The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, who alone in his small boat faces the most difficult fight of his life against an enormous marlin. At the beginning of the short novel, Santiago has lost his fisherman's luck; he has gone eighty-four days without catching a marketable fish. Even his closest friend, a village boy he taught to fish, has left him to work on another boat. The local fishermen make fun of Santiago or feel sorry for him, but he himself remains hopeful and undefeated. Every day he rises early, prepares his skiff, and rows far out into the Gulf Stream in search of marlin.
Though ordered by his parents to work on a luckier boat, the boy still loves Santiago, and he visits the old man's simple shack when he can. Once married, Santiago now lives alone in increasing poverty. He has little to eat, and frequently must rely on the boy or others in the village to bring him food and clothing. As they share their meals, Santiago and the boy discuss baseball and the important players of the period, especially "the great DiMaggio." The old man tells of his early life working on ships that sailed to Africa. When he sleeps, Santiago dreams of being young again and seeing "lions on the beaches in the evening."
Early one morning the old man rises, shares coffee with the boy, and sets out for the far reaches of the fishing grounds. He passes all the other fishermen, who stop to work "the great well," the point where the ocean drops off suddenly to seven hundred fathoms. He watches for flying fish or other signs of bait that might signal the presence of larger fish. Soon he catches a small albacore and, using it for bait, quickly hooks something very large. Though he pulls as hard as he can on the line, Santiago
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cannot move the great weight on the other end. The big fish refuses to surface and begins to swim out to sea, towing the skiff behind it.
Eat it so that the point of the hook goes into your heart and kills you, he thought. Come up easy and let me put the harpoon into you. All right. Are you ready? Have you been long enough at table?
"Now!" he said aloud and struck hard with both hands, gained a yard of line and then struck again and again, swinging with each arm alternately on the cord with all the strength of his arms and the pivoted weight of his body.
Nothing happened. The fish just moved away slowly and the old man could not raise him an inch. His line was strong and made for heavy fish and he held it against his back until it was so taut that beads of water were jumping from it. Then it began to make a slow hissing sound in the water and he still held it, bracing himself against the thwart and leaning back against the pull. The boat began to move slowly off toward the north-west.
Alone and unable to release the tightening line, Santiago struggles to hold onto the fish. Without the boy to help him, he knows that either he or the fish will die from this. His body is old but still strong, and he maintains his grip on the line despite his age and increasing discomfort. After several hours, night falls, but he never considers giving up. He realizes that he will need to eat to keep up his strength, and as the sun begins to rise the next day he consumes one of the small tuna he caught the day before.
During the second day, the great fish surfaces just long enough for Santiago to see him. The sight of the great marlin, "two feet longer than the skiff," inspires the old man. He remembers a time in his younger days when he arm wrestled a man in a Casablanca tavern. The match began on a Sunday morning and lasted the entire night,
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ending the following morning when Santiago forced his opponent's hand to the wood. Night comes again and the old man realizes that he needs to sleep. He wraps the line around his shoulders and cramps his body against it. Then he sleeps and dreams of the lions.
When Santiago wakes it is still dark, though the moon has come out. While he was sleeping, the great fish has risen to the surface, and now Santiago can hear the marlin thrashing and jumping in the distance. As the old man gathers all his strength to hold onto the line, the marlin begins to circle the boat, and Santiago knows he has won. After several turns, the fish pulls closer, brushing the sides of the boat, and the old man, seeing his chance, drives his harpoon into its side. With a final struggle that sends spray over the entire skiff, the fish dies, its dark blood staining the blue water.
Now many miles out to sea, the old man lashes the great fish to the side of his skiff and sets his small sail for home. After about an hour of smooth sailing, however, his luck runs out. A shark, following the trail of blood left by the huge fish, bites into the body, taking a large piece of flesh. Santiago manages to kill the "dentuso" with his harpoon, but he realizes that more sharks will follow. He begins to wonder whether he committed a sin in killing the great marlin, but before he has time to decide, the sharks close in. Fighting a hopeless battle, the old man kills several of the large "galanos" before he loses first his harpoon and then his knife. By the time the skiff reaches the village, little remains of the great fish but the head and skeleton.
