The Old Man and the Sea 551and mutilation. As the townspeople examine and
measure the fish’s skeleton on the beach, they are
also measuring the old man’s greatness. This great-
ness resides in his will power, which can face the sea
and all of nature’s tricks, with or without luck.
Japhet Johnstone
StaGeS oF liFe in The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea does not detail the stages
of life in a progressive development from youth to
adulthood to old age. Instead, the old man stands
at the final stage of life, where death is a real threat,
but also where experience has given him a wealth of
knowledge. His friend, the boy, is just at the end of
the first stage of life, yet he is already wise beyond
his years. He lacks only experience and instruction,
both of which he hopes to gain from the old man.
The years between the old man and the boy do not
distance them from one another. The long span of
time is full of dreams and fantasies that the two
share.
The old man feels the effects of aging. Except for
his eyes, which retain a cheerfulness and triumphant
shine, everything about Santiago is old. When his
eyes are closed he looks lifeless. His conversation
with the boy turns frequently to the retelling of
stories, but the old man is not senile. His awareness
of aging is sharp. He recognizes that age is his alarm
clock and wonders why old men wake up so early.
Age has also provided him with experience, which
in turn has taught the old man many tricks. In spite
of his age and his fatigue, the old man battles the
sharks that assault his skiff. The old man has a small
armament to kill the sharks, but more than these
material weapons, he is armed with his mind. And
it is not old age that threatens his mind at sea, but
starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion.
Manolin represents youth and its benefits. He
is capable and lucky. He can procure food for his
old friend and help him with his fishing gear. The
boy also works on a good fishing boat and regularly
catches fish. These qualities contrast with Santiago’s
stage of life. He often regrets not having the boy
with him on his lonely skiff. If the boy were with
Santiago, the fisherman would not only have an
extra set of hands, but also, symbolically, have his
youth to give him added vitality and endurance.
Still, youth alone would not be enough to subdue
the giant fish. Even if the old man fondly thinks of
the boy and nostalgically remembers his youth, it is
the experience that has come with old age that helps
him most.
Between youth and old age lies the stage of life
during which we gather experience. The old man
has this period behind him, and yet keeps it fresh
in his memories and dreams. It was a time of love,
conquest, and travels for the old man. Some of
these memories he returns to fondly, like his sailing
to Africa and his arm wrestling triumphs. Other
memories he does not welcome, like the memory of
his wife. The clearest figure of adulthood however, is
not in the old man’s past but in the newspapers. Joe
DiMaggio is young and strong, and Santiago thinks
about him as frequently as he thinks about the boy.
The old man wonders how long DiMaggio would
stay with a giant fish, and if his bone-spur would
cause him much pain. But the old man does not
wish DiMaggio, an adult, were accompanying him.
He longs for Manolin and youth. Similarly, the boy
does not wish to learn from anyone else but the old
man. None of the other characters in the novel, real
or imagined, can provide the boy with the instruc-
tion and companionship of the old man. Nor can
they provide the old man with the devotion and
admiration of the boy.
By the end of the novel both Santiago and
Manolin are on the verge of passing into their next
stage of life. For Santiago the next stage of life is
death. Though he does not die, his body is wrecked
by his expedition. Death seems very near. For
Manolin the next stage of life is adulthood. Indeed,
the pains that the boy takes to care for the old man
show responsibility and maturity. The boy casts off
the last remnant of childhood, his obedience to his
parents, when he decides to fish with the old man
in spite of their orders not to. But more than his
renunciation of his parents, the boy’s passage into
adulthood is marked by his first hard lesson—the
lesson of loss. More than the old man himself sees,
the boy sees how close to death the old man came.
The boy’s tears prematurely mourn the loss of
Santiago, from whom the boy still wishes to learn
“everything.”
Japhet Johnstone