The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4

Two hours after the first shark attack, two more sharks swim up to the marlin. The sharks attack the marlin's body, and even though the old man knows that it is a hopeless battle without his harpoon, he uses a knife to try to fight off the sharks. He kills the two sharks, but only after they take more of the marlin meat. The old man feels very bad now for killing the marlin. He feels that it was all a waste now that the sharks ate him. He apologizes for going out to sea so far where he did not belong. He tells the marlin that it did neither of them very good, because the sharks were not worthy of eating the great marlin's meat. The old man can not bring himself to look at the torn up marlin, when another shark attacks. The old man kills the single shark with his knife, and he loses his knife in the battle. Now the old man has only the clubs he used to kill bait fish as a weapon. Two more sharks arrive and the old man manages to club them enough to get them to leave, but only after they take a very large chunk of the marlin. Again the old man apologizes to the marlin, but tries to justify killing it by how many sharks the marlin has killed. He vows to the marlin to keep killing the sharks until he himself dies, although he hopes that no more sharks will come. Later that night, a giant pack of sharks shows up and attacks the remains of the marlin. It is dark so the old man can not see, but he swings his club blindly at the sharks anyways. His club is taken away and now he is out of weapons. He broke a piece of wood off the boat's tiller and desperately swung it at the remaining sharks. He stabbed the sharp end of the wood into the last remaining shark and killed it. The pack of sharks ate the last of the marlin's meat in the attack. The old man is dreadfully tired when he arrives back at the shore. He pulls his boat in and walks home. He has to stop many times before he gets home because he is so tired. Finally the old man made it home and went to sleep.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4 (pt 2)

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.

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4

The old man wakes up from dreams of lions on the beach, and decides to butcher the dolphin. He finds two flying fish in the belly of the dolphin. He cuts the dolphin up and eats one filet of dolphin meat along with one of the flying fish. Suddenly, the marlin goes crazy. It jerks the line back and forth throwing the old man around. He is thrown around into the boat and then face down into the dolphin meat. The line is going out quickly, so the old man grips onto it and stops it, badly cutting his left hand again. He thinks of the boy and how helpful he would be if he were with him. He could wet the coils of the line which would lessen the friction and stop it from cutting the old man's hands as bad as it is. The old man's hands are now badly cut and his face covered in raw dolphin meat. Afraid that the smell of the dolphin meat so close to his face will make him nauseous, the old man wipes the chunks off of his face as well as he can. He is losing strength, so he decides to eat another one of his flying fish in hopes of building his strength back up again. The sun starts to come up now and the marlin begins circling around the old man's skiff, making the old man one step closer to catching the giant fish. Every circle that the fish does brings it closer and closer to the boat. As the marlin circles, the old man slowly brings in the rope. He begins to feel very faint and dizzy and then he starts to see black spots before his eyes. The fish is circling closer and closer to the boat until it is finally close enough for the old man to kill.


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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3

Day three is coming to an end when the line that the old man baited catches something. The old man quickly brings in his catch to find a dolphin. He brings it in with one hand and clubs it to death. He saves it for the next day. He begins talking to the marlin, saying that he feels good and is ready for the battle coming up the next day. Although this is what he says to the marlin, on the inside the old man is in a lot of pain, but he will not admit to the marlin that it has an advantage over him. Night falls and the stars come out along with the moon. The old man thinks of how lucky he is that in his life he does not have to battle with anything as great and magnificent as the stars and the moon. He considers them his friends as he does with the flying fish. He thinks again of the marlin and begins to feel bad for killing it, but also feels more determined now than ever to end the battle by killing it. He justifies it by telling himself that the meat of the marlin will feed many hungry people, although on the inside he feels that none of them are worthy enough to eat such a great creature. Santiago thinks about rigging the oars to slow the fish. This technique would help him because it would make the fish swim slower and also tire the fish out faster, but it is risky and not something that the old man wants to risk. He decides to rest, which means that he will use his back and body weight to hold the rope instead of his strength. He rests for two hours and then becomes upset that he did not sleep, worrying that his mind will not be as clear as it should be, risking the loss of the marlin. When the marlin calms, the old man decides to get some sleep.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3 (part 4)

