Page 17.

‘He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy.’ – reinforces the point made above.

‘He took hold of one foot gently and held it until the boy woke’ – a little instance of Santiago’s remarkable love and care for all living things. It would be so much quicker to jerk Manolin’s leg, to shout at him to wake up. In fact, he just waits patiently until the boy awakes naturally.

Page 18.

‘the old man carried the mast with the furled sail on his shoulder’ – further confirmation of the motif of Christ carrying His cross.

Page 19.

‘For a long time now eating had bored him.’ – an odd little statement, but worth noting. Santiago is at the end of his life. Even the most basic aspects of the human struggle – to acquire food and eat it to survive – require a degree of concentration from him. He takes no food with him on the boat, for example. Despite his final epic struggle with the marlin, there is a growing element of Santiago’s mind that simple wants to withdraw from the endless struggle of life. He is ready for his death – and he will be readier once he has learnt the lesson of his final, ill-fated struggle with the greatest fish anyone has ever caught.

‘The old man knew he was going far out’ – This is his final struggle; to prove himself, he wants to go further than any fisherman. He overreaches himself, and comes to recognise this. This is the other side of Santiago’s personality, contrasting with that side of him that is discussed in the note above. The story is full of such contrasts and paradoxes.