This blog post examines Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea not through the lens of an immigrant’s survival logic, but as Hemingway’s normative protagonist, analyzing the ethics of endurance and action inherent in his solitary struggle.
Santiago, the protagonist in The Old Man and the Sea, can be seen as an existence that has grown into the young boy Nick Adams (In Our Time), Jake Barnes (The Sun Also Rises), Frederick Henry (A Farewell to Arms), or Robert Jordan (For Whom the Bell Tolls), who have since grown older and now face their twilight years. Recently, a critic has drawn attention by arguing that Santiago, the protagonist of The Old Man and the Sea, was not originally born in Cuba but was an immigrant from Spain. The basis for this claim is that Hemingway created Santiago based on the real person Gregorio Fuentes, whom he briefly mentions in the work. Fuentes was originally born on the Spanish island of the Canary Islands, located off the west coast of Africa, and later emigrated to Cuba. This likely explains why Santiago recalls in his dreams “the white peaks of the islands rising above the sea” and “the various ports and anchorages of the Canary Islands.”
Around this time, impoverished Spaniards like Fuentes emigrated en masse to Central and South America, including Cuba, seeking new livelihoods. Santiago, too, is portrayed as one such immigrant. While most eventually returned home, some, like Santiago, were unable to go back due to various circumstances and were forced to remain in Cuba, living as poor fishermen. It is also pointed out that Santiago’s singular determination to catch a large fish, unlike other fishermen, is merely a strategy to overcome the inferiority complex he feels in Cuban society, where he has belatedly put down roots, and to survive. Setting aside whether Santiago was indeed an immigrant from Spain like Fuentes, while such interpretations may hold some persuasive power from a sociological perspective, they offer little substantial help in understanding the work itself.
Santiago is far more plausibly viewed from the perspective of a normative protagonist. At the work’s outset, the narrator states: “Everything about the old man was worn out except his eyes. They were the same color as the sea, full of life and tireless.” Shortly after, when Manolin, the boy who always helps him, asks Santiago, “Do you still have the strength to handle a really big fish if you catch one?” the old man replies, “I suppose so. Besides, I know all the tricks.” The narrator adds again, “Though he was old, his shoulders still possessed an extraordinary strength. His neck still had strength, and when he slept with his head dropped forward, his wrinkles were hardly noticeable.”
Though entering old age, Santiago retains his masculine, rugged character almost intact. His far greater interest in physical activity over intellectual pursuits makes him a quintessential Hemingway protagonist. Frederick Henry in 『A Farewell to Arms』 states, “I wasn’t born to think. I was born to eat. That’s true. I was made to eat and drink and sleep with Catherine.” On the second day of his struggle with the marlin, Santiago also says, “He didn’t think about anything. He just tried to endure.” That day, after the marlin leaps from the water, he mutters to himself, “But I must show him what a man can do, and how much he can endure.” In other words, he is less a man born to think and more a man born to endure. Deeply contemplating any matter is thus a very foreign act to Santiago. He also says, “You were born a fisherman, just as fish are born fish.”
More akin to Don Quixote in action than to Hamlet in perpetual contemplation, Santiago not only dislikes deep reading but has little connection to books at all. The only thing he reads is the newspaper, and even then, only the baseball section. Even those newspapers are old ones discarded by others, offering little informational value. Moreover, Santiago uses them not primarily as a medium for reading, but rather as a blanket spread over his bed or as a cover for his knees when dozing off in his chair. In other words, for him, newspapers hold greater significance as paper fulfilling its literal function than as a means of conveying information or knowledge.
Moreover, though his senses may have dulled with age, Santiago still possesses the acute sensitivity characteristic of Hemingway’s other protagonists. This sensitivity is clearly evident in the scene where he watches birds flying over the vast ocean in search of food and feels pity for them. In this regard, the narrator states: “He pitied the birds, especially the small, fragile terns that were always flying about searching for food but rarely found any. He thought, ‘Birds live a harder life than we humans do.’“ Santiago also reflects, ”Those birds, crying out in a thin, hungry voice as they fly, then plunging their beaks into the water to search for food—they are made far too fragile to survive on the sea.”
Santiago also resembles Hemingway’s other normative protagonists in his lack of great fear of violence and death. The very act of venturing far out into the rough sea alone to fish is not an easy choice for an ordinary person. He battles the marlin for three days and nights without rest, and also confronts the sharks that attack, seeking the marlin. This is an act one would hardly dare attempt without accepting death. As noted earlier, some critics who question Santiago’s superhuman actions in this work are not entirely without grounds. After battling the marlin and the sharks for three days, the old man is so utterly exhausted he begins to doubt whether he might already be dead. The narrator describes: “The old man felt as if he might already be dead. So he clasped his hands together and felt his palms. His hands were not dead, and so he simply opened and closed them to feel the pain of being alive. He leaned against the stern and knew he was not dead. His shoulders told him so.”
Santiago is a character who values concrete, sensory pleasures over abstract or theoretical ideals. Like Hemingway’s protagonists who seek to live fully in this world rather than pinning hopes on the afterlife or the beyond, he shows little interest beyond eating and drinking. Of course, due to his advanced age, he cannot indulge in sexual desires like other protagonists. As he ages, even his basic physiological needs for eating and drinking have changed from what they once were. He sets out to fish on the open sea, yet often skips a proper breakfast, substituting a single cup of coffee for a meal. The narrator states that Santiago “had long since grown weary of eating and never packed lunch. A single water bottle placed at the bow of his skiff was enough to sustain him through the day.” Nevertheless, rather than fixating on abstract, idealistic values, he seeks to enjoy concrete, sensory pleasures through the act of eating and drinking.
Finally, Santiago, true to Hemingway’s archetypal hero, is a man who strives to live by his own code of conduct. For instance, when Manolin expresses a desire to fish with him, Santiago advises the boy to work for another fisherman according to his parents’ wishes, explaining that luck has deserted him. Even when Manolin brings him sardines for bait, he asks, “You didn’t steal them, did you?” Had Manolin stolen the bait, Santiago would likely have abandoned the fishing trip rather than use it. His attitude remains consistent even in the scene where, after 84 days without catching a single fish, he prepares to go fishing the next day and wants to buy a lottery ticket ending in the number ‘85’. When the old man says he has no money for the ticket, Manolin says, “That’s no problem. I can always borrow two dollars fifty.“ But Santiago replies, ”I could probably borrow it. But I’d rather not borrow money if I can help it. You start by borrowing money, and then you end up begging.” He strives to live without depending on others or resorting to begging.
In short, Santiago can be seen as the matured version of Hemingway’s young protagonist, or the normative protagonist, who has reached old age through the passage of time. Having weathered all kinds of storms and hardships, he has transformed into a more balanced and wise man. Borrowing a concept from Confucius’s Analects, Santiago has already reached the level of understanding one’s destiny or the age of wisdom. When he sits down at the ‘Terrace’ to drink beer with Manolin, many fishermen mock the old man as foolish, yet he shows no anger whatsoever. Furthermore, as will be discussed in detail later regarding the theme, his gradual pursuit of unity with nature and his attitude of seeking harmony and balance within the universe are also deeply connected to this mature worldview formed through age.
