The fish is very close now. The old man takes his harpoon and plunges it into the side of the giant marlin. The fish jumps high out of the water and when it falls back down, it's blood pours out into the ocean. He pulls his small skiff up close to the side of the dead fish and fastened the fish to the side of it. He thinks of his hero the great DiMaggio and thinks that he would be proud of him for this kill. He also thinks of how much money he will make from the meat of a fish the size of this marlin. His hands are extremely cut up from the battle with the marlin. He draws his sail and sets for land with his giant fish. As he sails back to land, the old man is very proud of his catch. It is something other fishermen could not imagine catching and he could not wait to show it off to the other fishermen and the young boy and the people who called him unlucky. After about an hour of sailing, a shark arrives by the skiff, smelling the blood from the dead marlin. The old man thinks the shark is a beautiful fish. The shark attacks the body of the marlin, when the old man sinks his harpoon deep into the shark's head, killing it. The dead shark sinks to the bottom of the sea, along with the old man's only harpoon. Before being killed, the shark tore off about forty pounds of meat from the marlin's body, not only stealing valuable meat from the old man, but also spilling even more blood from the marlin into the sea. The old man knows that this is not good, and all that fresh blood will no doubt draw in more hungry sharks to his skiff. Now Santiago realizes that the entire battle between him and the marlin was all for nothing, because the sharks will end up eating the marlin.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.
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