The Old Man and the Sea

The relationship between Manolin and Santiago is one of apprentice and teacher that grows into a deeper, meaningful friendship. Manolin looks up to Santiago and respects him as a once successful...

The Old Man and the Sea is about Santiago, an aged man who has made his living fishing but who now contends with bad luck as he has not caught a fish in 84 days. The story is about his battle with...

There are plenty of moral lessons that can be drawn from The Old Man and the Sea. Some of the more obvious ones include the following: Persistence is a virtue: The entire story is based on the old...

Truth be told, Santiago's seen better days as a fisherman. While younger competitors regularly bring their impressive catches into harbor, he's stuck in the middle of a long losing streak that's...

This statement by Santiago means that a man is defined by how faces what life throws at him, not by what happens to him. What is most important in life is living to the fullest extent of one's...

For Santiago, the sea isn't just a large body of water. It isn't just his place of work, a place where he makes a living. It's so much more than that: it's an extension of his soul. Whereas others...

The marlin symbolizes both a dream come true and a massive hurdle that must be overcome. Having not caught any fish in 84 days, Santiago was desperate for his luck to change. With fishing being his...

The central conflict of Hemingway's novella is man vs. nature. Santiago is at odds with nature because he makes his living by it, as a fisherman. However, the sea is not providing him with enough...

The literary devices (elements and techniques) that Ernest Hemingway uses in the novella The Old Man and The Sea include: A distinct protagonist In this story the protagonist is Santiago. He is an...

Santiago dreams about his boyhood, and the time he served on a ship that sailed the coast of Africa. Specifically, he dreams of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white...

The Old Man and the Sea ends with Santiago asleep, dreaming of lions on the beaches of Africa, having just renewed his partnership with Manolin (which gives him the opportunity for a fresh start...

Ernest Hemingway was both a modernist and a realist and was a leading figure in both movements. His laconic style presents the reader with minimal description and dialogue, eschewing commentary,...

Santiago feels a kinship with the turtles because his hands and feet are like theirs, horny and hard. The turtles are tough and impervious to the stings of the treacherous jellyfish, just as...

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, the protagonist, fulfills the definition of the Hemingway code hero since he possesses honor, courage, and endurance in an existence of misfortune, stress,...

In The Old Man and the Sea, there are three levels to the setting: land, air, and sea. The time is in the present (1952). 1. The novella begin begins on land in a fishing village on the island of...

I have had many students interpret this ending as the Santiago dying. By dreaming of the lions, they say, he is being returned to the days of his greatest strength. They argue that the boy is...

Santiago describes the ocean as feminine. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because...

Pride is used as a central theme not in a negative way, but as a positive feeling about one's own abilities. While Santiago is very prideful, refusing to admit that he is poor and has no food to...

Santiago is a Cuban fisherman older than Hemingway (age 52) when he wrote the novella. Santiago's wife has died, and he has a daughter who fears he is too old to fish or even live alone much...

On page 11, Hemingway writes: But, he thought, I keep them [the fishing lines] with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be...

This is a powerful quote from this story because of what it does in terms of direct and indirect characterization of Santiago. We are directly told that he is old and his eyes are the same color...

I think that you could go a variety of directions with this answer. On one hand, you could say that the title is significant because it quite succinctly tells readers what this story is going to be...

The point of view in The Old Man and the Sea is third-person omniscient. What that means for an analysis of the novel is that the reader need not have the same concerns they might have about...

Santiago first tries to defy defeat by the sharks by fighting them off. He quickly kills the first shark to attack the marlin, stabbing it through the brain with his knife, but its blood attracts...

The simile is trying to get us to visualize Santiago's wizened old hands and what they represent. He's an old man, a fisherman who's been out to sea goodness knows how many times over the course of...

I think that people might find symbolism even if the author does not want them to look for it. Tolkien insisted that The Lord of the Rings was not allegorical. I guess the question is whether or...

Interestingly, the sea acts both as antagonist and ally in Ernest Hemingway's novella, The Old Man and the Sea, as it is a force against which Santiago must reckon, but at the same time it provides...

The word is Spanish slang, meaning, in the context of Cuban Spanish, someone who is unlucky, or, perhaps, jinxed. (It is interesting to note than in Spain, the word means something completely...

Santiago first realizes that he has developed a tendency to speak his thoughts aloud after "the boy" (meaning, Manolin) left. After that, he has not had anybody else to talk to and, as he is poor,...

One potential meaning behind the dream of the lions is connected to an idea of the afterlife or heaven. An old man, Santiago no longer dreams of success and strife in life. Instead, he dreams of a...

The climax of a story is when the action reaches the highest point of tension. In The Old Man and the Sea, the climax occurs when Santiago kills the marlin and ties it to his boat as he heads to...

Some very marked contrasts exist between The Old Man and the Sea and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago, in The Old Man and Sea, is characterized by hope. He hopes to catch...

I would liken the relationship between the old man and the boy to something similar to a father and son relationship. Readers get see this relationship in action in the early parts of the book. The...

In Hemingways's The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago's struggle is not just against nature. Rather, his conflict is primarily an existential one, for he struggles to prove that he is yet a man, who...

Santiago mentions God many times throughout The Old Man and the Sea in the context of "Thank God," "God knows" or "God help me." Santiago is not a religious man, although whether he means that he...

Perseverance, defined by Merriam-Webster as "continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition," is one of the defining traits of Santiago, the main character...

As Santiago remembers hooking the marlin, he recalls how male marlin always let the female marlin eat first, and so the female marlin had been hooked. The male marlin stayed right by her, and even...

Manolin provides immediate comfort to Santiago by giving him a coffee and providing him with someone to talk to other than the sea. In a less tangible sense, Manolin comforts Santiago by providing...

I think for most readers the sea represents nature—but the question is, what attitude should we have about the sea? On the one hand, there is a sense in which the sea, or nature in general, can be...

I think that you could probably go two different directions with this answer. A common answer is to describe the relationship between Santiago and the marlin as a respectful relationship between...

Arguably the most figurative of Hemingway's works, The Old Man and the Sea has been read as a Christian allegory with the old fisherman as a Christ-like figure. In this novella, there are a number...

It is interesting that Santiago is so interested in a team sport like baseball when his own profession as a fisherman is a solitary one. The only sense of being on a team is when Manolin is with...

In what is considered by many to be his crowning achievement, Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea depicts a man's struggle with Nature as well as within himself. In this novella, Hemingway uses several...

The answer to this question can be found near the story's end. Santiago has battled and battled. He makes his way back into the docks area with what is left after his heroic fight with the fish and...

Hemingway's short novel The Old Man and the Sea is primarily a tale of man vs. nature, as the old man referred to in the title, Santiago, contends first with the ocean and then with the massive...

On the 84th day without catching any fish, Santiago sets out once again. He and Manolin, his young friend, walk to the docks to set out separately. Here, in the very beginning of the book, is where...

Santiago's dreams as he lightly sleeps in the bow of his boat having secured his line so that he will awaken if the fish pulls on it. As he sleeps with his weight upon his right hand, Santiago's...

The fish is both a competitor and a companion for the old man, Santiago. The old man, a skilled and knowledgeable fisherman, has been competing all of his life. As a young man, he competed in a...

Manolin's love and respect for Santiago is seen in his interactions at the beginning of the story. When Santiago remains out at sea for three days, Manolin understandably worries and when Santiago...

Santiago has a recurring dream in which he goes back to his childhood in Africa. No sooner is he asleep than he starts dreaming about the long golden beaches, the white beaches, the high capes, and...