Old Man and The Sea- Character Analysis of the fish and sharks

I am going to do a character analysis of the fish and the sharks. Although these characters had no dialogue, they were quite possibly one of the most important characters. The fish was definitely a huge part of the story. It came into the story because the old man, Santiago, caught him on his fishing line. The fish could easily being a representation of the Santiago because they are both fighting. The old man is fighting to keep the fish but most of all for the respect of his community again. The fish is fighting for his life and freedom from the line stuck in his mouth. They both fight so hard and give everything they have to give. Then the sharks come into play. They symbolize a challenge and hardship for both the fish and Santiago. The sharks come and begin to eat away at the fish. This causes the old man to have to fight them with spears and knives until finally he lost all his weapons to the beasts. (Hemingway) This causes the fish and the old man to be fighting together against the same enemy. Sadly the fish does not finish this fight which makes the old man fight even harder. Santiago then began fighting for himself and fish which made him fight harder and gain more mental/emotional strength. The fish and Santiago became almost one in the same in a way and the shark became their common enemy. This gives the story a very good meaning of life and strength through just this simple tactic of writing. Also the sharks played a role of being literally the antagonist. This is because they were against the protagonist, Santiago. They were fighting to steal his fish so they could eat, and they were not afraid of Santiago when they probably should have been. The fish and sharks were both fighting for something but they had to go against each other to do it.

Old Man and The Sea- Character Analysis of young boy

I am going to do a character analysis of the young boy in Old Man and the Sea. In the story he is what I would call a secondary character because he plays a party but he himself is not really in the book a lot. He is more of a big subject topic for the old man, Santiago, when he is on the boat. Santiago says many times how he wishes the young boy was there. In the story the young boys real name is Manolin. He is also a fisherman like Santiago except he is much younger and has much less experience. Manolin sees the old man as a role model in his life because he really learns a lot from the old man. He learned how to be a good fisherman and learned many tricks about life and fishing. Little did the young boy realize, was that he was actually teaching the old man a lot of things as well. Manolin taught the old man to gain strength through other outlets besides just muscle. This ultimately saved the old mans life when he was fighting the fish and sharks in the book. (Hemingway) Manolin was always very helpful to the old man because he felt such a strong connection with him. Without him Manolin wouldn't have become such a great fishermen so he also feels a sense of obligation and respect. Manolin would go to the cafe and get Santiago food and coffee many times, so the story told. (Hemingway) Manolin would also help Santiago carry his fishing gear down to the boat. The book told of one specific time, when Manolin was helping carry Santiago's stuff down before the trip that changed Santiago's life.(Hemingway) That was the trip he caught the biggest fish the town has ever seen. Manolin begged for the old man to take him but the old man refused because Manolin's parents saw the old man as unlucky. Manolin saw him as wise and a good fishermen.

Old Man and the Sea. Character Review- Old Man

I am going to do a review on the character known as the old man. The old man's real name is Santiago El Cameon. Santiago is the protagonist in the story, meaning he is the hero or main character of the story. Santiago lives in a small fishing village in Cuba.(Hemingway) He is an older man which makes him have many stories and facets to him because of his life experiences. The biggest and probably most important part of Santiago's life is his fishing. Not only is fishing his career but it is also his passion. This has been so for most of his life. Santiago is a very wise man and knows many things. He knows enough to where he has taught the young boy in the story, who I will be doing a character analysis on next, all the tricks to fishing. Santiago also is very caring to the young boy. He sees the young boys life and future important to him because he loves the boy, and not in a creepy way! Santiago is deemed from the beginning as unlucky by the people in his community because he has not caught a fish in a long time. This makes him non desirable to fish with, which is why the parents of the young boy do not allow him to fish with Santiago anymore. Santiago says its for the best because he doesn't want the young boy to get hurt. Later on Santiago wishes the boy could have been there to be with him on the boat with him because he ends up needing a lot of help. Santiago all in all ended up with a HUGE fish and deemed not unlucky anymore. In fact he was seen as a hero instead of an unlucky old fishermen. There is much to learn from the old man's strength and sense of life. He gave all his strength when fighting the fish and sharks (Hemingway), but most of the strength came from his heart and mind.

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

Old Man and the Sea. How Religion Played a Role

Many times in the book Old Man and the Sea the author, Ernest Hemingway, used his religion in the story. His religion being of the Christian faith. Although I am not entirely sure he realized how much he used this in the book because it was so known to him that it would only make sense that that would be what his characters know as well. From the very beginning the book talks about God and Jesus multiple times just in the old mans everyday dialogue and thoughts. (Hemingway) It is obvious that Hemingway was very religious. He had all his characters believe in Jesus because that is all he truly believed. It did not make sense for his characters to not have the same outlook on life as he does. Many authors have done this because it is easier to write about things one knows than things that are foreign to someone. Just as it is easier for me to write about a girl character than a boy character because I am a girl. The same goes for things as religious views, general wealth (or lack of), and age can all play into how someone writes. Sometimes this can hinder a writer because it causes the book to be very opinionated, making it hard for many readers to get lost in the book. Which in my opinion is how a book should be, the reader should just be able to be lost into it. When an author begins to put his or her own opinions and thoughts, their thoughts might not be versatile enough for the reader to relate. In Old Man and the Sea, if the reader is not of the Christian faith it might cause them to not like the book because its hard for them to relate. This can also help an author if it is done right. The reader can feel more of a connection to the book if it does relate to them and/or their beliefs. Also many readers do become interested in books about people with totally different lives because it gives them an outlook they aren't used to seeing. So opinionated writing can go both ways depending on how opinionated it is and the reader themselves.



