The Old Man and the Sea
By: Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a classic story about a battle between an old fisherman and a huge marlin. Santiago, a Cuban fisherman and the main character in the story, comes back to his town empty-handed for the eighty-fourth time. Just when things could not have seemed to get worse, Santiago’s apprentice Manolin was forced by his parents to move to a more successful fishing boat. Despite the move, Manolin sticks with the old man: helping Santiago carry his bags and providing food for Santiago. Undeterred by the recent unluck, Santiago hopes for a catch the next day and sails further from the coastal waters. Santiago drops his fishing line and finally gets a bite; however, when he tried to pull the fish up the fish began to pull the boat even further from town. Unable to let go of the fish for fear of it becoming loose, Santiago and the fish have a battle of will and strength for days with the fish pulling the boat and Santiago holding onto the fishing line. On the third day, Santiago finds the fish dead and discovers just how large this fish was: it was a marlin, one of the biggest fish in the sea. Excited by his lucky break, Santiago sails towards home with the marlin tied to the side of the boat but the marlin’s blood leaves a trail, which led to a shark attack onto Santiago’s boat. Fighting for his catch, Santiago uses his harpoon to slay the sharks but to no avail. Eventually the ratio of sharks to one man was too great and the marlin’s meat was eaten away only to leave the skeleton. Santiago eventually makes it home despite the tragedies he had been through and made it back before daybreak broke. The next morning, the word of an unknown, huge skeleton spread throughout the town; many of the townspeople thought it was the skeleton was of a shark and had no idea who caught the beast. Manolin, who realized Santiago’s absence, was relieved to see the old man at home and the two decide to become fishing partners ago. The story ends with Santiago’s happy dreams.