Santiago Old Man & Sea
Ryan McCoy
5-11-13
Essay #1 A tragic hero is one that has a major flaw and for whom the audience usually feels pity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion. The tragic hero is someone great, but not perfect. They are often a noble person in terms of birth but also in terms of their character. The flaw in the character is what often leads to his/her downfall. When the hero falls, it is at least partly if not completely his own fault. On the other hand, it's not because he is a bad person but because of the character flaw he has or because of plain bad luck. What happens to the hero is too harsh. The character flaw that might have caused the downfall doesn't deserve the punishment that he gets. If the hero lives then through the experience he realizes what caused his downfall and what he could have done to prevent it, so he grows and learns through the misfortune. The classic example is Macbeth. While there were other factors contributing to his downfall, one of the main ones was his ambition to be king. That was his tragic flaw and caused him to be open to his mother's manipulation. After that, everything kind of went downhill, to understate the situation a bit... There are many examples of how Santiago was tragic hero in the old man in the sea. Santiago in the old man and the sea was known as a loser he did not have any friends but he did mentor a young boy named manolin and had the worst of luck. Santiago was outlawed by manolins parent because he had the worst of luck because of this the boy could not go fishing with him because his parents thought he was too unlucky. Santiago hadn’t caught a fish in 87 days and everyone said he would never catch a fish again but Santiago didn’t believe them. Santiago decided to go out to the deep deep waters and try to fish because he wanted to get a monster marlin on the line to prove himself. When Santiago was out in the deep ocean he had hooked a marlin and was fighting the marlin for 3 days. Santiago had the struggle of when
5-11-13
Essay #1 A tragic hero is one that has a major flaw and for whom the audience usually feels pity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion. The tragic hero is someone great, but not perfect. They are often a noble person in terms of birth but also in terms of their character. The flaw in the character is what often leads to his/her downfall. When the hero falls, it is at least partly if not completely his own fault. On the other hand, it's not because he is a bad person but because of the character flaw he has or because of plain bad luck. What happens to the hero is too harsh. The character flaw that might have caused the downfall doesn't deserve the punishment that he gets. If the hero lives then through the experience he realizes what caused his downfall and what he could have done to prevent it, so he grows and learns through the misfortune. The classic example is Macbeth. While there were other factors contributing to his downfall, one of the main ones was his ambition to be king. That was his tragic flaw and caused him to be open to his mother's manipulation. After that, everything kind of went downhill, to understate the situation a bit... There are many examples of how Santiago was tragic hero in the old man in the sea. Santiago in the old man and the sea was known as a loser he did not have any friends but he did mentor a young boy named manolin and had the worst of luck. Santiago was outlawed by manolins parent because he had the worst of luck because of this the boy could not go fishing with him because his parents thought he was too unlucky. Santiago hadn’t caught a fish in 87 days and everyone said he would never catch a fish again but Santiago didn’t believe them. Santiago decided to go out to the deep deep waters and try to fish because he wanted to get a monster marlin on the line to prove himself. When Santiago was out in the deep ocean he had hooked a marlin and was fighting the marlin for 3 days. Santiago had the struggle of when