The Old Man and the Sea: Defeat

“He knew he was beaten now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. He settled the sack around his shoulders and put the skiff on her course. He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind.   He was past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as well and as intelligently as he could. In the night sharks hit the carcass as someone might pick up crumbs from the table. The old man paid no attention to them and did not pay any attention to anything except steering. He only noticed how lightly and bow well the skiff sailed now there was no great weight beside her" (Hemingway 119). Another theme of The Old Man and the Sea is defeat. Defeat is not something anyone wants to experience, but the truth is that everyone should. We need to go through defeat because it makes you stronger and in turn better. If you win everything, you never learn to enjoy and deserve it. If you experience defeat, you learn to want to make yourself better so it does not happen again. This is what Santiago goes through in the novel. He is defeated by the sharks that eat the marlin and leave him with nothing but bones (Hemingway 114). This defeat seems unfortunate, which it is, but the old man does get some positive things out of it. He earns his reputation back along with the boy who says he will fish with the old man from then on. This is what can come out of defeat. It does not always have to be bad and disheartening, but can be eye opening and driving to one who has been defeated.

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

The Old Man and the Sea: Symbols

            In The Old Man and the Sea, a couple of symbols stood out to me. The fist symbol is the marlin. The marlin represents hope and relief to the old man, Santiago. After going through an over eighty day streak of bad fishing, not catching any fish at all. This would be very discouraging to most people, but Santiago kept it very quiet and calm about the situation. Inside I am sure he was hoping and praying for something to catch in order to feed himself and make some money (Hemingway). This is when the marlin comes in and offers hope to the old man. The marlin represents hope because although he ends the old man’s bad luck streak, he does not provide any benefit in the end. The fish does not make it back from the five day journey, but does provide hope for Santiago’s future fishing trips.        

            The other symbols in the novel are the sharks. The sharks symbolize defeat and disappointment in the novel. The old man has finally caught the fish and has it strapped on the boat. Exhausted and hungry he was relieved to finally head home when the sharks come. This ends the hope of the marlin and begins the disappointment of the sharks. They attack the boat aiming for the marlin, and the old man struggles to fight them off. The sharks end up getting most of the marlin, only leaving the remains of the skeleton of the marlin (Hemingway 114). The old man has to just watch as more and more pounds of the marlin get eaten away. This is such a disappointment to the old man because he had such a large fish that could make him quite a bit of money, but all disappears when the sharks come. I believe Hemingway wanted the reader to see these two symbols as contrast of each other to add to the novel.   

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

The Old Man and the Sea: Perseverance

“I could just drift, he thought, and sleep and put a bight of line around my toe to wake me. But today is eighty-five days and I should fish the day well. Just then, watching his lines, he saw one of the projecting green sticks dip sharply" (Hemingway 54). This quote reveals a major theme of The Old Man and the Sea, perseverance. Perseverance plays a large part of the novel because it is what leads Santiago, the old man, on a five day journey. Santiago has been on an eighty-five day bad luck streak, without catching a single thing (Hemingway). He could just give up go home and rest, as the he says in the quote, or he can persevere. He makes the decision to fight on, because nothing can last forever and he is bound to catch a fish sometime. He does just this, and that is exactly what happens. His perseverance continues with the chase of the fish. He could have easily just cut the line and gone home, but he kept at it and although the outcome was not what he wanted nor expected, but had a light in it. Santiago broke the streak and regained his reputation with his fellow fishermen, which in the long term got the boy to come back to fish with him (Hemingway). The reader can learn a lot from this story because in our lives, sometimes it feels as though nothing can go right, but if we just persevere through it, something positive can come from it. Even if it is not quite what you expect, like in Santiago’s case, what does not kill you makes you stronger. This can help you learn the next time, and continue to grow. This is why perseverance is a major theme of the novel. We can all either learn to preserve, or be reminded nothing comes easily.     

