The Old Man and the Sea: The Marlin's Effects

As was previously stated, the old man, Santiago, goes far out to sea to find himself the biggest and best fish in the Caribbean only to find himself, instead, rapped in a fight of life or death between himself and an enormous monster marlin. As the struggle wages on into the second and third days still without any signs of give from either the strong fish or the wise, old man, Santiago cannot help but think of the tremendous power and strength his fish must hold. It is ridiculous to expect a regular fish to possess the ability to tow a fully grown man sitting on a small fishing boat on the open seas away from the land at such a constant speed to continue gaining ground on the man for just about a full three days. These thoughts wrap around Santiago and cause a fairly powerful relationship to form with only the highest and utmost respect for the fish. He feels his body nagging at him to rest and sleep and to get a good meal, but this respect he has for such a willing combatant allows him to stow away his thoughts and keep pressing onward. The friendship that has grown between the two beings also brings with it an aspiring love to not have to kill the man's adversary. He feels as if the fish should be able to live by itself in the ocean because of its beauty and grace. The old man marvels at the thought of just a single fish pulling and tugging at the fishing line and how amazing the fish must be to keep up with as solid of a pace as this one. Also, the marlin gives Santiago the strength and will power to continue the fight because Santiago does not want to lose any battle, let alone one with a fish. As he recalls, he once was in an arm wrestling match that went on for hours and hours until finally the old man had broken the other's spirit and took down the opponent in one solid effort.

The Old Man and the Sea: Manolin

Manolin is a young fellow with fishing in his blood. His father, presumably, is or was at one time a fisherman because Manolin is a fisherman at such a young age. His father most likely pushed Manolin into fishing when he was a young lad, and since his father stopped fishing or could not fish anymore, the boy had to pick up the "family business." Although his physical presence is only in the beginning and end of Hemingway's classic novella, the thought of the boy on the shore inspired Santiago to continue his fight with the beast of a fish. Manolin goes to the old man's house every morning to bring him a cup of coffee and the day's newspaper. The old man reads through the baseball scores as he drinks his coffee and talks with Manolin. Together , they gather up necessities for the day and head down to the beach with the small boat's mast and sail. Manolin wishes the old man good day and walks to the boat he is part of as Santiago heads out to sea. The book never mentions what Manolin's day is like, but he is always there when Santiago returns to the dock. The young boy helps the old man take apart the boat again and carry the mast back up to the house where they talk a little more. Manolin gets the man some blankets and food and makes sure he gets to sleep well, then returns home to repeat everything the next day. Manolin is also an undeniable lover. He never once fades from the old man, but instead, he helps him and is entirely devoted to being a great friend to Santiago. By doing so, the two fishermen remain close friends, almost like father and son. Manolin's dedication to Santiago is unfailing and all-inclusive even through the epic fight between the old man and the marlin. Although his father practically forced him into fishing, he is very happy with it, that is, until his father does not let him fish with Santiago after such a long time of coming into shore empty-handed. Instead, he goes to work for another ship, relatively unhappily.

The Old Man and the Sea: Santiago's Pride

Santiago has a tremendous amount of pride within himself, for the fish, and for the boy back home on the land. His own pride for himself includes his will to keep fighting even when everything in his future looks growingly bleak, and he is proud of himself for having the stamina and endurance through it all. As the struggle between man and fish burns on into the second, third, and fourth days, Santiago almost never thinks about giving in to the seemingly everlasting power of the marlin. The fish pulls and pulls, but the old, weary man holds firm, even with exhaustion, muscle cramps, fatigue, and the urge for good sleep looming above his head. Beside the love for Manolin and keeping his mind up with separate thoughts, his pride is almost entirely what keeps him above water, literally, in the sense that the fish could pull him down under the water in any sudden burst of energy. He is proud of his body for being able to keep up with the marlin for so long; he is proud to know that this fish must be the worthy adversary he has longed for for so many days; he is proud to think that there is a boy back home that is eagerly awaiting his return. His pride also allows him to continue, knowing that there are only two possible outcomes to the battle: winning and having the glory of a lifetime, or losing and succumbing to the strength of the fish and, very likely, death. He is also extremely proud of the fish because it is showing the same amounts of strength as the old man to pull the boat as far as it has. Santiago knows it must be a huge fish because of his inability to gain any sort of ground on the marlin. He is proud of himself for knowing how far out he must go to hook such a large fish. Finally, his pride extends into the boat for holding itself intact for such a long period.

The Old Man and the Sea: Santiago

Throughout Hemingway's classic novella, the old man, given the name Santiago because of his apparent Cuban background, faces countless troubles and hardships through physical, mental, and spiritual scenarios. A simple fisherman, Santiago goes out onto the rough and grueling seas to break his eighty-four-day drought of unluck and no fish. He feels eighty-five could be his lucky number as he ventures out of the safety of the dock on the first day in hopes of finding the biggest and baddest fish in the ocean - the catch of his lifetime. As he heads out, he notices the other fishermen staying closer to shore and thinks to himself about how he will do so much better going out farther to find the big fish. Unfortunately, he might have gone a bit too far as he quickly finds himself in a fight with a monster of a marlin. As the struggle continues, he thinks about his friend back home, Manolin, who is a young yet passionate and avid fisherman, and how marvelous it would be if he could bring home his catch. During his endeavor, the thought of Manolin waiting for him gave Santiago the heart and will to pull through and just give at least a little more effort. For entertainment, he dreams of how his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, have been doing, especially with their star player, Joe DiMaggio. He loves baseball and listening to the box scores on the radio or reading about how the teams are doing in the newspaper. Also, Santiago uses the marlin as not only an adversary, but as a respected friend. He talks not only to the fish but somehow talks with the fish. Obviously, marlins or any other kind of fish cannot talk to most people, but because of his high respect for the fish, he gives it its own sort of voice to have a friend out on the ocean. Insanity would certainly take over the body without something to occupy the mind, not only in Santiago but in anyone.

