Classic English Literature Notes

 Write short note on Santiago as the hero of the novel “The Old Man and the Sea”?

OR

What makes The Old Man a code hero?

OR

Santiago, the hero, stands for a style of leading life cherished by Hemingway. Discuss this statement.

OR

Describe briefly The Old Man’s moral code?

        ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Hemingway is an adventure tale. It is the story of an adventurous deed performed by an ordinary man. Hemingway wants to show in this novel that heroism is not the monopoly of the young, the wealthy and the influential persons. It is open to all types of human beings, in all walks of life and at every stage of man’s life. Santiago, the hero of this novel, has nothing heroic in the traditional sense. He is not an extra ordinary man in physical appearance, material resources or social status. Rather he is a poor old fisherman living alone in a humble hut on the coast of Havana in Cuba.

          He used to be young and physically strong once, but now he is an aged man of thin and lean body, with wrinkled face and scarred hands. What makes him exceptional is the heroic spirit, unconquerable will power and great capacity for endurance. It means that Hemingway does not make heroism a display of muscles and physical strength. He presents it as an attitude of mind and a spiritual quality and treats it psychologically. Instead of providing us the thrill of action, the novelist tries to show how an intelligent and determined person can make wonderful achievements by making use of the qualities of head and heart found in himself.

          The most remarkable quality of the Old Man is that he does not feel discouraged by the unfavorable circumstances and hardships of life. His repeated failures to catch any fish make him an unfortunate fisherman in the eyes of others. But he refuses to be cowed down and firmly believes that the fish to be caught by him must be found in the sea somewhere. He does not feel afraid of going into the deep sea alone in his small boat and succeeds in angling a huge marlin. But the fish proves to be too strong for him and decides to resist instead of yielding to her angler. After a hard struggle of two days and nights, the Old Man succeeds in overpowering the sea monster with his skill and experience. It becomes a competition between animal strength and human ingenuity. Ill luck again overtakes the Old Man in the form of sharks that attack the hooked marlin and plunder away its meat. Here again we are made to admire the Old Man who bravely fights against this calamity in spite of being alone, tired and incapacitated. Hemingway wants to show that success or defeat do not matter much, because they are in the hands of fate. The real thing is the heroic struggle and the doing of one’s best under the circumstances.

           Santiago, the Old fisherman, is a code hero because he stands for a moral code or a style of leading life. He represents certain moral qualities which were highly valued by Hemingway such as courage, sense of honor, determination and endurance. All of his heroes follow this moral code to give meaning and justification to human life that is otherwise a futile struggle and a losing game.

            Thus the Old Fisherman, though put in a difficult and dangerous situation, considers it a sin to be disappointed and give up the struggle. He is capable of suffering and enduring whatever is in store for him. He suffers a crushing defeat at the hands of the sharks, but he goes down in a brave and dignified manner. The real thing is that his defeat fails to disillusion him or make him dejected for ever. He does not reject the proposals given by the boy Manolin for their future fishing adventures. He beautifully demonstrates the belief that man is not made for defeat; man may be destroyed but his will power cannot be broken. Besides courage, determination and endurance, professional skill or competence is also an essential qualification for the game of life. The Old Man says: “lt is better to be lucky, but l would prefer to be exact”. He is a superb craftsman who knows his business thoroughly and prepares himself rightly for all kinds of eventualities. In short, Hemingway tries to illustrate his view of life through his hero that the world is full of pain, misery and problems   and human life is a losing game, yet man must accept this challenge bravely and should try to lend grace to his defeat and destruction. The Old Man is a beautiful illustration of Hemingway’s cult of the assertion of human dignity and personal honor.