Thoreau writes that “This curious world we inhabit… is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” This seems to be a philosophy that Hemingway's character, Santiago, would adopt. Throughout the story “The Old Man and the Sea”, Santiago is constantly on the same existential plane as nature. He considers the sea and nature itself as his equals and probably as superiors. Whether the origin is due to senility, loneliness, or genuine brotherhood with nature, Santiago treats nature (more specifically, the sea and the wildlife it hosts) as a real entity for which he has a genuine love. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Hemingway himself was often intimate with nature; It's no secret that nature had a huge influence on his prose. It is important to note that “...of all Hemingway's protagonists, Santiago is the closest to nature: he feels part of nature; he even believes he has hands, feet and a heart like those of large turtles. (Hovey). There is a sense of unity between Santiago and the natural world. Central to understanding Santiago is Hovey's statement of “feeling part of nature.” There are several hints to this unity in the text itself where Santiago's behavioral patterns are paralleled with those of nature. In the book we read about Santiago before his journey: “His hope and his trust had never disappeared. But now they were cooling off like when the breeze picks up. (Hemingway 13). Hemingway shows the correlation between the breeze and Santiago's renewed confidence because of it. The related connotations between “refreshing” and “breeze” are probably not coincidental either. The implication here is that the weather has a direct impact on Santiago's mood. The refreshing breeze comes, so Santiago's attitude is refreshed. The reader can see another example of this relationship in another quote where the old man sleeps the night before planning to go out into the ocean: “…the old man was sleeping in the chair and the sun had set.” (Hemingway18) More subtle example: It is still difficult to ignore that Santiago's sleep patterns mirror the sun's cycle; the sun [brought] from its reflection on the tropical sea [on] his cheeks". (Hemingway10). The sun left a physical imprint on Santiago's body. This, however, is not the only physical relationship between him and the nature. The book reads: "...[his eyes] were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated". elements, as he leaves all the openings ajar. When Manolin talks to Santiago, he says, “…you have been turtle hunting for years off the Mosquito Coast and your eyes are good.” fishermen who went turtle hunting had vision problems, the sun spared that of Santiago for no reason that is evident to the reader. Yet another example of the synchronicity between Santiago and nature is seen regarding, once again, the old man's way of sleeping: "Usually when he smelled the land breeze he would wake up and get dressed to go and wake the boy." (Hemingway 25). There are plenty of examples that show that Santiago and nature are unified or, at the very least, connected on a behavioral and physical level. This also gives us some insight into why Santiago is such a skilled fisherman. Manolin says: “There are many good fishermen and some very good ones. But there's only you."(Hemingway 23). The reader might ask: why is there only Santiago? What differentiates him from any other fisherman? It is subconsciously implied that no other fisherman could have handled the marlin; so why Santiago? Other than his experience (shared by many other “old fishermen”), there is no real defining characteristic that sets him apart from anyone else, except that he has a deep affinity with nature. Beegel goes a step further by saying, "Given the nature of the sea in Hemingway's tale, this is not a 'safe' romance at all, but a story about a mortal man's tragic love for a capricious goddess." It also suggests that there is a love story between Santiago and the sea. Hediger further reinforces this statement by saying: “With this awareness, Hemingway treats animals neither as pawns in human competition, nor as beings so entirely alien that they believe themselves to be outside the natural economy in which life depends on other forms of life ”. Despite the scope of the relationship, it cannot be denied that a relationship does in fact exist; and this relationship seems to be the only thing that allows Santiago to achieve legendary status as a fisherman. Even before the reader gets into the heart of Santiago's journey with the marlin, the relationship is clear. However, once you get further into the novella, it is applied almost to excess. The duration of the journey with the marlin was almost a sort of communion between him and the other animals of the sea. Santiago constantly refers to the fish as his brothers: “They [the dolphins] play, play pranks and love each other. They are our brothers like flying fish." (Hemingway 48). He also says that: “He loved flying fish very much as they were his main friends in the ocean. He felt sorry for the birds…” (Hemingway 29). Concerning these seabirds, Santiago extends a hand: “'If you want, stay at my house, bird,' he said. «I'm sorry, I can't hoist the sail and welcome you with the light breeze that is rising. But I'm with a friend.'” (Hemingway 55). Santiago has a lot to say about his "friend", the marlin: "Now we are united and have been since