The Old Man and the Sea depicts the indomitable will of humanity through the old man’s solitary struggle. The unyielding hope and spirit of challenge even in the face of failure show life’s true victory.
Humanism of Self-Overcoming
The Old Man and the Sea weaves its narrative through the story of a man overcoming adversity through endurance. Old Man Santiago, alone at sea, engages in a heroic struggle with a conviction and courage unmatched by other fishermen, fueled by his formidable endurance. One can see Hemingway’s own philosophy of self-discipline—a distilled expression of the worldview he cultivated throughout his life—manifested through Santiago with literary artistry. Through Santiago, Hemingway presents his own code of conduct: faith, courage, and a simplicity tempered by meticulousness. Courage is essential for navigating an unsteady life, and this work particularly highlights the endurance of suffering.
Even after 84 days without catching a single fish, the fisherman Santiago remains undaunted, filled with the conviction that he will catch a big one. He is a man who refuses to admit defeat in his struggle. At dawn on the 85th day, accompanied by the boy’s farewell, he rows alone into the deep Gulf Stream far from the Cuban coast. Around noon on his first day out on the open sea, he finally succeeds in hooking a massive 18-foot marlin. He endures two days and nights of struggle, overcoming various physical and mental torments until he finally kills the marlin. Old Man Santiago demonstrates his willpower through his battle with the marlin.
《The Old Man and the Sea》possesses a unique character, embodying the themes of challenge and courage. Santiago’s life unfolds in the vast ocean, detached from modern society and organized structures. All his fishing gear is primitive, he walks barefoot, lives with the help and affection of neighbors, and coexists with the sea. Despite his left hand cramping painfully during the fight with the marlin, he refuses to acknowledge the suffering. He lives his life without accepting pain as pain, and because he possesses the challenge and courage to feel the tension and fulfillment of life in every moment of action, he resolves his own problems within the reality he confronts.
In The Old Man and the Sea, we see Santiago not only enduring a fatal wound with stoicism but also patiently solving all manner of difficult human problems. Amidst social anxiety and economic hardship, suicide rates have surged dramatically. The suicides of seniors over 60, middle-aged workers seeking escape from an era of insecurity, and adolescents driven by despair over school life have emerged as serious social phenomena.
We all living in the modern age have lacked the stoicism to endure with patience and the will to overcome difficult obstacles. Therefore, to break through this state, we need the active courage to live life without accepting suffering as mere suffering, and to feel the tension and fulfillment of life in every moment of self-discipline. We must not seek salvation externally but solve our own problems within the reality we face.
Santiago, an old man possessing patience, courage, and willpower, finds his indomitable spirit in the dreams of DiMaggio and the lion. Old Man Santiago regains courage by thinking of DiMaggio because, despite the pain in his heel, DiMaggio demonstrated the admirable quality of successfully leading his team while playing baseball. Thus, whenever his spirit weakens, Santiago thinks of DiMaggio, striving to emulate his superhuman willpower; DiMaggio is always present in Santiago’s consciousness. Santiago does not praise his fame, but rather admires his endurance in enduring and overcoming the handicap of his heel pain.
In this way, I wonder if modern society is not an era of ‘absence of spiritual pillars’, even though young people need such pillars to instill hope and courage within themselves. Youth are often perceived as weak, timid, impulsive, and self-centered. Most are born into affluent societies, grow up without experiencing great hardship, and thus tend to struggle to endure and overcome even minor adversity and pain. Just as Santiago finds courage by overcoming hardship and adversity in the mirror of DiMaggio, youth too need a spiritual pillar in which they can learn true life through a genuine mirror.
To the old man, DiMaggio symbolizes a hero who achieves greatness by rising above hardship. Though feeling his own powerlessness after the struggle with the marlin, the old man draws courage from DiMaggio’s example and confronts the challenge to the end. Another element that instills hope and courage in Santiago is his dream of lions on the African coast. The young lions, emerging to play innocently at sunset along the long golden coast and silver sands, symbolize youth and courage for Santiago. DiMaggio and the lions became the source that awakened hope, strength, courage, and indomitable will within Santiago when he was overcome by despair.
