STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS ON THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: A NOVEL BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY WRITER : DIPA NUGRAHA SUYITNO WORD COUNT : 27,539 PAGES [625562]

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STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS ON THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: A
NOVEL BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY

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DIPA NUGRAHA SUYITNO

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STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS ON
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
A NOVEL BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY

THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of Requirements
for the Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department

by

DIPA NUGRAHA SUYITNO
C0300024

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2006

i

ABSTRACT

Dipa Nugraha Suyitno. Structural Analysis on The Old Man and The Sea ; A
Novel by Ernest Hemingway. Thesis. Surakarta. Faculty of Letters and Fine
Arts. Sebelas Maret University. September, 2006.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze Ernest H emingway’s The Old Man and
The Sea using Cullers’ Structuralists Poetics. The Poetics of the Novel as a part of
Cullers’ Structuralist Poetics views a literary wor k as an autonomous self but offers a
new path engaging semantics. It tries to read a tex t to capture its force. The Poetics of
the Novel deals with intrinsic elements of the nove l: readability, narrative contracts,
codes, plot, theme and symbol, and character.
The writer of this thesis uses a descriptive method in his analysis. He uses
documentation technique as the technique in collect ing the data. This technique runs
by listing some important sentences, narrations, di alogues of the novel. The writer of
this thesis tries to capture the force of the novel The Old Man and The Sea . He
describes how the novel has its force by its intrin sic elements.
The result of the study shows that those intrinsic elements which are involved
in close reading process are prominent. Readability , narrative contracts, codes, plot,
theme and symbol, and character must be involved in every study dealing with the
significance of literary work. This study shows tha t these intrinsic elements help the
writer of this thesis reveal what have been missed by most readers; the force of the
work hidden beneath the surface.

ii

This thesis has been approved by consultants to be examined before the Board of
Examiners Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta.

Thesis Consultants

1. Drs. Bathoro M. Sarjana, M.A. ( )
NIP 130 529 731
First Consultant

2. Yusuf Kurniawan, S.S., M.A. ( )
NIP 132 231 475
Second Consultant

Head of English Department

Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.Ed.
NIP 131 569 264

iii

This thesis has been approved by the Board of Exami ners Faculty of Letters and Fine
Arts, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta and has b een accepted as a partial
fulfillment of the requirements for getting the Sar jana Sastra Degree of English
Literature on Thursday, 7 September 2006.

The Board of Examiners

1. Chairman
Dra. Nani Sukarni, M.S. ( )
NIP 130 902 534
2. Secretary
Dra. Zita Rarastesa, M.A. ( )
NIP 132 206 593
3. First Examiner
Drs. Bathoro M. Sardjana, M.A. ( )
NIP 130 529 731
4. Second Examiner
Yusuf Kurniawan, S.S., M.A. ( )
NIP 132 231 475

The Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts
Sebelas Maret University

Prof. Dr. Maryono Dwiraharjo, S.U.
NIP. 130 675 167

iv

PRONOUNCEMENT

As the writer of thesis entitled STRUCTURAL ANALYSI S ON THE OLD MAN
AND THE SEA A NOVEL BY HEMINGWAY states that this thesis is or iginally
made by him. It is not a plagiarism nor made by oth ers.

If it is later discovered and proven that this pron ouncement is a deception, the writer
of this thesis willingly accepts any punishment fro m English Department Faculty of
Letters and Fine Arts of Sebelas Maret University, including the withdrawal of the
academic degree.

Surakarta, 7 September 2006

Dipa Nugraha Suyitno
NIM C0300024

v

To my parents,
my brothers (Rukma and Pijar) and my sister (Mutia) ,
to my consultants and my lecturers

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious and Most Mercif ul.
Firstly, the writer declares the glorification to A llah the only God and the salute
to Muhammad p.b.u.h. and his loyal followers.
This thesis would not be finished without the suppo rts and guidances from
many individuals. In this opportunity, the writer w ould like to express his gratitude to
some of them:
1. Mr. Riyadi, the Head of English Department – Facult y of Letters and Fine Arts –
Sebelas Maret University, who has given support to the writer in finishing the
thesis,
2. Mrs. Nani Sukarni, the writer’s academic advisor, a ll for her guidance and
encouragement,
3. Mr. Bathoro M. Sardjana and Mr. Yusuf Kurniawan, th e writer’s consultants, all
for their guidance and encouragement,
4. All of the lecturers of English Department for thei r materials and encouragement,
5. The writer’s family for all of those loving eyes.
Finally, the writer of this thesis gives his apprec iation also to his cliques,
classmates, the seniors, and the juniors.
Surakarta, September 2006

Dipa Nugraha Suyitno

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE …………………………………………………………. i
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………… ii
APPROVAL …………………………………………………… iii
AGREEMENT ………………………………………………… iv
PRONOUNCEMENT …………………………………………… …………. v
DEDICATION ………………………………………………… vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………… vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………..………………… viii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION …………………………….. 1
A. Background of the Research………………………………. 1
B. Scope of the Research …………………………………….. 11
C. Research Question…………………………………………. 12
D. Objective of the Research………………………………….. 12
E. Benefits of the Research…………………………………… 12
F. Research Methodology……………………………………… 13
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………. 17
A. Previous Researches on The Old Man and The Sea ……….…… 17
B. Structuralism……………………………………………….. 17
C. Structuralism in the Work of Literature………………..….. 18
viii

D. Poetics of the Novel……………………………………….. 21
1. Readability……………………………………….…… 23
2. Narrative Contracts…………………………………… 25
3. Codes…………………………………………………. 26
4. Plot……………………………………………….…… 31
5. Theme and Symbol…………………………………… 34
6. Character……………………………………………… 40
CHAPTER III ANALYSIS …………………………………. 42
A. The Codes…………………………………………….…… 43
B. The Plot…………………………………………………… 60
C. The Theme and Symbol………………………………….. 72
D. The Characters……………………………………………. 79
E. The Readability…………………………………………… 88
F. The Narrative Contracts………………………………….. 89
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ……. 98
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………… 102
INTERNET REFERENCE …………………………………. 106

ix

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Research

Literature, borrowing from Grolier Webster International Dictionary
definition, is “the class of writings in which imag inative expression, aesthetic
form, universality of ideas, and permanence are cha racteristic features, as fiction,
romance, and drama” (Kellerman et. al., 1971: 557-5 58). In other words, literature
is not anything that is written. Technical book, ca talogue, textbook, brochure,
pamphlet, and so on cannot be included as literatur e because literature is “the
writing or the study of books etc. valued as works of art” (Hornby et al, 1973:
572).
Literature expresses and represents life. The chara cters, the conflicts, the
setting presented in the story is realistic that ma kes the readers suspect it as if it
were true event in life. However, the readers must be aware to the fact that the
world in a work of literature is differ from the re al world. The world within a
work of literature is fictive. The readers cannot j udge directly the world inside a
work of literature purely based upon the world the readers live. Literature has its
own world that exists inside the work itself, the w orld which is built by the
elements inside it.
1

2
The term novel means “a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length,
portraying characters, actions, and scenes represen tative of real life in a plot of
more or less intricacy” (Kellerman et. al., 1971: 6 49). Wellek and Warren state
that “the novel shows a character deteriorating or improving in consequence of
causes operating steadily over period of time. Or i n a closely contrive plot,
something has happened in time: the situation at th e end is very different from that
at the opening” (Wellek and Warren, 1970: 215).
A novel is a structure which is built by elements. A novel is a sum up of
elements such as plot, characters, theme, narration etc. All of the elements cohere
together to build the world of the novel. The more the elements are attached
naturally the more beautiful the story of the novel will be. This is shown exactly
in The Old Man and The Sea .
The Old Man and The Sea is a novel that made Hemingway popular in the
world of literature. The novel made him awarded Nob el prize in 1954. Reading
The Old Man and The Sea at glance brings us to the nature of fisherman. Th e
readers will be framed into a picture of every man’ s life after they finish reading
the novel. The way Hemingway describes the struggle of the main character,
Santiago, gives him a credit. Baker says that The Old Man and The Sea stands as
Hemingway’s epilogue to all of his writing. The nov el is representative because of
its ‘virtues and implicaciones’ (Baker, 1962: v).
Hemingway is famous also for his unique writing sty le. He has made many
reformations in writing technique, for example in s tressing on the usage of

3
dialogue rather than stressing on the narration. He uses stream of consciousness or
flash back in his work and he also uses simple sent ences by avoiding complex
expressions. Hemingway has brought a simple and fre sh way of writing English
(Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1990: 35). While High says that “Hemingway’s
sentences are usually short and simple. Only rarely does he use adjectives. He will
sometimes repeat a key phrase …to emphasize his the me” (High, 2000: 147).
Another comment about Hemingway’s unique writing st yle is given by
Kennedy.
Hemingway’s famous style includes both short senten ces and long,
but when the sentences are long they tend to be rel atively simple in
construction. Hemingway likes long compound sentenc es (clause plus
clause plus clause), sometimes joined with “and’s”. [Hemingway] is a
master of swift, terse dialogue, and often cast who le scenes in the
form of conversation. (Kennedy, 1993: 76)

Burgess in his book Ernest Hemingway and His World gives also a compliment to
Hemingway’s writing style.
The Hemingway tune is elegiac even when it most cel ebatres
joy.…The Hemingway tune was a new and original cont ribution to
world literature. It is in the ears of all young pe ople who set out to
write. And the Hemingway code of courage, the Hemin gway hero
dan his stoic holding on against odds, have exerted an influence
beyond literature. (Burgess, 1978: 116)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illin ois, on 21 July 1899.
As a boy Hemingway spent most of his time in northe rn Michigan where he set
some of his works. After graduating from high schoo l in 1917, he became a
reporter for the Kansas City Star where he got training in writing. He involved in
the World War I (1914-1918) by becoming a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy.

4
Later he served as a correspondent for the Toronto Star and then settled in Paris.
After 1927 Hemingway spent long periods of time in Key West, Florida, Spain
and Africa. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939 ), he returned to Spain as a
newspaper correspondent. In the World War II (1939- 1945) he again became a
correspondent and later was a reporter for the Unit ed States First Army. After the
war Hemingway settled near Havana, Cuba, and in 195 8 he moved to Ketchum,
Idaho. Hemingway had serious dementia probably beca use of many drugs for
suppressing his high blood pressure in his old age. He started to get delusions that
the Feds were ready setting a trap to put him into jail. In the early morning on 2
July 1961 after many times failed attempts of suici de, Hemingway finally died
after putting a hunting gun shot on his head ("Hemi ngway, Ernest Miller,"
Microsoft® Encarta®; Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1990: 34-35; Burgess, 1978: 100-
116).
Hemingway’s work The Old Man and The Sea (1952) won the 1953 Pulitzer
Prize in fiction. The Old Man and The Sea was also accepted as a masterpiece of
all Hemingway’s works. This novel brought Hemingway to get the Nobel Prize
for literature in 1954 (Collier’s Encyclopedia, 199 0: 35). The Old Man and The
Sea is a story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman. He has gone to sea without
any fish for forty-four days. Manolin, a boy who is a good friend of Santiago, is
forced by his parents to leave Santiago’s skiff. Ma nolin’s parents want him to go
in another prosperous boat. But the boy really love s the old man. The boy always
takes care of the old man when he comes back from t he sea. The boy helps the old

5
man carry his gear to his ramshackle shack, ensures food for him, and makes a
discussion about the latest news in American Major League Baseball. Manolin
believes that someday the old man unlucky days will come to an end. On the day
eighty five, the old man makes a far journey alone to the sea. He has to strive for
three days conquering a great marlin, which measure s eighteen feet or two feet
longer than his skiff. He cannot pull the fish into his skiff; instead the fish begins
to pull his skiff. Santiago tries hard to conquer t he fish until he finally kills the
fish with his harpoon thrust. Unluckily for Santiag o the marlin blood has made the
sharks come near. The sharks attack to get the marl in’s meat. The old man fights
against them, but it is useless since there are so many sharks. The sharks eat the
marlin’s meat, leaving only skeleton, head, and tai l. Santiago goes home before
sunrise, stumbles back to his shack, and sleeps ver y deeply.
The aim of literary study, as Horace’s, is to know if a literary work is dulce
et utile or “art as end in itself and art as communal ritua l and culture binder”
(Wellek & Warren, 1970: 238). The norm to make such action is by using the
scale of literary terms and degrees. Wellek and War ren agree to S.C. Pepper in
Basis of Critism in the Arts .
Men ought to value literature for being what it is; they ought to
evaluate it in terms and in degrees of its literary value. The nature, the
function, and the evaluation of literature must nec essarily exist in
close correlation. The use of a thing – its habitua l or most expert or
proper use – must be that use to which its nature ( or its structure)
design it. Its nature is in potence what in act is its function. It is what
it can do; it can do and should do what it is. We m ust value things for
what they are and can do, and evaluate them by comp arison with
other things of like nature and function. (Wellek a nd Warren, 1970:
238)

6

A successful work creates the world in the form of language. The
ingredients of this are words, human behavior exper ience, and human ideas and
attitudes in which combined together into ‘polyphon ic relations by the dynamics
of aesthetic purpose’. While according to formalism , such criteria is needed to
keep the analysis over a literary work in control. The formalists try to avoid the
evaluation based on the reader’s ‘poetic experience ’ “so that the experience is
most fittingly described as an experience of the po em [work]” (Wellek and
Warren, 1970: 242-251). The argument from Wellek an d Warren is similar to
Tolstoi’s that the beauty of work of art should be seen from three aspects (1) the
importance of the content, (2) the beauty of the fo rm, (3) the heartfelt sincerity.
Tolstoi says that to ignore one of the three aspect s will result an incorrect
evaluation. In a conclusion, Tolstoi derives that “ a true work of art is the
revelation (by laws beyond our grasp) of a new conc eption of life arising in the
artist’s soul, which, when expressed, lights up the path along which humanity
progresses” (in Neider ed., 1956: 375-376, 379).
According to Abrams, there are four orientations de aling with the study on
literary work based on its historical progression. The four orientations are
mimetic, pragmatic, expressive, and objective. He e xplains that this progression
starts from mimetic theory of Plato, Aristotle’s Poetics modification concerning
plausibility within plot that generates pragmatic t heory, the expressive theory that
comes from German and English romantic criticism, a nd then the last progression
is the objective theory that puts the work as itsel f (Abrams, 1979: 28).

