Santiago Code Hero

The third and fourth obstacle Santiago faces is his fear of defeat and realizing his dream. For example, “They made him continue digging, but he found nothing. As the sun rose, the men began to beat the boy. He was bruised and bleeding, his clothes torn to shreds, and he felt death was near.” The obstacle he defeated was the fear of defeat people will meet on the journey to fulfilling our destiny. People have to be patient in difficult times and know that the universe is conspiring in our favor, even if some do not know. Santiago had patience and allowed the men to beat him. Because of his patience they eventually left him alone

     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

The forces of the universe have crucified both Santiago and the marlin.  We see this when Santiago carries his mast cross-like to his shack and the author's description of his exhausted repose "face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms up" (Hemingway  122).  Yet, through this struggle, through this pride that made him go far out beyond all people, Santiago learns the meaning of life in a meaningless universe is humility and love.  We see this expressed most clearly in his mentor-like relationship with Manolin.  Human solidarity and interdependence may not make a man any more capable of beating the forces of the universe, but they are sustaining as much as the courage and dignity with which Santiago faces life "the boy keeps me alive, he thought.  I must not deceive myself too much" (Hemingway  106).  Before coming to shore, Santiago recognizes he has gained humility and he is loved.  He is appreciative the other fishers will worry about him.  They bring him food and newspapers to

In both competitions, Santiago demonstrates a great sense of will power and perseverance. For example, the arm wrestling match was also a test of endurance, just like his battle with the marlin: “They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line…the odds would change back and forth all night…but [Santiago would] raise his hand up to dead even again” (70). Similarly, he fights the fish for three long days and does not give up. After this twenty-four hour arm wrestling game, “everyone called him The Champion” (70). This defeat was important for Santiago because it proved that Santiago once had enough strength to beat the strongest man on the docks, who is implicitly compared to the marlin. It is also interesting to note that during this part of the narrative, Santiago also remembers another worthy opponent: Joe DiMaggio, another hero who shows an amazing strength of will that helps him overcome adversity. With this flashback, then, Hemingway establishes a sense of heroic virtues as spiritual rather than physical qualities.

When describing the man he said “the old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck (9)”. This depicts how old Santiago really was and how close he was to the end of his life. Hemingway also described the flag on his sail as “looking like the flag of permanent defeat (9)”. This quote foreshadows Santiago’s eventual death which was caused by going out at sea past his ordinary limits.

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

While yes, Santiago did face many obstacles and challenges on his way to find the treasure, the main conflict of the story is not an external one, but an internal one. Santiago’s inner turmoil between choosing either to make sacrifices and take risks in order to complete his Personal Legend or settling for the comforts and treasures he already had was the key problem in the story. This also validated Santiago not only as the protagonist, but also as his own antagonist. There were many instances in which the story could have been cut short if Santiago had not taken a leap of faith. From the very beginning, upon meeting Melchizedek, he had been reluctant to make the decision between what he was accustomed to, his flock, and what he wanted, the

In the old man and the sea, Santiago is portrayed in many different ways. When thinking of a code hero people will think strong, courageous and has a will to survive. Santiago shows the attributes of a code hero in, honor, courage and endurance, in the face of a stressful situation of catching a large fish. The first attribute that is shown is honor, Santiago has much honor when he caught the big fish, this was a large accomplishment for him. He could say he caught a large fish.

The greatest key takeaway that we found is given by Melchizedek. His point was to never give up. No matter how hard a situation “may be, give it your all. It may be hard at first, but as time continues on one will see that it gets easier and feel a sense of reward”. That is how Santiago felt. There is a variety of reasons why Santiago could have not followed his dream, but he does. He travels from city to city in search of this great treasure. During his journey he had many different people help him along the way. This story shows how a person could gain from a journey while still following a dream.

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.

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 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’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).