The Old Man and the Sea Summary Sample
Analyze the Theme of Pride as the Supply of Determination in “The Old Man and the Sea”
“The Old Man and the Sea” is just a novel of a man who has learned how to extract maximum joy and happiness out of his life. The things that helped him to achieve this happiness are the lack of doubts, self-confidence, pride, and determination. Reading the story of Santiago shows ways to overcome the issues of life not only by putting the time and effort in fighting problems, but changing the perception of the surrounding reality. Pride and determination are among the aspects that change the perception of reality and can be discussed from the philosophical standpoint.
Santiago was a vintage fisherman when his life went downhill; he had no money even to afford a fishing net to catch small fish to get bait for the larger ones. 84 days in a row Santiago went fishing to come back with nothing at the end of the day (Hemingway, Ernest). Probably the most fantastic feature of Santiago was he had no desperation, frustration, or any emotions people typically experience in such situations. “I was created to become a fisherman, just as fish was created to become a fish, ” says Santiago to himself with pride in his inner dialogue. The person has no doubts about his destination, which is where the magic of perception comes to action.
The pride which he was sure in his destiny is not pride in a broad sense. In case with Santiago, it is rather a situation of being sure doubts don't have any sense and only cause despair and loss of joy and happiness. Indeed, doubts are areas of the natural mechanism of evolution inherent to every human being to ascertain what is the most effective cause for a particular person. Santiago surpasses this mechanism by assuring himself that this could be the only way and approaches the environment philosophically. The power of will and long life connection with the old man allowed him to cheat doubts and be usually the one to decide what direction to go, taking power from his instincts. Even yet in social life, he was abstracted from any external help to fix his poor material state. It is possible that the lack of external assistance has helped him to cheat the mechanism and stay assured in the legitimacy of his cause regardless of the fails that followed him. Being alone in this “vacuum” made his mind conform to anything that happens, making him fully utilize his capabilities knowing that there's absolutely no one to help.
A determination is what makes one do every thing one can to attain the desired result. Pride has cut Santiago off of any external help. Thus his mind and his human body were prepared to face whatever needs doing to accomplish the grand result – be considered a fisherman. Through the fight with the giant swordfish, he's got reached the peak of his life as a fisherman, the peak he's got been finding your way through so long (Weeks, Robert). Pride in the social sense has allowed him to adapt to the absence of help. Pride in the philosophical sense, the main one who has assured him in the legitimacy of his cause, has allowed him never to give up even yet in a fight with such low likelihood of victory. He'd have betrayed his belief in the truth that he was created to be a fisherman, and if he previously let the fish go, he'd show he had not done everything it requires to be a fisherman. This psychological self-programming could easily lead him to demise, nonetheless it allowed him to extract maximum satisfaction in the case of success. There is no reason to live in case a man who was simply born to become fisherman dies not as a fisherman. The “nothing or everything” approach is advantageous but puts many doubts on an individual. Santiago has managed to make himself think that doubts haven't any sense, many people are born to be something more significant than he or she was in the beginning, so he has achieved the ultimate degree of determination.
“The Old Man and the Sea” teaches people that pride is not something they should be afraid of, nor does it teach them that it must overwhelmingly influence every action an individual makes. As an alternative, the novel is about changing the perception of the nearby reality if you use pride (both social and inner). Pride has allowed Santiago to leave any doubts behind and live his life to the conclusion without losing hope, joy, and determination. The most determined person is just a human who has fewer doubts about his/her cause, such a person is effective at achieving astonishing results in anything. After reading the novel, some readers may possibly reconsider their view of life as a sequence of unending obstacles, but perceive them for granted, with the stoic approach. Of course, it's hard to search for the level of get a handle on over mind like Santiago did, however, many movement towards it will happen with the information of the clever utilization of pride to be determined to be what one is “born to become. ”
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man And The ocean. 1st ed., New York City, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952.
Weeks, Robert P. “Fakery in the Old Man and the Sea. ” College English, vol. 24, no . 3, 1962, pp. 188–192. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/373283.
