Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize winning novella The Old Man and the Sea is the harrowing story of Santiago, an old man who faces an epic battle with a giant marlin. Hemingway foregrounds Santiago’s iron-will as he attempts to pull in this majestic fish. He is prideful and strong in a way that Hemingway positions most of his masculine protagonists. When Santiago first catches the giant marlin, he illustrates his prideful attitude:
“'I'll kill him though.......
Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer Prize winning novella The Old Man and the Sea is the harrowing story of Santiago, an old man who faces an epic battle with a giant marlin. Hemingway foregrounds Santiago’s iron-will as he attempts to pull in this majestic fish. He is prideful and strong in a way that Hemingway positions most of his masculine protagonists. When Santiago first catches the giant marlin, he illustrates his prideful attitude:
“'I'll kill him though.... In all his greatness and his glory.' Although it is unjust, he thought. But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures” (66).
He respects the marlin, but his pride will not allow him to accept defeat. Later in the novel, after he has fended off shark attacks, he questions what would happen if he encounters more sharks:
“Then we might have fought them together. What will you do now if they come in the night? What can you do? 'Fight them,' he said. 'I'll fight them until I die'” (115).
Thus, Santiago is a prideful, strong Hemingway protagonist, and this can be best demonstrated through his actions out at sea.
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