Maharanishri Nandkuvarba Mahila Arts And Commerce College 

Name: Rathod Sayna Asifbhai 

Subject: The Study Of Novel

Main Subject: English

Date: 5/9/2025

Home Assignment  

Summary

On the coast of Cuba near Havana, an old widowed fisherman named Santiago has been

unable to catch a fish for 84 days. His apprentice, Manolin, has been forced by his parents to

seek another "luckier" employer, although Manolin continues to help Santiago launch and

retrieve his boat from the ocean each day. Manolin cares for the aging Santiago, bringing

him food and clothing, and in return Santiago tells Manolin stories about baseball legends

and his younger days fishing in a boat off of Africa. Every night, Santiago dreams of lions on

the beaches of Africa. Early each morning, Santiago walks up the road to Manolin's family's

home to wake him up for work.

On the morning of the 85th day, Manolin helps Santiago launch his boat into the sea.

Santiago rows over the deep well where he has been trying to catch fish for the past week

and decides to try his luck farther out. Finally, in the early afternoon, he catches a ten-pound

tuna, which he decides will be his meal for the day. Not long afterward, Santiago feels a hard

pull on his line and realizes that a huge marlin has caught his hook.Because the marlin is so big, however, Santiago cannot pull it in. The marlin pulls Santiago's

skiff farther and farther from land. As the sun goes down, Santiago begins to feel a kind of

companionship with the marlin. He pities the fish, even loves it, but is still determined to kill

it. He decides to cut all his other lines so that nothing will interfere with his great catch.

As the sun comes up on Santiago's second day at sea, the marlin suddenly surges, pulling

the line and cutting Santiago's hand. As he nurses his hand, the marlin jumps up out of the

water, and Santiago can see the fish is bigger than any marlin he has ever seen, much less

caught on his own. He has to hold onto the line with all his might so that the marlin does not

break free from the boat. He prays that he will be able to kill the marlin, and wonders what

his hero Joe DiMaggio would do if he were in Santiago's situation.As it grows dark on Santiago's second day at sea, he lets out a small line and catches a

dolphinfish to eat. He rests for a few hours, but is woken by the marlin jumping frantically.

Santiago continues holding the line, although it has been cutting into his hand for some time.

The marlin tires and begins circling the boat as Santiago grows weaker from lack of sleep

and exhaustion. Finally, Santiago uses all his strength to harpoon and kill the marlin.

Santiago ties the marlin to the side of his boat and begins sailing back toward Cuba. During

the homeward journey, however—his third day at sea—sharks attack the boat, tearing the

flesh from the marlin. Santiago fights desperately, killing or driving off most of the sharks, but

eventually the sharks eat all the flesh off the marlin. When Santiago pulls into the harbor,

everyone is sleeping, and Santiago struggles to carry his mast back to his shack, leaving the

marlin's skeleton still tied to his boat in the harbor.The next day, Manolin finds Santiago asleep in his shack. Manolin is overjoyed to see him

but cries when he sees the cuts in Santiago's hands. He brings Santiago coffee, passing the

crowd of fisherman who are marveling at the marlin's giant skeleton. When Santiago wakes

up, Manolin tells him he doesn't care what his parents say—he's going to start fishing with

Santiago again. Meanwhile, as a party of tourists watches the marlin's skeleton and mistakes

it for a shark, Santiago drifts back to sleep under Manolin's watchful gaze and dreams of

lions.

Class Assignment 

Analysis

The novella’s protagonist, Santiago, faces the most strenuous days of a long life spent

coaxing a living from the sea. These days on the sea test his stamina and prove that he can

“suffer like a man” against pain, exhaustion, failure, and age. The conflict plays out against

the marlin Santiago relentlessly hunts and the sharks that relentlessly hunt the marlin, but

even more, Santiago faces the conflict in his ruined body and vacillating thoughts. Santiago’s

story examines ideas about why life involves suffering and failure, and of how to face and

endure loss.

