Santiagos power of observation in "The Old Man and the Sea".

Santiago sees a man-of-war bird overhead and notices that the bird has spied something in the water. There is a large school of dolphin traveling fast, too fast for either the bird or Santiago to capture. He watched the bird dipped and slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and effectually as he followed the flying fish. The dolphin was cutting through the water below the flight of the fish. The bird has no chance as the flying fish are too big for him and they go too fast- observes Santiago.  He then observes the blue hills, dark blue water looks like purple, and red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and become happy with the possibilities of getting fish there. He sees Agua mala, a kind of jellyfish with bubble with its long deadly purple filaments. The old man loved to see the big sea turtles to eat them and loved to walk on them on the beach after the storm and here they pop. But he had no mysticism about turtles. He observes the blue hills that showed white, clouds looks like high snow mountains, the dark sea and the light made prisms in the water.  He can tell the difference between the blowing noise the male made and the sighing blow of the female. He calls him as his brother like the flying fish. He remembers the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin and their sad story. For a while he thinks of himself that perhaps he wouldn’t be a fisherman and later on claims he has born for it.

Santiago, a strange old man who believes man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. The ideal of Joe DiMaggio’s courage gives Santiago spiritual strength. Again, he dreams not of a single lion-“king of the beasts”, a lion proud, powerful and alone. He only dreams of places now and the lions on the beach, nor of women, storms, contest of strength, fights, great fish, nor even his wife. The lions are “the main thing that is left” and they evoke the solidarity, peace and love to which he returns after hunting, killing, and losing his great fish.

Throughout the 3 days fishing we see a lot of happenings, creatures, scenic beauty through the eyes of Santiago, dreams of lions and his childhood. His talking with the small bird to get rid of his tiredness, pain of the whole night, his talking with his own hands creates a comical effect. And when he sees a flight of wild ducks go over, the old man knows “no man was ever alone on the sea”.

Other most important things come out at the end of the novella. Santiago feels deepest love for the creature that he himself hunts and kills, the great fish which he must catch not alone for physical need but even more for his pride and his profession. When Santiago sees no more meat with the marlin, he realizes. He becomes sorry to the fish and realizes that he should go far out, beyond all people, beyond his true place. “I shouldn’t have gone out so far, fish….”, he declares. “neither for you not for me. I’m sorry fish.” Now he feels glad that they don’t have to kill the stars, moon or sun, only have to kill their fellow creatures to live on. The old man’s realization of what he has done is reflected in his apologies to the fish, and this realization, its implications and his power of observations are emphasized symbolically throughout the novel. And through the character of Santiago we get again the truth of Hemingway as a skilled observer.

Submitted by:

Khondokar Farha Mourin

I’d. 092-10-512

17th batch

Department of English