ns, Santiago has fished forty-four unsuccessful days alone and forty more with Manolin. The great ordeal with the marlin lasts three days; Santiago catches the fish on the seventh attempt; seven sharks are killed; and the old man rests seven times from the weight of the mast. “To be a hero means to dare more than other men, to expose oneself to greater dangers, and therefore more greatly to risk the possibilities of defeat and death.” (Gurko 15) As a heroic character, Santiago battles against the great forces of the sea, the marlin and the sharks, in addition to his own physical limitations (Brenner 31). While Santiago is not a ‘conventional’ hero, he is consistently heroic (Timms 162). After World War I, the traditional hero disappeared from literature (Gurko 18). They were replaced by modern protagonists, but Hemingway has miraculously brought back the “hero lost in the twentieth century.” (Gurko 18-19) Santiago is the first of the code heroes to have grown old (Young 74). “[He] is a fighter whose best days are behind him, who is too old for what his profession demands of him.”(74) He still dares, and will not quit when he is down. He is undefeated, and refuses to let the marlin defeat him; therefore his loss is in itself a victory (74). “Santiago is the clearest representation of the hero because he is the only majorcharacter in Hemingway who has not been permanently wounded or disillusioned (Gurko 16). By going out too far into the sea, Santiago identifies himself as someone who braves the unknown and takes risks (Brenner 31). He once defeated a humongous Negro at the hand game in Casablanca and was afterwards referred to as El Campeon (Gurko 16). Santiago’s determination to conquer the marlin reveals his heroic impulse (Brenner 31). In his old age, Santiago has little time left, but he has trained Manolin to follow in his footsteps (Gurko 17). ...