The story’s action begins when Santiago’s luck seems to have left him. He is an

experienced, competent fisherman, yet for 84 days, he has not brought in marlin to sell at

market. Some fishermen mock his hopes, but Manolin, whom Santiago began teaching

when the boy was five years old, believes that Santiago’s luck will turn. Santiago, whose

eyes are “cheerful and undefeated,” does not let failure discourage him. The plot’s inciting incident may be Santiago’s willingness to head out alone on day 85, but the moment late in

the day when a marlin takes the bait and begins to tow Santiago’s boat farther out is the

event that launches the rising action.

The long hours that Santiago and the marlin struggle against each other and against pain,

hunger, and fear make up the rising action. Santiago wishes often that Manolin were with

him, not only to help with the ceaseless work of pursuing the marlin but also to talk. Instead,

Santiago talks to himself and to creatures he encounters. The events of the chase develop

the conflict and prolong the opponents’ suffering. Santiago’s hands and back are bruised and

torn, his vision fades from hunger and exhaustion, and his “traitor” left hand cramps shut. He

extends his experience of suffering to the world around him, to his brother the marlin, for

example, and to the tired warbler that rests a moment before flying toward danger. Critics

have pointed out that wounds on Santiago’s hands are like stigmata, the wounds left in

Christ’s hands by the nails during the crucifixion, which lends a redemptive value to

Santiago’s suffering. At any time, Santiago could release the marlin, ending their suffering,

yet he does not, just as Christ does not refuse his ordeal. Instead, Santiago bears the pain

while contemplating the necessity that some things die so that others may live.The climax comes when Santiago kills the marlin, piercing its heart and fulfilling his destiny

as one born to fish. Even in its death throes, the marlin’s strength and vitality inspire

Santiago’s respect and love. The falling action follows quickly as Santiago begins the hard

work of securing the fish and returning to the coast. The marlin’s suffering is over, but

Santiago’s continues. As he sails in his weakened condition, he suffers with each shark

attack that ravages the beautiful fish. With his wounded hands, he kills the “hateful” sharks.

When his meager weapons are expended, he declares, “I’ll fight them until I die.” Thinking of

the pain of his hero, “the great DiMaggio,” inspires Santiago to endure. He also draws

strength from his relationship with the marlin. They had been adversaries, but now, as

Santiago fights the sharks, they become allies against the unworthy scavengers.

Santiago proves his heroism and nobility by continuing to fight in the face of almost certain

defeat. He cannot prevent the sharks from mauling the marlin, but he utilizes every

makeshift weapon at his disposal and all his strength, fighting on until fighting becomes

impossible. He hasn’t broken his unlucky streak, but his return home posits the idea that

even in defeat, there can be victory. The fisherman gape at the carcass, amazed. Manolin,

when out of his mentor’s sight, weeps because he understands the cost of the effort. The

“coppery” blood that Santiago coughed up and spat into the sea may signal his coming

death, but the novella ends with him dreaming of his beloved young lions at play, suggesting

that there is life in him yet What this ambiguous resolution means depends in part on how the story is read. Parables

are stories that suggest truths about life’s hard questions and feature archetypes rather than

realistic characters. As an archetype, Santiago is not simply an old man but the old man

whose life teaches a lesson. Read as a parable, Santiago’s story suggests answers to such

questions as why life involves suffering and failure and how people face and endure loss.

Santiago persists through pain and hunger, heat and thirst, and ultimate failure. Yet his

suffering takes on a redemptive power, highlighted by his cry of “Ay!” as the sharks move in.

The narrator calls this cry the sound of a man “feeling the nail go through his hand and into

the wood” in a clear allusion to Christ’s redemptive suffering. The resolution in this reading is captured in Santiago’s advice to himself as he struggles to bring the remains of the marlin to

shore: “[K]eep awake and steer. You may have much luck yet.” Santiago finds purpose and

contentment in the struggle itself, regardless of results.

Eassy

Themes

Pride and determination

Here is the theme of pride and determination. In these themes Santiago's pride becomes his

tragic flaw and after the shark destroys the marlin then he apologizes to his brother.