7
Mimetic theories tries to explain literary work as “essentially an imitation of
aspects of the universe”. Imitation refers to relat ional term and the significance
between two things in comparison. This kind of orie ntation involves three
categories. The first is the mortal Ideas, the seco nd is the world of sense (natural
or artificial), and the third category is the refle ction. These three categories
become the basic point of mimetic analysis (Abrams, 1979: 8). Thus, mimetic
analysis lays a literary work as a mortal Ideas. No thing is new because the idea is
already in the world so the judgement over a work l ies upon the quality of
imitation towards the world.
Pragmatic theories puts the judgment of a literary work on its effect in an
audience. Literary work is regarded as a rethorical product. It focuses in the way a
literary work creating a beauty on the reader’s min d. Therefore, the principle to
judge is the success of a literary work in deliveri ng its aim.
For convenience we may name criticism like that, li ke Sidney’s, is
ordered toward the audience, a ‘pragmatic theory,’ since it looks at
the work of art chiefly as a means to an end, an in strument for getting
something done, and tends to judge its value accord ing to its success
in achieving that aim. (Abrams, 1979: 15)

Briefly, pragmatic theories has an orientation to s ee the work as how far the
author succeeds to serve the public pleasure.
Expressive theories defines a literary work as the overflow, utterance, or
projection of the thought and feelings of the autho r or in other words, the work
itself modifies and synthesizes the images, thought s, and feelings of the author

8
(Abrams, 1979: 21-22). Later on the next passage, A brams summarizes this
expressive theories.
In general terms, the central tendency of the expre ssive theory may be
summarized in this way: A work of art is essentiall y the internal made
external, resulting from a creative process operati ng under the
impulse of feeling, and embodying the combined prod uct or the
poet’s perceptions, thought, and feelings. The pri mary source and
subject matter of a poem [work], therefore, are the attributes and
actions of the poet’s own mind; or if aspects of th e external world,
then these only as they are converted from fact to poetry by the
feelings and operations of the poet’s mind. (Abrams , 1979: 22)

Objective study of literature appreciates “the work of art in isolation from
all external points of reference, analyzes it as a self-sufficient entity constituted by
its parts in their internal relations, and sets out to judge it solely by criteria
intrinsic to its own mode of being” (Abrams, 1979: 26). This theories assay to
hinder from ‘the personal heresy’, ‘the intentional fallacy’, and ‘the affective
fallacy’. Its doctrine in critisizing is ‘art for a rt’s sake’ (Abrams, 1979: 27-28).
Teeuw says that objective study of literature advan ces to the tendency over
three aspects (Teeuw, 1983: 2). The three aspects a re externe strukturrelation ,
interne stukturrelation , and the secondary world model . Externe strukturrelation
sees a work of literature is not absolutely autonom ous. It is because a work of
literature is connected to the system of language. Its form and meaning are based
on the system of language. Interne strukturrelation puts a work of literature as a
system in which the internal structures within a wo rk of literature are attached
each other. Every component has its own role in a w holeness. The third aspect in
the study of literature is putting a work of litera ture as the secondary world model.

9
Teeuw says that the idea of this approach is to stu dy a work of literature by
understanding that a work of literature is a comple x fictive world. This means that
every work of literature deals with the context. A work of literature from one
culture is different from others.
While Culler says that a literary work plays in dif ferent modes and has
different content than its literal. A literary work is the creation and organization of
signs which produces a human world charged with mea ning (Culler, 1975: 189).
This also signifies that readers always find the me aning of a literary work by
comparing it to the real world in order to get the meaning. This perhaps sounds
confusing, but it is the truth. A literary work, or in a broad sense a text, cannot be
separated totally from ‘the property of our concept ual system’ about the reality.
Interpreting therefore tends to be subjective. Thus , this is the importance of
literature theory. Its aim is to make a convention of procedures for every reading
so the result of it, the interpretation, becomes as objective as possible (Teeuw,
1983: 3).
Teeuw and Culler use term close reading as Guerin et al uses intensive
reading (Guerin et al, 1979: 76) because the word reading perhaps refer to a
common reading . Even though one should realize that whatsoever re ading activity
always generates meaning. But the emphasis of this kind of reading is on the word
close or in other word intensive because this activity claimed by Teeuw, Culler,
and Guerin et al is not just reading of giving any meaning.

10
Reading as an activity of giving meaning, or in Hir sch’s term significance
(in Teeuw, 1984: 175-176), needs a total involvemen t within the text. To judge
the quality of literary work means to say its quali ty of beauty by reading it first.
However the term of beauty within literary study is a problematic matter, while
the word beauty itself refers to personal acceptanc e or relates to significance .
Insisting to judge the work with the Truth, or mean ing given by its creator
only, means also to discard the readers and the uni verse where the work should be
placed. This activity will surely close the study o f literature. The fact that the
judgement regarding literary study always involves human and the world as a set
of significance must be the main consideration to a void claiming a work with a
single meaning. So then, the study of literary work must be translated as a
convention of objectivity. Therefore a beauty of a work will be manifested into a
unique term, the beauty in itself; the potency of s ignificance. The beauty is the
way the work successful defamiliarizing the world. Thus, when a work succeeds
to defamiliarize the world and has something useful for mankind, it is the work
which has dulce et utile .
The Old Man and The Sea is not just a story of an old man who goes fishing .
Culler’s theory about the reading over a novel is n ot just to extract a literary work
according to its elements; readability, narrative contracts, codes, plot, them e and
symbol, and character . Whatsoever reading this novel means also to charg e
meaning of it.

11
The writer of this thesis read the novel, found the elements and the
interrelation between those elements in concealing the meaning of the novel. The
meaning given is not just any meaning, but it is th e result of a close reading.
Structuralism which is meant by Culler in reading a literary work is not just
proclaiming the elements of a literary work. Culler puts emphasis that now the
focus of structuralism is to know how the elements of a literary work generating a
system of sign; meaning.
But pleasure is not the only value that a structura list study of
literature might serve. It is a concept that made i ts appearance rather
late in structuralist discussions, as though it cou ld only be offered as a
value once one had defended the position in other t erms….Man is not
just homo sapiens but homo significans : a creature who gives sense to
things. …The reader must do something with it [the work], must
recognize the insufficiency of language on its own, and must try to
bring it within an order of signs so that it may sa tisfy. Literature
offers the best occasions for exploring the complex ities of order and
meaning. (Culler, 1975: 264)

B. Scope of the Research
It is almost impossible for the writer of this thes is to discuss all of the
aspects of the novel. Not to make the research goes too far beyond the writer’s
control and to focus the research, a limitation is made to the following points:
1. The research is intrinsic. The writer of this thesi s only focuses on
intrinsic elements of the novel and excludes the ex ternal factors such as
the life of the author and the social factor of the novel.

12
2. The intrinsic or the internal elements of the novel that will be analyzed
include: readability, narrative contracts, codes, plot, them e and symbol,
and character .

C. Research Question

The research question is stated as follows:
How does the generation of meaning in The Old Man and The Sea ?

D. Objective of the Research

The objective of the study is simply answering the problem proposed
previously. So it is said:
To describe the generation of meaning in The Old Man and The Sea .

E. Benefits of the Research

The benefits of the research can be clarified as fo llows:
1. One can get a concrete illustration particularly th at deals with structural
technique when it is applied to literary interpreta tion.
2. This study can be helpful to other readers or resea rchers who have interest in
Hemingway’s work to use different approaches of ana lysis. In other words,
this study can be a comparison source for further r esearches.

13
F. Research Methodology
Research methodology is “a general approach to stud ying a research topic”
(Silverman, 1993: 2) that leads a researcher to gai n the objective. Research
methodology in social research according to Silverm an can be positivism ,
qualitative etc. (Silverman, 1993: 2).
The methodology of this research is qualitative res earch. Silverman explains
that “in qualitative research, small numbers of tex ts and documents may be
analysed for a very different purpose. The aim is t o understand the participants’
categories and to see how these are used in concret e activities … qualitative
research make claims about their ability to reveal the local practices through
which given ‘end products’ (stories, files, descrip tions) are assembled”
(Silverman, 1993: 10).
a. The Approach Used in the Research
The analysis of a literary work always offers varie ties. This means that there
are many possibilities in interpreting literary wor k. This means also that a literary
work can be interpreted by using many possible appr oaches. The approaches used
are valid as far as the interpreter is able to give logical and systemic reasons upon
his arguments. In other words, the best thing to do for an interpreter is presenting
a number of adequate reasons for his analysis.
The Old Man and The Sea , as a literary work, is multi-interpretable. As
Guerin argues: “There is a great deal about opening critical door of various
dimensions leading more or less directly into the i nterior of literary works. There

14
are many possible interpretive techniques – countle ss doors; front, back, and
within a work of literature” (Guerin, 1964: 34). Th is means that every approach to
reveal the meaning of a work of literature can be d one by using relevant
approaches.
This thesis tries to analyze Hemingway’s work, The Old Man and The Sea ,
by using structural approach. Culler’s structural a pproach is relevant with the
objective of the research. The writer notices that structural approach proposed by
Culler is potential to guide the writer to analyze the novel of The Old Man and
The Sea . Using Poetics of the Novel to conduct reading activity will produce a
novel as a human world charged with meaning that is not just any given meaning.

b. Source of Data
1. Main data
The main data is taken from the novel itself, The Old Man and The Sea [plus
Study Guide edition ] that was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1961. The
novel is constructed of 90 pages plus 27 pages of S tudy Guide from Mary A.
Campbell. The novel The Old Man and The Sea itself starts at page 5 and ends at
page 94. Study Guide by Mary A. Campbell seems to provoke the readers m aking
genetic structuralist analysis. It begins from page 97 to page 123.
The main data taken is in the form of dialogues, events, and narrative
expression in the novel that are relevant to the re search.

15
2. Supporting data
This type of data includes some information that wi ll support the research
on the novel The Old Man and The Sea . This kind of data will be criticisms on
The Old Man and The Sea , other studies that have been done related to the novel,
and study guide in Hemingway’s work.

c. Technique of Data Collecting
The technique used to collect the data is documenta tion technique, a
technique that tries to collect data from the writt en records (books, articles,
archives, etc.) that are related to the problem (Mo leong, 1990: 113-114, 131).
While Moleong uses the term ‘documentation techniqu e’, Nazir uses the term
‘library technique’(Nazir, 1985: 53). Those two ter ms are the same but the naming
is generated from different views. Moleong makes th e term based on the way a
researcher gets the data. The term Nazir used is ba sed on the location where the
data are collected.
In this thesis, the standard criteria used are Poetics of the Novel . The
standard criteria are the restrictions of steps or guidance which are proposed by a
researcher in collecting the data for his research. It is used in order to focus the
research (Nazir, 1985: 176).

16
d. Technique of Data Analysis
The next phase after collecting data is analyzing t he data. Method of
analysis used in this research is descriptive with evaluation and interpretation.
Descriptive analysis is an explanation of the relat ion between the data (Moleong,
1990: 6). Descriptive study basically is not just e xposing data from the object of
the research, but later the aim is to interpret and compare the data achieved with
the standard criteria that has been selected (Nazir , 1985: 421-422). The writer
during collecting data process makes some notes to distinguish between the data.
The notes are in the form of descriptive codes. The se descriptive codes do not
give interpretation but show phenomenon (Miles and Huberman, 1992: 88). The
last step then, is drawing a conclusion to answer t he problem, which has been
stated on the objective of the research. The conclu sion derives from the
explanation of the pattern from the descriptive cod es and the general idea of it.

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Previous Researches on The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man and The Sea is well known in the world of literature. Many
researches had been done to the novel. The apparent reasons are (1) the novel
received Nobel prize, (2) the novel is written in a unique style, and (3) the novel is
thick in pages. There were at least four researches on The Old Man and The Sea .
Pratiwi (2000) used naturalistic approach to conduc t a research on the novel. A
research used psychological approach was done by Sa ri (2001). Another research
about the novel was done by Sukamto et. al. They an alyzed the novel by using
psychological approach (2003). A psychoanalysis res earch over the novel was
made by Budiarto (2004). Budiarto analyzed the pers onality of Santiago, the main
character of the novel.

B. Structuralism

Structuralism in linguistics and literary research was started through the
work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, compi led and published after his
death in a single book, Course in General Linguistics (1915) (Selden et. al., 1997:
67). Piaget in Strukturalisme explains, the idea of structuralism grows from the
modification of Saussure’s theory to be focused on three terms; totality,
17

18
transformation, and autoréglage . A structure must be judged as totality. A
structure is a sum of elements but in a structure, elements are bonded and related
to each other in a single unity. Transformation mea ns that a structure becomes an
element of the greater structure. In other words, a structure is always in the
process of transforming. Autoréglage or autoregulat ion protects a structure from
deviance. Autoregulation works through different pr ocedures, this affects to the
forming of more and more complex structure. Every s tructure is potentially
attached to other, but the elements can not cross o ver the bond of the structure to
make different structure (Piaget, 1995: 3-12).

