Brief Biography of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway grew up outside a suburb of Chicago, spending summers with his
family in rural Michigan. After high school, he got a job writing for The Kansas City Star, but
left The Star after only six months to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during World War I,
where he was injured and awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor. Afterward, he lived in
Ontario and Chicago, where he met his first wife, Hadley Richardson. In 1921 they moved to
Paris, where he began a long friendship with F. Scott Fitzgerald and other ex-patriot American
writers of the "lost generation." After the 1926 publication of his first novel, The Sun Also Rises,
Hemingway divorced Hadley, married Arkansas native Pauline Pfeiffer, and moved to Florida.
Hemingway's father committed suicide in 1928, shooting himself. During the Spanish Civil War,
Hemingway moved to Spain to serve as a war correspondent, a job which inspired his famous
1939 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. After its publication, he met his third wife, Martha
Gellhorn. In 1946 Hemingway married his fourth and final wife, Mary Hemingway, and the
couple spent the next 14 years living in Cuba. After a final move to Idaho, Hemingway took his
own life in 1961, leaving behind his wife and three sons.
Historical Context of The Old Man and the Sea
Living in Cuba in the late 1940s, one of Hemingway's favorite pastimes was fishing in
his boat, The Pilar. This simple pastime contrasted greatly with the turbulent events of his life
that preceded his time in Cuba. Hemingway served in World War I and World War II and
witnessed the liberation of Paris and the 1945 schism within the Cuban Communist party.
Having viewed death and hardship in many forms, Hemingway's feeling of disillusionment was
only magnified by his 10-year struggle with writing that preceded the publication of The Old
Man and the Sea.
The Old Man and the Sea Summary
On the coast of Cuba near Havana, an old widowed fisherman named Santiago has been
unable to catch a fish for 84 days. His apprentice, Manolin, has been forced by his parents to
seek another "luckier" employer, although Manolin continues to help Santiago launch and
retrieve his boat from the ocean each day. Manolin cares for the aging Santiago, bringing him
food and clothing, and in return Santiago tells Manolin stories about baseball legends and his
younger days fishing in a boat off of Africa. Every night, Santiago dreams of lions on the
beaches of Africa. Early each morning, Santiago walks up the road to Manolin's family's home to
wake him up for work.
On the morning of the 85th day, Manolin helps Santiago launch his boat into the sea.
Santiago rows over the deep well where he has been trying to catch fish for the past week and
decides to try his luck farther out. Finally, in the early afternoon, he catches a ten-pound tuna,
which he decides will be his meal for the day. Not long afterward, Santiago feels a hard pull on
his line and realizes that a huge marlin has caught his hook.
Because the marlin is so big, however, Santiago cannot pull it in. The marlin pulls
Santiago's skiff farther and farther from land. As the sun goes down, Santiago begins to feel a
kind of companionship with the marlin. He pities the fish, even loves it, but is still determined to
kill it. He decides to cut all his other lines so that nothing will interfere with his great catch.
As the sun comes up on Santiago's second day at sea, the marlin suddenly surges, pulling
the line and cutting Santiago's hand. As he nurses his hand, the marlin jumps up out of the water,
and Santiago can see the fish is bigger than any marlin he has ever seen, much less caught on his
own. He has to hold onto the line with all his might so that the marlin does not break free from
the boat. He prays that he will be able to kill the marlin, and wonders what his hero Joe
DiMaggio would do if he were in Santiago's situation.
As it grows dark on Santiago's second day at sea, he lets out a small line and catches a
dolphin to eat. He rests for a few hours, but is woken by the marlin jumping frantically. Santiago
continues holding the line, although it has been cutting into his hand for some time. The marlin
tires and begins circling the boat as Santiago grows weaker from lack of sleep and exhaustion.
Finally, Santiago uses all his strength to harpoon and kill the marlin.
Santiago ties the marlin to the side of his boat and begins sailing back toward Cuba.
During the homeward journey, however—his third day at sea—sharks attack the boat, tearing the
flesh from the marlin. Santiago fights desperately, killing or driving off most of the sharks, but
eventually the sharks eat all the flesh off the marlin. When Santiago pulls into the harbor,
everyone is sleeping, and Santiago struggles to carry his mast back to his shack, leaving the
marlin's skeleton still tied to his boat in the harbor.