Old Man Santiago, though physically frail, possessed an indomitable spirit. He remained unbowed by poverty, and through trials, he fought to the end with courage and endurance, a man of formidable spirit. Through Old Man Santiago’s active actions, Hemingway expresses human integrity and true humanism.
The Old Man and the Boy’s Friendship
In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway depicts the protagonist Santiago as embodying a life of sincerity and perseverance through life’s trials, based on human integrity, courage, camaraderie, and universal love. This represents Hemingway’s departure from his early individualistic escapism and his mid-period social concerns. This work represents the pinnacle of Hemingway’s philosophy, outlook on life, and view of affection.
The spirit of camaraderie Hemingway depicted appears across several works, from The Sun Also Rises to The Old Man and the Sea. The fundamental character of respecting an individual’s personality, regardless of their status or position, is the very foundation of this spirit of camaraderie. This brotherly love emerges when the protagonist and those around him are in a position inferior to the protagonist. While it is common for people to seek brotherly relationships with those above them, Hemingway transcends this limitation, instead expressing a saintly human compassion.
Hemingway’s philosophy of human compassion is clearly revealed in The Old Man and the Sea. In this work, it unfolds between the protagonist Santiago and the boy Manolin, the owner of the terrace, Martin, and the bar owner, Federico. Among these, the relationship between Santiago and Manolin delves deeply into the spirit of camaraderie. The Old Man and the Sea is unique in that it depicts a relationship of camaraderie, not romantic love between a man and a woman.
The old fisherman Santiago, toiling on the vast waters of the Gulf Stream, was utterly exhausted after 84 days without a catch. Yet, through Manolin’s emotional support and material assistance, he maintained his conviction and hope, enduring his misfortune. The boy even brought him meals. On the 85th day, as the fishing trip begins at dawn, Manolin, rubbing his sleepy eyes, brings a simple breakfast and coffee, and later delivers sardines for bait. The old man doesn’t even consider whether accepting the boy’s assistance is humiliating or a blow to his pride, because their relationship has already achieved a true human bond of friendship.
The boy’s role and his love for the old man were expressions of profound camaraderie transcending romantic attraction. Hemingway’s choice of a boy from the female lineage was highly unusual, indicating the author’s broadened perspective on women and affection, and signifying his ideas had reached the pinnacle of maturity.
The old man struggles with all his might against the marlin, hoping the boy is nearby, yet he realizes he is alone. The boy’s presence is more urgent than a man’s cry of love for a woman. This boy is the old man’s most indispensable companion and lover in life. Thus, throughout the sleepless night, tormented by agony, he battles the marlin and searches for the boy. It is common for humans, when in pain, to seek someone they love and rely on, and the relationship between the old man and the boy is undoubtedly one of profound longing and love. Their bond is not based on the trust or dependence found in romantic love between a man and a woman, but stems purely from the nature of human affection.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway not only uniquely emphasizes animals as equals to humans, but treats nearly all things in nature as existing on the same plane as the human Santiago. Thus, for the old man, the wind and his bed were his friends, and even the fish he was battling was a friend. Santiago may be an old man physically, but he embodies the spirit of Hemingway the boy, who grew immersed in nature. As an adult, Hemingway experienced the world’s artificial conventions, traditions, war, and various evils, yet remained unbroken, reaffirming his positivity in nature. Santiago, along with Manolin, is a man who knows how to see nature and loves it.
The struggle between the old man and the marlin is in no way contrary to the laws of nature. What matters is not victory or defeat, but the struggle itself, fought with utmost effort. Santiago’s submission to nature’s laws and his striving to do his best in the given situation reveal that this work, The Old Man and the Sea, stands at the pinnacle of Hemingway’s literary world. It is the culmination of Hemingway’s human maturity, where his literary ideals and life convictions blossomed into a world of brotherhood and universal love.
Hemingway’s View of Nature
Santiago considers himself part of nature, one with it. His pantheistic attitude, rooted in the belief that all things in the universe are connected to the spirit and are eternal, leads him to see the universe as a unified, systematized whole. Though everyone gazes upon nature, few can perceive its profound and comprehensive meaning. Those who see nature clearly possess an intuitive power to transcend all metaphysical aspects and perceive essence—people with souls as pure as children.
