The Old Man
and the Sea is a tale beyond an ordinary fight between a man and a big sea
fish. The novella rather underlines the value of perseverance and the will to
fight all odds during the adverse time.
Santiago, the
protagonist of the book, is a Cuban old man. He lives by the sea and is a
veteran fisherman. He believes in bad luck but is of the opinion that a man
cannot be defeated but destructed. So, in a sense, he never feels defeated in
his life. Once at the game of 'hand', during his youth days, he defeated a
black muscular man after holding his hand for twelve hours. After that, many
people called him Champion. His instincts are of champions and he is a kind of
man who would like to use the last brick of his mettle before accepting defeat;
but defeat is not meant for him. Thus, he can only be destructed.
It has been 84
days without a fish, he goes and returns empty handed every time. Because of
this bad luck, people have begun doubting on his abilities and a boy called
Manolin, who goes with him for fishing and other sea lessons, has been forced
by his parents to join somewhere else, some other fishing boat. The futility of
old man's efforts looks so glaring to others.
On the 85th
day, at the dawn, the old man sets for fishing. In a rage to break the jinx of
bad luck that have been lasting for over 80 days, he crosses the usual limit
and drifts towards Florida - where gulf streams house quality school of fish.
When the bait goes down, he tries to pull the thing up with all his might, but
he fails. Surely a big fish has been trapped, and he needs to bring it up -
over the surface. The fish pulls down the rope and the old man uses all his
power and experience to hold it back, sooner he realizes that his boat is being
towed by the fish. In the tussle, he is losing energy and his hands are being
badly bruised, but he refuses to accept defeat.
After a day
and night, the fish surfaces and begins revolving around his boat. It is a big
fish - Marlin. Only very skilled fishermen are able to hunt this species,
indeed it is rare to fish Marlin. Seeing the fish's dignity and will to
survive, the old man calls it brother and decides that only dignified people
should have access to its meat. When the fish nears the boat, he kills it with
the harpoon. Soon he ties the fish with the boat. But soon following the trail
of the blood, sharks begin hunting the fish. The old man gives a tough fight to
sharks and in the process loses his harpoon, and then soon he makes an
improvised harpoon using an oar. But the damage has been done. Sharks eat away
the full body of the fish only the head and the tail remain. The old man
regrets for coming too far from the usual fishing waters and feels extremely
sorry for a brave fish that is now eaten away by the vile sharks.
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