Old Man and the Sea Concludes with Santiagos Death Essay

     Hemingway's view of human nature was that happiness was rare and was found within a man and not in his outside circumstances or surroundings.  Hemingway illustrates this in three ways.  First, he portrays the human nature of Santiago, the main character, as being one of humility and compassion, full of strength and pride.  He is shown not as a gleefully happy man, but one who meets life with a serene, quiet resilience.  Second, Santiago's fellow villagers are shown as shallow and materialistic, with a narrow view of life compared to his.  Their focus on appearances is in sharp contrast to Santiago's focus on intrinsic values.  Third, it will be shown that his rare

In the book The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the flashback technique in order to characterize Santiago and develop key themes of the novel, such as Santiago’s connection with nature and what it means to be a hero. Hemingway employs several flashbacks as an effective technique that develops Santiago’s character as he recalls past occurrences in order to renew his strength of will. There are three flashbacks in particular that are critical to the development of this story. The first flashback describes a time when Santiago associated himself with the marlins. The second flashback occurs when Santiago arm-wrestled the town’s strongest

“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

Furthermore, the image of the old man struggling up the hill with his mast across his shoulders recalls Christ’s march toward Calvary. Even the position in which Santiago collapses on his bed—face down with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up—brings to mind the image of Christ suffering on the cross. Hemingway employs these images in the final pages of the novella in order to link Santiago to Christ, who exemplified transcendence by turning loss into gain, defeat into triumph, and even death into renewed life.

As Santiago continues to struggle with the Marlin many characteristics become obvious, specifically characteristics that show a parallel to Christ. Referring back to the example used in How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Santiago shares similarities to Christ. Throughout his struggle with the Marlin, many references are made to being alone and far from land. This isolation is similar to that of Jesus, and along with the doubts of his peers, puts Santiago in a similar situation as that of Christ’s. The old man also acquires cuts on his hands and “carries” the fish on his back. Jesus carried the cross that eventually killed him upon his back, and was pierced through the hands. This poses the question of whether Santiago will share the fate

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.

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.

It is ambiguous whether the old man succeeds or fails. At first, it seems that if Santiago has failed. “He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind” (Hemingway 119). It is almost like he has lost everything that he has worked for. The old man accepts defeat as is, without mourning or grief Fortunately, after all the damage has been taken, he keeps fishing. He built some sort of relationship with the marlin, but was later broken. He has since moved on.

Everyone that is, except for Manolin. Santiago is Manolin’s idol and he sticks by him through thick and through thin. I loved how the book ended with Santiago being respected by everyone for catching the biggest marlin anyone had ever seen but still keeping to himself and spending time with the boy. This shows that the old man remembers who stood by his side when times were rough and not just when the village accepted him and that is an attest to the type of person he is.

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

Many of the passages of the novel reflect his life. Hemingway writes: “But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” This has been shown through his life, as Hemingway wrote the novella to prove he wasn’t finished as a writer. This is also reflected during his time in World War 1. Hemingway was wounded by Austrian Mortar fire, and yet despite his injuries or “defeat,” Hemingway carried a wounded italian soldier to safety. Hemingway wrote: "When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion

It is difficult to disentangle Santiago and Hemingway, and it can render a reader quite uncomfortable (Bloom 2). Hemingway, like Santiago, denies his religious values (Linck 1). Hemingway, however, did not turn religious to write The Old Man and the Sea (Waldmeir 33). He has always been religious, although his religion is not of the orthodox variety (33). He celebrates, and always has celebrated, the Religion of Man (33).

“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.

Throughout the book, The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway uses a writing style known as stream of consciousness which entails using uninterrupted thoughts and feelings of the main character. This writing style shows through the character Santiago while he is at sea. Santiago talks to himself which essentially correlates to how he feels at that moment. The usage of the technique stream of consciousness engages the reader into how the character feels during that moment making the reader connected to the character. Hemingway uses this technique to its fullest in the novel when the author shows Santiago talking to himself about DiMaggio and to then eventually thinking that he wanted to be the marlin.