An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
the line calmly and tightly. The two heroes fight with each other. At the noon of the next day, the big fish finally jumps out of the water, with a skin color of purple, looking noble and beautiful. At the same time the old man is exhausted. Compared with the beauty and elegance of the marlins, the old man dose not feel ashamed. In contrast, the fish causes the emergence of the old man’s ambitions to conquer the cruel of nature.
―Fish,‖ he (theold man) said softly aloud, ―I will stay with you until I am dead.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 187)
―Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 188)
Although he can only eat raw fish to fill his belly and bear the pain from his jerky hand, it means nothing to him. What Santiago cares about is to catch the fish to prove himself. He decides to kill the fish before dark, and does adopt some measures to realize it. Here a vivid strong-will image is formed.
―If you are not tied, fish,‖ he said aloud, ―you must be very strange.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 196)
―The fish is my friend too,‖ he said aloud. ―I have never seen or heard of such a fish.‖ ―But I must kill him. I am glad that we do not have to try to kill the stars.‖（Hemingway, 1952: 201）
From the above analysis, we know that it is not easy to overcome the strong fish. But the old man doesn’t lose heart. Instead, he is to stimulate the fish’s strength and power. He is determined to kill it with a strong will. During these two days they are fighting against each other and their dialogues also reach a point of highest development.Marin makes a final try,and the old man also tries his best to control and kill the marlin in the end.
2.2.2 Gentleness in the Dialogues with the Little Boy
As we all know, the old man is brave, confident, strong–willed and preserved. But there are some qualities such as warmth, gentleness that we may not noticed. We can see these
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
qualities from the dialogues between the old man and the little boy.
―Santiago, I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.‖ ―No, you are with a lucky boat. Stay with them.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 161)
This is the first dialogues of them. The boy is very sympathetic of the Santiago’s bad luck, so he wants to help the old man. Although the old man indeed needs help,he refuses, becausethe boy is with a lucky boat. Here Santiago’s care for the boy is well displayed, showing his deep love to the little boy
―How old was I when you first took me in a boat.‖
―Five and you nearly were killed when I brought the fish in too green.‖ ―Can you really remember that or just tell it to you.‖
―Iremember everything from when we first went together.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 162) Through their dialogues, we know that they have spent a very happy time together. To the old man, the boy is a very important person, and he is not just the old man’s friend or a companion but a son. During the sailing days on the sea, the old man often thinks about the little boy. Every time when the old man is in trouble, he always repeats aloud to himself that he wishes the boy stayed with him.From this the old man intends to evoke this strength and courage of his youth through the power of these words. Therefore, for the old man, the boy is the hope of future. He is not only the old man’s student, but also the old man’s child to some extent.
When the old man comes back with wounds and the skeleton of the big fish, the boy cries several times. When the old man says: ―they beat me, they truly beat me.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 230) The boy insists that the old man is not defeated. At that moment the boy understands what spirits the old man has, strong-will, perseverance and pride.
So the boy is not only the old man friend, but also his hope and future. His gentleness to the little boy doesn’t weaken his image of tough guy. On the contrary, this quality makes the image of Santiago more realistic and natural.
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
2.3 Its Reflection in His Action
The main plot of the novel The Old Man and the Sea is the old fisherman's fishingprocess on the sea. During this process, the old man's action is described in details,which illustrates his qualities perfectly. From these descriptions we can see a typical image of tough guy.
2.3.1 Bravery and Endurance in Fighting with the Marlin
The fight between Santiago and the big marlin shows the old man’s persistence and courage. There are many details to expose the point. During the big marlin pulls the boat father away from the coast, the old man keeps on fighting two days and nights with the fish. Facing the amazing strength of the big fish, Santiago shows great patience. At the same time, he endures all the physical pain:his back is stretched by the line; he has a bad headache and his hands are cut seriously. Whenever, he faces difficulties, he would not hesitate to fight with them in the spite of the outcomes. He does not kill the marlin for material gains but for dignity and the value of life. In the battle, whether win or not, it is Santiago persisting in fighting that counts. In his mind, the meaning of life is to fight to the end.
During the struggle with the big marlin, the old man recalls a hand game in the tavern at Casablanca with a Negro, which also shows the old man’s endurance in the battle with the fate. At that time, Santiago is such a physically strong man that he fight with the Negro and the fight last over twenty-four hours. Though blood comes out under the fingernails of his hand, he confirms that he would beat the Negro who is the strongest man on the docks. With his strength, skills and wisdom, he finally wins the game. His great courage and endurance are also well shown during the fight with the big marlin. Thus the man’s tough guy spirit is vividly showed up.
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
2.3.2 Toughness in Fighting with Sharks
The battle between Santiago and big marlin is the climax of the novel. In this part, the old man goes through four rounds of the fight with shark but get nothing. And in this period the old man’s toughness is shown clearly and completely.
At the first round, the Mako shark attacks.The old man hits it with his blood-mashed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength. He hits it with no hopes but with resolution and complete malignancy. Finally the old man kills the shark at the cost of losing 40 pounds of marlin flesh and his sharp harpoon and all the rope. But what’s even worse is the mutilated body of the marlin would attract more sharks. Facing this dilemma, the old man is not afraid and encourage himself by saying: ―But man is not born to defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.‖Thedentuso is cruel, strong and intelligent, butthe old man is more intelligent than it.
In the second round two galanos follow with the scent. ―They are hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as killers.‖ (Hemingway, 1952:221)The old man kills both of them with a blade,but sharks tears off a quarter of flesh of marlin. The old man blames himself but prepares to fight with the next followers. Then the coming single shovelnose is killed by the old man and the old man loses his last weapon. However, the old man is not defeated easily. ―I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and tiller.‖ (Hemingway, 1952:223)
In the third round, a group of sharks come. The old man takes a club and injures two of sharks badly. But he can’t kill them just with a club. So he expects that if I had the sharp weapons, I would fight them untilI died when they come in the night.
In the fourth round, the old man fights with a pack of sharks. At midnight he knows the fight is useless, because he can’t see those sharks clearly and with few weapons. But he did not yield. ―He club desperately at what he could feel and hear and when the club was taken he jerk the tiller freely from the rudder and beat them with it, holding it in both hands and driving it down again and again.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 227)
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
In the battle with the marlin, the old man has used almost all of his strength, so it can be said that the battle with sharks challenges the limit of his strength. With no weapons and being exhausted, the old man insists on fighting to the end. Although he knows it is useless to fight, he never gives up. Because he firmly believes that ―a man can be destroyed but not defeated.‖He loses the battle but he is by no means a loser. On the contrary, we can say he is a winner. The Old Man and the Seanot only symbolizes the relationship between human and nature, but also symbolizes human’s indestructible spirit.
3Inner Spirit Sublimation
The Old Man and the Seais the result of Hemingway’s deep desire for disengaging from the social world and an entry into the nature. Hemingway’s heroes images from Nick Adams to Frederic Henryare caught in the bleak trap of the society where man is doomed to struggle,suffer and perish, except Santiago who asserts his individualism in the jaws of nature.
3.1 Fight against Nature
At the beginning of the novel, Santiago is in a bad situation. First, let’s have a look at the living place of the old man.“The mask was nearly as long as the one room of the shack. The shack was made of the tough budshields of the royal palm and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal. Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 164)Second, ―the old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 160）Everything about him was old.From the above description, we can see that the condition of Santiago is very bad. But his blue and
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