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The Old Man and the Sea is a heroic tale of man's strength pitted against forces he cannot control. It is a story about an old Cuban fisherman and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin. Through portraying tests of endurance, fatigue, old age, solitude, impending death, to which Santiago is subjected. Hemingway make Old Santiago become the finest and best of the code heroes .In fact, Santiago is the clearest representation of the code hero in all of Hemingway's novels because he is not wounded permanently or disillusioned. Santiago possesses all of the Hemingway-code-hero qualities and be able to execute three prominent qualities: skill in doing what you do well, grace under pressure, and endurance. A quality of a Hemingway Code Hero is skill at what one does. The old man is definitely a skilled fisherman, and thus he fits this quality of a Code Hero. The old man uses the sea current to help him maneuver his boat, and by doing so demonstrates a large amount of skill. Only a skilled fisherman would know how to use the current to help him move around. "He was letting the current do a third of the work"(p. 30). Another time it is evident Santiago has skill, is when he uses a bird overhead to determine in what area he should fish. He knows that the bird overhead is a sign that there are fish below. "He rowed slowly and steadily towards where the bird was circling" (p. 33). Only a skilled fisherman would look for clues around him to determine where to fish. Santiago uses his great skill at fishing to raise the marlin he is battling with during the course of the book. This marlin is longer than his boat and weighs over 1,500 pounds. Even in Cuba, where there are many large fish, this marlin is of historic proportions. Despite the marlin's huge size, Santiago uses his skill to raise it, and kill it.
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