The Old Man and The Sea

In The Old Man and The Sea, Santiago is becoming more independent. He is learning how to do things without the boy. "I wish I had the boy. But you haven't got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself and you had better work back to the last line now, in the dark, and cut it away and hook up the two reserve coils,"(Hemingway 51-52). He is finding his own inner strength*. Meanwhile, the old man is about to catch the fish after three long days. "I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this," (Hemingway 87). He is very determined to catch this fish. When he says, "a fish like this" the fish is special. It is not any ordinary fish.

*Coming back to strength, on page 81, Santiago talks about how he dreamed of lions. Lions symbolize strength, and:

• Courage
• Power
• Royalty
• Dignity
• Authority
• Dominion
• Justice
• Wisdom
• Ferocity

http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolic-meaning-of-lions.html

Santiago may not have all of these traits, but he has some...like courage, power,etc. Santiago has courage for being able to go out at sea for that long. He stayed out for days while not getting that much rest, not eating well and getting hurt. Exhaustion, starvation, and pain all caused him lots of suffering. Also Santiago has power because he was powerful enough to catch the fish. Not even just catch it, but emotionally he was powerful enough to shove the spear in the fishes heart, knowing that is his brother.

I am looking forward to see how Santiago's "quest" turns out.