C. Structuralism in the Work of Literature

Talking about structuralism to be applied in a work of literature, Culler
argues that analyzing a work of literature based on structuralism means
participating in the text, finding the content of t he text, knowing that the novel is a
structure which plays with different modes (Culler, 1975: 237-238). Culler adds
that structuralists view novel as a new world which is a mimesis of the real world
but constructs deviations and therefore more powerf ul (Culler, 1975: 190).
The focus of structural analysis is the text itself . There is an idea of
wholeness in a structure. Kenney in his book How to Analyze Fiction explains
about it as follows: “To analyze a literary work is to identify the separate parts
that make it up, to determine the relationship amon g the parts of the whole. The
end of the analysis is always the understanding of the literary work as unified and

19
complex whole” (Kenney, 1966: 5). Roland Barthes in Selden et al claims “that
writers only have the power to mix already existing writings, to redeploy them;
writers can not use writing to ‘express’ themselves , but only to draw upon that
immense dictionary of language and culture which is always already written”
(Selden et al, 1997: 66).
The idea of structural analysis refers to the study or analysis that stresses on
the intrinsic elements of the novel. The function o f the intrinsic elements is very
important because without them there is no structur e. Structuralism technique is
characterized by its focus of analysis that is cent ered on the internal elements of
forms of a literary work. This technique claims tha t the work itself is independent
or autonomous which means that the way we understan d is without considering
the author’s biography, the social background of it s creation, the philosophical
outlook or world view of the author. Teeuw says tha t structural analysis tries to
discover and explore what the work is; its shape an d effect, for and from the work
itself. All of the structuralists agree that litera ture critique must be centered on the
work itself, without paying attention to the author or the reader; what is needed by
an interpreter is only close reading (Teeuw, 1984: 135) or intensive reading as
Guerin et al use it (Guerin et al, 1979: 76). The k nowledge about the author and
his social background often drives an interpreter i nto fallacy.
Formalists [former structuralists] begin with a car eful, close reading
of the text. The reader pays close attention to suc h things as imagery,
connotation and tone. After the individual words, f ormalists concern
themselves with structures and patterns: the interr elationships of
words, the overall form of the work. Thus formalism is sensitive to

20
any repetition of words, image, or structural patte rns in the theme,
plot or setting (Guerin, 1986: 8).

Structuralists believe that the valid analysis upon a work of literature must
be retained from what inside it, and not to go beyo nd out bond. The analysis, as
the result, is ‘the supreme and the pure’ meaning o f a work of literature.
Culler introduces structuralist poetics in his book Structuralist Poetics;
Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literat ure . The role of structuralist
poetics is “to make as explicit as possible what is implicity known by all those
sufficiently concerned with literature to be intere sted in poetics” or in other words
“it is the theory of the practice of reading” (Cull er, 1975: 258-259). The new task
of structuralists is to change the content of the s tory into form and then to read the
significance of the play of forms to capture its force ; the power of any text
(Culler, 1975: 260-261). He says that reading any t ext must consider also the
revelation of the text. The process itself needs a certain rule of behaviour so that
the result of it, the interpretation, is relevant.
To read is to participate in the play of the text, to locate zones of
resistance and transparency, to isolate forms and d etermine their
content and then to treat that content in turn as a from with its own
content, to follow, in short, the interplay of surf ace and
envelope…there is a kind of attention which one mig ht call
structuralist: a desire to isolate codes, to name t he various languages
with and among which the text plays, to go beyond m anifest content
to a series of forms and then to make these forms, or oppositions or
modes of signification, the burden of the text. (Cu ller, 1975: 259)

Culler realizes that the structuralist poetics is n ot an organic unity of
standard value but he claims its function to be a h ypothesis of reading. A
hypothesis that he believes depend on a variable rh ythm of reading (Culler, 1975:

21
263) because literary work always displays the comp lexities of order and
meaning. Culler offers a new way of reading the tex t. A new way that differs from
formalism, “its task is now to organize itself more coherently so as to explain how
these signs work. It must try to formulate the rule s of particular systems of
convention rather than simply affirm their existenc e” (Culler, 1975: 264 – 265).

D. Poetics of the Novel

Structuralists realize that the potential of produc ing meaning of a text is
always personal, infinite, and present. Culler know s that structuralists, as the
frontiers of objectivity, are in difficult position to answer this fact. Culler then
proposes Poetics of the Novel . The Poetics of the Novel makes close reading over
a novel “as objective as possible”. The word object ive here is relative since
reading activity always puts the readers to be subj ective (Culler, 1975: 243).
Poetics of the Novel brings an interpreter to reveal novel according to a
system that rules the process of interpretation. Cu ller offers Poetics of the Novel to
overcome the difficulties of defining the term of b eing objective. He offers the
“basic convention” to do reading activity over a no vel and to capture its force . The
force that makes a novel really a mimesis of the wo rld charged with meaning
(Culler, 1975: 189).
The term poetics , according to Aristotle, is distinguished from theoria
(theory) or praxis (practice) in the primacy of its activity of making. Poetics is the

22
active questioning, since that time, about how does , how should, how could, art be
made. Poetics and poetry are from the Greek word poiein : to make. Poetics is
concentrated on the act of making, rather than self -expression.1
Poetics means “the products of the process of refle ction upon writings, and
upon the act of writing, gathering from the past an d from others, speculatively
casting into the future”. 2 Bernstein explains that poetics is not an
institutionalization of interpretation but rather t o be the optional convention on the
way of reading a literary work. It opens other poss ibilities of interpretation and
meaning. He says that “one of the pleasures of poet ics is to try on a paradigm and
see where it leads you”.3
The poetics function according to Jakobson is to pr oject the principle of
equivalence from the axis of selection into the axi s of combination (in Culler,
1975: 56). Culler says that Poetics of the Novel must be optional way of
interpreting literary works. It gives meaning towar ds the work by systemic
interpretation but gives not any meaning.
A structuralist poetics would claim that the study of literature
involves only indirectly the critical act of placin g a work in situation,
reading it as a gesture of a particular kind, and t hus giving it a
meaning. The task is rather to construct a theory o f literary discourse
which would account for the possibilities of interp retation, the ‘empty
meanings’ which support a variety of full meanings but which do not
permit the work to be given just any meaning. (Cull er, 1975: 119)

1http://www.pores.bbk.ac.uk/1/Robert%20Sheppard,%20'The %20Necessity%20of%20Poetics'.htm
2 http://www.pores.bbk.ac.uk/1/Robert%20Sheppard,%20'The %20Necessity%20of%20Poetics'.htm
3in Sheppard,
http://www.pores.bbk.ac.uk/1/Robert%20Sheppard,%20'The %20Necessity%20of%20Poetics'.htm

23
According to Culler, there are six elements within a novel to focus regarding
the basic convention to do close reading over a nov el. He names the six elements
within the novel as the Poetics of the Novel . The Poetics of the Novel are:
1. Readability
2. Narrative contracts
3. Codes
4. Plot
5. Theme and Symbol
6. Character.

1. Readability
Barthes argues in Culler that understanding a text means reading the text
through level to level comprehension.
[It] is not only to follow the unwinding of the sto ry, it is also to
identify various levels, to project the horizontal links of the narrative
sequence onto an implicitly vertical axis; to read a narrative is not
only to pass from one word to another, it is also t o pass from one
level to another. (Culler, 1975: 192)

A readable text is a text that has coherence and in telligibility, which it
employs and challenges as a whole. The three elemen ts to consider the novel as
readable is that novel of ‘having coherence and int elligibility’ in plot, theme, and
character. “The process of [close] reading is that of implicitly recognizing
elements as of a particular level and interpreting them accordingly” (Culler, 1975:
192).

24
Khotbah di Atas Bukit , a novel by Kuntowijoyo is a good example. The
character of Popi in coherence with plot and theme makes the readers need to
‘redefine’ the meaning of Popi after closely readin g the novel. The novel shows
explicitly the theme, Khotbah di Atas Bukit . It takes the readers to relate it to the
plot of the novel and the character of Popi. The wo rd khotbah in English means ‘a
preach’, while the words di atas bukit can be translated as ‘on the top of the hill’.
The plot of the novel is full of shock; as a preach shocks your soul. The thematic
opposition in the novel, which are richness/modesty , pleasure/suffering,
unaccompanied/togetherness, strengthten the title as a theme. Later on, these
bring the readers to refer Popi, lover of the main character. In Indonesian, a word
added with suffix –i transforms to be an adjective word. The word pop is an
adjective word which means pop as same as its English origin meaning. Pop + i
makes a bold meaning, that is so pop; so well known or things that everybody
knows and wants. While the name of the main charact er, Barman, may refer to the
metathesis of Brahman, Hindu’s priest.
‘A preach on the top of the hill’, as the title of the story, depicts that
happiness does not come from the things people usua lly fight for; richness or
lovers. The preach is a hard thing to do with such material especially doing the
preach on the top of the hill when almost nobody th ere to join the climb. So again,
these plot, theme, and character are coherent and i ntelligible.

25
2. Narrative Contracts
This term might be called as: items whose only appa rent role in the text is
that of denoting a concrete reality. Elements of th is kind confirm the ‘mimetic
contract’, make the readers believe the story and c an compare it to the real world.
(Culler, 1975: 193-194). This structural element pu ts a bold definition that
structuralists consider that narrations would provi de the readers with life-likeness,
‘the world’ they can imagine and compare with the r eal world.
Narrative contracts talks upon three matters: (1) w hat deductions or
connections the narrator presumed to accept by his readers. Culler states it in his
words: “the narrative indicates what he [the narrat or] needs to be told, how he
might have reacted, what deductions or connections he is presumed to accept [by
his readers].” (Culler, 1975: 195), (2) how does th e narration guide the reader to
imagine the novel’s world (Culler, 1975: 196-197), and (3) how is the position of
the narrator within a novel to bring the readers gr asping meaning (Culler, 1975:
200-201).
Barthes says that narrative contracts ensures the n arrator and the reader are
signified throughout the story itself (in Culler, 1 975: 195). This term deals with
how the narration makes the readers to believe that the story might be true in the
real world. The readers are invited with an open do or of life-likeness. Here is an
example of an opening passage of Hemingway’s short story A Clean Well-Lighted
Place taken from the book An Introduction to Fiction :
It was late and every one had left the café except an old man who sat
in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against t he electrical light.

26
… the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night
it was quiet and he felt the difference. (Kennedy, 1983: 77)

The life-likeness is presented in the narration. Th e narration constructs the
situation before the dialogues of the characters ar ise. The narration instantly
structures the readers’ mind about a character, whi ch is an old man. It also
provides the readers with the setting: place, time, and situation. Furthermore, it
also contributes the scheme on the readers’ mind: ( 1) It is a silent night and there
is an old man who needs to be alone, or it might be (2) a lonely old man sits on an
empty café.
The narrative contracts confirms the mimetic expect ation (of the real world)
and assures readers to be able to interpret the tex t as about a real world. It gives
the readers the world they know (Culler, 1975: 193) . The readers can not
comprehend only dialogues without knowing whose dia logue it is, and the readers
can not understand also the environment (time, situ ation, place, etc.) if there is no
narration in the story. Or in simple words, it beco mes problematic when the
readers do not know what to imagine and to expect f rom a novel comparing to
their world (Culler, 1975: 196).

3. Codes
Culler states that understanding code deals with th e comprehension of
reading a text or a work of literature. Culler quot es from Barthes and Lévi-Strauss
that code helps the readers get total meaning of th e text. The elements to
understand code includes cultural background, cause -effect understanding,

27
semantic features knowledge, symbolic and thematic reading (Culler, 1975: 202-
203).
Teeuw claims that even though work of literature co ntains universal truth,
but still every work of literature needs to be read as cultural product. But this is
not to be focused only on the cultural background a s sociologists do. Text is
autonomous and self-sufficient, that is not to argu e in the structuralists’ discourse,
but to read is to understand also the convention of the work. Teeuw says that
codes of literary work deal with language knowledge and cultural background of
the work (Teeuw, 1983: 15 -35). This statement is a ctually the same as Culler’s
description about codes.
Teeuw gives example about this in interpreting one line of Goenawan
Mohamad’s poem Z:
Di bawah bulan Marly Under the moon of Marly
dan pohon musim panas and the summer season’s trees

The second line states that its setting is in the s ummer season. It gives some
Indonesian readers a conclusion that Marly to be Ma rch and July since those
months are in summer seasons, as exactly shown on t he next line. Also, the word
Marly can be such an acronym of Mar(ch and Ju)ly. A ccording to
rezeptionisaesthetic this interpretation is well accepted. But this is not the
‘correct’ interpretation. The setting of the poem i s Paris but the interpreter who
has interpreted the word Marly to be Mar(ch and Ju) ly fails to capture its true
setting. Marly actually is a place for recreation n ear Paris. The interpretation of
Marly to be Mar(ch and Ju)ly is ‘incorrect’, or inn ocent interpretation, this

28
happens because in Indonesian the meaning of bulan refers to ‘moon’ and
‘month’. So, the process of interpretation needs a total comprehension about the
text in this case, semantic feature aspect. (Teeuw, 1983: 37-38).
Another example is the analysis on Pengakuan Pariyem , a lyric prose by
Linus Suryadi A.G. One who does not know the cultur al background of traditional
Javanese women, makes a ‘mistake’ by analysing it t o be the hypocrite acts of
Pariyem, a Javanese woman. But one who knows the cu ltural background of it
makes no such innocent analysis. To be acknowledged , traditional Javanese
women are pleased to have children from their arist ocrats. They believe that the
children are valuable gifts from God. They feel ble ssed to have the aristocrats’
children. Therefore, one who does not know the cult ural background of the novel
of Pengakuan Pariyem , likely to translate the title in English to be The Confession
of Pariyem rather than to translate it The Revelation of Pariyem . Even though the
lyric prose Pengakuan Pariyem is kind of kitsch because of its exploration
towards sexual intercourse in which in other ways S uryadi could have
camouflaged it. However an analysis over this lyric prose in Sastra, Tata Nilai,
dan Eksegesis done by Suyitno is an example of obeying the codes (Suyitno,
1988: 134-160).
It is interesting also to notice the interpretation of a beautiful poem Malam
Lebaran (Eneste, 1989: 108). Situmorang’s poem Malam Lebaran is interpretated
by Junus as ‘an abstraction of symbolical meaning’. The poem itself contains only
a single line following the title.

