Santiago And Marlin

“Our culture, our traditions, our languages are the foundations upon which we build our identity.” - Unknown. Bilingualism has many different interpretations and definitions and can cause problems in the community or unite it. The concept of bilingualism represents several different ideas, two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez share in their essays their personal stories about being immersed into the English culture and learning the language. They share their views of what bilingualism means to them personally and make arguments about the importance of the concept. The two essayists bring awareness to the major role bilingualism plays in the communities today and highlight the effects of disagreements between cultural groups.

In the story, 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis, the main character Julian has one big conflict that is his wish to please his father. Julian’s father, brothers, and Julian go out for a fishing trip in hopes to catch a big fish. Julian’s father specifically states to Julian that he must give the fishing line to him even if there is a slight nibble. They believe that by catching a big fish it will bring good luck for the new year. Julian wants to be the hero and prove to his family that he is capable of catching a big fish. While fishing, Julian finally got a nibble on the line but said nothing to his Dad about it and because it must have been such a large fish, the line snapped. In the book, it stated, “Every time I rewind and then

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 type of fish he caught that he used for bait and food. Even though

My brother hopped out and got a few rods and a tackle box out. “Come on, Jay is already at the end,” he said as he rushed to the entrance and paid 18$ for both of us to fish until 7 the next morning. I stepped onto the pier and was shocked to see so many people of all ages, sizes, races. The pier was old and worn out, creaking with each careful step I took. The shine of the moonlight reflecting off the pier and the water gave the pier a somewhat scary but welcoming feeling. We walked down to the very end and met up with Jay. He had a giant cooler filled with squid and other types of fish to use as bait, and a gigantic battle rod. “What’s up man?” Mitchell exclaimed and hugged Jay. “Ready to try to teach this little one how to fish?” my brother laughed as they both looked at me awkwardly standing there not knowing what to do. It was around six at night and the pier was still pretty packed, but people were starting to pack up and

Because he was so comfortable and consumed in a world that was not his, he had lost the skiff. The Fisherman knew as well, what his mistake was; "All his life the fisherman had tried to lick the element of time, by getting up earlier and going to bed later, owning a faster boat, planning more than the day would hold, and tackling just one other job before the deadline fell" (Hall 313). Forgetting he was just a person, he competed with an unbeatable element; time, and nature. Because of this, The fisherman and his family were trapped on the ledge and lost their lives. In conclusion, because of his pride he thought he knew the terrain more than anyone and took far

‘I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work’” (95). This relates to perseverance because Santiago has finally caught the fish he’s sought after for days. Most people would have been celebrating their victory, but not Santiago. Santiago surveys the situation and lays his head in his hands. He is tired and ill from his long battle. Santiago only takes a short break. He knows he still has much to do. Santiago now has to worry about bringing the fish home. He thought of the fish as an equal and can’t let his body go to waste. He has traveled at sea for a days and therefore has a long journey home ahead of him. He can’t stop until he makes it home. Finally, Santiago makes it home, “He unstepped the mast and furled the sail and tied it. Then he shouldered the mast and started to climb. It was then he knew the depth of his tiredness. He stopped for a moment and looked back and saw in the reflection from the street light the great tail of the fish standing up well behind the skiff’s stern. He saw the white naked line of his backbone and the dark mass of the head with the projecting bill and all the nakedness

Thomas Benz 8/24/15 Per.2 R.A. #1 1.) Santiago is an old fisherman who is the main character in the story. 2.) Manolin is Santiago's friend, he also fished with him before he got bad luck.

In quite shock the narrator slowly pushes the rod close towards the stern. This decision seems like a wise idea in the panicking mind of the narrator. Though because of this action instead of removing the line from the water a large bass grabs hold of the line. He notices his rod bow but fortunately Sheila notices nothing. The bass is huge and would be one of the narrators biggest catches ever, unfortunately the narrator is with Sheila who finds fishing dumb. He resist the urge to pick up the rod. The fish holds tight to the line. The narrator does everything in his power to remove the fish with out letting Sheila know. He end ups having to cut the line of the rod and let the fish swim away. The whole night he had payed no attention to Sheila because he was worried about what she might think if she knew that he fished. Sheila later tells the narrator that he is a funny kid and that she is going home with Eric Caswell. The narrator later realized that because he cared what Sheila thought he lost a great catch and in the same night he lost Sheila because she was an aloof girl who cared more for the rich boy in the

While on his date, the narrator is faced with a dilemma, he caught one of the largest bass he had ever seen. However, he refrains from telling Sheila since he fears that he might lose her. Provided his admirable feelings for Sheila, he could not help but experience the same emotions after seeing the bass. The narrator, after analysing the situation decides to cut the line and set the bass free. Little did he know, Sheila decided to go home with Eric. Leaving the young boy, without Sheila or the Bass. He soon realizes that he no longer feels the desire for Sheila nor the Bass. In fact, as life progresses, he will get several chances to meet new love interests as well as fish. Additionally, the story provides us a hard life lesson, which I believe

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.

Man vs. Nature-When the old man catches the swordfish he has to fight nature itself to bring the fish to shore. The old man had to be extremely careful not to lose the sword fish just to bring the fish to the side of the boat. After he has the fish tied to the side of the boat he then had to defend it from the sharks.

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.

He tries to reel it in but he can't. Instead the fish is pulling the boat! He struggles and struggles with the fish for hours. After a while fatigue takes it's toll as his hands clamp up, and his back aches from the line tied around it. The fish surfaces and Santiago realizes that it is longer than the boat he is on! An unexpected jerk leaves a gash in his hand only to add to his pain. After a very long while Santiago shortens the line to harpoon it. He latches the fish to the side of the boat and begind to tow it back to shore triumphant. Then a mako shark approaches and takes a large bite out of the marlin. Santiago kills it with a harpoon. Only later did he realize that the sharks blood would attract more sharks. As more sharks approached Santiago fought with all his might to save his fish but there was too many sharks. By the time he got to shore, he had nothing more than a skeleton. Santiago collapses from exhaustion on the shore but is found by Manolin and calls for help. The community marveled at the size of the skeleton that is still attached to the boat. Manolin takes care of the old man and vows to return to him as an apprentice. Santiago finally gets the repect from his community.