As the old man's third day drags on, the old man becomes very weary. When noon comes around, the tuna finally kicks in and his hand becomes uncramped and is no longer a claw. The old man is so happy that he can finally use both of his hands again. Just like he promised, he says ten hail Marys and ten our fathers. He still claims not to be religious, but he promises that if he catches the great marlin, he will go on a pilgrimage, or a religious journey, to the virgin of cobre. Although he hopes it is unnecessary, the old man decides to be on the safe side and bait another line in hopes to catch a meal just in case the marlin forces him to stay out on the sea for another night. As the day continues the old man has thoughts of if it is right for him to kill such a great beast. He argues with himself on whether it is moral or not, trying to both justify and question it. His thoughts go from that to baseball and then to his hero, The great DiMaggio. He thinks about the problems the great DiMaggio faces while he plays his game. DiMaggio plays well even with the bone spur that he has, which is inspirational to the old man. Even though he does not know what a bone spur is, he believes that he himself probably could not bear the pain himself, let alone play baseball with it. He thinks of what the great DiMaggio would think of the old man staying all night with a fish and whether or not he himself would do it. The old mans thoughts then switch to the memory of the time the old man won the all night arm wrestling match. He won against the great negro from Cienfuegos, making him the champion. This memory makes the old man more confident in himself making him think that he has a chance at catching this fish.



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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3 (part 3)

Santiago is still desperately waiting for the cramp in his hand to go away. He is starting to become very worried and fearful and even though he is not religious, he promises that if the cramp will go away quickly, he will say ten hail Marys and ten our fathers. As he continues to sail, he looks out to sea and thinks to himself that he is completely alone. He can see no land and no man in any direction that he looks. Just then, a flight of ducks flies by and makes the old man realized that a man can never be completely alone at sea. He says that it is impossible. As he is thinking about this, the slant of the marlin's line changes. This means that the fish is heading in a different direction. As the slant changes, the old man knows that the marlin is approaching the surface of the water. The old man is getting excited and hopes that the marlin will jump. Suddenly, the marlin jumps out of the water. The old man now sees for the first time how big the marlin really is. He is amazed at what he sees. The marlin is giant, bigger than even the old man had expected. It was at least two feet longer than the skiff itself. It is the biggest fish that the old man had ever witnessed and he declares it great. He fears that the fish will learn it's own strength and vows never to let that happen. One of his hands is still cramped up, but he is happy because now that the fish jumped out of the water, its air sacs are filled and it will make it easier for the old man later on in the battle. The fish swims quickly as it drops back into the water, but soon slows down to the same steady speed it was swimming earlier.

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

the old man and the sea Day three continued

Things have calmed down as a small bird called a warbler flies out to Santiago's boat and lands on the line. The old man thinks that it is probably the warblers first trip out to sea. He thinks that the warbler probably knows nothing of the hawks that will greet him as he flies back. He realizes that the warbler can not understand him, but tells him to stay and rest anyways. Just as he says this, the marlin pulls sharply on the line, scaring the warbler away. The surge of the marlin is so strong that it nearly pulls the old man overboard. The marlin settles and the old man notices that he has gotten a cut from the line on his hand. The cut is not bad but is bleeding. The old man realizes that he must keep his strength, so he reluctantly eats the ten pound tuna that he caught earlier. He does not want to eat the tuna, because he had been planning to use it as bait later, but he knows that he must if he wants to keep his strength up. He uses his uncut right hand to cut up the tuna. He uses his left hand to hold all of the weight of the marlin on the line. The strain from holding all the weight causes the old man's left hand to cramp up very badly. His left hand is now just a claw which he cannot use for anything. The old man is becoming very aggravated at the weakness his body is displaying to him. He finishes cutting up the tuna and hopes that by eating it, it will give him strength and fix his hand from being a claw. While he is eating the tuna, he begins to think of the marlin. He thinks of how the marlin is trapped and unable to eat anything. The old man thinks that he has an advantage over the marlin now. He feels bad and gets a desire to give some of his tuna to the marlin to even out the battle.


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