The existence of those three persons above shows that Santiago is not a bad man. People take care of someone because the man is worthy to receive their humility
and he does nothing harm to them. People still regard him as one of the member of the society
3.3 The Struggle Against Nature
Santiago is struggle against nature occurs since he goes to fish to the sea. He fights against the nature, which appears in some forms. It can be the weather, sea, fish
and sharks. When Santiago gets up earlier in the morning, he faces the first form of the
nature, that is the cold weather. The morning cold makes him shivers but he thinks. “He would shivers himself warm and that soon he would be
rowing” Hemingway, P: 20
He goes to Manolin”s house to wake up the boy. Then they walk straightly to Santiago’s house, carry the old fisherman’s gear to his skiff, and drink coffee from
condensed milk cans. After wishing good luck to each other Santiago sets out alone in his Skiff and rows steadily away from the shore towards the deep waters of the
Gulf Stream. Before it is light, Santiago prepares his fishing lines. Unlike the fisherman he
passes on his way into the deep waters of the Gulf Stream, he drops his baited fishing lines to various measured depth and rows expertly to keep them perfectly straight in
the water. He believes in this trick and waits for his luck. Santiago’s trick is reflected in this paragraph.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
“Before it was really light he had his baits out and was drifting with the current. One bait was down forty fathoms. The second
was at seventy-five and the third and fourth were down in he blue water at one hundred and one hundred and twenty-five
fathoms,” Hemingway, P: 24-25.
Santiago is a true fisherman. He has knowledge about nature. He knows when he should go to fish. He goes to fish in September, where the great fish comes. It is
very cold in September, that’s why it is difficult for fishermen to catch fish in this month, but he convinces himself that he will catch a big fish in September.
“ ‘Keep warm old man,’ the boy said. ‘Remember we are in September.
‘The month when the great fish come,’ the old man said. ‘Anyone can be a fisherman in may.’ ”
Hemingway, P: 13
Santiago has also experience in preparing his body to fish for long day in the sea.
“But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs. He ate the white eggs to give himself
strength. He ate them all through May be strong in September and October for the truly big fish”
Hemingway, P: 30-31
The sun rises and Santiago continues to move away from the seashore, observing things around him. When he seas a man of war bird overhead, he notices
the bird has spied on something in the water. He follows the bird rowing farther and farther out and drops his lines near the areas the bird spying on. Soon one of his lines
goes taut. He pulls a ten-pound tuna and shouts loudly that it will make a lovely piece of bait. Then, he realizes he is talking to himself and knows people would laugh at
him if they heart him talking. However, he does not care about it.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
“ ‘If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy,’ he said aloud. ‘But since I am not crazy, I do not
care and the rich have radios to talk to them in their boats and to bring them the baseball.’ ” Hemingway, P: 33
When the projecting stick that marks the top of the hundred-fathom line dips sharply, he is sure that the fish tugging on the line is of a considerable size. He prays
it will take the bait the marlin plays with the bait for a while. When it does finally take the bait, it starts to move with it and pulls the skiff. Santiago tries to bring it up
to the surface but it does not come up because the fish is strong and tough. It drags the skiff farther into the sea with Santiago holding the line against his back as it is
illustrated below “He held the line against his back and watch its slant in
the water and the skiff moving steadily to the north-west. This will kill him, the old man thought. He can’t do this
forever. But for hours later the fish was swimming steadily out to the sea, towing the skiff, and the old man still braced solidly
with the line across his back” Hemingway, P: 38
He yells at himself to get the strong and no let himself die on sea when he has fishing, and he want to say God’s name when he has fishing, but he couldn’t do that.
“I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this,” he said. “ now that I have him coming so beautifully, God help me
endure. I’II say a hundred Our Father and a hundred Hail Mary’s. But cannot say them now.”
