The Old Man and the Sea - Day 2 continued

After the fish finally took the bait, it continued swimming. The fish was so large and strong that it dragged the boat. The old man pulled on the line as strongly as he could, with no result. He tried again and again but he was not strong enough. The fish continued pulling the boat farther and farther away from land. Now when the old man looks, no land is visible to him at all. The fish pulled the boat farther away from land all day, seeming to not lose any strength at all. The old man gives up trying to pull the fish in. He holds the line tight in his hands with part of it braced against his back. He holds the rope all day and gives the fish more if necessary, afraid that the line might break ruining his chances of catching the fish. The struggle between the old man and the fish goes on all night as the fish continues pulling the boat away from shore, and now when the old man looks, the light from the havana begins to fade. He knows that this means that his boat is farther out from land than ever before, which worries him a bit. As the old man thinks, he wishes that the young boy could be with him. He knows that having the young boy would make the situation a lot easier. He does not like being alone. While he battles the fish, the old man has a flashback to a time when he was trying to catch a different marlin. There were a pair of them, a male and a female. The male marlin let the female marlin take the bait, and after the old man caught the female, the male fish stayed right next to the boat, mourning the loss of the female marlin. Thinking of this memory makes the old man sad, but he stays determined to catch this new giant marlin.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.