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

The Old Man and the Sea: Tone

            The tone of The Old Man and the Sea is very monotonous. I say monotonous not in a bad way, but the way the novel is written, a straight to the point, not beating around the bush kind of way.  Hemingway’s writing is extremely straight forward and to the point. He does not really beat around corners or use expressions. The factual tone of Hemingway’s writing makes the literature easy to read, understand, and process. The reader truly gets exactly the story Hemingway wanted, without imaging something one way or the other. I personally enjoy this writing because I can understand it well without having to go back and reread parts. It makes a book a good and quick read. The only thing that gets boring about this type of writing is the lack of humor. The very tiny bit of humor in the novel is through the very dry humor filled cracks made by Santiago on the boast while he was stranded for five days (Hemingway). This lack of humor makes the emotional rollercoaster of those five days take central stage. We really feel the highs and lows of the old man as the journey carries on and on. We feel his excitement and relief when he feels the tug of the line, then his confusion and relaxed nature as the fish drags on. We then feel his exhaustion as the fish keeps him awake in the night, his worsening hunger as he struggles to find anything other than tuna to eat for the day, his struggle as he fights to save the fish from hungry sharks, and finally his defeat as he lands ashore with only the remaining bones of the once large and great marlin (Hemingway). The way Hemingway tells this story with his dry tone gives us a very defined and detailed definition of what Hemingway pictured the old man feeling on his boat for the five days.

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

The Old Man and the Sea: The Marlin and Santiago

            The Marlin and Santiago have a love hate relationship in The Old Man and the Sea. Santiago is a very determined old man. He has been going on an eighty four day bad luck streak without catching any fish. He desperately needs to catch a fish very badly in order to provide money and food for himself. He is already living on little to no appliances and furniture. He is sleeping on a bed padded with old newspapers and cooks on a hot fire with a pot (Hemingway). On the first day of the five day journey with the marlin, Santiago catches the fish and feels the boat being drug along it(Hemingway). The old man has to make the decision to stay with the fish, or cut off the line. He makes the decision to stay with it because he does not know how long it will be until another fish comes along for him to catch. The marlin then takes him on an intense five day journey. The old man goes through periods of hating the fish for dragging it on and beating and exhausting him (Hemingway). He feels hate towards him, but loves him at the same time because he knows that if he catches him he can bring so much. The fish would also end his terrible bad luck streak. The marlin does not want to give up that easily however. He continues his fight only giving the old man slight glimpses of the massive fish. This makes the old man fight on with the fish. Even when the old man catches the fish, the fight does not end. Even from the dead the fish puts strains on Santiago, causing him to battle a dozen sharks and eventually losing the fish (Hemingway). The old man hates the fish for this, but loves him also for bringing back his reputation and ending his bad luck streak.

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

The Old man and the Sea: Manolin

            Manolin is the other major character in The Old Man and the Sea. Manolin’s age is never directly said, but we can infer that he is most likely a teenager. He still lives with his parents and obeys their orders, so he is probably a teenager. Manolin is extremely kind and considerate. He cares for the old man so much he makes sure he is well fed and rested because he works so hard during the day (Hemingway 24). We learn as the book begins, Manolin started out working for Santiago and leaned all he knows about fishing and the fishing industry. Despite his wishes, his parents tell him to go to another boat. Santiago just is not bringing in enough fish for Manolin to help support his family. Manolin is then sent to work for a different fisherman, but still volunteers to help Santiago out (Hemingway). This shows how much Manolin genuinely cares for the old man and treats him as though he is his grandfather. He teaches him so many lessons and skills he can use for the rest of his life. As the five days of the old man being at sea, he repeatedly wishes that the boy, Manolin, was there with him to make it go smoothly. So Santiago feels the same way that Manolin feels about him. Mandolin was very concerned about Santiago as the days went by and was relieved when he finally came home. He makes sure no one around the town bugs the old man about the large marlin bones so he has time to recover. In the end mandolin sees the old man needs him, and goes against his parents’ wishes and rejoins Santiago’s crew (Hemingway). Santiago and Manolin’s relationship is unlike many relationships between an old and young man. This just proves how much pf a genuinely good and wholesome boy Manolin is.

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

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.