29
Malam Lebaran Lebaran night
Bulan di atas kuburan The moon’s above the graveyard

He, Junus, says that the poem means that when comes the joyful lebaran night,
moslems are thinking of their relatives that have p assed away (Junus, 1981: 73).
Junus’ interpretation differs from the author’s int ended meaning who states that
this poem is purely naturalism. Situmorang, the aut hor of Malam Lebaran , says
that the poem is inspired by his experience seeing the moon above the graveyard
during lebaran night (Situmorang in Eneste ed., 1989: 348-349).
Both interpretations are correct and do not violate the codes. Lebaran night
actually is the time indicating the end of moslems’ fasting month. But then in
Situmorang’s term, lebaran night does not refer to just one night. Situmorang
points out that the nights after the real lebaran , approximately five nights
afterward, regard as lebaran night(s) also. This definition makes Junus differ from
Situmorang. Junus gives reason that in lebaran night, in which it lasts for only a
night, the moon does not come in a sight-able spher e. So Junus argues that the
words lebaran night must be symbolical. That is why both interpretatio ns are
correct. The author of the poem is considered as an interpreter when comes to an
interpretation. Other interpreters are as equal and legitimate as the author
regarding the activity of giving meaning towards a text.
Junus’ is correct because every literary work is mu lti interpretable and
autonomous in its meaning. There is no relation bet ween the author and the
meaning of the work, or to state the matter in a di fferent manner, the author is not
the only one to have privilege in giving meaning af ter the work is born to the

30
world (Junus, 1985: 9, 19-20). Since many times the author just gives the reason
for producing a literary work but not the work. He quotes the words from Thadee
Klossowski, the son of Comte de Rola-Balthus on Guardian Weekly , 27
November 1983.
I won’t talk about my father because he doesn’t wan t people to talk
about him. I’m an obidient son. My father thinks it ’s not by speaking
about painter that one speaks of painting. I believ e he’s right. (Junus,
1985: 9)

A good example of codes violation is provided by An dré Hardjana in his
book Kritik Sastra: Sebuah Pengantar . Hardjana cites from Sastrowardojo’s
lecture material about transgression of codes on an analysis over Situmorang’s
poem Cathedrale de Chartres by Pradopo (Hardjana, 1994: 46-49). Pradopo’s
analysis contains several failures when interpretat ing the word pekan kembang
and the two lines of the Situmorang’s poem Cathedrale de Chartres .
Pradopo defines pekan kembang as a concealment word for the place where
prostitutes offer themselves to customers (Pradopo, 1988: 81; 1994: 66). Pekan in
Indonesian according to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia signifies two meanings.
The first signifies pasar [traditional market] and the second is a week (TPKP
P2B, 1989: 659). Pradopo, who comes from Yogyakarta , signifies pekan to be
pasar and then describes pekan kembang as pasar kembang . Pradopo elucidates
pekan kembang to be pasar kembang because in Yogyakarta pasar kembang is the
place of prostitutes. Such description violates the codes since the setting of the
poem is in France and it is not in Yogyakarta. Prad opo is snared on his cultural

31
background about the definition of pekan kembang . While Sastrowardojo signifies
pekan kembang as Burton Raffel’s, which is flower stalls (Hardja na, 1994: 47).
The second failure of Pradopo’s analysis is the int erpretation on the two
lines of the poem Cathedrale de Chartres . The two lines are:
Ah, Tuhan, tak bisa lagi kita bertemu Ay, God, nor I meet thou at face anymore
Dalam doa bersama kumpulan umat In a solemn prayer among these believers

Pradopo considers these two lines as the effect of French existentialism (Pradopo,
1988: 84; 1994: 68-69). Pradopo has truly captured its setting that is France, but
saying that those two lines are affected by French existentialism is over the text.
He does not get total involvement in the text. The explanation for these two lines
of the poem is easy. Christians or Catholics always find themselves in hardships
when joining a prayer in other countries churches. They lose the atmosphere and
the solemnity of a prayer. They feel strange in lig ht of the different language used
in a prayer (Hardjana, 1994: 48-49). Pradopo fails to capture this in his analysis
but Sastrowardojo succeeds.

4. Plot
Barthes states that plot is a sequence of actions, constitute the armature of
the readable or intelligible text (in Culler, 1975: 205). Kenney describes that plot
in fiction is an arrangement of events according to the casuality of relationship
(Kenney, 1966: 13). Dictionary of World of Literature defines plot: “the
framework of incidents, however simple or complex, upon which the narrative or
drama is constructed; the events of the depicted st ruggle, as organized into an

32
artistic unit” (Shipley ed., 1962: 310). Brooks and Warren explain plot of the story
as “Plot may be said to be what happens in a story. It is the string of events. It
may also be said as the structure of an action as p resented in a piece of
fiction”(Brooks and Warren, 1959: 77). Then it can be said that the plot of novel
is the artistic arrangement of events or it is refe rring to the deliberately arranged
sequence of interrelated events that makes up its b asic narrative structure.
Good story suggests the readers good plot. Accordin g to Aristotle’s Poetics ,
good plot has identifiable beginning, middle, and e nd as coherence and unity
(Shipley ed., 1962: 310 and Abrams, 1981: 138). The unity within a plot does not
mean that the events are focused to a single charac ter, but it refers to the
relationship and order among the events.
The unity of a plot does not consist, as some suppo se, in its having
one man as its subject. An infinity of things befal l that one man, some
of which it is impossible to reduce to unity; and i n like manner there
are many actions of one man which cannot be made to form one
action. …The truth is that, just as in the other im itative arts one
imitation is always of one thing, so in the poetry of the story, as an
imitation of action, must represent one action, a c omplete whole, with
its several incidents so closely connected that the transposal or
withdrawal of any one of them will disjoin and disl ocate the whole.
For that which makes no perceptible difference by i ts presence or
absence is no real part of the whole (Aristotle in Fyfe, 1966: 24-25).

The beginning of a story always provides the reader s with a situation in
which there are some elements of instability. At th is phase, the author gives the
necessary background information to develop the sto ry. The information given
may include the establishment of situation, scene, the introduction of character,
and potential conflict. The middle of story is a ph ase when potential conflict

33
begins to arouse. This also continues to the point when the conflict reaches its
highest intensity. It is also the period of readjus tment of conflict in the process of
seeking a new kind of stability. In the end of the plot, some points of stability is
reached. The conflict that has been brought into, h as been resolved. This section
also presents the impact of the conflict to the sto ry. Kenney adds that “any plot
that has a true beginning, middle, and end and that follows the laws of
plausibility, surprise, and suspense must have unit y” (Kenney, 1966: 22). A good
plot according to Kenney is not just having identif iable beginning, middle, and
end but it must have also the obedience to three is sues; plausibility, surprise, and
suspense.
Plausibility means that the story must convince the reader on its own story.
The sequence within the plot must be logical in its own story. It is not realism but
rather to make sense to the readers. Imaginative li terary work must have conflict
to realistic one, but plausibility is not the same as realism. The readers have no
right to demand that the story be realistic, but pl ausibility takes focus on the way
the story is true to itself. The second and the thi rd issues are surprise and
suspense . Surprise deals with the way the story against the readers’ expectation. It
makes a good plot attractive. Then suspense refers to how a plot makes the
readers’ to have uncertain feeling and anticipation towards the events. Suspense
makes the readers to rouse and to sustain their int erest (Kenney, 1966: 20-22 and
Shipley ed., 1962: 235, 404).

34
It is also important to recognize that events withi n plot are mainly
chronological, the temporal sequence is often delib erately broken and the
chronological parts are rearranged in order to get emphasis and effect. An author
may start his story at one point and end it at anot her. There might be some
expected effects that he tries to create. The devic e for interrupting the flow of a
chronologically ordered plot is flashback.
All events or conflicts that the characters face ar e within the frame of a plot.
The events are governed by a rule, which deals with cause and effect relationship.
It means that an event is a consequence of the prev ious one and what happens now
will have a consequence in the future or later deve lopment of the story. Thus
analysing plot is “to be a study of structuring pro cess by which plots take shape,
and that one of the best ways of discovering what n orms are at work was to alter
the text and consider how its effect is changed” (C uller, 1975: 223). It is just as
Culler points out that analysing plot means to read the story in which disparate
incidents are treated as a logical development to s tructure the larger thematic
structure (Culler, 1975: 222). So the essence of an alysing plot according to
Barthes, as Culler agrees, is “to explicate ‘the me talanguage within the reader
himself’, ‘the language of plot which is within us’ ” (Culler, 1975: 224).

5. Theme and Symbol
The structuralists have not made theme a separate o bject of study because
theme is not the result of specific set of elements but rather the name of the forms

35
of unity in the text or to the ways of elements com e together and cohere (Culler,
1975: 224). Brooks and Warren define that “theme is the point or meaning of a
story or novel” (Brooks and Warren, 1959: 688). Whi le Martin and Hill point out
theme as “the central philosophical or moral idea o f a novel, what the novel is
really about ” (Martin and Hill, 1996: 30).
Barthes argues in Culler that a text is always symb olic. Every text always
offers as Barthes states ‘a whole space of substitu tion and variation’ to the readers
to do extrapolation. The readers make the meaning o f the text based upon the
thematic oppositions. Some examples of thematic opp ositions are such as:
evil/good, forbidden/permitted, active/passive, Lat in/Nordic, sexuality/purity
(Culler, 1975: 225). Furthermore, these thematic op positions in a text, which seats
beside one another, present a symbolic condensation . This symbolic condensation
requires the readers to do symbolic reading that ex ploits the opposition and gives
it a place in larger symbolic structure (Culler, 19 75: 226).
Culler discusses about symbol on its association to semantic transformation
of a text. In some ways, he agrees to the direction brought by Barthes regarding
the basic mechanism of recuperation. Culler seems t o be interested towards
Barthes’ that the anti-thesis within a text makes e very reader has the freedom to
create his own symbolic code (Culler, 1975: 225-226 ). This symbolic code brings
a reader to the meaning in the semantic transformat ion as Goethe said (in Culler,
1975: 229).

36
The progress of literary study demonstrates the con flict between form or the
work as a stucture and matter or the significance of the work as dwelling in
modern methods. Wellek and Warren discern about it, but they concern more
about the heavy stressing effort on the process of weltanschauung pursuing
(Wellek and Warren, 1970: 193).
Gomperts declares his rejection to an analysis in w hich the author is
excluded. The reason is quite simple, a literary wo rk is the creation of the author
and there must be an intended meaning of the author within the work. He refuses
depersonalization on the field of analysis. Deperso nalization is a dangerous act
says Gomperts because within every literary work th ere is a human with his very
own characteristics (in Teeuw, 1984: 172).
A theorist who renounces the complete objectivity u pon the analysis
towards literary work is Hans-Georg Gadamer (in Tee uw, 1984: 174). Gadamer
says that the intention of an author must be distin guished to the reader’s.
However, Gadamer puts a restriction that the interp retation must not have gone
beyond the reader’s volition because the text is au tonomous. The interpretation
itself, as Gadamer calls it horizontverschmelzung or the collision of horizons,
surely involves two aspects; the origin of the text and the reader’s recent situation.
Another discourse about interpretation comes from E .D. Hirsch. Hirsch says
that the term of objectivity must not be related to the intention of the writer or the
truth of historical process. The objectivity deals with probability. The validation is

37
about “the objective conclusion about relative prob abilities”. So, there is no single
absolute interpretation for every text (in Teeuw, 1 984: 174-175).
Hirsch differentiates between bedeutung (meaning) and sinn (significance)
(in Teeuw, 1984: 175-176). Meaning as the intention of the writer is determinate
while significance as the result of reading is vari able. To deny this distinction,
therefore to refuse the difference between understanding and criticism .
The object of interpretation is textual meaning in and for itself and
may be called the meaning of the text. The object of criticism…is that
meaning in its bearing on something else (standards of value, present
concerns, etc.), and this object may therefore be c alled the
significance of the text. (in Teeuw, 1984: 176)

Every reader must have involved in the sense of giv ing meaning for each
text one has read. Teeuw and Culler say that reader s transform as homo
significans (Teeuw, 1983: 35; Culler, 1975: 264). It is becaus e reading is always
an activity of giving meaning (Teeuw, 1983: 34) or for Culler “reading is not an
innocent activity” (Culler, 1975: 129).
Culler later explains that reading triggers recuper ation. Recuperation is a
phase when one does close reading on a text and get s naturalized by the non-
literal meaning (Culler, 1975: 189). The non-litera l meaning is derived from a
symbolic condensation. The restrain of subjectivity always comes into view when
reading is held. Therefore, reading will never be r adically objective.
Abrams realizes about the fact that whatsoever all discourses or texts are
metaphoric for every reading. “None of discourse [i s] surely plain without any
metaphor meaning” (Abrams, 1979: 31). It means that reading every work of

38
literature must take the reader into the atmosphere of generating non-literal
meaning. Todorov draws attention also to that becom e concern of Culler, Teeuw,
and Abrams. Todorov states that reading a text cann ot be set apart from two
aspects. It involves syntactic ( in presentia ) and paradigmatic ( in absentia )
(Todorov, 1985: 11-12).
Wellek and Warren give their argument regarding the matter of literary
work. They say that “the meaning and function of li terature [is] as centrally
present in metaphor and myth”. They define myth as the “consent of faithful”
(Wellek and Warren, 1970: 191-193) and see the conc ept of metaphor based on
analogy, double vision, sensuous image, and animist ic projection.
The four basic elements in our whole conception of metaphor would
appear to be that of analogy; that of double vision ; that of the
sensuous image, revelatory of the imperceptible; th at of animistic
projection. The four in equal measure are never pre sent: attitudes
vary from nation to nation and aesthetic period to aesthetic period
(Wellek and Warren, 1970: 197).

Brooks and Warren give another definition about met aphor. They say that
methapor is the fundamental meaning of a fiction.
A metaphor does not announce the comparison and pro ceeds
indirectly to indicate an identification of the two items involved.
Although such details of style may seem trivial in fiction, their effects
are subtle and important. Sometimes the fundamental attitude of an
author, and hence the fundamental meaning of a piec e of fiction, may
be largely conveyed in terms of such details (Brook s and Warren,
1959: 685).