This view of nature is well expressed in The Old Man and the Sea. Santiago is completely at one with nature. He is a fisherman who catches fish off the Gulf Stream coast. His domain is the sea; his skin is tanned brown by the sun’s rays, and his eyes are the color of the sea, the unchanging color of nature itself. His house is made of palm leaves called ‘guano,’ containing only a bed, a table, chairs, and a kitchen. His immersion in a primitive existence is evident in practices like using seawater as medicine when his hands bleed. The sea, Santiago’s domain, is the most natural place: above him are the sun, moon, and stars; beneath his boat, the sea moves and fish swim; around his boat, birds fly and wind sweeps by.
Familiar with nature, the old man converses with fish, birds, and stars. He never assimilates with the other old men around him who pursue only artificial phenomena. His spirit is always with the boy Manolin and the great baseball player DiMaggio, and he is a man with a positive outlook on life, often dreaming of the lions he saw in his youth. He lives feeling joy in all this life.
His body is that of an old man, but his spirit remains that of the boy who grew up immersed in the nature of the Walloon Lake region since childhood. He is extremely sensitive to nature, able to predict the weather and navigate the sea without a compass by observing changes in the sky, the color of the sea, and the direction of the wind. Even when fishing, he dreams of dolphin pods stretching eight miles long. Most of his dreams were about fish and lions. In other words, he immerses himself in the untouched, golden African beaches and distant shores. Santiago regards all natural things as his friends; nature itself is his home, his society, his world.
Santiago’s world was inherently stable, peaceful, and happy, and the unknown fishing grounds beyond the open sea constantly revealed nature’s sublimity. In this natural world, Santiago is never alienated or lonely. His faith and conviction stem not from human society but from the abundance nature provides. Santiago is measured not against other humans but against nature itself. Thus, by identifying Santiago with nature, Hemingway infuses his story with grandeur.
Both the fish and the shooting star are parts of nature. Yet Santiago believes that while catching fish is natural, attempting to kill the moon and sun violates the laws of nature. He adapts to these natural laws and lives within them. Santiago sees the essence of the sea through his own intuition. He recognizes his existence within all of nature’s elements—the sky, the birds, the clouds, the fish. He even engages in affectionate conversation with the small bird perched on the sailboat. All entities achieve perfect harmony, forming the unified, total beauty of nature.
Santiago is humble before the sea. Fishermen isolated from nature seek to conquer the sea for their own profit from a position of superiority. But Santiago never attempts to catch fish as a means of enrichment. Santiago accepts that killing other creatures is a natural law necessary for life to continue.
《The Old Man and the Sea》is a story of courage, endurance, pride, humility, and death. Like a classical tragedy where a hero battles a formidable foe, loses tangible rewards, and gains only a spiritual victory, Santiago too loses the marlin in his fight with the sharks. Thus, despite fighting with all his might, he ultimately gains nothing. Yet Santiago remains a spiritual victor because he maintained the integrity of his values, never compromising his code of conduct.
Santiago’s resolve to fight until death, and his killing of the marlin, is not merely for physical desire but to uphold his pride and profession as a fisherman. Yet, recognizing this as nature’s order, he feels brotherly love for the marlin. Man, fish, and bird are all living beings, equally capable of empathy, and thus he feels love for the marlin as if it were a unique friend on the vast ocean. Though the old man endured severe physical pain from fighting the marlin all night, his spirit was renewed by conversing with this bird. This empathy and love he feels even for the bird arises from the notion that he himself is part of nature, one with it.
Thus, he unites with nature, possessing a spirit that communicates with all of nature’s manifestations and with Santiago’s own spirit. Santiago, embodying an indomitable spirit that believes the spirit alone is eternal and immortal even if the body is destroyed, sees nature as a unified, systematized whole. Having reached this state, Santiago regarded the stars, sun, and moon as brothers, feeling a brotherly bond. This made his solitary struggle not lonely and became the driving force leading him to victory.
