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The word pride in itself isn’t a significant word but its importance infers many things. There are multiple definitions of pride. Each and every person has their own meaning of pride. The most utilized and well-known meaning of pride is being pleased or having a feeling of incredible achievement and feeling self-satisfied with your actions. The word pride has both positive and negative effects on yourself depending on your imaginations and thoughts. In the novel The Old Man and The Sea, we meet Santiago who is a dedicated man, who drives forward through each difficulty that nature has to bring him. Santiago just lets the hard times go through him since he is confident and believes in himself that a big fish is not far off from him catching it. Santiago expresses the thoughts of respect and pride in his actions and imagination. He is additionally a father figure to a little kid named Manolin who passes on the picture that the old man is whom he would prefer to be when he is old. A man’s pride and can lead to his mental strength.
Santiago is a man who lives by an ethical code and has a way of thinking in life. He is an expert in fishing, substantially more mindful of its fine details than any other fisherman. He represents the manly ideals of boldness and determination. He also has a solid feeling of good and bad when it comes to killing fishes. He cherishes and respects the fish he seeks after, thinking of them as his ‘brothers,’ and he detests killing an animal for nothing more than a bad memory. More than everything else, Santiago has his pride and honor, which he communicates most obviously at the times he understands that more sharks are coming to eat marlin that he has. He says, ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated'(103) which means that a truly genuine man will battle as far as possible, to death if necessary, yet he will never surrender or give up. This quote has been proven throughout the novel. Santiago in the end is physically destroyed, but mentally he is not defeated. Defeated means fully down and broken to a point where it has no use. Santiago never faces this, he faces a problem that he can’t control. He was being crushed with old age but his pride prevented him from being destroyed. Even after days of not catching, he still knows he has his pride. He doesn’t want this fish for food, he wants it for honor and pride. He even notes that this fish wasn’t for food as those who fed upon him are not worthy enough. During the fight with the marlin, he physically was being defeated. There are so many events throughout his journey where he is defeated by nature but he is so motivated and focused on what he desires which keeps him going and prevents him from being destroyed, his focus is shown in the novel when he says “ Now is the time to think of only one thing. That which I was born for’ (40) this just demonstrates that he never lost his focus; he always focused on one thing he was born for and never gave up. It’s true because he isn’t crushed because he never abandons fishing, he never gives up on catching a fish, and Santiago doesn’t lose his pride. In spite of his failures, he sets out in his boat after not catching a single fish for eighty-four days. After all this, Santiago is certain that he will get a fish that he can sell. This gives life a new perspective of the way of thinking of life, where living with pride and respecting every human life exists. This teaches patient self-control and resistance of hardship.
Santiago faces challenges from nature as well, which tests his physical and mental ability. Prior to the battle with the marlin, Santiago had 84 days of unluckiness and did not catch a single fish , yet he stays hopeful and does not give up. As time advances and the fight against the marlin draws near, the sea keeps on testing his old age. ‘I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine’ (88). Even after the fact that Santiago was fighting emotional and physical strength, his pride was stopping him from giving up on catching the marlin. The ocean is something he was clearly alright with regularly. But this fight with the marlin is not the same as what he has ever used to previously. The further he went out, the harder it became for him to focus and stay energetic.
Santiago also looks up to Joe DiMaggio and his greatness. Santiago introduces the name of Joe DiMaggio with the word “great” pretty much every time he makes reference to the player’s name. He tells Manolin to ”think of the great Joe DiMaggio.”(17) Santiago compares himself to him and kind of looks up to him in a way. Santiago explains ‘But I must have the confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.’ (68) Santiago views DiMaggio as a definitive man and strives to resemble him. Joe DiMaggio was one of the best baseball players ever, he gave Santiago a father figure to look up to and continuously strive to be like him and be the greatest. Santiago feels like a great fisherman just like a great baseball player and gets the mental strength to keep on going and not giving up.
Santiago additionally has a conflict with himself. This conflict didn’t influence Santiago’s physical strength like the sea, yet rather it tested him mentally and related back to Santiago’s pride. The sharks caused him danger after marlin was tied to the boat. The blood from marlin pulled in a lot of sharks quickly. In the wake of murdering a shark, Santiago started having self conflict and started worrying. ‘You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman’ (105). This quote explains that he started thinking that he killed the fish just for his pride and he started to genuinely feel about his doing. This makes Santiago overthink about what happened. He was being tested here as he was not killing the fish for money. If he was a fisherman and he was fishing with the intention of killing fish for his pride.This situation was different from the ones he faced before because he did not kill the shark in self defense. This is against his rules of fishing but after a while Santiago starts thinking again. He states ‘‘I killed him in self-defense’ the old man said aloud. ‘And I killed him well” (106). Santiago realizes that if he did not kill the shark then he would have not survived so as a human being that was his first instinct to survive. When thinking about it again, he starts to take in that he didn’t kill the fish to sell it and eat it. His emotions toward himself change definitely once he understood that he could have died himself. Significantly in the wake of having physical conflict with the sea and the marlin, his contention against his mind and thoughts may have been what tried Santiago’s pride the most. Even after killing the fish against his code of fishing he remains positive and keeps on living with his ethics. He has consistently been against executing fish, however for this situation, he realizes it was crucial.
Santiago also stays positive about himself and always looks at the positive side of whatever he is doing. He knows that he is worth something, since he had been having back luck with fishing he doesn’t get mad instead he explains himself that fishing in spring is not an easy task. He states “Anyone can be a fisherman in May”(18). This quote explains and demonstrates the simplicity of fishing in May. But it symbolizes and represents fishing in the spring. Any youth or young person has the physical strength and mindset to catch a fish, yet it takes a man to catch fish once old age has set in and fishing turns into a battle. It takes a strong mindset and pride and you need to be mentally strong.
Santiago is a man who continually fights himself and nature, fabricating his thoughts into thinking he is more than capable for this harsh world. The marlin likewise makes a certifiable test for him, reinforcing his will to live and battle, it tests him to the fullest and even though he doesn’t have his physical strength anymore his pride carries him through this test and contributes to his mental strength. The sharks, similar to the marlin, test Santiago physically, and emotionally. Even after all these events encouraging Santiago to give up and accept that he is old and useless but his pride helps keep his head up throughout his hard times. This pride is only in control of the pair of eyes who are viewing the situation. If you view the situation and see the good in it the pride will always be on your side.
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