Consider them said, he thought. I’II say them later.” Hemingway, P: 48
He gets thirsty and drinks a little from the bottle. The straw cuts his forehead when he pushes hard it down on the head before he hook the fish. He tries to get rest
by sitting on the mast. Nevertheless, until the sun goes down, the marlin continues on the same direction and Santiago loses sight of land altogether. Then, he say “ I can do
Universitas Sumatera Utara
nothing with him and he can do nothing with me, he thought. Not as long as he keeps this up” Hemingway, P: 40. He wishes for the boy again and muses, “No one should
be alone in their old age … but it I unavoidable” Hemingway, P: 40 Something then takes one of the baits behind Santiago, but he cuts the line in
order to avoid distraction from the marlin. He expresses ambivalence over whether he wants the fish to jump, wanting to end the struggle as quickly as possible but
worrying that he hook might slip out of the fish’s mouth. Echoing his former resolve though with less certainly, Santiago says, “Fish … I love you and respect you very
much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” Hemingway, P: 46 A small bird land on the boat while Santiago is speaking to the bird, the
marlin lurches forward and pulls the old man down, cutting his hand. Lowering his hand to water to clean it, Santiago notices that Marlin has slowed down. He decides
to eat tuna he has caught in order to give him strength for his ordeal. As he is cutting the fish, his wounded hand cramped. Santiago says, “What kind of hand is that.
Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into claw. It will do you no good” Hemingway, P: 50. He eats tuna, hoping it will renew his strength and help to
release his hand from the cramp. Santiago considers his lonely condition. He is surrounded by a seemingly
endless expanse of deep, dark water. Santiago tries to focus on his hand and contemplates the humiliation of a cramp, an insurrection of one’s own body against
oneself. Just then, the marlin comes out of the water quickly and descends into the water again. Santiago is amazed by its size, two feet longer than the skiff. He realize
Universitas Sumatera Utara
that the marlin coals destroy the boat if he wanted to and prayers to assuage his worried heart and settles into the chase once again.
As the sun sets, Santiago think back to triumphs of his past in order to give himself more confidence in the present. He tried to wrestle with his left hand but it is
a traitor than as it has now. Santiago than catches a dolphin for food and throws the line out again in case he needs more substance later. As the night falls, Santiago ties
together two oars across the stern to create more drag. Santiago decides that he must sleep some if he wants to kill the marlin. He cuts up the dolphin he has caught to
prevent spoiling, and eats some of it before contriving a way to sleep. Santiago wraps the line around him and leans against the bow to anchor himself, leaving his left hand
on the rope to wake him if the marlin lurches. Soon, the old man is sleep. “He no longer dreamed of storms, or of women, or of Great occurrences, or of great fish, nor
fights nor contest of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach … he loved them as he loved the boy.” Hemingway, P: 66
The line rushing furiously through his right hand awakes Santiago. The marlin leaps out of the water and it is all the old man can do to hold into the line, now
cutting his hand badly and dragging him down to the bottom of the skiff. Santiago finds his balance, though, realizes that the marlin has filled the air sacks on his back
and can not go deep to die. The marlin will circle and then the end game will begin. At sunrise, the marlin begins a large circle. Santiago holds the line strongly,
pulling it in slowly as the marlin goes round. As Santiago says, “The strain will shorten his circle each time. Perhaps in an hour I will see him. I must convince him
now and I must kill him” Hemingway, P: 77. Santiago continues pulling him in
Universitas Sumatera Utara
until the marlin catches the wire lead of the line with his spear and regains some of the line. Eventually, the marlin clears the lead and Santiago pulls back the line he
lost. At the third turn, Santiago sees the fish and feels amazed by its size. He
readies the harpoon and pulls the line in more. The marlin tries desperately to pull away and Santiago, no longer able to speak for lack of water. He must concentrate on
the fish as it is below. “On the next turn, he nearly had him. But again the fish righted
himself and swam slowly away. You are killing me, fish. The old man thought but you have a right to. Never have I seen a
greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer of nobler thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.”
