The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway, Summary and Characters

 "The Old Man and the sea", written by "Earnest Hemingway", is one of the best novels. The story revolves around the main character Santiago, a determined old fisherman with a lot of fishing experience. He used to go fishing along with his companion Manoline. His companionship is so strong that despite his age and frail experience, Manolin wants to work with him. He is so loyal to Santiago that when his parents say to work with other successful fishermen and leave Santiago. He refuses the offer and continues to work with him. 

Santiago is on his fishing and he has been waiting to catch a fish for eighty-four days. He is in the ocean which is blue in color. He sees a bird that dives into the ocean and takes out a fish from the water. This is the indication that fish is here. So, Santiago moves his boat towards that spot and gets ready for the fishing. Moreover, he sees a turtle there who is eating the bubbles as it is the food for him. 

Santiago fixes the bait in the hook for fishing and waits long for a fish to eat that bait. Suddenly his hook starts stirring and he feels some force. When he looks he sees a tuna fish named Albaerco. He takes it up but he doesn't eat it because his main target is Marlin fish. So, he wants to keep tuna fish as prey for Marlin fish. So he hooks that tuna fish and lets that in the water. 

After waiting for a long time, he feels something in the water, an eight feet long fish comes out of the water. It is a Marlin fish. Despite of old man's weakness, he puts severe effort into fishing Marlin and succeeds but it is difficult to take such a long fish on his boat, so he ties the fish to the boat and lets it be in the water. 

But many obstacles are waiting for him. When he is back towards his home two sharks attack the dead Marlin. Santiago tries his best to fight with them and somehow succeeds but the blood of the Marlin spreads in the ocean, which attracts more sharks, and the group of sharks attacks the marlin. This time, Santiago is helpless. 

When he arrives in his homeland, he has just the skeleton of a Marlin fish. That is a resilience in the form of defeat. The next day when he wakes up, he hears the sound of the villagers praising him and they are surprised by seeing the skeleton of a marlin fish. In the end, he says a man can be destroyed but not defeated.

CHARACTERS:

Major characters in this novel are;

1. Santiago 
2. Manolin
3. Marlin 
4. Sharks. 

Santiago

Santiago is an old man with wrinkles and blotches on his face showing his experience in the sea. He has blue eyes, the same as the color of the sea, which indicates the connection of Santiago with the sea. He is a fisherman who has not caught the fish for eighty-four days. He is very dedicated to catching Marlin.

Manolin

Manolin is a young child who is a companion of Santiago. He is very careful about Santiago and he takes care of his food and bait. His loyalty can be seen when his parents say to him to leave Santiago and work with a more successful fisherman. He refuses to do so and stays under the supervision of Santiago.

Marlin:

Marlin is 8 feet 8-foot-long fish which is the aim of Santiago and a symbol of success for a fisherman. It is not just a fish but embodies the theme of struggle and respect between hunter and hunted. 

Sharks:

Sharks are the destructive forces against Santiago's struggle. These are the obstacles in the way of Santiago when he was taking Marlin to his home. He fights sharks to save Marlin. But they eat Marlin and he is just left with its skeleton.