Santiago Old Man

In The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, culture, physical, and geographical surroundings shaped physical and moral traits in the main character, Santiago. All of these surroundings affects Santiago's personality, moral traits, and beliefs. This is clearly evident throughout they story.

Santiago's physical surroundings are a big part of what makes Santiago, himself. The main physical example is Santiago's shack. Santiago's shack is described as small and dirty. “The mast was nearly as long as the one room of the shack. The shack was made of tough budshields of the royal palms which is called guano and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal.”(pg15). This quote from early on in the

This quote shows the reader of how simple Santiago is, and how he does not need to surround himself with inanimate objects. However Santiago does have two sentimental objects, including a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and another picture of the Virgin of Cobre. These objects are sentimental because these were reliefs of his wife. This shows the reader another side of Santiago, a softer side, and that he is not just a poor, old man. Santiago's physical surroundings is just one way Hemingway uses to describe Santiago.

The second way Hemingway uses to shape Santiago is Santiago's geographical surroundings. The Old Man and The Sea takes place in Havana, Cuba, 1940s. Havana is a small, poor fishing town in Cuba. The majority of the plot is the old man out in the sea. While he is out there for over three

In his small fishing town of Havana he is often looked down at. The younger people in the town laugh at Santiago, while the older fisherman pity him. This is due mainly to two reasons, one of his older age, and two because of his losing streak. His reputation in his town even leads to having the young boy that he taught how to fish, Manlin, not being able to fish with him. Due to his parents wanting him to fish with someone who has better luck. This deeply hurts Santiago since the relationship he has with the young boy is so close, almost like a father and son relationship. Also all of this negative energy leads Santiago and his pride to go farther out to catch the Marlin, to almost prove a point to the other