The Old Man and the Sea is
the story of an epic struggle between an old, seasoned fisherman
and the greatest catch of his life. For eighty-four days, Santiago,
an aged Cuban fisherman, has set out to sea and returned empty-handed.
So conspicuously unlucky is he that the parents of his young, devoted
apprentice and friend, Manolin, have forced the boy to leave the
old man in order to fish in a more prosperous boat. Nevertheless,
the boy continues to care for the old man upon his return each night.
He helps the old man tote his gear to his ramshackle hut, secures
food for him, and discusses the latest developments in American
baseball, especially the trials of the old man’s hero, Joe DiMaggio.
Santiago is confident that his unproductive streak will soon come
to an end, and he resolves to sail out farther than usual the following
day.
On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago
does as promised, sailing his skiff far beyond the island’s shallow
coastal waters and venturing into the Gulf Stream. He prepares his
lines and drops them. At noon, a big fish, which he knows is a marlin,
takes the bait that Santiago has placed one hundred fathoms deep
in the waters. The old man expertly hooks the fish, but he cannot
pull it in. Instead, the fish begins to pull the boat.
Unable to tie the line fast to the boat for fear the fish
would snap a taut line, the old man bears the strain of the line
with his shoulders, back, and hands, ready to give slack should
the marlin make a run. The fish pulls the boat all through the day,
through the night, through another day, and through another night.
It swims steadily northwest until at last it tires and swims east
with the current. The entire time, Santiago endures constant pain
from the fishing line. Whenever the fish lunges, leaps, or makes
a dash for freedom, the cord cuts Santiago badly. Although wounded and
weary, the old man feels a deep empathy and admiration for the marlin,
his brother in suffering, strength, and resolve.
On the third day the fish tires, and Santiago, sleep-deprived,
aching, and nearly delirious, manages to pull the marlin in close
enough to kill it with a harpoon thrust. Dead beside the skiff,
the marlin is the largest Santiago has ever seen. He lashes it to
his boat, raises the small mast, and sets sail for home. While Santiago
is excited by the price that the marlin will bring at market, he
is more concerned that the people who will eat the fish are unworthy
of its greatness.
As Santiago sails on with the fish, the marlin’s blood
leaves a trail in the water and attracts sharks. The first to attack
is a great mako shark, which Santiago manages to slay with the harpoon.
In the struggle, the old man loses the harpoon and lengths of valuable rope,
which leaves him vulnerable to other shark attacks. The old man
fights off the successive vicious predators as best he can, stabbing
at them with a crude spear he makes by lashing a knife to an oar,
and even clubbing them with the boat’s tiller. Although he kills several
sharks, more and more appear, and by the time night falls, Santiago’s
continued fight against the scavengers is useless. They devour the
marlin’s precious meat, leaving only skeleton, head, and tail. Santiago
chastises himself for going “out too far,” and for sacrificing his
great and worthy opponent. He arrives home before daybreak, stumbles
back to his shack, and sleeps very deeply.
The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathers
around the skeletal carcass of the fish, which is still lashed to
the boat. Knowing nothing of the old man’s struggle, tourists at
a nearby café observe the remains of the giant marlin and mistake
it for a shark. Manolin, who has been worried sick over the old
man’s absence, is moved to tears when he finds Santiago safe in
his bed. The boy fetches the old man some coffee and the daily papers
with the baseball scores, and watches him sleep. When the old man
wakes, the two agree to fish as partners once more. The old man
returns to sleep and dreams his usual dream of lions at play on
the beaches of Africa.
