An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
cheerful eyes show his optimistic attitudes to life. Poor as he is, he never feels depressed or hopeless.This attitude of bravery, confidence and optimism towards life fully shows the tough guyspirit.
The very first sentence of the novella, ―He was an old man who fished in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty four days now without taking a fish,‖(Hemingway,1952, 160) shows the protagonist Santiago in an incessant struggle with the forces of nature. The other fishermen starts calling him salao – the worst form of bad luck and his sail is marked as a flag of permanent defeat.But Santiago with his unyielding spirit is all set to declareto the world what he thinksis right during the eighty-fifth day. On this marked day he sailsfurther into the sea, to catch big fish. When he finally hooksthebig marlin, what began is a battle of attrition against the forces of nature embodied by the marlin. Santiago’s role in the novel is to pursue the big marlin, as the marlin escape fromhis pursuit, which results in the eternal struggle between nature and man.
Because the marlin is larger than the old man’s skiff, the old man has no choice but to be towed by the fish into the Gulf Stream. This excruciating ordeal which last two long days put him in a world of pain. His hands are chaffed.His face is cut.His left hand keeps cramping. Sapped of all his strength, old man began tobe light-headed，but he pulled himself for saying, ―I could not fail myselfand die on a fish like this.‖(Hemingway, 1952:208)
It isnoticeablethat the battle is not all about blood and violence but a deep sense of brotherhood.The struggle of man against nature is distinctly emotional grandeur. The old man feels a deep affection from the fish and has an admiration for its great strength as it pulls his skiff farther into the ocean. As nature and man become closer and closer together in this interlude in spirit as well as in space, Santiago becomes conscious of the marlin’s nobility. In his zenith of struggle against the marlin when his hands are bleeding and his body is wrecked with fatigue and pain, and he finally wins the game. However, this victory is short-lived when nature attacks the old man again with its galanos – the sharks that are bent upon devouring his proud catch. Though completely sapped of all his strength, Santiago does not give up his fighting code and lashes at the sharks with all he had. In spite of knowing that the struggle is pointless, Santiago keepsfightingagainst sharks because of the essential element of human
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
striving which heis embodied with that makes it impossible for him to give up.
In the end, the sharks leave him a long white skeleton to take home but the old man is not defeated. The next morning, forgetting all about his suffering, he begins to make future plans with Manolin.―We must get a good killing lance and always have it board.‖(Hemingway, 1952: 231) Santiago is all set tofight again. Thus it is revealed by Hemingway that nature takes from man all he has, but could not destroy his undaunted fighting spirit, his essential nobility of human striving because the battle between man and nature has been an eternal one. Hemingway has proved that defeat is sometimes inevitable in this battle, but what eventually makes a man victorious is his capacity to struggle with the difficulties despite how it ends.On this sense, struggle between the man and nature gives us an insight into the true essence of man’s heroism.
3.2 Fight against Inner Spirit
The old man is exhausted. He repeatedly thought,―I wish I had the boy, he would help do this or that, at least not by myself.‖(Hemingway,1952: 184) A total number of six in the novel writesthat the old man missesthe boy.At firstit isthe talking in his heart, but latter speaking directly, indicating the old man’s situation is getting worse and worse and he missesthe child more and more intensely. This mental activity of the old man, on the one hand,is because he is struggling to have a helper; on the other hand, he wants the boy’s worship to boost his own.
Besides, the old man dreamsof the lion constantly, and in his younger days he has seen a lion on the beach in Africa, which is an obvious symbol. The lion is the king of the forest, and a symbol of wisdom and force. The author describes a lion in the old man’s dream, in other words, the lion is the symbol of the old man. The lion appears four times in the old man’s dream. Especially in the fishing process, the lion in his dream makes the best sense. Since the fish is too big, it drags the boats and the old man to a far distance. During the battle with the big fish, the old man is exhausted, yet he could not have a rest even for 20 minutes. Because of extremely exhaustion, the old man falls asleep, and dreams of a lion. This shows that even
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
in such an extreme hardship, he is still unyielding, and eagers to fight up like a lion. The repeatedly referred lion not only expresses the old man’s deep spiritual struggle—never giving back, but also reflects his tough guy style when facing difficulties. This is the best interpretation of the theme of the story. It symbolizes the old man’s persistent quest for strength and his unyielding character, and these are the most prominent manifestation of the spirit of Hemingway's hero images.
At the end of the novel, the old man returns to the gulf with the skeleton. And he is so tired that he sleeps for a long time. When the little boy makes food for him,the old man says, ―they truly beat me, and I am not lucky anymore.‖―The hell with luck,‖ the boy says. ―I will bring the luck with me.‖ (Hemingway, 1952: 231) The boy began to learn fishing at the age of five. He not only learns the fishing skills but also inherits the tough guy spirit from the old man. The words of the little boy make it clear that he becomes maturer under the influence of the old man. Santiago is old but the spirit of tough guy is inherited by Manolin. In other words, the boy is the future and this is the transcendence of the spirit of tough guy.
Conclusion
The Old Man and the Sea is the praise song of the tough guy, and is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works.The theme in this thesis is the spirit of the tough guy spirit. With its great simplicity and powerful language, the story tells us about an old Cuban fisherman is down on his luck, and a seeming loser in the battle of man and nature. In the novel, Santiago is the spokesperson of Hemingway’s spirit and will. In the beginning of the novel, Santiago is characterized as a person struggling against defeat. Though he catches the big marlin, onechallenge after another turn his efforts into nothing. However, he refuses to bedefeated and determines to fight with sharks to the end.Though Santiago knows that struggle with nature and fate is useless, he still encourages people to fight.His different kinds of features of tough
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
guy are fully shown. From the description of Santiago, Hemingway tells us the meaning and value of life.In our daily life, no matter what result is, as long as one is striving for his dignity and honor, he is the winner. Sometimes, we may unavoidably to face different kinds ofdifficulties, we should face and try our best to overcome them instead of complaining. The spirit of tough guy will be a good example for us to live a more meaningful life.
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my superviser, Associate ProfessorMa Jing for her continuous support to my study and related research, as well as her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me all the time in writing this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better superviser and mentor for my study.
Second, I would like to express my gratitude to all the teachers in School of Foreign Studies, from whose devoted teaching and enlightening lectures I have benefited a lot and academically prepared for the thesis.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my brothers and sister for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis and my life.
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An Analysis of Santiago’s Tough Guy Spirit in The Old Man and the Sea
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