Analysis Old Man And The Sea

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. In Earnest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea Santiago, the old man, faced many difficult challenges. Whether it was fighting off sharks to catching a huge marlin Santiago showed that he will not be defeated. In this novella Santiago doesn’t show defeat in the first 85 days without a fish, when he has the marlin on the line, to when he tries to bring the fish back.
Santiago doesn’t show defeat in the first 85 days. After forty days Manolin's parents decided that "the old man was now and definitely salao, which is the worst form of unlucky"(Page 9). This sentence shows one of the novel's themes, a struggle against fate and it also emphasizes Santiago's lack of success. The way Hemingway describes Santiago boat "The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat"(Page 9) develops the feeling that Santiago is defeated. But then Hemingway describes Santiago’s looks as, “… old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated"(Page 10). The description shows Hemingway’s comparison of Santiago to the sea and suggests that just like the sea, Santiago’s spirit is powerful and that even though he may seem defeated his spirit is not. When preparing to leave on day 84 Santiago describes the smell "…he left the smell of the land behind and rowed out into the clean early morning smell of the ocean"(Hemingway, 28). Next, he uses sight: "He saw the phosphorescence of the Gulf weed in the water"(Hemingway, 28). And lastly, with hearing: "...He heard the trembling sound as the flying fish left the water"(Hemingway, 28). This use of different imagery helps create a description of the sea and all its power. The novel...

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...with Manolin because of his lack of luck, the boy says he will bring the luck. In the last sentence of the novella, "the old man was dreaming of lions, (Hemingway, 127)" which is a symbol of strength to show Santiago still has some fight in him. After this whole trial Santiago, remains the same unsuccessful fisherman but undefeated just like before. But his goal was to catch the fish and he did just that.
Santiago showed he will not be defeated in the first 85 days, when he catches the fish, and when he brings the fish back. Even though it may have been easier to give up and accept defeat, Santiago fought till the very end. His pride and triumphs over adversity show that even though all the odds are against you do not ever give up. Santiago did just that and even though he was never able to sell the fish for profit he had his own triumph which was catching the fish.