The hero in "The Old Man and the Sea" is Santiago. Santiago is a fisherman and described as being very old. "Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated" (Hemingway, 10). He is also a role model to the young boy Manolin and he plans for his teachings to live on through him. At the beginning of the book, Santiago is not respected at all in his village. This is because he has had such bad luck fishing up to this point and had not caught a single fish in eighty-four days. Some traits that would describe him would be patient, passionate, skillful, and determined. Santiago is extremely patient. He keeps on fishing like he does every day even though he has not had a catch in so long. He is also patient with reeling in the fish. He spent three full days just waiting for the right moment to kill the marlin. Santiago is also very passionate. He is obviously passionate about fishing if he does it every day and has much respect for fish. He is skillful as well and uses his skills he has perfected for all these years to capture his great catch. Lastly Santiago is determined. Throughout the entire story, whatever he sets out to do he puts all his efforts into it. This includes fishing in general, catching the marlin, and then fighting off the sharks. Santiago accomplishes much in "The Old Man and the Sea". I would have to say his greatest accomplishment was catching the enormous marlin. He accomplished this in three days using his skill and great physical and mental strength. He also accomplishes killing numerous sharks when they try to attack his prize fish. In the end, however, there are too many of them and Santiago is left with only the skeleton. He is portrayed as a hard-working, determined, old, and experienced man. I think Santiago could easily represent the abstract idea of fortitude simply because of his character and actions in this book.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.
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