The Old Man and the Sea: Day Three

At the beginning of day three of the story, Santiago is still locked with the marlin over control of the line. A small bird comes in, presumably after a long night of flying over the ocean, and rests on the line connecting Santiago and the marlin. Since the bird decides to stay for a while to rest its tired wings, Santiago quickly creates a friendship with the bird and strikes up a friendly "conversation." The man guesses this to be the bird's first long trip and warns the bird of the dangers of the hawks it will meet when it flies closer to shore. He advises the bird to rest up well before he makes the final journey into the land. Without warning, the marlin makes a quick surge which nearly throws Santiago overboard and causes the man's new companion to fly away. As he regains control of the line, Santiago notices deep cuts in his hands from where the line had been sitting when the fish lurched and that they are bleeding. Knowing that he must keep his strength up, the old man forces himself to eat some of the raw tuna he caught the previous day. As he cuts and eats the small fish with his right hand, his left hand turns into a sort of claw and cramps up under the immense strain of the weight of the fish's pull. Santiago becomes angry with his hand for its inabilities and frustrated with the pathetic weakness of his own body, but he hopes the nourishing tuna will allow the weakness to relenquish the grip on his left hand. As he eats the raw fish meat, he almost feels rude for not offering any to the fish below, using so much energy to pull the boat. Still waiting for the cramp in his hand to loosen, Santiago notices the direction and angle of the line beginning to change. To the clever fisherman, this is a telltale sign that the fish is about to surface, revealing itself to the man, finally. Suddenly, the fish leaps out of the water, allowing the man to see it for the first time; Santiago realizes it is much larger than he has ever seen, probably at least two feet longer than his miserable boat. He also realizes the beauty and valor of the fish and vows never to let the fish gain knowledge of its own strengths. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the fish races back down to the depths of the ocean to pull the boat some more. In the downtime, Santiago baits another line in hopes of catching another meal for himself. As the day continues, he questions himself for seeking the death of such a noble combatant and finally justifies the decision. Then, when day turns to night, he wonders how the great Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees did that day, and he thinks of how DiMaggio has played through bone spurs. Altough he is unsure of what a bone spur is, Santiago imagines it to be excruciatingly painful and compares his ordeal to the bone spurs of DiMaggio. Just before night totally takes over, a dolphin snags the second line he baited earlier that day, and he reels it in with a bonus: the dolphin's stomach contains two flying fish. As night falls, Santiago decides to rest with the line over his back instead of in his hands. After two hours of rest, the tired man falls asleep to dream of dolphins, a storm, and his beautiful lions in Africa.

The Old Man and the Sea: Days One and Two

So, there is this man named Santiago, an old fisherman who has, to his unluck, gone straight through the last eighty-four days without catching any fish. For the first forty days of this fishless drought, Santiago had received friendship, compassion, and, most of all, a great deal of help from a young boy, Manolin. Manolin's father, after hearing about the terrible fishing his son is having with this old man, forces Manolin off of Santiago's boat and onto a new boat in hopes of better, more prosperous fishing. Even without his young apprentice, Santiago's love for fishing remains steadfast as he pushes on in search of the break he has been waiting for for so many days. In the evening of the first day of the story, the pair of men are walking home from the beach with all the day's fishing gear when they stop by a cantina, of sorts, to have a beer. Together, they remember previous days of fishing side by side, and the old man is made fun of for going so long without any luck. He shrugs it off and proclaims that the following day will be the day to go out and get the big fish. They haul the gear back to Santiago's house, which is run-down and furnished poorly, and start their daily ritual of trivial conversation and repeated actions. After a quick dinner - a gift from the cafe owner - Manolin returns home, and the tired, old man goes to sleep where he dreams his favorite dreams of lions playing on the beach of Africa. Before sunrise of the second day, Santiago walks to Manolin's house to wake the boy, and the two gather fishing supplies and head down to the shore. The man and boy part ways, and Santiago heads out on his boat to find the big fish. His years of practice have left him with the ability to control the depths of his lines and position without letting the bobbers tip over. As the sun comes up, the old man realizes he has drifted out too far, and now he cannot even see land. Suddenly, the bobber attached to the 100-fathom line dips as the marlin becomes more and more interested. The wise man is sure it must be a big one. Just as quickly as the first touch happened, Santiago finds himself with a bite. Oddly, the man is unable to pull on the fish; instead, it pulls him. By the end of the first day, Santiago has been fighting the fish since noon and has been dragged over much distandce by the fish, and he is wishing for the boy's help.

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.