The Old Man And The Sea Character Analysis

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The novella The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway was published in September 1952 and won a Nobel Prize. In the novella, Ernest Hemingway tells the story of an old fisherman named Santiago. Santiago lived in a village in Cuba and lives to catch a fish. The old man spends the days alone being dragged in a skiff by a large Marlin. While being dragged he also deals with wrist pain, weakness from the lack of sleep and lack of food. On his way back to the village, he loses the marlin to sharks. Even though he lost his marlin, the old man still returned feeling undefeated.

Characterization is the description or portrayal of a character in a literary work. In The Old Man and the Sea , Santiago is old fisherman living in Cuba. In the novella …show more content…

In The Old Man and the Sea , there are many examples of man versus nature that Santiago experiences. In The Old Man and the Sea , Santiago is the protagonist and the sea is the antagonist. The sea is what provides him with a job, but he isn 't able to catch any fish. The sea then provides Santiago with an enormous marlin,but Santiago struggles to catch the marlin. Santiago and the marlin fight back and forth, and are both in pain. After Santiago is able to kill the marlin and bring it back, he struggles with the sharks who destroy the marlin. Santiago was able to kill many of the sharks that were attacking the marlin. Eventually he ran out of supplies and strength to kill the sharks. Each time the sharks attacked the marlin would bleed and more sharks would come. Santiago overcame the sharks even though they ruined the marlin, and it shows that he will never be …show more content…

Pride can also be a feeling or satisfaction of your own worth and respect for yourself. Santiago is prideful and he displays this when he goes fishing after going 84 days without catching a fish. Even though he is prideful he is also humble. When Manolin says “And the best fisherman is you”(25), Santiago responded with “No I know others better.”(25). Being prideful to Santiago is to be the best fisherman he can. Santiago doesn 't care what the other fisherman think of him, because he knows that he is a good fisherman. “Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman,he thought. But that was the thing I was born for.”(51) Santiago goes far out to sea and hooks an enormous marlin, which more than he can handle. He spends 3 days at sea with this marlin on his line and he refuses to let it go. Santiago goes through a lot of physical pain by holding on to marlin, but his pride is what gives him the strength to keep holding the marlin.”You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman.”(102) When Santiago returned home he had lost 40 pounds of flesh from the sharks. Santiago had lost his prize, the marlin wasn 't anything to be prideful for because it was ruined. Despite losing the fish Santiago was glad to be returning to Havana. Santiago’s pride might have been lost but he still had

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