Furthermore Kramsch explains that metaphor is not o nly used as poetic device,
she adds that it also structures how we get the exa ct meaning. “Metaphor [is] not
only a device of the poetic imagination and the rhe torical flourish, metaphor is a

39
property of our conceptual system, a way of using l anguage that structures how
we perceive things, how we think, and what we do” ( Kramsch, 1998: 129).
Richards says, “thought works basically through met aphor… the thought that rises
from the figure, is influenced by the differences a s well as the resemblances” (in
Shipley ed., 1962: 268).
Culler likes to use symbol in his poetics rather than metaphor as Abrams,
Wellek, and Warren do, but practically both terms a re the same. It needs to be
noted that according to Wellek and Warren, image, m etaphor, symbol, and myth
are semantically overlapping. Wellek and Warren mak e no difference between
those terms (Wellek and Warren, 1970: 186). Actuall y the four terms point out to
the same area of interest, which is the significanc e of a text.
Hamlet is an example to show what theme and symbol mean. Hamlet ’s
theme is revenge. Shakespeare defines revenge in tr emendous way. Evil/good,
forgiveness/revenge, forbidden/ permitted are thing s contrasted in Hamlet . To be
or not to be , a line in Hamlet causes symbolic condensation to the readers. Hamlet
might be a symbol of human irony. This conclusion i s the result of close reading,
“just as, in Saussure's view, signifiers only have meaning–or negative value–in
relation to other signifiers. These binary pairs ar e the ‘structures’, or fundamental
opposing ideas…each term has meaning only in refere nce to the other.” 4

4 http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/1de rrida.html

40
6. Character
Character according to Steinmann and Willen is a fi ctional person described
or impersonated in a work of imaginative literature (Steinmann and Willen, 1967:
697). Culler in his book Structuralist Poetics says that structuralists do not put
much interest in the character. Barthes as quoted b y Culler argues that structural
analysis has done so much variation in treating cha racter in novel but they still
define the character as ‘participant’ rather than a s ‘being’ (Culler, 1975: 232).
Characters are only participants since they take pa rt in the way of events and
forces are able to meet rather than as an individua ted essence. The structuralists
put characters as important element but only on the terms of interpersonal and
conventional systems. “A structuralist approach has tended to explain this (the
character aspect) as an ideological prejudice rathe r than to study it as a fact of
reading” (Culler, 1975: 230).
The naming of character for structuralists grows in to a point where Culler
says that “Whatever their role outside the novel, o ur models of the braggart, the
young lover, the scheming subordinate, the wise man , the villain – polyvalent
models with scope for variation, to be sure – are l iterary constructs which
facilitate the process of selecting semantic featur es to fill up or give content to a
proper name” (Culler, 1975: 237). Todorov in Culler argues that whatsoever the
naming of character is directed or teleological set based on our cultural models
(Culler, 1975: 237). It means that a character is n amed as hero or villain because
of our cultural models definition. The naming of a character in the sense of only to

41
what it is written in the novel is incomplete, so t he readers tend to use their
cultural models in the process of naming a characte r.
The characters in novel are vital. Without characte r there would be no plot
to build and therefore there will be no story. Even so, the character in the novel
mostly can not be completely described by the autho r. Kenney states that “the
necessity placing character in a unified work of ar t forces the author into a series
of choices. He must always be prepared to sacrifice one interest – for instance, the
interest of life likeness in character for its own sake – for the sake of other, for
instance, the interest in plot, in theme, in the un ity of the whole” (Kenney, 1966:
25). The statement from Kenney is precise to what t hat has been pointed out by
Todorov and Culler, this sacrifice makes incomplete ness upon the process of
naming the character.

CHAPTER III
ANALYSIS

Close reading according to Culler involves six subj ects. The term for these
six subjects is the poetics of the novel . These six subjects are readability ,
narrative contracts , codes , plot , theme and symbol , and character . Readability
concerns with the coherence and the intelligibility of plot, theme, and character.
Narrative contracts deals with the way the story is narrated by an author. In other
words, narrative contracts relates with how well do es an author handle the
material in his work. Codes relates with how the re aders comprehend the sense of
coding over the novel. The sense of coding needs th e knowledge of cultural
background, cause-effect understanding, semantic fe atures knowledge, symbolic
and thematic reading. One cannot conduct a close re ading over a novel if he does
not have the sense of coding over it.
Since the issue on codes concerns with the sense of coding, so the writer of
this thesis has decided to put it as the first step in the close reading. Knowledge of
cultural background, cause-effect understanding, se mantic features knowledge,
symbolic and thematic reading are the basic ability in conducting every reading
activities. No one comprehends the meaning of a sim ple text if he does not have
those knowledge. So it is important to put close re ading on codes on the first
priority.
42

43
The writer of this thesis realizes that the close r eading on readability cannot
be established if the close reading on the plot, th eme, and character have not
established yet. Hence the reading on the readabili ty comes after the close reading
on plot, theme and symbol, and character. After the close reading on the theme
and symbol has finished, he moves to narrative cont racts issue before answering
the problem statement of this study that have been stated on previous occasion.

1. The Codes
Codes relate with the understanding of reading a te xt or a work of literature.
Codes make the readers knowing what the texts have within. The sense of coding
contains cultural background, cause-effect comprehe nsion, semantic features
recognition, symbolic and thematic reading.
At the first reading, The Old Man and The Sea is a simple novel. Nothing is
special but the two quotations remain as a wise wor ds from the author of it. The
first quotation is “It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when
luck comes you are ready (p. 23)” and the second q uotation is “a man can be
destroyed but not defeated (p. 76)”. But the essenc e of the novel are not just those
two great quotations. The Old Man and The Sea means more that perhaps most
readers are not aware about it.
The first paragraph of the novel needs to be remark ed. There is a sentence
which states “the old man was now definitely and fi nally salao ” (p. 5). How come
the statement claims “now definitely and finally salao ”. The readers are able to
find that Santiago gets bad luck for the second tim e in his life. The first bad luck

44
comes to Santiago when he gets no fish for eighty s even days (p. 6) and then the
second bad luck when Santiago gets no fish for eigh ty four days (p. 5). When bad
luck comes twice in someone’s life, then the people in the place Santiago lives
nickname him as “definitely and finally” salao .
When the readers come to page eight of the novel, t hey find a sentence that
needs to be noticed. The sentence is “If you were m y boy I’d take you out and
gamble”. The meaning of take you out means take you out to fishing . While the
meaning of take you gamble means take you trying some luck . This findings give a
particular impression that fishing is an activity t hat needs not just expertise but it
needs also luck.
The novel itself discloses its setting through many words and many ways.
The words are the Gulf Stream (p. 5), the market in Havana (p. 7), Havana (p. 33-
34), Cienfuegos (p. 50) a city in Cuba and the Hava na Coal Company (p. 51),
great island of Sargasso weed (p. 53), and Guanabac oa (p. 93) a city near Havana.
The readers are able also to discover that the char acters in the novel The Old
Man and The Sea use salao (p. 5) to name the worst badluck, bodega (p. 11) to
name a grocery store, guano (p. 10) to name tough budshields of the royal palm ,
the term Virgin of Cobre (p. 10) instead of Virgin of Mary, la mar (p. 21) to call a
feminine one, and el mar (p. 21) to call a masculine one.

45
The characters within the novel prefer to use the w ords albacore or bonito
rather than tunas. 1They also use que va (p. 16) which means nonsense! 2 The
characters of the novel use also agua mala (p. 25) as a fisherman’s exclamation
which literally means bad water, the word cordel (p. 37) rather than cord, brisa (p.
45) which means breeze, calambre (p. 45) that is a cramp in Spanish, Gran Ligas
(p. 49) to call Big Leagues, Tigres of Detroit (p. 49) to name Tigers of Detroit,
juegos (p. 49) to name games or sports, un espuela de heuso (p. 50) to state a bone
spur in other words, el campeon (p. 51) to title someone as the champion, dorado
(p. 54) to name a golden one, 3 dentuso (p. 75) to call sharks by its sharp teeth
characteristic, galano(s) (p. 80, 81, 85, 89) to name an elegant one(s). 4 These
findings describe the setting of the novel. The set ting of the novel is a place in
Cuba where the people speak both English and Spanis h.
To finish analysis that the setting is a place in C uba where people speak
both English and Spanish is not sharp. The readers discover a town (p. 85) near
Havana (p. 7) in the novel, the entrance to the har bor and the tourists’ party (p.
94), and the Gulf Stream (p. 5). These findings lik ely refers to Cojímar. It is a
town where tourists visit and settle, a town with a harbor, and a restaurant named

1 See page 22 and 42 of the novel, Santiago calls th e tuna as albacore but then he calls them as
bonito , both terms are the same. Information about these terms at:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albacore
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonito
2 Campbell on her Study Guide translated qué va as what does it matter? but the correct translation
should be non sense!
3 Santiago states that dolphin is really golden on p age fifty three.
4 The translation of Spanish to English uses Online Dictionary from
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dict_en_es/

46
Las Terrazas de Coj ίmar . The town is also not very far from Havana so the fish
can be transported to the market of Havana as seen on page seven of the novel. 5
The readers find the word Virgin of Cobre on page t en. Virgin of Cobre is
La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (The Virgin of Charity at Cobre). Cuban
Catholics believe that Virgin of Cobre is the manif estation of Virgin of Mary.
There is a story that three fishermen discovered a floating wooden statue of the
Virgin in 1606 in the Bay of Nipe. Those three fish ermen are Rodrigo, Juan de
Hoyos, and a black boy roughly ten years of age nam ed Juan Moreno. They were
out on a fishing trip in the Bay. While the three f ishermen struggling in a storm
tossed boat, they heard a voice declare, Yo Soy la Virgen de la Caridad “I am the
Virgin of Charity.” The sound came from a wooden s tatue of the Virgin carried a
mulatto baby Jesus and held a cross in the other ha nd. Those three fishermen then
brought the wooden statue of the Virgin to El Cobre , a copper mining town, after
they were salvaged from the raging sea. 6 This means that Santiago is a Cuban
Catholic.

5 further information of Cojimar town at:
– http://www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/ernest-hemingway.htm
– http://www.maryheebner.com/thework/editorial/local_ dives/localdive1.html
– http://www.guije.com/pueblo/ahabana/cojimar/index.h tm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcojimar%2
6start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN
– http://www.cuba-hemingway.com/en/cojimar.asp
– http://www.grossmont.net/mmckenzie/cojimar.htm
6 The myth of Virgin of Cobre at:
– http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/virgincobre111297.html
– http://129.171.53.1/ep/LittleHavana/Monuments/Virgi n1/The_Virgin_Mary/the_virgin_mary.
html
– http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/crown.htm
– http://www.princeton.edu/~marp/rel275/santeria1.htm
– http://www.ibike.org/cuba/espiritu/7-Santiago.htm

47
It is interesting that Santiago and Manolin have co nversation about
American Major League Baseball. Santiago, the main character of the novel, very
fascinates about baseball. Manolin likes American M ajor League Baseball just
seemed to be adjoining to Santiago. Santiago knows The Yankees, 7Indians of
Cleveland, Tigers of Detroit, Reds of Cincinnati, W hite Sox of Chicago (p. 11)
which belong to the American League and also Brookl yn Dodgers and
Philadelphia (p. 14) 8members of National League of American Major League
Baseball. Later Santiago and Manolin have a convers ation about DiMaggio, 9Dick
Sisler, 10 John J. McGraw, 11 Durocher, 12 Luque, 13 and Mike Gonzalez 14 on page
eleven until page sixteen. It gives a particular re flection that Santiago is a big fan
of American Major League Baseball.

– http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:VFMct7-
UpJMJ:www.cubanembassy.org.gy/Documents/News/Religi on%2520in%2520Cuba.doc+%22E
l+Cobre+town%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3
7 New York Yankees, the member of American League. T he features of the team at:
– http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/al/nyyanks/yankees .html
– http://www.netpath.net/~bauer/team.htm
8American Major Baseball League has two leagues. The leagues are National League and
American League. To have more explanation of this l og on:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_League
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_League
9 a comprehensive biography of DiMaggio at:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_DiMaggio
– http://members.tripod.com/goyankees/joe_dimaggio.ht m
– http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dimaggio/peopleevents/ pande02.html
– http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dimaggio/peopleevents/ pande09.html
– http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/dimaggio/
– http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/dimaggio/kindr ed.html
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ball players/D/DiMaggio_Joe.stm
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/subm it/Attiyeh_Mike4.stm
10 a biography of Dick Sisler at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Dick_Sisler
11 a biography of John J. McGraw at http://en.wikiped ia.org/wiki/John_McGraw_%28baseball%29
12 a biography of Durocher at http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Leo_Durocher
13 a biography of Luque at http://en.wikipedia.org/wi ki/Adolfo_Luque
14 a biography of Mike Gonzalez at http://en.wikipedi a.org/wiki/Mike_Gonzalez

48
Santiago and Manolin know the American Major League Baseball well.
However, to draw a code that both Santiago and Mano lin like baseball is too
innocent. The reading must go beyond this simple co nclusion. The readers know
that Manolin likes American Major League Baseball j ust seemed to be adjoining
to Santiago, but then only the old man’s soliloquy most times in the novel
concerning Joe DiMaggio becomes a new query.
Close reading over the novel discovers the answers for it. Santiago loves the
great DiMaggio because DiMaggio is able to make the difference to the team (p.
14), is a son of fisherman (p. 15), maybe was poor as Santiago and Manolin are
and would understand about fishing and poor conditi on (p. 15), does all things
perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in hi s heel (p. 49-50, 72), will not
concede in any condition (p. 50).
So there is Santiago who compares his cramp left ha nd at that time to
DiMaggio’s bone spur (p. 72), his born to be fisher man to DiMaggio was (p. 28,
78), his poor condition compares to DiMaggio was (p .15), his strong right hand
(p. 52) to DiMaggio’s. The findings take into a con clusion that DiMaggio is a
reflection of Santiago’s idealism. It brings Santia go to keep the faith (p. 6)
whatsoever the condition (p. 50) to be successful i n life as DiMaggio right at that
moment. But Santiago later realizes the fact that s uccess or changing in life needs
more than a pray, a faith, and an expertise. It nee ds also a luck; “a thing that
comes in many forms and who can recognize her? (p. 87) A luck that Santiago
refers to the fate; unrecognized matter.

