The story of a man at odds with his weaknesses, and it is not until he meets a worthy opponent that he can get the true measure of his strength.
The main character, Santiago, has great qualities that make him a likeable hero.
The respect and appreciation for his opponent, the great fish, his love for nature, his disarming simplicity, and his gratitude towards what he has been given, regardless of how little it might be, rise the readers' interest to conquer his bad luck.
The main themes of the old man and the sea are Perservance, Suffering, Pride, Friendship and Respect.
The story of The Old Man And The Sea revolves around a poor fisherman named Santiago, who was stuck by bad luck and became the subject of his fellow fisher ridicule.
At start, Santiago has not finished anything for eighty-four days and has been returning empty-handed from the sea everyday.
One day, a boy named Manolin, who earliest left Santaigo to work with other, more successful fishermen.
At the behaft on his parents, returns to the Santiago and explains that his father forced him to leave his company because he lacks faith.
Manolin then lets the old man know he wishes to work with him again.
In the cafe, Manolin reminds him of the many years that they fished successfully together and insists to give him fresh bait for fishing, Santiago accepts the bait
At night, and after eating the food that a local restaurateur gifts Santiago, and he spoke about the best baseball players of all the time.
while sleeping at night, Santiago has a recurring dream about lion cubs playing on a beach in Africa, and a scene that he witnessed from the deck of sheep when he was younger.
At the morning, and after saying goodbye to Manolin, Santiago rows away fro the shore and goes far into the heart of the sea.
After that, he cast his first line and catches a little fish, which he wants to use it as bait later. After a few hours of drifting, Santiago realizes that he is so far from the shoreline that he can't see it anymore.
At this moment, from the movements of his fishing equipments, he understands that a massive Marlin (a huge fish) circling around the boat.
He thinks that the bad days come to an end an he is optimistic about the size of his possible catch, and he casts a new fishing line.
The fish plays around the bait and then takes it. To his surprise, the marlin was so massive that he can't pull it inside the boat, at the moment the fish suddenly drags Santiago's boat into the ocean and the old man tries to catch the cast line tightly.
On the another morning, he realizes that he is far away from Hawana and he cannot see the city lights anymore. The sun rises and the fish keep dragging the boat hanging on to the fishing line.
He realizes that the fish goes into the deep sea.
After a conversation with a little bird that lands on the fishing line, he realizes that his left hand got numb from holding the fishing line.
He cuts the cramp that he caught earlier and ate it.
While eating he wishes that he could feed the marlin and calls the fish his brother.
He think bout the weaskness and how his hand has betrayed him.
Then he solves the problem and accets that he has been abusing his hand by forcing it into the labour all night.
At the next moment, he realizes that the marlin is massive and it is twice the size of the boat
It ha a long sword which Santiago likens to sharp rapier and his baseball bat.
After watching the fish, he said to himself that the fish is very big that he has ever seen in his entire life.
After a few hours later, the cramp finally let's go of Santiago's hand.
He remembers the time when he was an arm-wrestling champion.
Particularly, when he arm-wrestled a strong opponent for an entire day and defeated him.
At night, Santiago thinks of the stars and long distance friends.
Suddenly, the fish pulls the line and jumps out of the water. Santiago tugs the line back and cuts his hands.
What ensures is a long battle between the old man and the giant fish.
After many tries, the kills the fish with his harpoon.
After taking some rest, the old man straps the giant Marlin to his skiff with fishing lines
After that, he begins his journey back home. A few minutes later, a shark smelling the fish blood
He took his harpoon again and kills the shark but in this process he loses his harpoon.
After an hour, two more sharks arrive but the old an also killed both of them.
After sunset, two more sharks attack the fish. The sharks take a bite and swim away when he hits them on the head.
At first, Santiago is successful in repelling the attack, but the sharks showed up again
Then he realizes that he can't do much against them empty handed and decided not to take care of fish anymore.
At some time, the sharks came again, but the old man was unable to see due to the dark.
Due to that the sharks ate most of the fish and then leave the old man alone.
When he got close to the shore, he thinks that what defeated him? and concludes that nothing beat him.
When he finally reach to the beach, there was no one around.
After that , Santiago tells the boy that he was beaten by the sharks
On the other day, the other fishermen came to seethe shark and some of them even mistakes it for the shark's sarcass.
At the end, Santiago regians his respect among the peers and looks towards the next adventure at the sea.
The Old Man And The Sea