The Old Man And The Sea Research Paper

Through the blindness of failure, there is an unknown success. In Ernest Hemingway’s novella, The Old Man and the Sea, there is an old fisherman named Santiago, who lives in a small village in a shack made from royal palm trees. Struggling to catch a fish for 84 days, Santiago decides to go out to sea during hurricane weather, alone with no help--not even from his friend Manolin, a fisherman apprentice. Santiago is willing to sacrifice his life for a big fish able to end his dry streak. Santiago’s actions are similar to Christ because of how he was willing to sacrifice himself taking in and purging all the sins of the people. The act of self-sacrifice is giving up of one's own interests or wishes in order to help others or to advance a cause. In this case, Santiago risks his life to catch a big fish that can end his dry streak, to prove his skill, provide support in money, but also provide food for the people at the village including Manolin. Hemingway uses Christ to reveal similarities in Santiago to show the result of self-sacrifice, ultimately suggesting that there is success in failing.
Santiago went out to sea sacrificing himself for the marlin, just like how Christ went out for the people. After enduring through the pain of a fishing line and lack of supplies and Christ through the crucifixion process, they reach their goal, but seemed to develop into failure. Failing is a huge focus throughout the novella, especially through Santiago when he returned from his journey out at sea bring back only a skeleton of a marlin and deems it a defeat. However, just as Christ was resurrected, Santiago’s skills were acknowledged through his deemed failure, bringing back success to his skills. The result of failing can overpower the thought of there being success, but within failure there is unknown