49
While the setting of time is plain to see, the mont h of September (p. 12, 55),
the novel itself actually gives the code to the rea ders regarding the setting of time.
The code contains four facts. The facts are (1) the Indians of Cleveland and the
Tigers of Detroit are the Yankees’ oppressive rival s (p. 11), (2) the month is
September (p. 12, 55), (3) New York Yankees loses t heir game in day eighty four
of the novel (p. 14), and (4) Joe DiMaggio has a pa in of the bone spur in his heel
(p. 50, 72). Most readers never pay attention to th ese four facts. The close reading
over the novel brings the readers to break the code .
Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio was born on 25 November 191 4 in Martinez,
California. DiMaggio was a fisherman’s son. He is c onsidered as one of the
greatest players in American baseball history. His professional carrier began when
he started to play for San Fransisco Seals on 1 Oct ober 1932. Pacific Seals was a
team of Pacific Coast League (PCL). DiMaggio broke the hitting streak league
record for 61 hits in 1933. The New York Yankees bo ught DiMaggio from San
Fransisco Seals on 23 November 1934 after demonstra ting the bright seasons in
PCL. The deal was to let DiMaggio played another ye ar for San Fransisco Seals
before he set up to Yankees. 1935 was DiMaggio’s ye ar, he was voted as PCL
most valuable player. In 1936, DiMaggio moved to Ne w York Yankees. New
York Yankees is the greatest team in American Baseb all history. The greatness of
Yankees started with the coming of Babe Ruth in 191 9 from Boston Red Sox, and
then DiMaggio joined later in 1936. The contributio n of DiMaggio set the team to
win 10 American League pennants and nine World Seri es championships. He

50
played for Yankees from 1936 until his retirement o n 11 December 1951.
DiMaggio’s two years, 1943-1945, were used for mili tary service during world
war II. DiMaggio had to remove a 3-inch bone spur f rom his left heel in a surgery
in 1947. But it was not the end of his carrier.
DiMaggio played his games full of pain in 1948 but he became the leader of
American League for home run and total bases. He co ntinued to play until his
retirement in 1951. His retirement in 1951 shocked many people who enjoyed
baseball. But the pain from a bone spur forced DiMa ggio not to continue his
bright carrier . He said in a press conference: “I feel I have reach ed the stage where
I can no longer produce for my ball club, my manage r, my teammates, and my
fans the sort of baseball their loyalty to me deser ves.” and he said also “when
baseball is no longer fun, it's no longer a game. A nd so, I've played my last
game.” In addition Dom, DiMaggio’s brother, gave an other reason concerning
DiMaggio’s retirement “He quit because he wasn’t Jo e DiMaggio any more.”
DiMaggio was a picture of a perfect player. He gave his best in every games
he played. In his last season, 1951, DiMaggio was a sked why he did not coast a
bit, take it easy. “Because,” answered DiMaggio, “t here may be some kid who
never see me play before.” The baseball fans used t o call him Joltin Joe because
his righthanded swing was astonishing. He was also named as the Yankee Clipper
because of his elegant and beautiful fielding in th e vast center field of Yankee
Stadium.

51
DiMaggio 13 years of carrier was filled with great records. The inheritance
of his 13-year carrier are 2,214 hits, .325 batting average, 361 home runs and
1,537 RBI. His 61-game hitting streak in 1933 at Pa cific Coast League and 56-
game hitting streak in 1941 at American League are standing still as the top ranks
of baseball records. He was also All-Star for his a ll years of carrier. He hit 361
home runs and he only struck out 369 times during h is lifetime, which is just
beyond reach. He shared major league record for mos t home runs on 24 June
1936, fifth inning. Then also shared modern major l eague record for most triples
on 27 August 1938, first game. DiMaggio was voted a s Most Valuable Player in
1939, 1941, and 1947. DiMaggio’s shirt number (5) w as retired from Yankees in
1952. Later he was elected to baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. DiMaggio died on 8
March 1999. 15
The analysis then starts with the bone spur of DiMa ggio. The analysis of
time is limited from the year 1947 until DiMaggio’s retirement in 1951. The
reason of this limitation is the sentence from Sant iago on page forty nine to fifty
that Santiago admires DiMaggio who plays well even with the pain of the bone
spur in his heel. To be noticed by the readers that the pain of the bone spur in
DiMaggio’s heel started in 1947 that caused DiMaggi o to have a bone spur
surgery in early 1947.
The limitation is to be made again to be from the y ear 1947 until Sunday, 25
September 1949. This limitation is made because San tiago as a big fan and knows

15 See footnote no 9.

52
almost anything of DiMaggio never speaking about Di Maggio’s pneumonia in the
novel. DiMaggio had a pneumonia in 1949, that later grew seriously with lung
cancer and killed DiMaggio in 1999. 16 A pneumonia that made him bedridden in
hospital listening his teammate played against Bost on Red Sox at Fenway Park on
25 September 1949. 17 To encourage himself as Santiago does on page 49, 50, and
72, a soliloquy about pneumonia should have been pr esence, but the readers know
that it has been not a bit of soliloquy within the novel about pneumonia.
New limitation then comes to the exact September. T here are three
Septembers indicate the possible month of the novel . 18 September 1947, 1948, and
1949. Readers must be aware of two hints that “they [the Yankees] lost today” (p.
14) in the day eighty four and “he [Santiago] knew that the Yankees of New York
were playing the Tigres of Detroit” (p. 49) in the day eighty six. During
Septembers of those years, Yankees lost at least 25 games. The lost game that
refers to two days before the game against the Tige rs of Detroit is in 15 September
1949. The Yankees lost at home from the Indians of Cleveland by 6 to 10. While
the next two days, which is the game against the Ti gers of Detroit, held in 17
September 1949 at the Yankee Stadium. The Yankees w on the game by slight
winning, 5 to 4.

16 http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/dimaggio/joe_d imaggio_by_kevin_fitzpatric.htm
17 http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chr onology/1949SEPTEMBER.stm
18 The data is taken from:
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chro nology/1947SEPTEMBER.stm
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chro nology/1948SEPTEMBER.stm
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chro nology/1949SEPTEMBER.stm

53
These findings also answer the concern of Manolin a bout Yankees on page
11. Manolin says that he fears both the Tigers of D etroit and the Indians of
Cleveland. The reasons are quit obvious, Tigers of Detroit is the next opponent of
Yankees, while the Indians of Cleveland is the team that have just beaten the
Yankees at the latest game. But the concern is not just as it may be simply seen.
Manolin knows that both the Indians of Cleveland an d the Tigers of Detroit are
the serious contenders for Yankees in season 1949. The Indians of Cleveland is
the defending champion. They win the American Leagu e in season 1948. While
Tigers of Detroit win their title in season 1945, a nd become runner up in seasons
1944, 1946, and 1947. Later Santiago tries to restr ain Manolin’s fear by saying
“Be careful or you will fear even the Reds of Cinci nnati and the White Sox of
Chicago.” The readers must aware of the facts that Reds of Cincinnati and White
Sox of Chicago during that years are weak teams pla yed in the Major League
Baseball. Surprisingly at the end of the American L eague season 1949, the second
position after the Yankees is Red Sox of Boston. Wh ile Indians of Cleveland and
Tigers of Detroit place third and fourth. 19
Thus, the setting of the story is precisely reveale d. The novel is set in Cuba
during 15 – 19 September 1949. The story describes five days of Santiago’s life
and the people around him in Cojímar town. The sea where Santiago goes fishing
and the place for the Sargasso weed lies is the Sar gasso Sea.

19 The Major League Baseball final standings during 19 44 to 1949 are taken from
http://retrosheet.org/

54
The old man says that anyone can be a fisherman in May (p. 12). This line
comes after he says “The month [September is] when the great fish come.” The
utterance seems to be the old man’s expectation abo ut the month of that days,
September. But it is weak to have such kind of argu ment. What weakens the
argument is the following line: “Anyone can be a fi sherman in May.” There must
be a code to be understood. The best month for fish ing in Sargasso Sea is May
while the worst month is September. Though big fish may have catched during the
month, it is the month when fishing must have not g one so far because of
hurricanes and hot temperature. 20
“The moon affects her as it does a woman, he though t” (p. 21). This
sentence makes us wonder what does it mean and why does Santiago specify the
sea as la mar or the feminine one. Everyone knows that the tide of the sea is
affected by the moon’s gravity. 21 But how come these tidal matter becomes
Santiago’s argument to regard the women as similar as the sea. Women are
affected by the moon as the native Americans believ e it and as the researchers
prove it. The women menstrual cycle has relationshi p to the moon. The moon
itself according to researchers has impacts upon th ree things. The three things are

20 more information at:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea
– http://www.ticotravel.com/fishing/fishtarpon.htm
– http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/BW/kg/kg.htm
– http://www.floridagameandfish.com/fishing/bass_fish ing/FL_0905_02/#cont
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_stream
See also page 44 of the novel paragraph number four .
21 for good illustrations see:
– http://science.howstuffworks.com/question72.htm
– http://www.physlink.com/education/AskExperts/ae338. cfm
– http://www.whoi.edu/info/tides.html

55
women menstrual cycle, women ovulation and fertile times, and the emotion of
women. 22 That the sea cannot help herself because the moon affects her as it does
to women is true according to researchers, but to c onclude that Santiago knows
about it because he reads a lot it is another persp ective. One should notice that the
moon affecting women is part of native American myt h also. So the conclusion
goes into three assumptions, that (1) Santiago has red about the myth and follows
it, (2) Santiago has red the research about the moo n’s effect to women, or (3)
Santiago has heard about it. These three assumption s have the same probability
since Santiago lives in America and he is also a ne wspaper reading person.
On page fifty five, Santiago says “The fish is my f riend too”. This shows
that Santiago puts a great respect to the great Mar lin fish (p. 39, 55, 68, 70). He
claims that the fish is his friend without no reaso n. The great Marlin fish becomes
a big success for Santiago. The fish will be the cu re for his eighty four days no
fish at sea (p. 87), the precious fortune (p. 37, 6 8, 70) for him, the evidence that he
is a real man (p. 48), and the source of money that he never imagines before (p.
71-72, 79). The great marlin fish is to be his best achievement in life.
“And pain does not a matter to a man” is a sentence of Santiago on page
sixty two. Santiago shows that the pain means nothi ng to a man in his effort to
gain something. The pain here is not any pain to a man. The novel specifies that
the pain in the sentence above is the pain because the body is wounded. The

22 The articles about this can be found at:
– http://www.menstruation.com.au/periodpages/mooncycl es.html
– http://www.rahoorkhuit.net/devi/moon/bleed.html
– http://www.moonsurfing.com/moonlodge.html

56
wound on the body really means nothing (p. 65) to S antiago. But the pain to his
emotion is really a matter. Losing the chance to ge t the best achievement hurts
much. Santiago cannot help that he is hurt because of it. He feels that the pain
hurts his pride. The pride that he expects from the captured marlin is gone. The
pain is everything and has killed him (p. 89, 92). The sharks that steal his fortune
has caused a great pain to Santiago.
On page seventy seven, Santiago wonders if DiMaggio ever sees the way
Santiago hits the brain of Mako shark with the harp oon. This sentence has never
been noticed by most readers. It is to be remarked, the Santiago’s stroke should
have been seen by DiMaggio. The answer for the que stion comes from
DiMaggio’s baseball carrier. DiMaggio is the great combination for righthanded
batter and pitcher. 23 Santiago says “I wonder how the great DiMaggio wou ld have
liked the way I hit him [the Mako shark] in the bra in [with the harpoon]?” Hitting
with the harpoon means swinging the arm to strike w ith the harpoon. In baseball,
swinging the arm refers to batting (or strike the b all) and pitching (or throwing the
ball on a batter). So, Santiago imagines suppose Di Maggio sees him hit well the
mako shark, like he knows that DiMaggio hits the ba ll well in every game.
On page eighty two, Santiago states that he should have not gone out so far.
Then Santiago repeats this statement again on page eighty six, eighty seven, and
ninety. While on page eighty two and eighty seven S antiago says that going too

23 for further explanation see:
– http://members.tripod.com/goyankees/joe_dimaggio.ht m
– http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ball players/D/DiMaggio_Joe.stm

57
far outside violates his luck. Santiago knows that the failure on retaining the
marlin because of his lack preparation. He was not ready to get that fortune, so
then the lack preparation ruins the fortune that co mes to him. Santiago ever states
about being prepared is important to handle the com ing luck. He says that “It is
better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Th en when luck comes you are
ready.” (p. 23). But then Santiago tries to relieve his failure by saying “Luck is a
thing that comes in many forms and who can recogniz e her?” (p. 87). This relief
does not work for Santiago because later on he clai ms to Manolin that he is not
lucky anymore (p.93).
Santiago slips the chance to get the cure for his e ighty four days no fish at
sea (p. 87), the precious fortune (p. 37, 68, 70) f or him, the evidence that he is a
real man (p. 48), the source of money that he never imagines before (p. 71-72).
Santiago knows that the great marlin fish comes onc e in a life time; a great chance
never come back twice. It happens because, as expla ined above, Santiago does not
recognize the coming luck so he does not have any p reparation. But again, who
can recognize her?
But still there is one code that has not been analy zed. It is Santiago’s dreams
of lions. Santiago dreams about lions in the novel for three times (p. 17, 60, 94)
and on page forty eight Santiago asks himself why d oes he dream of lions.
Santiago does not need to ask himself if he remembe rs about his knowledge of

