The defeated man and his longing for times
It is believed that "the old and the sea" of Ernest Hemingway is a novel that portrays the condition of the human being and his perseverance to adversity, however the treatment of the characters within the story as their own characters as their own characters is neglectedof your surroundings. Published in 1952, this novel tells Santiago’s struggle, going through different stages of what could be considered his "trip" within the story. In the beginning his character is introduced as a fisherman in Cuba who has been without fisheries in fishing for 84 days. As his surroundings are detailing, from the relationship he holds with Manolín, a young man who used to fish when he was a child, to his lonely routine in the port.
It is possible to understand Santiago, from the first part of the novel, as a man defeated by life, who has nothing left to fight, and that he simply fulfills his routine. Hemingway presents this environment through the description of this with his reminiscent language of the wave of avant -garde, full of metaphors and other elements. “Everything in him was old, except his eyes;And they had the same color of the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.”(Hemingway, 1989: 3) When this phrase is presented in the novel the author is introducing the image of the character, and with this it is visualized as someone who lives by fishing. However, this juxtaposes with the appointment with which the novel begins;"He was an old man who caught alone in a boat on the Gulf Stream and eighty -four days ago he did not take a fish" (Hemingway, 1989: 3). There is then this fight with himself on the part of Santiago, from someone whose eyes reflected the color of the sea, and that he had still been betrayed by him in a way.
Already in the first pages of the novel, Hemingway presents many elements in order to recreate this vision of conflict. For Santiago, his routine struggled, and are the elements that evidence longed for past years enter. There is the figure of Manolín, whose image represents a reflection of what was once the old man, since it is presented full of energies and enthusiasm for fishing. It also represents a hope, the young man is the one who motivates Santiago to move on, and even helps him prepare his boat, and brings him food from the terrace. This last point makes a relationship with the relevance of this character for the topic that is working. The terrace was the place to which both used to go, when they spent time together, and that is where they created different memories that help Santiago escape their situation. He longs for those times and sees his happiness in them.
Another element that is presented at the beginning of the novel is that of the lions, a recurring dream in the present of Santiago. "I was no longer dreamed of storms or women […] I only dreamed of places and with the lions on the beach" (Hemingway, 1989: 12), through this it is presented as what the old yearning does not fall in close times, when this was energetic and motivated, but in a much more distant time. This shows that the character does not want. The old man continues a routine waiting for everything to end at a time. This is much more evidenced by its journey. When in the midst of fighting with the different sharks, it has interrupted dreams related to these and the environment of Africa.
The old man is driven from this desire, since he knows that if he manages to reach the beach with the fish he can rest, knowing that he has managed to overcome and has nothing more to try. The lions manifest the happiness of those past times, as a parallel to the break that this will obtain once all over. This escape that Santiago is looking for, also works for the loneliness that he feels as an individual. This feeling must be understood, not as the act of being alone, but of feeling that you cannot connect with the people around it. Having a port full of people, this sordid atmosphere is created in which everyone has the same feeling. Even when everyone shares this love for fishing, none manages to establish a connection, the trade of a fisherman in Altamar is presented as a very gloomy one;“He looked over the sea and realized how he was only. […] He saw a flock of wild ducks that were projected against heaven on water […] and realized that no one ever alone at sea ”(Hemingway, 1989: 31). In this appointment you see how the old man admits that one seems to never be alone in the sea, however still surrounded by different creatures and phenomena, he feels alone ”
The trip that the old Emprende works, in a way, as a transition point. He introduces himself to a man defeated by life, but who continues to fish and try to redeem himself, looking for something to restore a purpose. And through that this makes a reflection on his life. Once your redemption is reached, you can put aside your concerns. That is why the spirit of perseverance arises, based on the complications that the trip ends. Santiago fights with each of the sharks, even getting their own hands to do it. Eat what remains bait in order to have strength, crosses the pain of keeping the fish with the sedal, even when you sleep. And it is that by achieving this the feeling of perseverance is concluded, and it is given to rest.
"The wind is our friend, anyway," he thought-. Then he added: sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and enemies. And the bed, he thought, is my friend and nothing else, he thought-. The bed will be a big thing. The defeat is not so bad -he thought-. I never thought it was so easy. And what has defeated you, old?, thought.”(Hemingway, 1989: 65). This appointment is already presented towards the end, and encapsulates everything already analyzed above. The old man has managed to close this stage of his life, and there is no farewell full of sadness or happiness, but an indifferent. Fishing is something that the old man did because it was his duty, his passion had already been exhausted a long time ago. When he concludes with his jour. It does not give importance to his defeat, nor that he has come from fishing, he does not care what others will think;The old man is free.
The novel ends with “Up there, next to the road, in his cabin, the old man slept again. He still slept from Bruces and the boy was sitting beside him contemplating him. The old dreamed with the marine lions.”(Hemingway, 1989: 69). Santiago has ended with his work, and in his dream he visualizes his entire life, from the lions in Africa, to the sea, in these being marine lions. Manolín is also in this scenario, accompanying the old man at his break, because it is an important element in the process of this story. When presenting it to the side, it is evidenceThe conclusion of your fight. Santiago no longer longs for the past, but accepts it.
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