Old Man and The Sea Characters and Theme paper no.-10

Name – Umaba Gohil B

Paper no. - 10 American Literature

Topic:- Old Man and The Sea Characters and Theme

Roll No.- 16

Email id- umabagohil123@gmail.com

Submitted by; - Department of English M.K.B.U University

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       Old
Man and The Sea; Characters

         1)
Santiago: 

The
hero of the story. He is an old Cuban fisherman who is a
perfectionist when it comes to fishing. Despite his precise methods,
he has no luck at sea. Santiago wants to be unique: a greater and
stranger person than his peers out at sea. He loves baseball and
dreams of lions. He is alone, except for the company of Manolin. He
is determined to catch one big fish. Going eighty four days without a
catch, Santiago embarks on a journey initially to prove himself as a
fisherman but later discovers that it was not the material
possessions but rather the experience gained.

Round
character changed throughout the story: initially set off to prove
himself but later found that it only mattered that he knew the great
things he did and that he was safe in the end.

Dynamic
protagonist.

         During
his battle with the great fish, the old man recalls an arm-wrestling
match that he finally won after an entire day of ferocious battling.
The sea also reminds him of numerous encounters with marlins, sharks,
seabirds, turtles, and all other forms of life that make their home
in the sea just like he does. These thoughts give him the strength to
endure the vicious trials of his three-day confrontation with the
great fish. Although some of the other fishermen pity, and sometimes
even make fun of, his old age and lack of luck, Santiago is never
resentful. 

He
is a simple man who loves the sea for all it has given him and deeply
respects the great fish, his worthy, noble, and beautiful adversary.
Through his interactions with Manolin, the old man demonstrates his
kind, compassionate side. Although he is victorious in his battle
with the great fish, the wound that proves fatal leaks blood into the
sea that attracts sharks, which eventually tear all of the meat off
the prized catch. Despite the odds against him, Santiago refuses to
give in to the predators, as he fights off the sharks with any weapon
he can fashion on his boat until there is nothing left to the great
fish except its skeleton. 

   2)
Manolin (The Boy) :-

 Even
though his parents have ordered him to work with fisherman with
better luck, Manolin remains Santiago's loyal caretaker. For the
first few weeks of Santiago's fishing drought, the boy was by his
side on the skiff every day, helping him carry the mast, tie the
line, hoist the sail, and push the boat off in the early morning.
Now, when Manolin returns from his sailing duty on another vessel, he
faithfully returns to the old man. The boy uses his own credit to get
food, coffee, and bait for the old man, who could not survive without
such generosity. Manolin also listens to all of the old man's stories
and learns all of his fishing techniques from him. Santiago is deeply
grateful for the boy's friendship. Throughout his three-day battle
with the great fish, the old man evokes thoughts of the boy as
motivation to help him endure. He often wishes that the boy was
there, and when he feels that he may not have the strength to defeat
the great fish, he is rejuvenated by thinking about the lesson his
endurance would teach the boy. When Manolin discovers Santiago
prostrate on his bed with his hands mutilated by the line, he breaks
into tears several times. Although other members of the fishing
community are supportive, Manolin is the only one that empathizes
with the Santiago's great ordeal. In the final scene, Manolin
lovingly watches over the old man while he sleeps in recuperation
from his days at sea.

3)The
Marlin - 

Santiago's
worthy opponent succumbs to Santiago, and to the chagrin of all,
becomes a tasty snack.Other than the 1997 and 2003 Florida Marlins
who won the World Series, Santiago's marlin has achieved more
notoriety than any other marlin ever to live. He presents Santiago
his greatest challenge. He is admired and, like Santiago, becomes
heroic in defeat. In a 1972 interview with the Undersea Times,
Frankie the Hammerhead claims that Santiago's marlin may have been
the tastiest fish he had ever eaten. 

4)
The Shark

 When
you're out at sea during most of the novel, there aren't too many
humans to talk to, so you start talking to fish.The sharks represent
life's trials and the predatory nature of humans. Regardless of
individual success, the sharks will eventually get you. It's
inevitable. That doesn't mean, however, that one must simply give up.
Santiago fights the sharks, regardless of the predetermined outcome.
Some claim the sharks symbolize literary critics who had viewed
Hemingway's more recent works negatively. To those literary critics,
I say shut up! Look who won a Nobel Prize in Literature. To the
sharks I say thanks for not eating me when I swam in the ocean last
week.