The next day, Manolin finds Santiago asleep in his shack. Manolin is overjoyed to see
him but cries when he sees the cuts in Santiago's hands. He brings Santiago coffee, passing the
crowd of fisherman who are marveling at the marlin's giant skeleton. When Santiago wakes up,
Manolin tells him he doesn't care what his parents say—he's going to start fishing with Santiago
again. Meanwhile, as a party of tourists watches the marlin's skeleton and mistakes it for a shark,
Santiago drifts back to sleep under Manolin's watchful gaze and dreams of lions.
The Old Man and the Sea: Themes
Resistance to Defeat Theme Analysis
As a fisherman who has caught nothing for the last 84 days, Santiago is a man fighting
against defeat. Yet Santiago never gives in to defeat: he sails further into the ocean than he ever
has before in hopes of landing a fish, struggles with the marlin for three days and nights despite
immense physical pain and exhaustion, and, after catching the marlin, fights off the sharks even
when it's clear that the battle against them is hopeless. Whenever the situation gets particularly
difficult and despair threatens to overwhelm Santiago, he turns to a number of tactics to fuel his
resistance to defeat: he recalls memories of his youthful strength; he relies on his pride by
demanding that he prove himself a worthy role model for Manolin or by comparing himself to
his hero Joe DiMaggio; and he prays to God, even though his prayers do nothing to ease his
physical suffering.
Ultimately, Santiago represents every man's struggle to survive. And just as Santiago's effort to
bring the marlin back to land intact is doomed, no man can ever escape death. Yet through
Santiago's struggle, Hemingway makes the case that escape from death is not the issue. As
Santiago observes near the end of his struggle with the marlin, "a man can be destroyed but not
defeated." In other words, victory over the inevitable is not what defines a man. Rather, it a
man's struggle against the inevitable, even when he knows it is inevitable, that defines him. And
the more difficult the struggle, the more worthy the opponent, the more powerfully a man can
prove himself.
Pride: Theme Analysis
Pride is often depicted as negative attribute that causes people to reach for too much and,
as a result, suffer a terrible fall. After he kills the first shark, Santiago, who knows he killed the
marlin "for pride," wonders if the sin of pride was responsible for the shark attack because pride
caused him to go out into the ocean beyond the usual boundaries that fishermen observe.
Santiago immediately dismisses the idea, however, and the events of The Old Man and the Sea
support his conviction that pride is not the cause of his difficulties.
In fact, Santiago's pride is portrayed as the single motivating force that spurs him to
greatness. It is his pride that pushes him to survive three grueling days at sea, battling the marlin
and then the sharks. Yet it is important to recognize that Santiago's pride is of a particular,
limited sort. Pride never pushes him to try to be more than he is. For instance, when Manolin
tells him, "The best fisherman is you," early in the story, Santiago humbly disagrees. Rather,
Santiago takes pride in being exactly what he is, a man and a fisherman, and his struggle can be
seen as an effort to be the best man and fisherman that he can be. As he thinks in the middle of
his struggle with the marlin, he must kill the marlin to show Manolin "what a man can do and
what a man endures." Santiago achieves the crucial balance between pride and humility—that
"[humility] was not disgraceful and it carried no true loss of pride."
Friendship: Theme Analysis
The friendship between Santiago and Manolin plays a critical part in Santiago's victory
over the marlin. In return for Santiago's mentorship and company, Manolin provides physical
support to Santiago in the village, bringing him food and clothing and helping him load his skiff.
He also provides emotional support, encouraging Santiago throughout his unlucky streak.
Although Santiago's "hope and confidence had never gone," when Manolin was present, "they
were freshening as when the breeze rises." And once he encounters the marlin, Santiago refuses
to accept defeat because he knows Manolin would be disappointed in him.
