One of the themes in the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is that one should persevere even in the most challenging situations. The old man’s, Santiago’s, lone struggle with the fishes and the forces of nature over a period of almost three months demonstrated an almost mythical persistence. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate whether this theme has any value compared to God’s word. The Bible often discusses the theme of perseverance in the midst of adversity. Even though one views Santiago’s endurance and tenacity with admiration, the root causes of that perseverance is different from the reasons for a Christian’s perseverance in the world. Santiago faced adversity due to his age and his social and economic circumstances. The novel describes him as “thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles at the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But …show more content…
Perseverance in the midst of tribulation is noble, however, it is just as important to address the reasons for the perseverance. Santiago, though a strong moral character and hero in the story, did not have a relationship with God. He said he was not a religious man. He saw God only as someone to go to for help, not someone to love and worship. He trusted in and depended on himself. His motivation for enduring was to prove himself. Though attempting to prove oneself is not always wrong, for believers in Christ, having a relationship with God is most important. That relationship, which is constantly tested, is the cause of the believer’s perseverance. With the help of God, the believer can endure even without the unbelievable strength and determination demonstrated by the old man. God will give the believer all that he or she
The main character in the narrative had ceased to find meaning in his work. He undertook a spiritual journey consisting of successes and failures over a long period of time, leading him to find meaning in his work. His story provided insight into how to help others during their difficult times. First, it is important to assist the individual in identifying the reason for their struggle.
He is a stronger and smarter man because of what happened to him. Santiago hit a lot of adversity at the beginning of his journey and it prepared him for the worst of his journey. “Now he understood why the owner of the bar had been so upset: he was trying to tell him not to trust that man.” (Coelho 43). He lost it all and he was prepared for anything for the rest of his journey.
Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist tells the story of Santiago a Shepard whose life changes once he finds out about a treasure from his frequent dreams and meets a strange man who helps him to start his personal legend. On Santiago’s journey he starts to see the hidden meanings behind daily life creating the thesis that through seeing and understanding symbols behind the world people can learn about their own personal legend and live life to the fullest. Santiago’s life starts out all about his sheep, he chose to be a shepherd, so he could travel and meet new people. Santiago’s job is to take care of the sheep, but the sheep have more meaning in the story. The sheep represent how he is comfortable in his life and how he is questioning his frequent dream, to sacrifice his comfortable life to find this treasure or to continue without taking the risk.
A major theme in the true story, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park is perseverance. Perseverance is to stay steady in what you are doing or in a purpose, especially when you are faced with difficulties. This is a perfect theme for A Long Walk to Water because the main character, Salva Dut, an 11 year old Sudanese boy, faced many difficulties and kept going. He took things ‘bit by bit, one step at a time’, a lesson he learned from his uncle that helped him get through the desert, and he applied it to his life and kept going and believing his family was alive. Even though he almost died many times, he did not give up, and he went back to his home country and helped many people have better lives by building wells and giving them clean drinking water.
By continuing he finds his true inner strength. In the story, the author shows the importance of perseverance, and how to face the many obstacles that people are presented in their lives to complete their goal. In Coelho's novel, Santiago faces many difficult challenges, but because of his courage and perseverance, he is able to face them head on. While in the town of Tarifa, Santiago meets
Santiago was in fear that there wasn’t a war coming and that he might die. Later in the book Santiago was asked to turn himself into the wind. The Alchemist said “He is going to transform himself into the wind, just to demonstrate his powers. If he can’t do so we humbly offer you our lives, for the honor of your tribe” (Coelho 144)
“Salvation” is a short story by Langston Hughes describing a boy when he discovered a significant truth about faith and religion. The last paragraph of “Salvation” functions as an epiphany for the boy. An epiphany is an experience of sudden and striking realization. It can also mean the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi. This event helps shape the boy’s religious understanding far differently from what his Aunt Reed believes.
His journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven is what grants him salvation and the reason he never loses hope. The souls atoning for their sins in Purgatory have hope of salvation since all the most do is wait and atone in order to be in Heaven. The hope is only stripped from the souls damned to Hell while every other soul possess hope for
The punishment of hunger, and that he is against something that he does not comprehend, is everything”. These two examples constitute part of his journey on the sea, by comparing things like the brotherhood between the fish and his two
The Apostle Paul struggles with weakness and suggest to his readers, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians
He is robbed at the beginning of his journey and must work hard to earn back the money he lost. Then, he is able to travel into the desert, facing more peril along the way. This is where he meets the Alchemist, who tells him, “You must not let up, even after coming so far” (113). The wise man teaches him things unknown to most people. With his instruction, Santiago survives his travels in the desert, even while faced with war and threats of death.
In Part one Santiago could be described as weak character. He is easily manipulated and persuaded by others such as the gypsy and the tour guide he met at the bar when he first arrived in Africa. His hunger for money blinds him from seeing his
From the main passage, Santiago is described as somebody battling against thrashing. He has gone eighty-four days without getting a fish- - he will soon pass his own record of eighty-seven days. Practically as an indication of Santiago 's battle, the sail of his boat looks like "the banner of perpetual annihilation." But the old man declines rout every step of the way: he sets out to cruise out past the other anglers to where the greatest fish guarantee to be. He handles the marlin, attempting his record of eighty-seven days following a ruthless three-day battle, and he keeps on warding off sharks from taking his prey, despite the fact that he knows the fight is futile
His strength of mind is still strong like his youth. Therefore this essay will emphasize on the old man’s struggle against marlin, battle of willingness and his bravery which supports the theme determination. The old man Santiago struggles against marlin over day and night. Santiago travels far beyond from his home because he needs to reveal his strength and prove that he is still able to be the fisherman that he once was.
Hemingway presents the elements of failure and suffering in The Old Man and the Sea by depicting several instances of suffering and failure which the Old Man, Santiago, has to go through throughout the course of the novel. According to Hemingway, life is just one big struggle. In the beginning of the novel itself, The Old Man, is presented as a somewhat frail old man who is still struggling with his life as well as his past failures. His skiff even had a sail which bore great resemblance to “the flag of permanent defeat”, with its multiple patches all over.