The book The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway was both a fisherman and a Nobel Prize winner. The story is set in a small fishing village near the Cuban coast. Hemingways expresses in his tone that he feels sorry for the old man.
This is shown because he mentions everything that the old man doesnt have going well for him and also makes the reader realize the pain that the old man goes through. The point of view in The Old Man and the Sea is from that of the old man, Santiago.
The Old Man and the Sea is about an old fisherman named Santiago who thinks that his luck has ran out. Before he got old he was a very good fisher and could catch plenty of fish.
Now however he hardly ever catches anything. Santiagos young friend Manolin used to fish with him but he had to stop because his parents wanted him to fish with someone who caught something everyday. After weeks of not catching anything, Santiago goes out and catches the largest fish that he has ever seen in his life. He has a hard time getting it up and it takes away all of his strength. He has an even harder time getting it back to the village because it is night and all of the sharks are feeding off of it. He is unable to do anything about the hungry sharks.
Upon finally returning to the village, he is so tired that he is not able to worry about this fish and goes directly to his shack and sleeps for an extremely long time. When he is awaken by Manolin, he finds that the fish that he caught was destroyed by the sharks and that all of his efforts were for not. However Manolin encourages Santiago to continue fishing because he still has much to learn about the sea.
Santiago is the main character in Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. He is an old fisherman who seems to have very bad luck at fishing even though when he was younger he was a very good fisherman.
Hemingway describes him by saying, Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were cheerful and undefeated. Even though he is old and poor, he still considers himself to be the top dog. Santiago knows that he is not doing very well but he still had to will and the drive to continue fishing, which is what he enjoys doing.
Even though the enormous marlin that Santiago catches is an animal, it is still considered to be one of the main characters.
The entire book is based around his struggles with this fish. He came unendingly and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple, and in the sun, the stripes on his sides showed wide and light lavender. This is what Santiago sees when he gets his first glimpse of the fish that he has been fighting with for three days. Santiago spends so much time with the marlin that he actually starts to talk to it and call it his brother. He sees the fish as being a superior being, even better and nobler than man is.
Santiago establishes his dignity through the code of values that he has because he is a fisherman. His experience as a fisherman gives him the victory that he wins over nature herself in the form of the large marlin and the sharks. When he comes upon the marlin, he knows that he might not be able to return with the whole thing or even any of it. However he continues to fight the fish. After fighting the fish for three days Santiago finally comes away with the largest victory of his life.
This increases his pride and his courage. He feels like he is king of the world because he was able to beat such a great fish. Santiago shows that man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. Through the struggles of Santiago, Hemingway shows us that we must endure great pain and go through much suffering to reach our highest goals. He tells us that nothing good in life just comes to you.
You have to work and work in order to get what you want.
