Themes

There are several themes in the novel The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway that set the plot line up for the novel. These include: perseverance, pride, suffering, skill, and defeat. The main character and protagonist, Santiago (or, simply, 'the old man) faces many difficulties in the novel and each of these themes play a part in his story.

Perseverance is probably the biggest and most important theme. The old man has not caught a fish for eighty four days, and he just keeps on trying, which is one example of the perseverance in the novel. But the biggest example of this is shown through the old man's battle with the Marlin. It continues on for days, and the old man is determined to give up on catching that giant purple marlin. And the old man never does give up. He finally kills the marlin and continues to press on, never letting go and never backing down. However, on his way back home, the marlin gets eaten by sharks and the old man has lost out and has nothing to take back home.

Pride is another theme in the novel. The old man used to be basically the best fisherman around, but now he is old and weak and has not had very good luck with his life or with his fishing. But the old man is still proud of what he once accomplished, and he is very determined to prove himself once again.

The themes of suffering and defeat can basically go together. The old man suffers while trying to catch and kill the marlin, and he is then defeated when sharks eat up the marlin before the old man can take pride in it. The old man has also suffered because he has not caught a fish for so long, and is defeated because once he finally does, it is taken away from him before anyone can see the huge marlin he caught while out at sea.

Skill is a smaller theme in the novel, but is still there nonetheless. The old man uses all the skills he possesses to catch that stupid marlin. He did well in catching it, never giving up or backing down, but his skills are pretty useless against a bunch of hungry sharks that are attracted to the blood in the water. The old man used to have a lot of great skills, but as he grew older, he lost some of them and was not as strong and agile as he used to be.