Old Man Marlin

On the third day the fish tries to escape while Santiago was sleep-deprived,and aching he manages to pull the marlin in close enough to kill it with a harpoon thrust. Dead beside the skiff, the marlin is the largest fish Santiago has ever seen. He lashes it to his boat, raises the small mast, and sets sail for home. While Santiago is excited by the price that the marlin will bring at market. He is more concerned that the people who will eat the fish are unworthy of its greatness.

As Santiago said, “You are going to die anyway fish, you don’t have to kill me too. This quote shows how much work the marlin was to catch even to a fisherman that is strong and experienced. Even when it is almost obvious that Santiago was going to win the fight, the marlin doesn’t give an easy fight. It tries as hard as it can to live as long as it can. The marlin’s strength to not give up even when all odds are against it is precisely the lesson that Hemingway wants for people to understand. Hemingway has also included a third character that is the definition of determination.

While other fishermen reel in boatloads of fish, the old man is lucky to feel so much as a tug on his line. He spends some time fishing with a young boy, but after months of bad luck, the boy’s parents no longer allow him to fish with the old man. It is for this reason that he decides to journey far out into the sea, aiming to catch a fish so huge it renders the other fishermen speechless. After venturing miles away from the course, the old man finally feels the pull of a large fish on his line; so large, in fact, that he does not have the strength to reel it in. However, he is determined to capture it no matter how long it takes, telling himself, “You better be fearless and confident yourself, old man” (Hemingway 84). He does his best to remain strong and optimistic throughout his time at sea. With much patience, he allows the marlin to guide his boat through the rippling waves of the ocean for days on end. When it finally tires out, he is able to kill it and reel it in, leaving an accumulation of blood in its place. Knowing this could mean trouble, he begins to head back to shore as quickly as possible, blood trailing behind him. To his dismay, despite his efforts to avoid them, the sharks sense the blood in the water and approach his boat. Each time a shark appears, he is eventually able to fight it off, but not before it can take a portion

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

The Old Man and The Sea, is a tale of an old man named Santiago who is a fisherman. He hasn’t had any luck with fishing, resulting in the other town members viewing him as a lame old man. A boy who used to fish with him inspires to change up his usual fishing tactics resulting in him catching a great huge fish. After fighting the fish for a couple days in his tiny boat he ties it to the side, headed for shore. On the way in sharks eat his entire catch leaving a skeleton to show for his work. The reader can see a clear metaphor painted by Hemingway. The fish

The text leading up to the old man hooking the Marlin shows how much Santiago loves to fish. It is obvious that he is very skilled and that he takes it seriously. Santiago’s lines are always straight and he notices small things like the way a bird circles. He also takes the weather and sun’s position into account. These details show how significant fishing is to Santiago and how fishing is truly his profession. He is obviously a skilled fisherman and his bad luck seems very unjust. This also makes you understand Manolin’s respect for him and makes the old man seem more like a hero and less pity for him. Seeing fishing as a profession is different and intriguing for me, because I normally think of it as a recreational activity. The way it is

Everyday Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea risks his life by returning to the ocean which “can be so cruel” and do “wild or wicked things” (Hemingway 29; Hemingway 30). When faced with a “very big Mako shark” (Hemingway 100), Santiago has “little hope” in defeating it, yet still thinks “maybe I can get him [the shark]” (Hemingway 101). Despite dehydration and exhaustion, Santiago defends his marlin by ramming “the harpoon down onto the shark’s head,” effectively killing it (Hemingway 102). By overcoming doubt and using all of his power, Santiago displays fearlessness in times of trouble. In All is Lost, Our Man shows courage by hopping off his boat in the midst of a treacherous storm and onto a life raft.

In the novella, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is an unlucky fisherman who has not caught anything in 84 days.  Yet he sets out alone on the 85th day to try again.  For three days he struggles with a large marlin which he finally kills; but, despite his best efforts, he loses the fish to repeated shark attacks.

The sharks in The Old Man and the Sea and the intense boxing match in Rocky destroyed Santiago and Rocky, but the people supporting them steered them away from defeat. Santiago from Hemingway’s parable, The Old Man and the Sea, was a fisherman in Cuba. He had gone fishing for 84 days in a row without catching a fish. Staying hopeful, Santiago had confidence that he would have luck on his 85th day. With resolution, he went farther out than any other fishermen; so far that he could not even see land.

Santiago struggles against powerful forces, starting with the sea. When the sea does not allow the old man to have fish for 84 days, he is labeled as salao. Santiago is ridiculed by the fisherman of his small fishing village. He goes out to sea to prove himself to them and Manolin, a young boy who cares for Santiago, that he still has the skill to catch a fish. The old man wants them to know that he is still a great fisherman.

As one of the fisherman measure the elongated marlin’s skeleton, Manolin realizes that Santiago had achieved this feat: ‘“He was eighteen feet from nose to tail,’ the fisherman who was measuring called. ‘I believe it,’ the boy said” (123). When Manolin has this epiphany, he is aware of Santiago’s internal strength despite his old age. Believing in this achievement, Manolin starts to revere Santiago as his own personal hero, which is shown through his tears of joy. Few moments later, Santiago wakes up, and he recounts when the merciless sharks took all of his marlin’s flesh. Although Santiago knows that he did not prevail, Manolin still praises him while being astounded: ‘“They beat me, Manolin,’ he said. ‘They truly beat me.’ ‘He didn’t beat you. Not the fish’” (124). In essence, Manolin is dumbfounded by the old man’s strength, and he is not skeptical of Santiago’s advantages anymore. Manolin takes one step further to demonstrate his maturity and his full devotion to Santiago after he asks Manolin about the authority of his parents: ‘“What will your family say?’ ‘I do not care. I caught two yesterday. But we still fish together now for I still have much to learn’” (125). Manolin breaks away from the authority of his parents, who are the cause of his skepticism on Santiago. Manolin’s parents tell him to move to another boat and

“True friends won’t grow apart even if they don’t talk everyday” (Drake). The Old Man and the Sea happened in the 1940’s in Havana Cuba near the Gulf of Mexico. Santiago, the main character, had gone 84 days without catching any fish. Santiago is know to be the best fisherman in Cuba. But, he has gone 84 days without catching a fish. This has cost him his reputation as a fisherman. Losing his reputation has also cost Santiago to lose the boy, Manolin. Manolin is a young boy who Santiago wants to pass on his morals and beliefs. But, his parents won't let them fish together. Santiago plans to get both his reputation and the boy back again. He plans to go out very deep into the sea and catch the biggest fish ever. Santiago is a unique Hemingway

There is tension between Santiago and the marlin throughout the entire novel. The old man finds kinship with the fish against a common enemy. “‘Half fish,’ he said. ‘Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing’” (Hemingway 115). Although he does not recognize it himself, the stakes of the battle with the marlin are so high thanks to

Ernest Hemingway wrote about the marlin as if it was a human living in reality. This metaphor also includes a Christian aspect to it where Santiago (the old man) is God and the marlin is everyone on earth. Where Santiago found the marlin was in somewhat shallow water where it was closer to Santiago (the

Marlins and the sea are usually never associated with lions. They are, however, in The Old Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway. Together they are extremely symbolic in the novella. Lions are often the subject of Santiago’s dreams and they represent youth and nature. The old man hooks a marlin and fights the fish which represents a beautiful challenge. Santiago’s universe is the sea and it stands for a way of life. Manhood has also been a connector for the three aspects and is intertwined with them all. The sea, marlin and the lions all symbolic attributes of youth, challenges, life and are all attached to an idea of manhood.