No Fear for the Old Man

The book, The Old Man and the Sea, is about an old man who is trying to catch a fish. The Author uses the old man, Santiago, to give the theme of a man and his relations to the fish. In most parts of the book it is the old man's relationship to the different kinds of fish that he catches, especially the Marlin fish. The old man really cares about the fish especially the Marlin fish that he catches after trying his best.

Santiago has had a very bad luck. Despite his expertise on the sea, he has not been able to catch a fish for 82 days. He seems humble about this or he doesn’t mention it in the book. His knowledge of the sea and its creatures, especially fish, makes him keep his sense of hope. Also it is an important point that Santiago considers himself and fish equal. This also plays an important role in the relationships between Santiago and fish. As Hemingway says, “the fish is my friend too … I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him … but is it good that we do not try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our brothers” (63). This quote proves how Santiago thinks he is equal to the fish but he recognizes that he must kill the fish to survive no matter he pities the fish a lot. He says the fish is his brother and a friend. By explaining fish as his brother or his friend means that he respects the fish and he considers himself equal as the fish. Santiago doesn't insult the fish although he is inferior; he looks at the fish as an equal, which is part of the relationship between Santiago and the fish. He really likes his job, being on the sea living with the creatures.

Even though we do not know his age, we are told that "Everything about him was old except his eyes (5)." As a young man, Santiago won an important arm wrestling match that gave him the title "The Champion". Although he used to have all his power, he still feels same still through the book. When he fishes whenever the fish lunges, jumps, or makes a movement for freedom, the cord cuts his hand very badly. But since it's his only job to do he doesn’t really mention it in the book. He is also experienced on animals because as a young man Santiago sailed on a ship that went to the coast of Africa. Now he sees animals such as lions and he feels happy.

Manolin, even though he is too young, is like the old man's best friend in the book. The young guy has a newspaper that's given to him so that he reads the baseball scores to the old man. The old man is really interested in sports especially baseball. Also The old man has neither food nor water to drink. Manolin goes to get the fish and brings him some dinner as well as a surprise, a gift from the kind cafe owner. When he returns he persuades the old man to eat because first he denies eating. The two discuss about "the baseball", which is both of their one of favorite sports. Santiago is a great supporter of great DiMaggio, whose father used to be a fisherman. Finally, the boy leaves, and the old man goes to sleep.

The old man is pretty experienced on the sea. Once he begins to feel the fish slow its speed, and he hopes the fish will to jump, so that he can fill the sacks along his backbone with air and then he cannot go deep to die. The fish gives an unexpected pull, which makes the fishing line to slice through Santiago's hand. Instead of his bloodied hand he endures the pain of it and holds on to the line. Finally, the fish jumps: a marlin, which comes out of the water later on. For Santiago, the fish which is two feet longer than his boat is the biggest fish that he has ever seen and bigger than he has ever heard of. 

At the seaport couple of tourists see the marlin's long white spine in the water among the empty beer cans and dead barracudas. When they ask a waiter what it is, the man tries to explain what had happened. The tourists don’t understand, then they look at it with admiration because probably they had never seen a fish this big.

I think the most important symbol in the book is lions that he sees in this dream about Africa. He used to work as a sailor in his youth, and traveled there, where he saw young lions playing on the beach. Dreaming about the lions each night links Santoago to his younger days, and his strength idealism and heroism that are combined.

The important point of the story for me is after his time of getting tired Santiago finally rests, and the novel ends how it started. The old man was still sleeping and the boy was sitting nearby him looking at him. The old man was dreaming about "Africa when he was a boy and the long, golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eye (18)."

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