Determinism In The Old Man And The Sea

Freewill reflects in–“the capability to say yes when yes is needed, to say no when no is needed, and sometimes to keep quiet when nothing is needed –to be silent, not to say anything”.1When this happens with someone, one is supposed to work under the effect of freewill. However, determinism states that man is not free; he is bound to work under the effect of the circumstantial forces. It is usually understood to preclude freewill because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do. It holds up that a person is forced to obey the external forces which are not in his command. Ernest M. Hemingway, the renowned novelist and Nobel Prize winner of 1954 for his magnum opus The Old Man And The Sea, adeptly projects herein the strife between

A picture is seen hanging above the cliché in the shack. Santiago appears commemorating the woman in the picture from time to time. It seems that the picture relates to him close, may be of his wife. Later in the novel, he reveals his proximity to the picture as his wife. He leads single life, no child, no relative, and wife passes away and deserts him alone in the early days. All this shows that he is man deserted by destiny. Such condition of him is brought by some unknown force working upon him. The old fisherman is found calling up a boy named Manolin occasionally whenever he is in need for help. This boy learns from Santiago how to fish. He treats the old man as his mentor and guardian; therefore looks after him. The boy brings the old man food and coffee when the former gets tired and broken with the sea tiring strife. The boy helps the old man with small fishes as bait to catch. Someday he goes with Santiago to the sea, but when his parents find that Santiago is a "salao"3, i.e. unlucky for not catching a single fish for many days, they forbid him following the fisherman. However, the boy helps his teacher in other ways. The boy forbidden plays a determinant in the novel. The old man was happy till the child was with him. He was young with Manolin. Some critics say that Manolin represents the youth of the fisherman. The fisherman ever feels that he is so energetic and vital like the boy

He is forced to stay at the sea in eighty seven teeth-biting cold nights. Sometimes, he appears to regret that he has come farther away from the shore in the sea. However, he realizes that he has come for defying determiants of the existence. It reveals that Santiago has sailed deep in the sea in order to show that even though he has turned old, he is not slave to the aging days. He is still capable to show his rival fishermen that he can catch a big fish, and prove his manliness and expertise, therefore he has sailed deep in the waters: “I wish I could show him what sort of a man I am”6. Hence, his ideology alludes to “But man is not made for defeat, ... A man can be destroyed but not defeated84”7. He could not catch the fish for eighty four days, but he didn’t lose courage. He doesn’t forbid his will to catch the fish, the big one. Some literary artists believe that Santiago could survive if he went for the small fish. But that was against his self-respect. Throughout life, the old fisherman had been a hero amid his fishers’ community. He is known for the deadly battles between the man and the sea, with all her lethal creatures and the giants. Moreover, he had won all the battles against these sea creatures amid the howling tempest. He was never prostrate to the conditions. It divulges that a man of such inclination cannot survive on the unearned fish. He must wade through dark waters