Themes_Of_The_Old_Man_And_The_Sea

Themes Of The Old Man And The Sea Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Honor in Struggle, Defeat & Death From the very first paragraph, Santiago is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. He has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish—he will soon pass his own record of eighty-seven days. Almost as a reminder of Santiago’s struggle, the sail of his skiff resembles “the flag of permanent defeat.” But the old man refuses defeat at every turn: he resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish promise to be. He lands the marlin, tying his record of eighty-seven days after a brutal three-day fight, and he continues to ward off sharks from stealing his prey, even though he knows the battle is useless. Because Santiago is pitted against the creatures of the sea, some readers choose to view the tale as a chronicle of man’s battle against the natural world, but the novella is, more accurately, the story of man’s place within nature. Both Santiago and the marlin display qualities of pride, honor, and bravery, and both are subject to the same eternal law: they must kill or be killed. As Santiago reflects when he watches man, pride, santiago, marlin, santiago’s, old, defeat, battle, struggle, death, world, out, honor, determination, worthy, without, sharks, man’s, fight, because, transcend, through, though, one, never, leads, just, inevitable, himself, glory, first, end, destruction, destroyed, days, bravery