The Old Man and the Sea #6

In the novel The Old Man and the Sea I found a couple of themes. A little theme that I found was that you should cherish the people that surround you. The Old Man, Santiago, does not do this enough. He has a loyal boy who wants to help him and the boy wants to fish with the Old Man, but the Old Man will not allow him too. Yes, Santiago is appreciative of what the boy is trying to do, but he thinks that he can do it on his own. The Old Man is an old man and he can not do the things that he used to do by himself, and he needs the help of the boy. Santiago should support the boy more with his decisions.

The universal theme that I found was the journey of life and letting go. I figured this because the Old Man thinks that he will catch a big fish and his life will go back to normal and catch more fish than he has been catching, none. The Old Man journeys out to see by himself. I think Ernest Hemingway did this to show that Santiago with his old age is lonely. On the journey he catches a big fish. The Old Man realizes that this is his chance to have someone and he needs this fish. He needs the fish to become a lucky fisherman and the prove himself a good fisherman. On the journey with the fish, there is some rough patches and some good things. The rough things are when the fish trashes and jumps out of the water. This brings pain to Santiago. A happy moment is when he sees the fish for the first time and realizes how pretty it is. To Santiago holding on to this fish means holding on to life. Even though he should let go and live in peace, he wants to have the challenges that old age and not enough support has to offer. When Santiago comes to his senses that he can not have his fish, it is like when he realized that he is going to live an old persons life.