Two of the main events in the story and how Santiago got through them are as follows:

(1) On the second day, the line has been stretched over Santiago’s back for hours. He begins to feel intense pain. At an unexpected lurch from the great fish, the line cuts his right hand. His left hand has become cramped. The fish surfaces for the first time, and Santiago sees he has hooked a marlin much longer then the boat.

By noon his left hand uncramps, and he repeats prayers for success as the fish continues towing the skiff. The struggle continues through the night. Santiago eats a small fish he has caught on one of his other lines, and he sleeps for the first time. Then a furious jerk of the lines wakes him, and his hands get badly cut. The great marlin is jumping.

Santiago is an old Cuban fisherman. He is really a deep mixture of many things, sometimes he’s a philosopher, and at other times he dismisses deep thinking as silly, at least for himself. He thinks almost imaginary thoughts about the great marlin being a brother and, in fact, even more noble than mankind; and at nearly the same time thinks of how much the fish would bring at the market. Call it determination or perseverance or even stubbornness. No matter what, he certainly has a lot of it. When he has begun something, he will hang with it, as he said “…until I am dead.” And hang on he did, no matter how hard it was. Not only did he prove to the villagers that he was still a great fisherman, he proved it to himself.

Later, a third shark destroys even more of the marlin before Santiago can kill him, and the knife blade breaks in the process. At sunset come still two more. He is unable to kill them but injures them with a club made from an old broken oar. Santiago begins to see the reflected glare of Havana lights. But the sharks now come in a pack. He fights them with a club and even the boat’s tiller, but they strip the remaining flesh from the marlin. Now he pilots his small craft home, bringing only a skeleton. In the morning the old man awakes to find there has been a big stir among the village fishermen over the incredible size of the skeleton still tied to Santiago’s boat.

(2) A mako shark strikes the marlin and tears off at least forty pounds if flesh before Santiago can kill it. In the killing, he loses his harpoon. Now the

Some topics in this essay:
Havana Cuba, Santiago Cuban, , bad luck, matter hard, santiago kill, left hand,