58
lions. His knowledge of lions very likely comes fro m his reading on the
newspaper. 24
Lions live in a coalition named pride. Each pride g enerally has twenty or
more individuals, typically two males, several fema les, and their cubs. Male lions,
whether they are blood relatives or not, have an un conditional affection for their
coalition partners in their pride. The males always cooperate each other in
defending their territory and their pride form anot her pair of male lions. Female
lions will live with the pride for their entire lif e but the males must fight
competing for leadership in a pride. Males remain w ith a pride as long as they are
able to defend it from other male pairs. A pair of male lions will only last two to
six years before another pair of male lions take ov er the pride and force them
away. 25

24 Campbell made a failure on his Study Guide (p. 116 of the novel) and so did other studies. Th ey
thought that Casablanca refers to the seaport in no rthwest of Africa (Morocco) but actually it is a
seaport near Havana city. They must have not intens ively read to the whole story of the old man’s
remembrance on page 50-51. Their arguments that San tiago has a trip to Casablanca in which
probably the first time Santiago meeting the lions are beyond context because to be frank there are
no lions gathering on the beach. Casablanca on p. 5 0-51 is a seaport in Cuba located less than 10
km from Havana city. Casablanca or Casa Blanca or W hite House of Cuba was an important
seaport for trading in yesteryear, while coal and s ugar are two of the Cuban important
commodities.
further information of Casablanca of Cuba log on to :
– http://207.96.254.9/_a/cities/la_habana/index.html
– http://www.cuba-junky.com/havana/havana-city.htm
– http://www.cuban-beaches.com/havana_city
– http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u =http://www.guije.com/pueblo/municipi
os/habana/casablanca/index.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dc asablanca%2Bcuba%26hl%3Den%2
6lr%3D
– http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/manuscript/Braga/Brag a.htm
25 The description of lions is taken from:
– http://www.zoo.org/educate/fact_sheets/savana/af_li on.htm
– http://www.lionking.org/~sichi/lion.htm

59
The dreams of lions are the inner unconsciousness o f Santiago. He dreams
them because actually in his stream of unconsciousn ess Santiago symbolizes
himself as one of the male lions. The male lions ne ed to prove others for their
pride because any failure will cause them out of th e group. Santiago needs to
prove others that he is not salao . The title from what he used to call as el campeon
is now to be salao . The title of salao means that “you are now not appropriate to
be a fisherman” or in the lions’ world “you are now out of pride.”While the other
studies state that Santiago’s dream of lions means that Santiago remembers his
domination (lions) and powerful (youth) days. They give a reason that Santiago’s
image of lions in his dreams is the result of his v isit in Casablanca, Morocco,
north west Africa. But their arguments are weak bec ause of three reasons (1) The
city they refer to which is Casablanca, Morocco is a fallacy as previously
described on the analysis over codes, (2) there is no lions in a busy seaport such as
Casablanca, Morocco, (3) their arguments do not exp lain why do the lions appear
in the old man’s dreams, and (4) if so they insist that the dream of lions is the
unconscious self of Santiago showing his remembranc e to his glorious youth, then
it does not cover the idea of Havana Coal Company a nd sugar packing within the
novel.

60
2. The Plot
Plot is the sequence of happening in the sense of c ause and effect law. In
other words, plot is a sum of events that are close ly connected from the beginning
to the end of the story.
The novel starts with the description of the settin g, the main character, and
the situation. In the narration, the author describ es the situation of the main
character, Santiago, which becomes the basic for de veloping the story.
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in th e Gulf Stream and
he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a f ish. In the first
forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a
fish the boy’s parents had told him that old man wa s now definitely
and finally salao , which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy
had gone at their orders in another boat which caug ht three good fish
the first week. (p. 5)

Santiago has not caught a single fish in eighty-fou r days. In the first forty-
four days, a boy has kept company with the old man. After the old man gets no
fish for forty days, people then call him as salao . It means that the old man has no
luck anymore. The boy’s parents forbid the boy from fishing with the old man’s
skiff and order the boy to go in another boat, whic h catches many fish. The old
man has been eighty seven days without fish before that day, and his eighty four
days without fish now comes to hit him. This second period of bad luck days has
been last for day eighty four.
In that day, the boy asks Santiago to let him join in Santiago’s skiff again.
The boy believes that Santiago’s salao will not last forever. The boy remembers
that Santiago’s no fish days had happened before an d it ended. Then he and the

61
old man caught big ones every day for three weeks. The boy has strong belief that
this recent situation will come to an end also. San tiago does not permit the boy,
Manolin, to go fishing with him. Santiago argues th at Manolin should obey his
parents and stay fishing with lucky boat.
“Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where
the skiff was hauled up. “I could go with you again . We’ve made
some money.”
The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.
“No,” the old man said. “You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”
(p. 6)
If you were my boy I’d take you out and gamble,” he said. “But you
are your father’s and your mother’s and you are in a lucky boat.” (p.
8)

In the day eighty five, Santiago arranges to go far out into the sea. He gets
nothing to lose, eighty four days without any fish is not good. Santiago is sure that
day eighty five will bring him luck (p. 12). He kno ws that he must go far to catch
a big fish. He knows that September is the worst mo nth of the year to go far out
fishing. But he feels that day is the right time to go far out the sea. He tries to push
his luck this time (p. 29).
He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept
well within his speed and the surface of the ocean wa flat except for
the occasional swirls of the current. He was lettin g the current do a
third of the work and as it started to be light he saw he was already
further out than he had hoped to be at this hour.
I worked the deep wells for a week and did nothing, he thought.
Today I’ll work out where the schools of bonita and albacore are and
maybe there will be a big one with them (p. 21).

Later on, a marlin fish gets on bait. Santiago trie s to struck the fish by
pulling its cord. He wants to raise the fish. He kn ows that this time is a marlin
fish. His experience has taught him a lesson, this marlin fish must be big. Santiago

62
cannot raise the fish even an inch instead the fish pulls the skiff slowly towards
the northwest. Santiago is lucky to have the marlin fish travelling and not going
down (p. 32).
Santiago has knowledge of the difference between ma le marlin fish and
female marlin fish. The female one is panic when sh e gets baited. This great
marlin takes the bait like a male, pulls like a mal e, and is not panic. So Santiago
knows for sure that this great marlin must be a mal e one. (p. 35). That day is day
of eighty six. It is the day when the old man start s to feel alone. He has no one
beside him. The old man pities himself not to take Manolin with him.
The combination of headed north fish and the curren t sets the movement of
the skiff towards eastward. The fish gets no tire c onsidering his steady movement
pulling the skiff. But the old man is glad to see t he fish swims at a lesser depth. It
makes him to start designing his plan to kill the f ish.
“He’s headed north,” the old man said. The current will have set us
far to the eastward, he thought. I wish he would tu rn with the current.
That would show that he was tiring.
When the sun had risen further the old man realized that the fish was
not tiring. There was only one favorable sign. The slant of the line
showed he was swimming at a lesser depth. That did not necessarily
mean that he would jump. But he might.
“God let him jump,” the old man said. “I have enoug h line to handle
him.”
Maybe if I can increase the tension just a little i t will hurt him and he
will jump, he thought. Now that it is daylight let him jump so that
he’ll fill the sacks along his backbone with air an d then he cannot go
deep to die. (p. 38-39)

The old man understands the situation. He is alone and tries to conquer a
great marlin which measures two feet longer than th e skiff. The great marlin fish

63
is the biggest fish he has never seen in his entire life. The old man begins praying
to God for help (p. 46-48). But then Santiago notic es that the great marlin has not
eaten since the fish takes the bait. Santiago begin s comparing himself to the fish.
The fish has nothing to eat but pain in his corner of his tightened mouth (p. 55-
56). Santiago has eaten the whole tuna (p. 43) he c atched at the beginning of his
fishing day (p. 27-28) or perhaps it comes from Man olin (p. 22) and he has also a
recently catched dolphin (p. 53, 59) and flying fis h (p. 59) for the day. Santiago
thinks that he is in advantageous position because the great marlin has not eaten
since he takes the bait.
He believes that the great marlin fish is resting, so it is the time to butcher
the dolphin to get his meal instead to eat it later . Santiago must be prepared for
anything. He starts to eat the dolphin in order to sustain his power (p. 57).
“He [the great marlin fish] is tiring or he is rest ing.” The old man
said. “Now let me get through eating of this dolphi n and get some rest
and a little sleep.”
Under the stars and the white night colder all the time he ate half of
one of the dolphin fillets and one of the flying fi sh, gutted and with
its head cut off.
“What an excellent fish dolphin is to eat cooked,” he said. “And what
a miserable fish raw. I will never go in a boat aga in without salt or
limes.” (p. 58-59)

In the day eighty seven, the old man sleeps (p. 59- 60). He wakes because the
sudden pull of the great marlin fish (p. 60). Santi ago thinks that the great marlin
fish must pay for the jerking line. But then Santia go wonders what makes the
great marlin start to panic. The great marlin jumps more than a dozen times
because of something Santiago does not know yet. Th e great marlin fish later

64
circles the skiff. The fish beats the wire many tim es but then he stops and starts
circling again (p. 60-65). The fish then comes near by the skiff, the fish has no
power to pull the skiff anymore. Finally the great marlin fish is defeated after
three lashes of harpoon. The first lash hits the fi sh’s side just behind the giant
chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man’s chest (p. 69). The
second strikes the fish’s shoulder which causes the sea red blood colored (p. 70).
The final lash finds the fish’s gills and out his j aws (p. 71).
Unfortunate for Santiago, an hour later a shark hit s his great marlin fish. A
big mako shark comes because he smells the blood fr om the marlin. This mako
shark swims very fast and has frightening jaws.
He was a very big mako shark build to swim as fast as the fastest fish
in the sea and everything about him was beautiful e xcept his jaws.
His back was as blue as a sword fish’s and his bell y was silver and
his hide was smooth and handsome. He was built as s word fish
except for his huge jaws which were tight shut now as he swam fast,
just under the surface with his dorsal fin knifing through the water
without wavering. (p. 74)

Santiago gives his best attempt to keep his great m arlin fish. The old man is
sad to see his fortune has been mutilated by the ma ko shark. The mako shark
steals about forty pounds of the marlin’s meat. The mako shark is defeated later
when the old man is successful to stab his harpoon onto the shark’s head. The
mako shark brings the old man’s harpoon and all rop es down to the depth of the
sea. The old man knows that there will be other sha rks coming near (p. 76).
The old man needs weapon to protect his fortune tha t has lost about forty
pounds of its original weight. Then he makes weapon from his knife lashed with

65
the oar (p. 77, 80). The second attack for the grea t marlin fish comes ahead. It is
two shovel-nosed sharks. They attack the old man cl everly. One of them shakes
the skiff while the others hits the great marlin fi sh. The two shovel-nosed sharks
leave the skiff after they are lashed by the old ma n.
The next shark comes to the skiff is a single shove l-nose. The old man lets
the shark hits the great marlin fish, but then the old man drives the knife on the
oar down into the shark’s brain. The single shovel- nose shark slowly dies sinking
in the water (p. 83).
Just before sunset of the day, two sharks of shovel -nosed strike the great
marlin fish. The old man tries hard to get rid the sharks from the great marlin fish.
But still, the sharks get the meat of the great mar lin fish before they slide down
from the fish. The great marlin fish is now half to re apart (p. 84-85). The night
comes and the old man realizes that he cannot defen d his half ruined fortune. He
feels sorry to the great marlin fish to get them bo th in a bad situation. The old man
likes to think of the great marlin fish and what he could do to a shark if he were
swimming free (p. 86). The old man starts to loose his determination. The old man
knows that it will be over as the night comes by.
In the midnight of the day the old man tries hard t o save his half ruined
fortune, but it is useless. There are too many shar ks to hit his fortune and it is hard
to fight without light at night. The old man can ha rdly believe what just has
happened (p. 88). Feeling desperate, the old man sp its into the ocean and says,
“Eat that, Galanos . And make a dream you’ve killed a man.” (p. 89)

66
In the eighty eight day, the old man sails home. He is broken hearted and
too tired when he arrives at the beach. He must sit down five times before he gets
into his shack. Inside the shack, the old man sleep s deeply. The old man wakes
when Manolin gets him a glass of coffee in the morn ing day. Manolin enforces the
old man to put him in the old man’s skiff again. Ma nolin does not care about his
parent’s order. The old man agrees to Manolin. Late r on, the old man gets his
second sleep after his most memorable journey (p. 8 9-94).
The beginning of the plot starts with the first pag e of the novel (p. 5). The
first passage presents the readers with the situati on; a potential conflict. Another
bad day from a series of eighty four day without ta king a fish for an old man who
fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream. This pa ssage also gives the readers
information about the setting of place.
The next two passages then inform the old man’s app earance (p.5-6). An old
man who has beautiful blue eyes and the undefeated spirit within. The next
paragraphs later develop the story. A boy named Man olin who sympathizes with
the old man and how well does the connection betwee n them (p. 6-19). Between
the introduction of Santiago-Manolin and the descri ption of their relationship,
there is also a segment when Santiago and Manolin t alk about Martin, the owner
of Terrace restaurant (p. 13-14). The end of the be ginning section to be the mid
section of the plot is marked by this passage:
He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept
well within his speed and the surface of the ocean was flat except for
the occasional swirls of the current. He was lettin g the current do a

67
third of the work and it started to be light he saw he was already
further out than he had hoped to be at this hour (p . 21).

