Detailed Summary The Old Man And the Sea Part One

Detailed Summary The Old Man And the Sea Part One, a great novel written by Ernest Hemingway.

Detailed Summary The Old Man And the Sea Part One:

Santiago is an old fisherman that fishes alone in a skiff. He has “gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish”. There was a boy, Manolin that came to learn to fish, with him for first forty days but upon Santiago’s being unable to catch a fish, they ordered him to accompany another fisherman. The old man is thin with “wrinkles in the back of his neck”. His hands had deep scars of rolling cords. “Everything about him was old except his eyes”. Santiago has taught him to fish and “the boy loved him”. The boy wishes to be with the old man again but Santiago asks him to stay with the lucky boat.

The boy still helps the old man with his offshore work like handling cords and cares a lot about him but his parent don’t want him to go with the old man. On the shore, other fishermen make fun of Santiago while the old ones feel sad for him. The old man has been discussing of his past with the boy. It appears the boy has been attached to him since his childhood. The boy gives him sardines. Santiago declares of going “Far out” in search of some good fish.

Then the old man and the boy talk of the good eye sight of Santiago which is still good while other fishermen have weak eyesight. Then the boy helps the old man by carrying his essentials of his sea trade back to his hut. The poverty of the old man is clearly visible because he has nothing in the hut except a couple of old things. The old man offers the boy yellow rice and the boy seeks permission for the cast net. In fact, there is neither but they are just repeating this “fiction” every day. The old man claims of reading yesterday’s newspaper which may be fiction as well.

The boy shows full care to the old man. He brings supper for him in the evening and when Santiago refuses, he replies: “You’ll not fish without eating while I’m alive.” The old man tells him of baseball and his favorite team i.e. Yankees. He likes DiMaggio in the team. Then the old man expresses his wish of taking DiMaggio to fishing with him. He also talks about having gone to the shores of Africa and seeing lions there. The boy considers him “the best fisherman”. Then the old man sleeps and promises to wake the boy.

Detailed Summary The Old Man And the Sea Part Two:

While sleeping the old man dreams of his visit to Africa while he was young. The old man dreamed of the places and lions. He sees them playing like cats. He simply loves them. Then the old man rose from his bed and went to the boy’s house to wake him up. Then the boy carried his sea essentials for him and they reached the shore. There they had coffee and the boy gave him new baits and sardines. Then old man sails and plans to go far out into the sea. There is complete silence and he soon encounters the flying fish, “his principal friends on the ocean.” The old man considered sea as a woman that gives both favors as well as shows cruelty under the influence of the moon.

The old man reached beyond the well he had earlier tried to hook a big fish from. He had his four baits starting from forty fathoms to more than seventy fathoms. He was hoping to catch a big fish. The old man thinks he might be lucky today but even for that he wishes to “be exact” to benefit from good luck. Then he observed a man of war bird circling over the water at a distance from his, Santiago knew it “has something”. Santiago saw a big dolphin and prepared himself to catch it. The dolphin moves away and Santiago thinks “perhaps my big fish is around them”. So, Santiago moved deeper into the sea. He observes “Agua mala”, the poisonous plant that would harm the man but not the fish.

Santiago remembers how he loved to walk on the shore on sea turtles and popped them with his shoes. He loved green turtles and had a friendly contempt from their speed and love making. He remembers of having gone turtling and considers that people don’t care much about turtles. Santiago compares himself with turtles. Then he remembers of the liver oil which all fishermen take; this is good for the eyes and a shield against all colds. Soon he found tuna fish jumping on the surface of water, ahead of him. He got optimistic. A tuna fish hits on the stern of his boat and the old man hits it on the head and gets inside the boat. He thinks aloud that “He’ll make a beautiful bait. He’ll weigh ten pounds.”

Then the old man realizes that “he had probably started to talk aloud, when alone, when the boy had left”. He does not care if others consider him “crazy” because rich have radios to talk to them in their boats and to bring them the baseball.” Santiago considers he “was born for” fishing. Suddenly, a line dropped signalling that fish had swallowed the bait and Santiago cries out “yes”. Old man talks to himself while some big marlin was eating the tuna down in the water: “Don’t be shy, fish. Eat them.” But unfortunately for Santiago, the fish eats the tuna and goes away without swallowing the bait.

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