The only thing young about Santiago was his eyes, Hemingway wrote - but an alert reader knows that baseball is for the young at heart, age notwithstanding.
And also, any baseball fan worth his salt knows that the Yankees had a great player named DiMaggio (Joe), who had his own struggles. Those comparisons of DiMaggio and Santiago are part of the meat of the book. While certainly DiMaggio had hall-of-fame credentials, he also had his share of injuries (including a painful bone spur). Like Santiago, DiMaggio had bad luck (someone stole his bat during the middle of his 56-game hitting streak in 1941, which still stands today). And Santiago can keep his mind off his bad luck (84 days without catching a fish) by thinking about baseball.
Santiago wants to be "worthy of the great DiMaggio, who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel... [and] What is a bone spur?" (p. 68). Santiago wonders what if DiMaggio were out there in a boat alone, and a huge marlin - with a "sword...as long as a baseball bat" - was giving him more fight than he could handle? Would the great Joe DiMaggio...
For Santiago, there is nothing that gives him more pleasure than baseball so he uses it to preserve himself and give him the strength he needs to survive one more day. He is not thinking about pleasing Christ when he refuses to resort to despair but his goal is a more earthly one. He wants to be able to make DiMaggio, his baseball hero, proud. Santiago is an ordinary
Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, narrates the story of an older man named Santiago who fishes for his living. Frustrated by his failure to catch anything for many days, Santiago ventures out into the ocean, in a very small boat, further than he ever has before, facing multiple struggles and crises. Throughout the story we see references and images to both youth and to the determination to
Early in the book, the fishermen look at him with sadness, or with derision (Hemingway 1980, 11), but there is still a camaraderie and togetherness in their group that indicates they are all brothers in the same quest for a living. Finally, religion and spirituality is an important aspect of the novel that many critics acknowledge. Critic Bloom continues, "In the Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, the principal figure,
This battle is Santiago's personal struggle and it has meaning to him. In his struggle with the fish, Santiago says, "But I must have the confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel" (Hemingway 68). This shows that the catching of the fish is like a personal test for Santiago. He
Old Man and Sea The 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea is based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. The film stars Spencer Tracy, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Tracy plays the Old Man, a fisherman from Cuba who has gone several months without a catch. His lack of productivity calls into question the Old Man's masculinity and virility; as fishing symbolizes his
Graphic OrganizerOriginal Text� The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest HemingwayType of Change� Divergence: Changing the ending so that the fish reaches the shore alive and the old man passes away in his sleep.Setting� Place: The Cuban coast and the old man's hut.� Appearance/Feel: The sea is calm and serene, symbolizing peacefulness. The hut is simple and made of wood and palm leaves and adorned with shells from sea.
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