Old Man And The Sea Quotes

Self-worth is one of the many things people strive for, to either feel like they have a place in their town. Santiago, the main character in “The Old Man and the Sea”, feels like he needs to prove that he has a place in this town by catching a fish. There are many ways to show one’s self-worth, either by action or by their own words. Some may even feel desperate to show what they can do mainly because they’re either lonely or wish for the respect they want.

Respect is what everyone would like to have, yet they need to earn it from others. Santiago wants some respect from the other fishermen, as most of them taunt and tease him. They do this because he hasn’t caught a fish in a long time. For this reason, he doesn’t talk to them or stays by them. The only person he received respect from was Manolin, the boy he’s been training to fish. There are some fishermen that don’t say anything to Santiago at all, feeling sad for the old man. Those men, however, carry on their conversations while trying to ignore that the old man was even there. Overall, Manolin is the only person that Santiago has talked to.

Santiago is desperate
To point of ignoring others and being gone for days just to complete their goal, and sometimes rejecting help from others. Those three things can change how a person acts. When that person reaches their goal, they either realize what they’re doing and see it as crazy or stop right before their goal and see if it’s worth it. For Santiago, he went out far in the sea to catch a fish to gain respect from the other fishermen. Only, when he caught the fish to only lose it to sharks, he realized that he didn’t really need to do that. Manolin was there for him, helping him out even when he didn’t need it. He realized that he didn’t need to prove that he could catch a fish to the other fishermen, Santiago only needed his happiness and