The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea tells of an impoverished old man, his love for a young man who also loves him, and his trials in bringing in a big fish. We are introduced to the old fisherman Santiago, who has not caught a fish in 84 days, and his young fishing partner Manolin. The play follows Santiago through the next five days as he is literally dragged far out into the waters north of Cuba by a great marlin. After three days of battling the great fish, and going far beyond the limits of himself, Santiago defeats the marlin only to later have it be destroyed by the numerous sharks who attack it on his way back to Havana. Hemingway’s basic acknowledgement of the human soul’s will to live, to endure and to defy comes across strongly in this short simple novel. Santiago loses the fish, and yet this loss is, indirectly, affirmative. Jubilith Moore directs.