However pride motivates his to overcome the 84 days of misfortune. The theme of pride and

determination are the source of greatness.

Perseverance

The theme of perseverance in the old man and sea since 1952 bringing man and fish

together. The old man's battle of strength, but battle of wills. Endurance becomes a way we

connect the old age with incredible endurance.

Suffering

In The Old Man and the Sea this theme is mentioned a lots. Because when he catching a big

fish that time he suffered a lot and other people tells him unlucky by their arguments he

suffering from that. He suffered also from physical pain.But for Santiago suffering is

necessary because step in his battle with the fish. When he battles with fish in the sea at that

time he stuggles a lot but he fails in his battle that time he suffered a lot. In this the old man

is feels pain in the end. We can say him that he is a good fisherman.

Strength and the skill

The theme of Strength and skill are interesting themes in the old man and the sea. Because

in this novel physical strength is as important as skill and experience. The old man may not

be as strong as in his youth, he is old here, but he makes up for it and we see that he has

knowledge of sea and his fishing Prowess. Skill and strength are required for fishing. In the

old has these both themes and he also proved it in the novel.

Memory and the past

This theme is a dominant theme in this novel because we know that memory is overlaid with

correct action. In the past something happened badly it is used to comment on the present.

Here we talked about the memory of Santiago. His memory of the lions is a constant motif.

This is significant point that they are from his past.

Defeat

In end this theme is mentioned. In the novel this is persistent question by the end the story.

We can say that old man is defeated with his situation. In the end this question is raised in

our mind that was the Old man defeated? The old man identifies something is broken in his

chest. But defeat implies the breaking of one's spirit. It is spiritual act.

Isolation

The theme of isolation is more we can see in life of Santiago. He lives alone and he feels

loneliness very much. He lives isolated from most people. In the novel we see during his

time on the sea. The isolation theme defines that that he was in his life. It is emphasizes the unique nature of his character. In the novel old man suffers from loneliness. But it is

necessary to his battle with the fish on the Sea.

Man and the natural world

In this novel old man is unique and better in his relationship to and understanding for the

natural world. He sees birds as friends and the shark as personal enemies. Santiago

examines the relationship between turtles and jellyfish between his fish and birds. We see in

the lions function, in this discusses about the national order of things.

Hunger

The theme of hunger is the hunger of fish. In the novel the old man is described as almost

super human in eating pattern. His eating is very little and not at all. He does not refer to

hunger as pain but he talks about hunger of fish not his own.

Symbols

The Marlin

Magnificent and glorious, the marlin symbolizes the ideal opponent. In a world in which

“everything kills everything else in some way,” Santiago feels genuinely lucky to find himself

matched against a creature that brings out the best in him: his strength, courage, love, and

respect.

Joe DiMaggio

For Santiago, Joe DiMaggio serves as the ultimate inspiration. The iconic baseball legend

symbolizes persistence and resilience, and his suffering parallels Santiago’s. Through each

hardship, Santiago thinks about DiMaggio returning to baseball despite his painful bone

spurs, and the knowledge that DiMaggio was able to endure enables Santiago to do so, too.

He holds his idol in such high esteem that he wonders how DiMaggio, whose father was a

fisherman, would fare against the marlin. Santiago posits that he too must have grown up

poor, and feels DiMaggio would understand him. Seeing something of himself in DiMaggio,

Santiago uses the man as an ongoing litmus test by which to judge his own efforts,

motivating himself to continually strive, and to stay disciplined. This hero worship can be

thought to be empowering rather than pitiable, as it allows Santiago to hold himself up to the

highest standards possible.

The Shovel-Nosed Sharks

The shovel-nosed sharks are little more than moving appetites that thoughtlessly and

gracelessly attack the marlin. As opponents of the old man, they stand in bold contrast to the

marlin, which is worthy of Santiago’s effort and strength. They symbolize and embody the

destructive laws of the universe and attest to the fact that those laws can be transcended

only when equals fight to the death. Because they are base predators, Santiago wins no

glory from battling them.