Hemingway, P: 82
The marlin continues to circle, coming closer and pulling out. At last, it is next to the skiff, Santiago drives his harpoon into the marlin’s chest. It has been
already dead now. The following quotation describes how it dies. “Then the fish came alive, with his death in him, and raised
high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty. He seemed to hang I the air
above the old man in the skiff. Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over the entire
skiff.” Hemingway, P: 84
Seeing his prize, Santiago says, “ I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work” Hemingway, P: 84-85.
Santiago lashes its body along side his skiff. He pulls a line through the marlin’s gills and out its mouth, keeping it head near the bow and wishes to touch and to feel it. He
says:
Universitas Sumatera Utara
“ I want to see him. He is my fortune. But that is not why I wish to feel him. I think I felt his heart when I pushed on the
harpoon shaft the second time. Bring him in now, and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around
his middle to bind him to the skiff.” Hemingway, P: 85
Having secured the marlin to the skiff, Santiago draws the sails and lets the trade wind push him toward the southwest. An hour after Santiago kill the marlin, a
mako shark appears. It has followed the trail of blood the slain marlin left in its wake. The following quotation gives the description of the shark.
“He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except
his jaws. His back was as blue as a swordfish’s and his belly was silver and his side was smooth and handsome. He was
built as a swordfish except his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swim fast, just under the surface with his high
dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside of the closed double lip of his jaws all of his eight rows of
teeth were slanted inwards.” Hemingway, P: 90
As the shark approaches the boat, Santiago prepares his harpoon, hoping to kill the shark before it ears apart the marlin. He fights tiredly and helplessly for he has
been exhausted about the fish. He hit it without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy. The shark swings over. Then, on his back, with his tail lashing
and his jaws clicking, the shark ploughs over the water as a speedboat does. The water is white where his tails beats it and three quarters of his body is clear above the
water when the rope comes taut, shivers and then snaps. The shark lies quietly for a while on the surface, and then it goes down very slowly.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
The shark takes forty pounds of flesh from the marlin and mutilates its perfect side. Santiago no longer likes to look at the fish. He began to regret having caught the
marlin at all, wishing that his adventure had been but a dream. Nevertheless, he concludes, “Man is not made for defeat … a man can be destroyed but not defeated”
Hemingway, P: 93. He is also want to prove that he is still able to catch fish. “Although it is unjust, he thought. But I will show him what a
man can do and what a man endures. ‘I told the boy I was strange old man,’ he said.
‘Now is when I must prove it.’ The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now
he was proving it again.” Hemingway, P: 57-58
Santiago soon ceases this line of thought to concentrate on the getting back to shore. Two hours later, two shovel-nosed sharks arrive at the skiff. After losing his
harpoon to the mako, Santiago fastens his knife to the end of the oar and now wields this against the sharks. He kills the first shark easily, but while he does it, the other
shark is ripping at the marlin underneath the boat. He lets go of the sheet to swing broadside and reveal the shark underneath. After some struggle, he kills this shark as
well. Tired and losing hope, Santiago sits and waits for the next attacker, a single
shovel-nosed shark. The old man succeeds in killing the fish but breaks his knife blade in the process. More sharks appear at sunset and Santiago only has a club with
which to beat them away. He does not kill the sharks, but damages them enough to prevent their return. Santiago then look forward to nightfall, as he will be able to see
the lights of Havana, guiding him back to land. He regrets not having cleaved off the
Universitas Sumatera Utara
marlin’s sword to use as a weapon when he had the knife and apologizes again to the fish. At around ten o’clock, he sees the light of Havana and steers toward it.
In the night, the sharks return. Santiago brings out everything left of him to maintain the rest of the fish. However, it is useless. It is the last shark of the pack that
comes. There is nothing more for them to eat. Santiago sails lightly now and he had neither thoughts nor any feelings of any kind. He concentrates purely on steering
homewards and ignored the sharks that came to gnaw on the marlin’s bones. Sailing home in exhaust, he thinks.
“The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought. Then he added, sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies.
And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. I never knew how easy it was, and what beat you, he thought.
‘nothing,’ he said aloud. ‘I went out too far.’ Hemingway, P: 108
3.4 Dignity and Personal Pride
