The story begins with a picture of an old fisherman

The story begins with a picture of an old fisherman

The story begins with a picture of an old fisherman who had gone for many days without getting any fish. Eighty-four days without fishing, anything was seen as bad luck, and it seems that the old man had met “Salao.” A form of unlucky belief among his tradition. It frustrated the old man, he grew thin, and other fishermen did not want to be associated with him. They were afraid he would drive salao into them.

A boy who was a good companion to the old man decided to abandon him and joined another boat he believed had good luck. Later on, the story took us to the moment where Santiago had fun with the boy on the Terrace. There are themes of caring and friendship in the scene between the two characters, the old fisherman and the boy. Despite the boy been warned by his father to leave the salao-casted old man, he looked for him and bought him food to eat.

I also found the theme of faith. The old fisherman did not give up to continue fishing on empty hands. He believed in himself and appreciated various things in his life of fishing. He felt a great accomplishment to have taught the boy how to fish. The old man saw the boy had great potential in life more than just fishing. He wished he could teach the boy other things like gambling. It could have allowed the boy to learn and experience many things in life.

I noted that the relationship between the old fisherman and the boy seems to be the main part of the storyline. The more he became older, the more the boy became more attached to the older man. The events in the house of the old man brought the picture of poverty. He used to roll his trouser to make a pillow and slept on newspapers. But the boy was very much comfortable to join him. He liked the way the old man gave stories about his dreams and the baseball game.

Towards the middle of the story, God is mentioned several times, and it showed that the old man was religious. Most of his hopes in life put on the hands of Gods and never cease to pray. Staying at the shore until dawn was the last thing he would think not to stop even if he went home empty-handed. He never gives up to put his hands in deep saltwater. The months of the hurricanes were the best compared to the other parts of the year. But how much did he put his life in danger? He never thought that.

The old fisherman tried to prove that he is not religious and the way he kelp mentioning God and using prayers more than a thousand times. From the middle of the story, it appeared more like a poem with short paragraphs and sentences. In most cases, the old man was speaking to the fish, and in the story, we saw the fish replying to him. There is a scenario where a Marlin pleaded the old man not to eat him. The old man was friendly and killing a shark that eats other small fish brought another aspect of the story.

Towards the end of the story, we saw most of the events were from the old man’s dream. Like speaking to himself and the sea. The boy appears again before the story ends, and he was the only person to have learned the dreams of the old man, Santiago. The come to an end as the boy bring food and sat close to the old man wishing he could sleep and start dreaming again. The new dreams were about the lions, and I believe the boy could get more wisdom from the dream.