midday. And no one who can help any of us." (Hemingway 50) and that “I wish I could feed the fish,” he thought. He is my brother. (Hemingway 59). Santiago throughout his journey refers to the marlin as his brother and asks him how he feels. And for this fish that he is slowly killing, he feels great sympathy and even shame. The ocean or, perhaps more appropriately: la mar ("He always thought of the sea as la mar, as they call it in Spanish when they love her."), appears to be his true "home" (Hemingway 29). The floorless shack where he lives with the windows ajar is simply a gathering point; a place to rest until he can return to the ocean. In his town, the old man is mostly sad: people pity him, he is (in a general sense) incapable, he is alone except Manolin, and he is poor. Santiago has spent his entire life in the ocean that Santiago spent nearly four days at sea with nothing to nourish himself except what he had eaten on the morning of the voyage and a single bottle of water. It can be difficult to truly realize the extent of what Santiago was an expert at sea since readers hear only remarkably mild complaints; therefore, this fact seems to be set aside. But let's put it in perspective: this pitied old man goes out to sea for almost four days, spending most of the journey wrestling with an absolutely enormous marlin. He had a bottle of water to feed himself and, through the ocean, he managed with resources and skill to obtain enough food to sustain himself. To emphasize once again: all this was done by the old man while struggling with a marlin whose size reached standardslegendary. This, among other things, demonstrates the immense skill Santiago has for his craft (he says he was simply doing: "What [he] was born to do [being a fisherman]."); however, it goes further (Hemingway 40). Santiago's journey, and above all his total satisfaction in it, shows his supernatural connection with nature, because if anyone else had been in his place they would surely have failed. Santiago shows love for many marine animals: birds, flying fish, dolphins, turtles. But the animal, that is, the one with which he felt the deepest connection, was the marlin. Talk non-stop to the marlin: whether you're apologizing to him, telling him he's his brother, or just having a conversation with him for conversation's sake. The death of the marlin, however, occurs when the raw intimacy between the two is exposed. Hemingways writes during the final meeting of Santiago and the marlin that: "There are three things that are brothers: the fish and my two hands." (64). This is near the end of the marlin's life, and when speculating on what will become of the fish's life, Santiago calculates how much the fish will be worth. He later says, “But are they worthy of eating it? No, obviously not. There is no one worthy to eat it…” (Hemingway 75). Santiago bestows a sort of honor on the marlin; and since this fish is his ultimate prey, his final masterpiece, the honor given to the marlin may be a scapegoat for Santiago's “long gone pride” (Hemingway 93). Their relationship is certainly close, but at the height of their struggle, the reader sees something that almost transcends a two-way relationship and becomes a kind of unity. Santiago says, “But you have the right to [kill me]…brother. Come and kill me. I don't care who kills who." (Hemingway 92). This interchangeability and complete indifference towards something as significant as death shows an immense sense of unity. Santiago doesn't care who kills who, as they are the same. Continuing on the same page, Santiago talks about “…how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought. (Hemingway 92). On a much more subtle scale, Santiago still shows the interchangeability and synchronicity between him and the fish. He does this by placing the act of suffering on equal footing between a man and a fish, more specifically himself and the marlin. In this short sentence (or rather sentence fragment), seemingly insignificant, Santiago demonstrates that their suffering is equal. Suffering like a man or suffering like a fish is the same thing for him. This not only shows his unity with the fish, but shows that Santiago is almost more a part of animalistic nature rather than humanistic nature. To further concretize this unity, Hemingway writes of the fish after it had been attacked by sharks: “He no longer liked looking at the fish since it had been mutilated. When the fish was hit it was as if it had been hit too." (103). Santiago felt the blow to his honor indirectly through the suffering and mutilation of the fish, which in turn paralleled his own. Although he himself had not been physically altered by the sharks, it didn't matter. In the same sense that it didn't matter who killed whom, it didn't matter who was mutilated. Once the marlin has been completely stripped of everything, Santiago says, “…you killed a man.” (Hemingway 119). “Fish” and “man” are interchangeable in this. Santiago himself did not receive a single bite from the sharks; however, he continues to say "you killed a man". One final note is this: although Santiago did not physically die, he returned to his city days later with several physical ailments. His hands were cut with fish wire, he was dehydrated, his back was in severe pain and he was coughing up something that he said tasted like a dime. The fish, to which he was physically and. 283-294.