandolin knows he does not have anything to give (Hemingway). During the novel we learn that Santiago is going through an eighty- four day bad luck streak. We also learn that this is not his first extremely long bad luck streak. Throughout this streak however, Santiago never once loses hope. He has so much determination and desire to end the streak he chases one fish for five days. The average person would never take that much of a risk for such a small prize. Santiago goes through many obstacles. He goes with very little sleep, food, and energy. On top of all of that, he has to battle sharks to save the marlin, which unfortunately fails to work out in his favor (Hemingway). This shows that although he is an old man inside he has the energy of someone much younger. We can all learn about determination from Santiago. He was a very admirable old man, and never gave up, which most likely rubbed off onto his student, Manolin. Manolin will likely become as great of a fisher as him because he has learned from Santiago.

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