I don't really know what to make of Santiago. I want to like him, but most of the time I find him boring. That makes it extremely hard for me to like him. I think I mostly just pity him. If it wasn't for the boy, he would be alone. His wife is dead, he has no other family, and the rest of the town thinks him a failure if they think of him at all. He has such a sad life, yet he still manages to think positively.
I also noticed that he is extremely tenacious. He could give up and go work on another fishing boat when he doesn't catch anything for eighty-four days, but he stays with his own boat. He could let go of the line when he hooks the huge fish, but he resolves to keep hold of the line until either he or the fish dies.
I like that Santiago doesn't take nature for granted. He has a deep respect for and understanding of the sea and the creatures in it. He feels bad about killing the fish, so he kills them quickly instead of prolonging their suffering.
Santiago is also a proud man. He won't beg or ask for anything, even though he has nothing. In a way, this almost makes me pity him more. I have no doubt that if he didn't have the boy to care about him, he would starve or freeze to death at night.
Santiago cares for the boy, Manolin, as he would a son. The boy cares for the old man in the same way, loving the old man more than his own father.
Santiago loves baseball. His favorite player is DiMaggio. He always tells the boy about the day's baseball. I think the old man likes the baseball so much because in some corner of his mind, he wants to be a baseball player instead of a fisherman. When he is out fishing, he wonders if he should have been something other than a fisherman. He dismisses that thought quickly though, saying that he was built to be a fisherman. Still, everyone dreams of being something they're not at some point in their lives.
Santiago is a character that I see with many contradictions. Hopefully, reading the rest of the book will help me understand him better.
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