“The master-pupil relationship between them suggests that the heroic impulse is part of a traditional process handed down from one generation to another.” (17) Manolin has a hero- worship for Santiago (Gurko 16). He always wants to fish with the old man or help him with his chores when he cannot fish (16). “Orville Prescott [of] the New York Times objected that Santiago was more a symbolic attitude toward life than a man, a character whose poetically rendered thoughts border on artificiality.” (Brenner 16) His tender sensitivity towards and wish to relieve others’ stress is matched by his nurturance (33). “ [Santiago displays] the compassion and nurturance commonly associated with a parental-even maternal-figure.”(33) Santiago feels a deep love for the marlin that he eventually hunts and kills, the magnificent creature, which he must catch for pride and for physical need. (Burhan 47). Throughout his battle, he grieves that the marlin must go without food and wishes he could feed it (Brenner 33). Santiago’s parental instinct is the basis of his “saintliness” (Brenner 32-33). He treats Manolin as his equal, where as the fisherman whom Manolin later works for treats him as an “inferior” (32-33). When Santiago states, “There are three things that are my brothers, the fish and my two hands.” He also associates Manolin as his brother. The boy’s name translates to ‘small hand’, figuratively meaning ‘little brother’ (32-33). As the title suggests, the sea is the central character in the novella (Elizondo 1). The majority of the story takes place on the sea, and the old man identifies with it and it’s creatures; its inhabitants are his brothers (1). “Santiago refers to the sea as a woman, and the sea seems to represent the feminine compliment to Santiago’s masculinity. The sea might also be seen...
