Old Man and the Sea Essay Final

In life, people all over the world face obstacles or challenges in their everyday lives. Some are able to rise above these struggles or problems, while others fall short. In the novella Old Man and the Sea, the protagonist Santiago, a devoted fisherman, must face considerable obstacles while on a voyage out to sea. He tussles to defeat a thousand pound marlin he has come to hook, kill the several sharks that later try to eat away at the marlin and manage to survive all these obstacles alone without even the help of his compassionate friend Manolin.


“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Steam and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.” (1) Determined to change his luck, Santiago ventures far out to sea where few fishermen have gone before, in search of some big fish. Before he knows it, the old man hooks an unpredictable marlin on his line, marking the beginning of a soon to be long, and grueling battle. Refusing to let go of the marlin, the old man suffers through cramped and cut hands. Finally given the chance to change his luck, Santiago spurs on, despite the size and strength of the marlin. Santiago’s passion and pride of being a fisherman is what allows him to drive forward and endure whatever else comes his way. Even though Santiago eventually loses his prized marlin, he begins to understand that he is an admirable fisherman, and doesn’t need to bring home a thousand pound marlin to prove it either.


After the old man kills and ties the dead marlin to his skiff he knows in the back of his mind that “There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over.” (96) Meaning, that even though Santiago defeated the marlin, he knows that soon sharks that will surely come to eat the marlin. Before he knows it sharks begin to swarm, eating away at Santiago’s marlin. Running out of weapons, the old man feels great remorse for killing the marlin. “But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”(103) And surely Santiago has not been defeated. He may not have brought the marlin home in a reasonable condition, but it was a lot better than bringing home nothing. The old man’s determination to never give up is what makes him elude defeat. And it was during this time I realized the novella to be overall tense and at times bleak. I felt like Santiago had no hope or any encouragement, and because he didn’t I felt very sympathetic towards Santiago. He really went through things that no should have to do through alone, but in the end it just showed what a fighter he really is.


“The old man had seen many great fish. He had seen many that weighed more than a thousand pounds and he had caught two of that size in his life, but never alone.” (63) Even though the old man wasn’t able to bring home the marlin in one piece, he was able to accomplish something he had never done before. It was the first time he caught a thousand pound marlin alone, and by accomplishing something so impressive and rarely done just shows what strength Santiago has both mentally and physically.


All in all, Hemingway has a very abstract but reasoned sense of writing style that made the story unique and symbolic. You are able to sense that Hemingway did favor writing about strong, courageous characters, in this case Santiago. I feel like Hemingway likes putting his characters through something inconvenient and irritating forcing his characters to overcome obstacles thrown at them, with defeat or persistence until defeat being the only two options. Hemingway wanted his characters to experience defeat so that the characters could learn from the bad, and take out the good. In Santiago’s case, he may not have been able to defend his prized catch, but he did not come home empty handed, nor defeated. He came home alive with the realization he was a proud and worthy fisherman, but most of all, he realized death is inevitable and that everyone and everything eventually dies. Santiago surely will pass away soon, but he knows he will be remembered through his apprentice, the sincere Manolin. When Santiago’s story ends, Manolin will be the one picking up where his story was left off. And thus, Manolin will find his own apprentice; the chain will go on, the story of Santiago, and all that will follow him, never really ending.