This is the defeat of Santiago part two. I do not think there will be three of these, but Santiago did suffer a lot of defeat so who knows. I really like typing these blogs now that I’ve lost the whole “professional” writing thing. Huzzah.
"They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me."
"He didn’t beat you. Not the fish."
"No. Truly. It was afterwards."
I am proud of Santiago for admitting defeat in this quote. I am even more proud of him for admitting it to Manolin. I love how I’m proud of a fictional character. Hemingway really did do a fantastic job of making his characters lovable. Something to ponder about this quote, though, would be who really beat Santiago? Was it the sharks or something else? Personally I think it was something else.
“For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead. He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line. Twice, though, he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him.
"I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this," he said. "Now that I have him coming so beautifully, God help me endure. I’ll say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them now.”
I think that this quote is a mix of defeat and pride. Santiago fears defeat because his defeat would then lead to damaging his pride. He fears that he is going to pass out and lost the fish completely. I can see how losing a fish because he passed out would be a low blow. He would lose the fish and have a damaged pride, as well as lose his fishing pole. In this quote he embraces the fact that he is not as cool as he thinks he is.
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