The Old Man and the Sea: Christianity and Crucifixion

Ernest Hemingway portrays his fictional character, Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, as a seeming and obvious connection to Christianity's biggest name, Jesus Christ. Hemingway puts Santiago through a few challenges to make correlations to Christ during crucifixion. Among these scenes are Christ's walk to Calvary with his own future death, the cross, on his back, the ways in which Christ was tortured, including his hands being nailed onto the cross and the lashes he received from so many whips, and the result of an epic battle of time and wits between his own strength and gravity pulling life out of him, inch by inch. At the start of the day, Christ was forced to travel on foot over numerous miles of unforgiving terrain in bare feet with two heavy pieces of wood held together in an awkward position on his back. Hemingway includes this in the novella by having Santiago carry his ship's mast across his shoulders down to the dock to assemble his ship. He must struggle every morning to get the mast down and back before and after the day's fishing trip. Next, just as Christ was given scars from the lines scraping across his body, Santiago receives the same kinds of scars from the fishing line running through his hands and across his back. The marlin is so strong that it is able to drag the boat, held only by Santiago himself, across the ocean. Such a force caused extreme amounts of stress on the old man's body, turning into cuts and deep gashes. Finally, as Christ did, Santiago endured and was able to win the battle, even having lost all strength. He reeled in his catch of a lifetime, and headed in for shore. Along the way, death came in and stole the flesh of the fish, like the life of Christ, but perserverence came through and glorified Santiago through the marvel of even the skeletal remains of the catch and glorified Christ by rewarding the hardships he faced during that fateful day.

Santiago and Manolin's Friendship

The Old Man and the Sea presents trials of friendship between Santiago, the old man who goes out to catch the fish, and Manolin, a young boy who is part of a different fishing boat's crew but enjoys the presence of Santiago. Being apart from Santiago nearly every day on the other boat, Manolin does not get too many chances to have conversations with his old friend, so he practically adopts the old man as his father or grandfather because of the number of visits he gives him. Every morning, Manolin walks to the old man's house to help him get his fishing gear together and wish him fair catch for the day; as Santiago leaves the dock, Manolin walks back to his boat to board and start his own day. Then, in the evening, Santiago comes back to the dock, and Manolin is there to greet him and help take his things back to the house for the old man to get to bed. Being separated from each other for so many hours during the day, there would also be quite a few scepulations over how the pair could remain friends without hardly any social interaction. It seems Manolin would eventually grow tired of going to visit Santiago day after every long day. It is not possible to think of new things to talk about without having one of those things in common. Also, when Santiago does not came back in after he hooked the marlin, Manolin's patience would be tested. Should he wait for him the first night? Should he check if he has come in by the second morning? What about the third? After about two or three days, I would have given up on the old man. However, what would Santiago think when Manolin did not show up to help him one day? But, Manolin did not fail the old man; in fact, he helped the old man get through by giving him something to think about other than the huge fish. Manolin was a big help for Santiago because Santiago knew the whole time that Manolin would always be his true friend.

The "Marlin"

Old Man and the Sea was, well, stubborn. Reading was boring, uneventful, and nearing the point of dropping the book. That was until the old man on the sea finally was able to reel in his monster of a fish. This "marlin" put up an amazing fight for just a fish, tugging the old man's boat for days, then surfacing momentarily only to go back under to pull the boat even further. In my opinion, it was not actually a fish. It must have been either some sort of illusion put on by Santiago's own mind or an anchor that had come apart from its ship and was hooked accidentally. In the case of the anchor, the old man must also have been insane to think he saw it swimming. The current system in the ocean must have moved the anchor, which then also tugged the boat in a whole, unnecessarily exagerated fashion. Supposedly, Santiago was also able to hold onto the swimming fish with only his hands clamped to the line for dear life; it seems completely impossible for anything to hold onto anything voluntarily for too much more than about half an hour. Even if Santiago did summon such a strength, how was he unable to make any sort of headway on the fish? The question remains without an answer. Or why would he want to stay with the fish for so long, knowing he was slowly being pulled farther and farther away from home, making it harder and harder on himself to get the beast back into shore? It sounds quite unrealistic, and the author, Ernest Hemingway, should have asked himself these sorts of questions before finalizing his thoughts in the book. Still, without understanding the flaws in the story, the plot in entirety was enticing but fairly predictable. A man went out to find the catch of a lifetime, found it, fought it, and was inevitably doomed from the start of taking more than he could chew, literally because he never was able to chew it.