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Theme Of Isolation In The Old Man And The Sea

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Personal Enlightenment from Ordeals: Isolation in “The Old Man and the Sea” “‘Fish,’ [Santiago] said softly, aloud, ‘I’ll stay with you until I am dead’” (Hemingway 52). Ernest Hemingway writes these words in his novel The Old Man and the Sea in order to demonstrate the determination that Santiago, the titular old man, has to kill an enormous fish that he has hooked but been unable to catch. Santiago is an old fisherman in Cuba who has ostensibly run out of luck. The only person that has faith in Santiago is Manolin, a young boy who used to fish with the old man, but was told by his parents to go to a luckier boat. When Santiago alone finally hooks a fish out on the sea, he struggles with it for three days. In depicting this struggle, Hemingway explores themes of individual triumph in the face of challenges and the importance of personal …show more content…

To do so, he constantly emphasizes Santiago’s isolation, creating an atmosphere of loneliness and self-reflection allowing the old man to discover himself on this great journey. Hemingway creates this sense of isolation around Santiago by using societal separation, flashbacks, and biblical imagery to emphasize to readers the element of self-discovery and personal strength that is present in Santiago’s quest on the sea. Hemingway isolates Santiago from society by making him disjointed from society and physically separated throughout the course of the novel, allowing the old man to realize the proud independence that may be his fatal flaw. From the very beginning of the novel, readers are shown that Santiago is isolated from society. Hemingway writes: “[The old man and the boy] sat on the Terrance and many of the fishermen made fun of the

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