There are a couple of themes in The
Old Man and the Sea that I would like to point out. They are unity, the honor in struggle, and
pride.
- Unity: Let’s see here. Unity is the state of being one. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago and the
marlin become one in their three day struggle. By uniting these two, Hemingway was able
to show friend and enemy and life and death. Multiple times throughout the novel, Santiago expressed
his love and friendship to the marlin.
“’The fish is my friend too,’ he said aloud. “I have to never seen
or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him’” (Hemingway 75). “’Fish,’ he said, ‘I love you and
respect you very much’” (Hemingway 54).
- The honor in struggle: We all know that Santiago struggles with the marlin
before he finally stabs him with the harpoon to end its life. I have stated that in my past blogs a
bunch of times. I am proud of Santiago for not
giving up because he did not feel good or have the strength for most of
the time. “The old man felt faint
and sick and he could not see well” (Hemingway 94). It takes a hard working man to not throw
the towel in when you feel like that.
When I am sick, I do not want to do anything let alone fight a
fifteen hundred pound marlin in a small boat.
- Pride: Santiago
has pride in himself the first time he sees the purple and silver marlin
jump out of the water. “The line
rose slowly and steadily and then the surface of the ocean bulged ahead of
the boat and the fish came out” (Hemingway 62) Even though he loses his
great catch to sharks, he still has pride when he gets back to shore with
only the skeleton of his eighteen foot marlin.
Hemingway, Ernest. The
Old Man and the Sea. New York:
Scribner, 1952. Print.
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