How Is Santiago A Code Hero

The epic journey of “The Old Man and the Sea” describes struggle, discipline and manhood. The main characters relationships exemplify how faith and skill overcome man’s adversity during life on the sea. Santiago’s growing relationship with the boy idealizes his statute as a father figure and develops his integrity and values towards the boy. Hemmingway shows us how an old fisherman’s will to overcome the sea’s obstacles proves his manhood to himself and the young boy. His skills and knowledge of the sea provide a positive influence for the young boy to become a great fisherman someday.

Even though he is an adolescent boy, Manolin loves spending time with Santiago. He loves to go out fishing with him but, his parents no longer will let him. The reason for this is because Santiago has not caught a fish for eighty-four days. As a result of this unfortunate occurrence, others deem Santiago the term salao, or the worst kind of unlucky. Knowing the struggle Santiago is facing, Manolin tries to help him in as many ways as possible. Manolin brings Santiago drinks, food and the newspaper so they can talk about baseball and the great Joe DiMaggio. In spending all this time with the old man, Manolin develops a form of respect for him. He comes to understand that despite the recent unlucky situations, Santiago remains hopeful as well as prideful. This is why Manolin looks up to the old man so much. “Santiago… I could go with you again. We have made some money. The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him” (Hemingway 10). Along with just loving Santiago for himself, Manolin also looks up to him because Santiago taught him how to fish. Manolin understands that he is a large part of Santiago’s life and feels honored and

From the beginning, the boy is very clearly in love with the old man. He practically worships him and considers him a hero to him. It is very strange for a book to have a character be so highly idolized at the beginning and have him not idolized any further at the end of the story. Some defining qualities a Code Hero should have are courage, honor, and discipline. Santiago quickly shows off these on the first full day fishing trip we experience with him. His courage to stay with the big fish while also honoring its feelings and its place in the sea as he is being dragged by it demonstrates him being the hero of the story. A little bit later in the story, when Santiago had been holding the line against his back for over a day now, the book said “He was still bearing the pull of the fish across his shoulders.” (Hemingway 76). Santiago stayed very calm while being dragged to distract his focus from the pain on his back. Showing grace under intense pressure is another important quality that makes a Code Hero who they are. Another example of this is shown in this quote: “He felt faint again now but he held on the great fish with all the strain he could.” (Hemingway 91). He was determined to catch this fish and he even said that he would die before the fish could ever get away while speaking to

Ernest Hemingway’s most popular novel, The Old Man And The Sea, was about a strong and heroic man who had a goal of saving the people from the fish drought. To start off, he was the strongest fishermen, which made the boy idolize him even more; just like the people idolized Jesus for his strength. The old man set out to save

       In his novels Ernest Hemingway suggests a code of behavior for his characters to follow: one that demands courage in difficult situations, strength in the face of adversity, and grace under pressure.  Termed the "code hero," this character is driven by the principal ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a life of stress, misfortune, and pain.  Despite the hero's fight against life in this violent and disorderly world, he is rarely the victor.  The code that the hero follows demands that he act honorably in this uphill battle and find fulfillment by becoming a man and proving his worth.  Hemingway himself lived his life trying to show how strong and unlimited

In The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses Santiago to demonstrate some of the qualities of a Hemingway Code Hero. Throughout the novel, Santiago encounters many trials and tribulations that test his role as a code hero. While reading the novel one will see that Santiago endures many of the rules of a code hero. However, the ones he encounters the most are misfortune, honor, and courage. Hemingway uses these rules in his novel in such a way that one can fully understand the life of Santiago.