           Old
Man And The Sea
:- Themes

Pride:-

Hemingway’s
treatment of pride in a novella is ambivalent. A heroic man like
Santiago should have pride in his actions, and as Santiago shows us.”
Humility was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.”
It is apparently Santiago’s pride which presses him to travel
dangerously far out into the sea,” beyond all people in the world,”
to catch the marlin. While he loved the marlin and called him
brother, Santiago admits to killing it for pride, his blood stirred
by battle with such a noble and worthy antagonist. Some have
interpreted the loss of the marlin as the price Santiago had to pay
for his pride in travelling out so far in search of such a catch.
Contrarily, one could argue that this pride was beneficial as it
allowed Santiago an edifying challenge worthy of his heroism. In the
end, Hemingway suggests that pride in a job well done, even if pride
drew one unnecessarily into the situation, is a positive trait.

Heroism

Triumph
over crushing adversity is the heart of heroism, and in order for
Santiago the fisherman to be a heroic emblem for humankind, his
tribulations must be monumental. Triumph, though, is never final, as
Santiago's successful slaying of the marlin shows, else there would
be no reason to include the final 30 pages of the book. Hemingway
vision of heroism is Sisyphean, requiring continuous labor for
essentially ephemeral ends. What the hero does is to face adversity
with dignity and grace, hence Hemingway's Neo-Stoic emphasis on
self-control and the other facets of his idea of manhood. What we
achieve or fail at externally is not as significant to heroism as
comporting ourselves with inner nobility. As Santiago says, "
Man is not made for defeat....A man can be destroyed but not
defeated".

Perseverance

Bringing
man and fish together since 1952. The old man’s battle with the
fish is not only a battle of strength, but a battle of wills. The old
man makes up for his old age with incredible endurance, willing to
withstand hunger, physical pain, and isolation from the rest of the
world as he battles the fish. Endurance becomes a way we connect the
old man and the fish he fights, as they share a determination that,
in its magnitude, separates them from other people and creatures.

Manhood:-

Heming
way’s ideal of manhood is nearly in separable from the ideal of
heroism discussed above. To be a man is to behave with honor and
dignity and to be a man is to suffering, to accept one’s duty
without complaint, and most importantly to display a maximum of
self-control. The representation of femininity, the sea is
characterized expressly by its caprice and lack of self-control. If
she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them.
The representation of masculinity, the marlin is described as great,
beautiful, calm, and noble. Santiago steels him against his pain by
talling himself.

“Suffer
like a man, or a fish.”

In
Hemingway’s ethical universe, Santiago shows us not only how to
live life heroically but in a way befitting a man.

His
Christian virtues:-

There
is something of the Christian saint about Santiago. He has achieved
the most difficult and saintly of all Christian virtues, that is
humility. It is humility so absolute that is involves” no loss of
true pride.” There is even in him a suggestion of Saint Francis, in
his attitude to animal life, and especially to birds. Moreover at
various moments in the story Santiago affirms the major Christian
virtues like faith, hope and charity. In the very first dialogue
between Santiago and the boy marlin we learn that the boy’s father
has not much, faith, Santiago and mandolin have it:

“He
hasn’t much faith.”

“No,”
the old man said. “But we have. Haven’t we?”

“Yes”,
the boy said.

Towards
the close of the novel, the old man tells himself:

“It
is silly not to hope. Besides it is a sin.”

As
for charity we see it clearly in his generous love of men and
animals.

Success:-

The
novel is indeed remarkable for its stress on what man can “do”
and on the world as an arena where heroic deeds are possible. In this
universe everyone has a role to play and Santiago’s role is to
pursue the great marlin: “that which I was born for”, he
reflects. To be a hero means to dare more than other man. To be a
hero means to expose oneself to greater dangers and therefore more
greatly to risk the possibilities of defeat and depth. Santiago
fulfils this test of heroism about such a man it would be absurd to
say that things are done to him and that he does little. On the
eighty-fifth day Santiago rows far beyond the customary fishing area.
That is itself doing something big. Because he goes out too far in
the sea, he catches the great fish. The fish is so powerful it pulls
his skiff even farther out so far that he cannot get back in time to
prevent the marlin being eaten up by the sharks. The greatness of the
experience and the inevitable nature provides human beings with
unlimited opportunities for the great experience. The experience
carries with it a heavy tragic price. Santiago’s achievement
creates a sensation among the fishermen in his village. The tourists
of the story mistake the marlin for a shark but they too are struck
by a sense of the extraordinary.

Conclusion:-

There
are many themes in this novella but the main theme is heroism. We can
see some heroic deeds which are done by the character Santiago.

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