Yet most of the novella takes place when Santiago is alone. Except for Manolin's friendship in
the evenings, Santiago is characterized by his isolation. His wife has died, and he lives and fishes
alone. Even so, just as he refuses to give in to death, he refuses to give in to loneliness. Santiago
finds friends in other creatures. The flying fish are "his principal friends on the ocean," and the
marlin, through their shared struggle, becomes his "brother." He calls the stars his "distant
friends," and thinks of the ocean as a woman he loves. Santiago talks to himself, talks to his
weakened left hand, and imagines Manolin sitting next to him. In the end, these friendships—
both real and imagined—prevent Santiago from pitying himself. As a result, he has the support
to achieve what seems physically impossible for an old man.
Youth and Age: Theme Analysis
The title of the novella, The Old Man and the Sea, suggests the critical thematic role that
age plays in the story. The book's two principal characters, Santiago and Manolin, represent the
old and the young, and a beautiful harmony develops between them. What one lacks, the other
provides. Manolin, for example, has energy and enthusiasm. He finds food and clothing for
Santiago, and encourages him despite his bad luck. Santiago, in turn, has wisdom and
experience. He tells Manolin stories about baseball and teaches him to fish. Santiago's
determination to be a good role model for Manolin is one of his main motivations in battling the
marlin for three days—he wants to show Manolin "what a man can do."
Santiago's age is also important to the novella because it has made him physically weak. Without
this weakness, his triumph would not be so meaningful to him. As Santiago says, he "had seen
many [fish] that weighed more than a thousand pounds and had caught two of that size in his life,
but never alone" and never as an old man. Santiago finds solace and strength in remembering his
youth, which is symbolized by the lions on the beach that he sees in his dreams. He recalls these
lions—slow, graceful but fierce creatures—from the perspective of an old man. In doing so, he
realizes that he too, although slow, can still be a formidable opponent.
Man and Nature: Theme Analysis
Since The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a man's struggle against a marlin, it is
tempting to see the novella as depicting man's struggle against nature. In fact, through Santiago,
the novella explores man's relationship with nature. He thinks of the flying fish as his friends,
and speaks with a warbler to pass the time. The sea is dangerous, with its sharks and potentially
treacherous weather, but it also sustains him by providing food in the form of dolphins and
shrimp. Finally, Santiago does not just see the marlin as an adversary, he loves it as a brother. In
the middle of their struggle, Santiago says to the marlin, "Come on and kill me. I do not care
who kills who." Santiago's statement shows the depth of his admiration for the marlin and hints
at the fundamental law of nature that unites man and animal: all beings must die, must kill or be
killed. In this way, man and nature are joined in a circular system, in which death is necessary
and fosters new life.
Christian Allegory: Theme Analysis:
The Old Man and the Sea is full of Christian imagery. Over the course of his struggles at
sea, Santiago emerges as a Christ figure. For instance: Santiago's injured hands recall Christ's
stigmata (the wounds in his palms); when the sharks attack, Santiago makes a sound like a man
being crucified; when Santiago returns to shore he carries his mast up to his shack on his
shoulder, just as Christ was forced to bear his own crucifix; and Santiago's final position, resting
on his bed, resembles Christ's position on the cross. More importantly, Santiago resembles Christ
in that, like Christ, he transforms loss into triumph, faces the inevitability of death without
complaint and, in doing so, transcends it. Christ literally is resurrected, while Santiago regains
Manolin as an apprentice, providing both the companionship he had lost and the chance to pass
his knowledge on to the next generation.
Quotes:
“Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea
and were cheerful and undefeated.” Manolin about Santiago’s courage and commitment.
02 . "There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only you." Manolin’s
sense of gratitude towards Santiago.
03. He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish,
nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the
lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the
boy.
04. "Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends."
Santiago to FISH.
05. “But I must have the confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all
things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.”
Related Characters: Santiago (speaker)
07. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated."
Related Characters: Santiago (speaker)
08. "To hell with luck," the boy said. "I'll bring the luck with me."
Related Characters: Manolin (speaker)
The Old Man and the Sea: Characters:
Santiago: Character Analysis
The protagonist (Hero) of the novella, Santiago is an elderly widowed Cuban fisherman
whose "luck" seems to have run out—he hasn't caught anything in 84 days. Santiago is humble
in his dealings with others, yet takes great pride in his work and himself, and is frustrated and
embarrassed by his failures. He views his aging body as a kind of betrayer, and fondly
remembers his younger days, when he was exceptionally strong and a successful fisherman.
