The Struggle of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, a Novel by Ernest Hemingway
In the novelette The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago lives in a small village in Cuba, near Havana. The village is a fishing village right next to the Gulf Stream. This village is isolated because there are no major cities or roads close to it; also the water surrounds part of the village. The closest villages are miles away, leaving long-distance communication to a minimum. Even though the village is isolated, the minor characters do not seem to be affected. Everyone goes about their daily business such as fishing and selling. The story takes place in September, hurricane season. Luckily no hurricanes are on their way while Santiago is at sea. When the old man has caught the fish he looks up at the sky and sees the cumulus clouds in his favor. Santiago says to the fish, "Better weather for me than for you, fish."
Santiago lives in a one room shack with only simple objects. He has a bed, table, chair, and a spot on the dirt floor for cooking. Examples of poverty are shown by the objects he has inside his house. The dirt floor shows poor living conditions and that the old man doesn't have enough money to have a real floor. Santiago also has a few religious pictures and also one tinted picture of his wife. Back then pictures were still black and white and tinting cost a lot of money. This shows how much Santiago's wife means to him and how he loved her. Santiago's only friend is a young boy named Manolin. Manolin's parents call Santiago salao, which is the worst form of unlucky because the old man did not catch any fish for eighty-four days.
The younger men in the village make fun of Santiago, but he doesn't get angry and iust ignores them. The older fisherman Ditv Santiago but do not show Isolation also occurs in the main character, Santiago. Santiago is an old man who went out to sea for eighty-four days without catching anything. The younger fishermen made fun of the old man and called him unlucky. On Santiago's eighty-fifth day he decides to go out further than he has ever been to catch a giant marlin. Santiago is isolated because he is alone out on the sea for many days.
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Isolation brings the old man down to almost defeat when striving to catch the fish. Many times the old man gets help from Manolin with various tasks, but the battle with the fish he must do alone. Santiago's struggling with the giant marlin is a sign of how he could be easily defeated. When Santiago communicates with the marlin it is an example of his isolation. As the sharks eat the fish the old man says how he is dying along with the fish. Thinking about Manolin helps Santiago try his hardest to catch the great fish. When Santiago caught the great fish and brought it back to the village, I say he succeeded in his task, but on the other hand the fish is dead, so he also failed at bringing a live marlin to the village.
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The Struggle of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, a Novel by Ernest Hemingway. (2023, Apr 24). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-struggle-of-santiago-in-the-old-man-and-the-sea-a-novel-by-ernest-hemingway/
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