Santiago's Morality

“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

Death is the unavoidable force in the novella, the one fact that no living creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests, is never an end in itself: in death there is always the possibility of the most vigorous life. The reader notes that as Santiago slays the marlin, not only is the old man reinvigorated by the battle, but the fish also comes alive “with his death in him.” Life, the possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of death.

During the time period Hemingway was writing The Old Man and the Sea, fear was present in society, e.g. The Red Scare. The fearless perseverance of the novel’s main character, Santiago, contrasts the feelings of Americans during the forties. Through reverse psychology, the valiant actions of Santiago in his perils with the marlin he was fishing, alleviated some of the unease present in American minds. The instilled the thought process of not blanching what is possible. Santiago narrates his moral correction along the lines of the same topic, “Now is no time to think [fear] what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” The quote elucidates Hemingway’s opinion of apprehension and how he found no place for it throughout the sixty-one years of his life. Events concurrent with the lives of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in their personal lives and the views of the public gave way to the formation of the plots in The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea. The structure of both novels adds to the claim: Fitzgerald and Hemingway are two of the best modernists in their

Throughout The Old Man and the Sea , Santiago’s connection with nature is a favorable one . He considers his “principal friends” to be flying fish , refers to the marlin as brother , and is sympathetic towards the treatment of the turtles due to his feelings that they have similar hearts . However , this relationship does not stay consistently pleasant . His marlin is demolished by shovel-nosed sharks , who symbolize the aggressive side of nature . They counter the marlin , who Santiago felt was a worthy opponent , and are able to destroy his success . Yet they do provide a challenge that he again faces with resolution . Without the sharks , Santiago’s determined mindset of reaching his goal , even if it results in death , would not be reinforced .

In this novel the old man fights and faces many obstacles that seem to have a gratifying effect on every aspect of his life. The old man is getting to old physically to do the things he done when he was young. The old man often dream about seeing lions, reminiscing on his past “He was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches” (Hemingway 150 ). The old man is young at heart. Santiago is the soul that is stuck inside the old man. This is the biggest obstacle the old man will face; himself. Santiago is the young , active and outgoing side of the old man. The old man is very fatigue. Throughout the story we see both versions of the man stuffle against another. Santiago must overcome pride to progress as a fisherman. Its very hard to understand

Earnest Hemingway symbolizes perseverance and pride through the marlin and its interactions with the old man. Santiago’s main goal in his journey was to prove to himself and to others his superiority as an angler. Acquiring this fish not only achieves this goal, but also provides him with a sense of security and pride of his reputation as well. After a couple days of battling the fish he states, “’I’ll kill him though,’ he said. ‘In all his greatness and his glory’” (66).

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.

A time when the old man has faced defeat is when the sharks come. When the sharks come he was not defeated entirely, but he definitely did not succeed. During the time of the sharks he has several defeats. The main defeat that I will talk about is when the second wave of sharks came. During this time the old man feels defeated because he caught the marlin but he had gone out too far. Now there are sharks attacking the aged man and the marlin and Santiago really feels guilty to the fish. The old man states “‘I shouldn’t have gone out so far, fish,” he said. “Neither for you nor for me. I’m sorry, fish.’” (Hemingway 109). The old man saying this is really significant because he feels defeated for the fish and for himself.

Throughout literature many protagonist are immediately shown as heroes and were showered accolades for their feats. There are characters though that are not immediately shown out right as being heroic. On the surface when reading The Old Man and the Sea this is a story of an old poor fisherman who ends up battling a great marlin only to have this trophy taken away from him by a group of sharks. Hemingway’s portrayal of Santiago is not only a story of an old fisherman past his prime and whose endeavors end in futility. Through the character of Santiago Hemingway hopes to create a character for his audience to identify with by showing qualities of pride, determination, and heroism.

“But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated. (Hemingway 103).” This quote, written by Ernest Hemingway in the short story The Old Man and the Sea, captures the theme perseverance in numerous ways. This quote describes when the old man Santiago was struck down physically, with the injuries of his hands and the pain of staying awake for a number of days. However, he mentally kept pushing forward, leading to his ultimate survival and his arrival home. Ernest Hemingway wanted the readers of this story to learn about the rewards of perseverance because of the hardship Santiago and the marlin had to endure, rather than themes such as luck, pride, and suffering.

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.

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

“Santiago’s ordeal, first in his struggle with the big fish, and then in fighting against the sharks, is associated by Hemingway with Christ’s agony and triumph,” (Bloom 2). When Santiago sees the second and third sharks coming, he shouts “Ay,” and Hemingway notes: “There is no

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.