Other than fishing, Santiago's greatest joys are the time he spends with his former apprentice,
Manolin, and the time he spends talking about baseball, and, in particular, his favorite player, the
"great DiMaggio." Besides Manolin, Santiago considers his only friends to be the sea, the fish,
and the stars. In his conquest over the marlin, Santiago exhibits exceptional determination and
endurance in the face of physical and psychological pain. Although he loses the marlin to sharks,
the entire struggle constitutes a spiritual triumph in which Santiago emerges as a Christ figure.
Manolin: Character Analysis
An adolescent Cuban boy who has fished with Santiago since he was a child, Manolin is
Santiago's devoted apprentice. He cares for Santiago in his old age, and encourages him in his
fishing even though Manolin's parents have forced Manolin to seek out a "luckier" employer. He
is Santiago's only human friend, and looks up to Santiago as a mentor and father-figure. Manolin
exemplifies traits of fidelity, selflessness and compassion. He accepts hard work happily, never
complaining.
The Old Man and the Sea: Symbols
The Marlin: Symbol Analysis:
The marlin is the giant, 18-foot fish that battles with Santiago in the middle of the ocean
for three days and three nights. Although Santiago hooks the marlin on his first afternoon at sea,
the marlin refuses to come to the surface and instead pulls Santiago farther and farther from land.
Santiago admires the marlin's beauty and endurance, and considers it a "noble" adversary, telling
the fish repeatedly that though he loves it, he must kill it. Ultimately, the marlin is presented as
Santiago's worthy opponent. Struggling against such an opponent brings out the best in an
individual—courage, endurance, and love. At the same time, because Santiago comes to see the
marlin as an alter-ego—he identifies the marlin as male and imagines the fish is old—the marlin
comes to represent Santiago himself as well. In other words, Santiago's struggle with the marlin
is in fact a struggle with himself. It is not a struggle of strength but rather of endurance, and a
refusal to accept defeat. Santiago's struggle with the marlin is a struggle to face and overcome his
own weaknesses as much as it is a struggle to subdue the great fish. In the process, by refusing to
give in to the fish or the weakness of his mind and body, Santiago transcends those weaknesses.
Lions: Symbol Analysis
Both in his bed in the village and in his boat, Santiago dreams of lions on the beaches of
Africa, which he saw when he was a boy on a ship that sailed and fished the coast of Africa. The
lions symbolize Santiago's lost youth as well as his pride (a group of lions is called a "pride").
Santiago's love for the lions, which are fierce predators, also mirrors his relationship with the
marlin, whom he loves but whose death he feels is necessary to his survival. In this way, the
lions as also symbolize Santiago's affinity with nature. Now that Santiago is no longer young,
and has lost his friends, family, and strength, he sees the lions only in his dreams. Santiago's
dreams of the lions at the end of the novella suggest that in triumphing over the marlin, he has
undergone his own rejuvenation.
The Sharks: Symbol Analysis
Scavengers and little more than swimming appetites, the sharks are Santiago's fiercest
antagonists. Although Santiago manages to kill most of them, they tear apart the marlin's body
and leave Santiago devastated. While the marlin is portrayed as both an adversary and a noble
companion to Santiago, the sharks are portrayed as purely vicious. The shovel-nosed sharks can
also be seen as symbolizing the destructive forces of nature and of the people of Jerusalem,
whose petty jealousies and rivalries led to the crucifixion of Jesus. Some have even argued that
the sharks symbolize literary critics, whom Hemingway saw as "feasting" on the creations of true
artists without actually creating anything themselves.
The Mast: Symbol Analysis
At the end of The Old Man and the Sea, the exhausted Santiago removes his mast from
his skiff, and haltingly drags it up the beach to his shack by resting one end of the cross on his
shoulder. The position in which Santiago carries the mast exactly mirrors the position in which
Jesus Christ was forced to drag his cross on the way to his crucifixion. The mast, then, becomes
a symbol for the cross, and cements the parallel that Hemingway sets up between Santiago's
ordeal and Christ's.