Convinced that he "went out too far" and bears responsibility for the loss of the fish, the exhausted Santiago returns to his shack and falls asleep. The fishermen in the village marvel at the mutilated fish; at eighteen feet, it is the largest marlin they have ever seen. The boy brings the old man food and fresh clothes and watches over him as he sleeps.
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Summary
The old man, a fisherman, has gone for 84 days without catching a single fish. This is considered salao, or extreme unluckiness, in the small Cuban fishing village where he lives. After the first 40 days, the parents of the boy who normally fishes with him force him to switch to a more profitable boat, and they catch three good fish in the first week he is on board. The boy is sad to have had to leave the old man he has fished with for so long, and each evening when the old man comes in empty-handed, the boy goes to help him bring in his equipment.
On the 85th day, the boy tells the old man that he can rejoin his boat, thanks to the lucky week of fishing he had had on the other boat. The old man is the one who taught the boy to fish, and the boy has a deep love and feeling of loyalty towards the old man. The old man tells him to stay on the lucky boat while the luck runs. The boy reminds him of the last dry spell they had had together, and of how on the 87th day their luck had changed and they caught large fish every day for three weeks. The old man remembers this well, and tells the boy that he knows the boy did not leave him out of disloyalty.
The boy and the old man sit and have a beer on the Terrace. Some of the fishermen make fun of the old man, and others are sad for him. The old man is not angry at being made fun of, and is happy for the simple pleasure of having a beer with his friend. As they sit drinking their beer, the boy offers to go out and get sardines for the old man for the following day. The old man declines, telling him to go and play baseball with his friends. The boy returns that he would like to help the old man in any way he can. The boy asks the old man how old he was when he first took him out to sea. The old man does not hesitate, remembering it as clearly as if it had been yesterday. He tells the boy that he was five, and that the boy had nearly been killed by a fish that the old man caught that was too large for the boat. The boy says that he remembers the tail
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slapping, banging, the thwart breaking and the noises of the old man, then not so old, clubbing the fish to death. He questions the boy remembering so vividly, but the boy tells him that he remembers everything from when they first started fishing together. He once again asks the old man to let him get sardines and bait for the following day. The old man consents. The boy asks where he'll be fishing the next day, and the old man tells him that he'll be far out, and hopes to be out at sea before it's light. The boy tells him that he will tell the owner of the lucky boat to go far out as well, in case the old man catches a big fish and needs help.
Together they take the old man's equipment up to his small shack. They go through the same motions that they have gone through for years. "May I take the cast net?" the boy asks, knowing that the cast net was sold long ago. "What do you have to eat?" the boy asks, knowing that the old man will answer that he will eat a fictitious pot of yellow rice with fish, when in reality he has nothing. The boy goes out to get the sardines and bait, leaving the old man sitting in the sun reading the newspaper about the baseball scores. They are both Yankees fans, but while the boy is concerned about the Indians of Cleveland defeating the Yankees, the old man has faith in the abilities of the great DiMaggio to overcome any adversary.
When the boy comes back from getting the sardines, the old man is asleep. He notes the man's powerful but old shoulders as he lays an army blanket over him, and his tattered shirt that has been patched so many times that it looks like a boat sail.
When the boy comes back again, the old man is still sleeping. He wakes him gently, and tells him he has brought him some supper. The old man tries to say he is not hungry, but the boy encourages him, telling him "You'll not fish without eating while I'm alive." The old man finally consents to eating what the boy has brought him. They sit down to eat, and the boy asks the old man about the baseball. The old man tells him that in the American League the Yankees are ahead. The boy tells him that they lost today, but the old man shrugs it off happily, telling the boy that the great DiMaggio has recovered from his injury. They reminisce about the day that the great Dick Sisler came to the Terrace, and both the old man and the boy were too shy to invite him to go
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