The existence of Hemingway’s “Code Hero” was first explored in 1952 by Hemingway expert Philip Young in his book Ernest Hemingway (Later revised in 1962 as Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration). Hemingway himself defines the Code Hero as “a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful”. Ultimately the Code Hero will lose because even heroes are mortal, but the true measure of a man is how they face death. The Code Hero can also be afraid of the dark in that it symbolizes the void, the abyss, the nothingness that comes with death. However, once he faces death bravely he becomes a man but must continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood. Code Heroes also frequently have a strong sense of individuality and a drive to travel, to better understand oneself by better understanding the world. Two examples of Hemingway’s Code Hero are Jake Barnes from The Sun Also Rises and the recurring character Nick Adams from In Our Time.

Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea is the quintessential “Hemingway Hero”-a type of fictional character created by Hemingway in all of his books whose basic response to life appealed very strongly to the readers. The Old Man begins the narrative with all the elements of such a hero despite his senescence and poverty. He shows strength, determination, and dedication to himself despite his struggles. Santiago relates back to readers as a strong failure who picks himself up repeatedly.

Examples of the “code” hero in Hemingway’s work include Manuel the bullfighter, in “The Undefeated” he fights with a noble dignity even when he is jeered by the crowd and gored by the bull, along with Wilson, the big game hunter from “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” who shows no fear when confronted with a charging lion. But perhaps the greatest figure of masculinity found in Hemingway’s work is Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea. He keeps his composure and maintains dignity after the fish that he has been fighting is lost to the sharks.

Most importantly, Hemingway’s “heroes are not defeated except upon their own terms” (Warren, 55); what matters to them “is the stoic endurance, … the stiff upper lip” (Warren, 55) which represents victory in their own ways. Hemingway then masterfully shows how these principles affect the character’s lives in a positive light. Santiago, the protagonist of The Old Man and The Sea, shows how the code hero principles help him gain peace despite his failure to catch the large fish. The struggle may also be arduous and testing, as shown in The Nick Adams Stories. We the audience see Nick Adams, the protagonist and code hero, evolve from a naïve child in the beginning of the story, all the way to a fully realized code hero at the end. Hemingway maps Adam’s journey as one with both blessings and hardships; however, in the end, these learned principles give Adams peace and understanding with his life. These heroes all face different forms of defeat or death; however in the end, they “all manage to salvage something” (Warren, 35) out of these excruciating circumstances. Ernest Hemingway utilizes Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea as a fully developed code hero and Nick Adams

     In the timeless novel The Old Man and the Sea, the hero is undoubtedly the old man, Santiago, whom us as readers become very acquainted with. Santiago is a hard-worker and perseveres through every problem nature brings to him. He is in the midst of a horrendous fishing drought, during which the townspeople laugh and ridicule him. Santiago just lets the criticism pass him by because he is confident that the fish of his lifetime is coming soon. In a sense, Santiago represents the ideas of honor and pride. He is also a hero to a young boy named Manolin who conveys the image that the old man is whom he would rather live

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago demonstrates the traits of the code hero. The Hemingway’s code hero covers the principal ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a misfortune life. Throughout the novel, Santiago shows a contrast between opposite attitudes and values which associate his behavior with the guidelines of the code. In this case, the depiction of conflicting values, such as dignity despite humility, perseverance despite despair, and victory despite defeat are aspects that help to describe and understand the role of Santiago in the novel, and reflect the reason why this character is perfectly suited to the heroic conduct established by Hemingway.

Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway

I always thought the Ocean was a dark and dangerous place, however Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea showed me that the Ocean is an environment that has many symbolic meanings which relate to many people’s lives. Each part of the Ocean represents something in real life and can be used to tell many stories. Throughout my life, I encountered many hardships and challenges similar, but on a smaller scale to the main character of the novel, Santiago. In the daring story of Santiago, an old fisherman who hasn’t caught a fish for 84 days battles the forces of nature to get his biggest catch. The symbols in the novel helps readers personally connects their lives with the book. With comparison

“Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated”Hemingway develops Santiago as a hero in order to show how fragile things can be strong in the inside.Even Though santiago seemed like a weak old man, while he was alone at sea trying to catch a fish;he demonstrates how strong,positive,and undefeated he is.