Discuss the relationship
between the Old Man and the Boy in The Old Man and the Sea.
As the title
suggests, The Old Man and the Sea is a story of the old man, Santiago’s
adventure on the sea. Santiago
is deeply associated with one boy only. Manolin was only a five year old child
when the child’s father had requested Santiago
to make the child perfect in the art of fishing. Santiago is thus the boy Manolin’s teacher.
It is the great devoted service of Manolin that Santiago regards him as his own son. Hemingway
develops these two characters with such a psychological depth that it is
difficult to understand the one without the other. In a way Santiago is the old age or the future of
Manolin just as a Manolin is boyhood or the past of Santiago . The novelist has decided one
personality in two characters representing the youth and the age at a time.
Manolin is a dutiful boy. Santiago has taught him how to fish. He
therefore, regards him as his teacher. He arranges for the oldman coffee and
dinner. He helps the oldman carrying the instrument of fishing. When Manolin
fails to wake early, he requests Santiago
to alarm him timely. When Santiago
sails for fishing Manolin wishes goodluck for him. He wants to learn more and
more from Santiago .
It brings to light an ideal state in which a dutiful man
acts without pride and comes to learn much from an old teacher. His humble
attitude reminds it to Santiago
also that as a teacher it is his duty to teach his disciple all that knowledge
that may otherwise perish with his death. For it has already been established
that Santiago
is the most skilled fisherman in the town.
