In order to survive, man must kill. To gain nourishment and further our existence, we have to end the existence of another. Even if it is just animals, we still don’t like to think about it. Although, we know that it is happening. Let’s take Santiago, for example. The wise old man from Cuba thought of the marlin as his brother, yet he still had to kill it. Santiago had to go through so much to catch this marlin, but he never gave up and he held onto his innocence the entire time. Having to catch the marlin and then having it taken away from him was most likely devastating. Santiago is a devoted fisherman. He hasn't caught a fish in a long time, but he's still optimistic because he comes out to sea every single day and works compassionately to catch them. If that isn’t determination, I don’t know what is. “My choice was to go there and find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either of us” (50). When catching the marlin, he was patient and he never gave up. He held onto that rope for three days and never once thought about letting it go. That is a life lesson to all of Ernest Hemingway’s readers. Perseverance is a life value that you should live by because in the end, you’ll probably catch that marlin.
Going back to the first paragraph, Santiago had to kill the marlin even though he thought of it as his brother. He had to kill it because he was poor and he needed the money. I think that Santiago had an extreme respect towards nature and the animals in it. He lived off of nature. That’s why he thought of the marlin as his brother. Santiago thought: “You loved [the marlin] when he was alive and you loved him after” (105). He loved the marlin because he respected it. The marlin was going to grant him money for food and pride for being a fisherman.
I also said that he held onto his innocence. What I meant by saying that was that in some way or another, Santiago held onto his childhood through his dreams. Ernest Hemingway writes: “He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach” (25). When I read this, I was astounded and curious. How could anyone never dream about their wife? I then realized that his childhood was a time of peace in his life, so it was left in his subconscious. The lions were the best part of his childhood. He hadn’t let go of his childhood memories, which is something that few people do.
In order to survive, Santiago had to kill. Santiago knew how to live, even though he was living in poverty. He was ambitious, cared for people, animals, and nature, and he knew how to hold onto his childhood. People should learn a thing or two from him. They should take what he does and apply it to their own life. Whoever would do that would be a better person in the end. His morals should make others envious. These few life values make him noble when compared to actual people. Ernest Hemingway had great themes throughout his moralistic and metaphorical book. He makes Santiago such a role model to people everywhere in all types of situations.
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