Blog 3

As with any other great novel, the Old Man and the Sea expresses many universal themes. One important theme is the struggle of defeat and death. The whole book Santiago is facing defeat after defeat. He goes 84 whole days without catching a fish, but even after he has gone so long without catching one he is determined to do so and makes a very dangerous but rewarding decision(Hemingway 2). Santiago sails out past where all the other fisherman have gone to a place where it is promised that the largest fish is. The fish is named the Marlin and has obviously never been caught. Santiagos record for not catching a fish is 87 days and he ties that record after struggling three days with the marlin. After these 87 days Santiago has finally caught not just a fish, but the largest fish(Hemingway 4). Either the fish or the old man were going to survive, not both and the old man was determined to live.

Santiago has more will than anyone ive ever seen. He never gives up and is then rewarded. He is old and frail but still mananges to do what no other fisherman has done. The universal theme is never to give up because you will be rewarded for your try. Santiago is feeling more defeated than ever but he perserveres and comes out on top. He even observes that men were not made for defeat. He never let defeat get him down because he never let himself feel defeated.

The other theme is to have enough pride in yourself to beat defeat. It is similar to one of my favorite quotes "Believe in yourself because if you don't then nobody else will." Nobody believes that Santiago can catch a fish, let alone the biggest one there is. Nobody believes this except Santiago. If he had decided to give up on fishing then he would not have caught the legend, the marlin(Hemingway 4). Nobody thought he could do so except himself and because he had enough pride in himself to beat defeat of not catching fish, he completed something that nobody even thought was possible.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.