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

Old Man and the Sea. Repetition Part Three (that rhymes!)

This is a continuation of giving examples of repetition in the book Old Man and the Sea. I am on the third example which is talking about if the boy, Manolin, was there on the boat to help him. Many times while the old man was on the boat he would speak of things the boy and him would do or how the boy would be of help. (Hemingway) By repeating things about the boy so much it gave the old man, Santiago, a lot of strength and reason to fight for his life. This repetition kind of represented reasons for Santiago to fight for his life. Hemingway did well on this repetition but I feel he could have added more detail about the boy himself just to give more depth to the story. The fourth example of repetition is the great DiMaggio. Known also as Joe DiMaggio, former New York Yankees baseball player who in the book was also this character. In the book Santiago talks about DiMaggio's foot spur and DiMaggio didn't let that effect his game play. (Hemingway) This is how DiMaggio plays into the book because Santiago saw the foot spur as an obstacle. Just like Santiago being old, his hands, and not having help were all obstacles. The author used the repetition to represent the hardships and obstacles the DiMaggio overcame that helps Santiago overcome his. The last repetition happens to be the worst of all of them. This is the repetition of the purple coloring of fish. (Hemingway) This one to me makes absolutely no sense and has no real meaning or purpose at all. It only serves as another repetition but doesn't help the story line. In part one I said "I felt some of the repetition could have been completely gotten rid of", this was the EXACT repetition I was referring to. In my opinion, it only hurt the story instead of helping it. It added more confusion and clutter to a already in depth story. I must say that all in all though Hemingway did do a fantastic job in using repetition in aiding and giving more depth to the story (minus the whole purple fish stuff).



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

Old Man and The Sea. Repetition Part 2

In repetition part one I described what repetition is, the pro's and con's, and the how Ernest Hemingway used it. In part two I am going to go through and give specific example on how Hemingway used repetition in the book, the Old Man and the Sea. There are five different repetition topics that I am going to cover in this blog. The first of the five is the lions on the beach story. The story consists of the old man, Santiago, talking about his time when he sailed around Africa. He tells how he looked onto the beach and saw the lions playing. (Hemingway) One of the pro's about this repetition in particular is that he allows new information to be shared every time he talks about the story giving it more depth as it goes. Another pro is that it has a very prominent connection to the story. Every time he sleeps he dreams of sailing around Africa and seeing the lions which reminds him of days when he was younger and stronger. This nightly reminding of days of strength actually gives him more strength when he is on the boat fighting for the fish. The next largely repeated subject was Santiago's hands. They talked about how they were scarred from fish, how they would cramp up when holding onto to big fish, and when they were bleeding the image of Jesus came to his mind. (Hemingway) The quote "saw the old man's hands" (Hemingway)was just one of multiple times that the author talked of the old mans hands. The repetition of his hands made for a perfect way to add more bits of story line and information about Santiago. When it talks about the scars on his hands from fishing, it makes you know he has been fishing for a long time. That is a more complex and yet intriguing way to give a reader information on a character. This is a huge pro in my eyes because he allows the repetition to act in the story and not just a random part of the story.
(To Be Continued In Part Three...)


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

Old Man and the Sea. Repetition Part 1

Throughout the book the author uses a tactic called repetition. This is meaning the copy or replica of words in the case.("repetition") This is a tactic used to keep the book tied into itself through either meaningless repetition or repetition of important facts to the storyline itself. When using this type of tactic in writing there can be many pro's and con's. The pro's could be; making a story line make more sense, keeping a consistent flow to a story, and even giving the reader a more interest and liking towards the book. The con's could be; giving a reader to much meaningless repetition which would lead them to confusion, lose interest because nothing new is being said, and giving the book a mediocre story line making it unreadable to any good reader. There is a fine line between the two of these making it very hard for authors to use repetition in their writing. In the book the Old Man and the Sea, the author Ernest Hemingway was not afraid to use this tactic! In fact he did not only use repetition, but he used it very frequently throughout the book. He even used more than one subject matter for the repetition. I believe Ernest used the repetition perfectly throughout the book! The reasons being when he would use repetition he would use it more based on a concept, person, or theme. Making it easy for him to add a little more detail or information each time he would repeat that certain subject matter. This kept the repetition flowing but also made it more interesting, even if it had very little to do with the story line itself. Although Hemingway was very good with how he presented the repetition itself, I was not impressed with how well he made it make sense in a story. I felt some of the repetition could have been completely gotten rid of and I would still have the same feelings towards the book. Hemingway should have kept it to the few simple yet important repetitions he had instead of adding the nonsense that only drug me away from the good story line itself.




"repetition." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 02 Aug. 2011. .