Santiago idealizes the marlin, ascribing to it traits of great nobility, a fish to which he must prove his own nobility if he is to be worthy to catch it. The marlin is larger and more spirited than any Santiago has ever seen. The marlin is the fish Santiago spends the majority of the novel tracking, killing, and attempting to bring to shore.
The MarlinĪlthough he does not speak and we do not have access to his thoughts, the marlin is certainly an important character in the novella. Manolin is the reader's surrogate in the novel, appreciating Santiago's heroic spirit and skill despite his outward lack of success. Manolin still helps Santiago pull in his boat in the evenings and provides the old man with food and bait when he needs it. Santiago taught Manolin to fish, and the boy used to go out to sea with the old man until his parents objected to Santiago's bad luck. Manolin is Santiago's only friend and companion. Depending on your reading of the novel, Santiago represents Hemingway himself, searching for his next great book an Everyman, heroic in the face of human tragedy or the Oedipal male unconscious trying to slay his father, the marlin, in order to sexually possess his mother, the sea. Despite this loss, Santiago ends the novel with his spirit undefeated. Santiago endures a great struggle with a uncommonly large and noble marlin only to lose the fish to rapacious sharks on his way back to land. The novella follows Santiago's quest for the great catch that will save his career. He is an old fisherman in Cuba who, at the beginning of the book, has not caught anything for eighty-four days. Santiago is the protagonist of the novella.
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