The potential conflicts in the beginning of the plo t are:
1. Santiago, or the main character, has a problem. He has been a mockery object
in his town by some fishermen because his 84 days o f fishing without any fish
(p. 5-7).
2. Santiago believes the day eighty five will be a goo d day for him, that is why
he convinces Manolin, a young boy and friend of him , that the next day he
will catch a big fish.
3. Santiago needs a proof that he is not worth to be m ocked and underestimated.
The middle of the plot is the development of the be ginning of the plot. This
passage is a phase when potential conflict begins t o arouse.
I worked the deep wells for a week and did nothing, he thought.
Today I’ll work out where the schools of bonita and albacore are and
maybe there will be a big one with them (p. 21)

The old man, Santiago, has run out his patient. He has got eighty four days of
fishing without any fish. He knows that there is no way out to cut off his insulted
pride and to keep his promise to Manolin but today. He says on page twenty nine
“But today is eighty five days and I should fish th e day well.”
This continues also to the point when the conflict reaches its highest
intensity. The following passages of the novel show how does the tension
increase. It begins with the big marlin taking the bait (p. 31) and then the dropping
mental condition of Santiago.

68
Santiago has declining mental condition because fou r reasons. The reasons
are: (1) He is an alone old man (p. 34), (2) He fee ls pity to the wonderful and
strange fish he hooked (p. 35), (3) He has no plan to conquer the fish (p. 35), and
(4) Santiago knows that this journey will take much time.
The situation gets worst. The plot tension continue s to increase. Its intensity
grows as Santiago expresses displeasure for the pai n in his back (p. 38) and the
cramp on his left hand (p. 42). Even though it is f or a short time because “at noon
the old man’s left hand was uncramped” (p. 47). But it is not the end of the
increasing tension, just then the fish demonstrates his greatness (p. 45-46).
Santiago astonishes for its size (p. 46, 48). He st arts to pray to God and makes
plan to kill the fish. Later on, the plot raises ag ain. Santiago wonders why does the
fish start to panic, it is weird (p. 62). The old m an gets more worry also because
he feels faint and dizzy (p. 64) and the panic fish starts to circling nearby the skiff
(p. 64).
The climax is about to come. The old man sweats of waiting to kill the fish
that is getting nearer to the skiff (p. 67). The ol d man tries hard over and over
again to lash the fish with his harpoon (p. 68-69). The climax is marked by the
lash of harpoon onto the fish’s body that ending th e fish’s life (p. 69-70). Then the
plot starts to decline. The old man has the fish di ed and he begins his way home
(p. 72-73).
The plot raises again to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth climax.
Each climax is identified by the attack of the shar k(s).

69
They sailed weel and the old man soaked his hands i n the salt water
and tried to keep his head clear. There were high c umulus clouds and
enough cirrus above them so that the old man knew t he breeze would
last all night. The old man looked at the fish cons tantly to makesure it
was true. It was an hour before the first shark hit him. (p. 74)

The first shark to come is a very big mako shark (p . 74). The sharks come because
of the invitation of the great marlin’s blood. The mako shark takes about forty
pounds the flesh of the great marlin fish before ge ts killed by the old man (p. 76).
The same case happens again then. The second attack is the two shovel-nose
sharks (p. 79-80) that take a quarter of the great marlin weight (p. 81). The third
attack is a single shovel-nose shark. Then the plot declines for a moment just to
get intensified again. It starts to increase with a sentence “The sharks did not hit
him again until just before sunset.” (p. 84). It is two shovel-nose sharks’ attack (p.
84). The fifth attack happens in the night (p. 88). It is an attack by lots of sharks.
The old man cannot do anything because it is dark a t night. Then the plot declines
surely. The conflict come to a new stability.
The end of the plot is marked by the lost of the ol d man’s determination.
Some point of stability is reached. The old man kno ws that it is useless to fight the
great marlin in the night against a pack of sharks (p. 89). It means also that he
must give up. This surrender is the resolution of t he conflict.
He knew he was beaten now finally and without remed y and he went
back to the stern and found the jagged end of the t iller would fit in the
slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. He settled the sack
around his shoulders and put the skiff on her cours e. He sailed lighty
now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind. He was
past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as
well and as intelligently as he could. (p. 89)

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The story ends with the failure of Santiago to prov e that he is not salao .
Santiago knows that how hard will he try, it is luc k giving the result for every
effort. The luck is not with him at that time and h e must realize it. It is engaging
attention that Manolin gives the statement to encou rage Santiago. “The hell with
luck, I’ll bring the luck with me.” (p. 93), a sent ence that actually refers to
preceding Santiago’s soliloquy; “and what beat you, he [Santiago] thought,
nothing,…I went out too far.” (p. 89-90). It is wor th much for every trying
whatsoever the result.
There are only two times the plot is brought to pas t days. The first is when
the narration goes to the time Santiago has hooked one of a pair of marlin (p. 35-
36) and the second is when Santiago remembered his younger age in the tavern at
Casablanca having an arm wrestling against the grea t negro from Cienfuegos (p.
50-51) and later continues with rematch on the next spring (p. 51-52). These two
flashback are influential to the plot development. The first flashback explains how
the old man knows the gender and the characteristic of the any marlin fish. It
gives contribution also to explain the old man expe rtise on catching marlin fish.
The second flashback constructs the image to the re aders how strong the old
man’s right hand is. The readers are able to imagin e the fight against the great
marlin fish and the sharks with single right hand b ecause the old man’s left hand
is weak. Even though the old man is now not young a nymore, but he has “strange
shoulders, still powerful although very old, and th e neck was still strong too.” (p.
12) and he knows to preserve his youth power (p. 26 -27).

71
The plausibility exist in the plot of The Old Man and The Sea . The sequence
within the plot is logic in its own story. The deve lopment of the plot shows a
logical progression.
1. The old man with strong right hand goes far out to the sea to end the mockery
on him. The mockery says that he is a complete salao because of having no
fish catched for eighty four days (p. 5).
2. The old man gets a great marlin fish hooked (p. 31) .
3. The old man gets a fight against a great marlin fis h. The great marlin is not an
easy catch because of its big size. He thanks God f or making the fish not
going down but travelling (p. 32). The going down f ish will sink the skiff.
4. The old man gets feared also because of the great m arlin’s size (p. 46)
5. Then the old man prays (p. 47) to win the fight aga inst the great marlin fish.
6. He wins the fight because of his skill (old fisherm an
lots of experience and
tricks or resolutions), patient, enormous effort, a nd luck. He ties the body of
the great marlin fish on his skiff side (p. 72).
7. The sharks come because the great marlin blood disp erses in the mile deep sea
(p. 74).
8. The old man cannot fight a lot of sharks that attac k the great marlin fish on his
skiff side because of lacking of weapon, alone, an d the dark of the night.
The surprise component presents on page seventy fou r. The readers expect
the story to be finish when the old man has overcom e the great marlin fish. But
before it comes to surprise, the plot gives a suspe nse on page fifty. The suspense

72
is when Santiago says “Unless shark come,… God pity him and me.” The readers
expect that the great marlin fish is defeat by the old man, and it happens later on
page sixty nine. But a suspense on page fifty shake s the readers’ expectation. It
keeps the readers to finish reading the novel.

3. The Theme and Symbol
Theme in a novel is what the novel really about. Th e novel focuses on two
characters, Santiago and Manolin. The novel begins with the descriptions of
Santiago and then Manolin. The descriptions are not just who they are but it is
also the relationship between Santiago and Manolin. Santiago, the old man, is a
teacher for the young Manolin. While Santiago consi ders Manolin as his best
friend (p. 5-19).
In the middle of the novel, Santiago at sea in his little skiff must overcome
both loneliness and problems. The problems are the great marlin and later on the
sharks. He has no one to help him but God, then he starts to pray to God to give
him power and solution. Santiago hopes that the gre at marlin fish is defeated. He
thinks that the great marlin is his biggest achieve ment.
He started to pull the fish in to have him alongsid e so that he could
pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast
alongside the bow. I want to see him, he thought, a nd to touch and to
feel him. He is my fortune, he thought (p. 70).

Then the sharks come to steal Santiago’s fortune. S antiago tries hard to
hinder the sharks stealing his fortune, but Santiag o fails. He fights in desperate.
He knows that he has little hope (p. 75) but he enc ourages himself that whatsoever

73
a man is not made for defeat (p. 76). He knows that the attacks of the sharks is not
a fair challenge for him but he must do something t o protect his fortune.
He knew quite well the pattern of what could happen when he
reached the inner part of the current. But there wa s nothing to be done
now.
“Yes there is,” he said aloud. “I can lash my knife to the butt of one
of the oars.” …
“I am still an old man. But I am not unarmed.”(p. 7 7).

Santiago loses his battle against the sharks. Santi ago is defeated by the
sharks. He wonders whether this happens to him. San tiago thinks that he should
bring many things before, but he did not.
You should have brought many things, he thought. Bu t you did not
bring them, old man. Now is no time to think of wha t you do not
have. Think of what you can do with what there is. (p. 82)

Santiago is tired of all his efforts to stay focus in the battle. He knows that
his fortune will be stolen by the sharks. The shark s beat the old man. When the
old man realizes that he is beaten, the last thing in his head is home (p. 83).
Santiago talks to his fortune, the great marlin fis h, that he is sorry to bring
both of them in a routed situation. He is sorry to ruin both of them. Santiago says:
“Half fish,” he said. “Fish that you were. I am sor ry that I went too far out. I
ruined us both. (p. 86).
Santiago is emotionally and physically wounded. Not hing is left in him, he
opposes something that he does not comprehend. The pain causes by it is
everything (p. 56). He can not say that pain does n ot matter to a man as he does

74
before (p. 62). Nor he can not say that he is not m ade for defeat as he does before
(p. 76). But Santiago says that he is beaten badly.
He spat into the ocean and said, “Eat that, Galanos . And make a
dream you’ve kill a man.”
He knew he was beaten now finally and without remed y and he went
back to the stern and found the jagged end of the t iller would fit in the
slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. (p . 89)

But then he asks himself, what beat him. But Santia go finds that nothing
beats him, he just goes too far (p. 89-90). At sea while Santiago is alone, he
regards that nothing he has lost. But later on, whe n Santiago arrives on the island
he knows that he has been defeated.
Finally the old man woke.
“Don’t sit up,” the boy said. “Drink this.” He pour ed some of the
cofee in a glass.
The old man took it and drank it.
“They beat me, Manolin,” he said. “They trully beat me.”
“He didn’t beat you. Not the fish.”
“No. Truly. It was afterwards.” (p. 92)

The thematic oppositions of the novel are young/old , victory /defeat,
honor/dishonor, fate/effort, and kindheartedness/he artless. The old Santiago
reflects man at old period while the young Manolin is the reflection of man at
youth. Youth is always full of spirit and faithful (p. 6). The youth often has
tendencies to break the rule (p. 93). The youth thi nks and acts emotionally rather
than realistically (p. 8). The youth is not afraid to suffer a loss because they have
much time (p. 16). The time the youth has means lot s of chances to correct his
failure. While being old means having no much time. Although the old has

75
experience more than the youth (p. 9, 16), but the old runs out his time to do
something in his remaining days.
The second and the third thematic opposition from t he novel is
victory/defeat and honor/dishonor. This thematic op position becomes the
emphasis of the novel The Old Man and The Sea . Everything is a struggle, human
put a stake to all activities. The stake is the pri de. Victory gives you honor and
defeat gives you nothing but dishonor. Most people do not see how the battle
goes, they tend to respect the victorious one. Sant iago is an expert fisherman and
has a lot of tricks (p. 9, 16) but most people do n ot take it into account. The
people still appoint Santiago as salao (p. 5). That is why Santiago claims himself
in the end of the story that he is not lucky anymor e or the other words of salao (p.
93). It is interesting also to note that in the fir st paragraph there is a sentence “The
sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it l ooked like the flag of permanent
defeat”(p. 5). That is what a man gets for his defe at: patched and furled on the
face. Most people do not remark how the battle goes and how the struggle within
one’s soul but they see what they see with their ey es. It is because “the ocean is
very big and a skiff is small and hard to see.” (p. 92-93), “they should be able to
see…if they do not fly too high.” (p. 52). It means that the eyes are not sharp
enough to make a complete picture of something, but most people count on their
eyes to make the picture and to judge it. As Santia go goes back from the sea, he
has nothing but only skeleton, head, and tail of th e great marlin to prove to other

76
fishermen. Most people need a perfect evidence but Santiago cannot do anything
to repair the crushed achievement.
Another thematic opposition offers by the novel The Old Man and The Sea
is fate of a man/effort of a man. Santiago ever que stions himself wether should he
become a fisherman. Then he answers the question th at fishing is the profession
he was born for (p. 36). On the previous page, exac tly on page twenty, Santiago
asks similar question to himself concerning the sma ll delicate dark terns birds.
An old fisherman overcoming a great marlin is a mir aculous event. But then
the sharks destroy the great marlin is unexpected h appening. An effort of a man is
defeated by fate. As Santiago says it in repetition s on page 92, “They trully beat
me” and “No. Truly. It was afterwards”. It seems th at Santiago refers the word
they to the sharks that steal his fortune, but the comi ng of the sharks surely refers
to the fate. A matter that even a great man can do nothing about it.
The main character, Santiago, performs his kindhear tedness all over the
story. But the readers must conduct a prudent readi ng over the novel The Old Man
and The Sea . There is a thematic opposition which is implicit. It is
kindheartedness/heartless. The old man reflects his heartless characteristic on
page fifty seven. He says that the suffered great m arlin must not rest and must pull
the skiff until the fish dies. This line shows the complicated characteristics of
Santiago. Before this line, Santiago says that the fish is his friend (p. 55). He
states that he respects and loves the great marlin fish (p. 39) because of the
marlin’s calm behaviour, great dignity (p. 55), nob ility, and ability (p. 46, 68).

77
Even the readers find also that Santiago pities the fish (p. 40) but then on page
fourty one Santiago adds “You’re feeling it now, fi sh and so, God knows, am I.”
Santiago does the similar thing about this, being s ympathize to the suffered fish
but then being pleased to his oncoming victory. On page fourty eight, Santiago
says “Although it is unjust, he thought. But I will show him [the great marlin fish]
what a man can do and what a man endures.” Other pa ges that show this
kindheartedness/heartless are pages fifty five, six ty one, and seventy.
The answer of this duality characteristics of Santi ago can be found in the
novel. Santiago argues that man is not much beside the great birds and beasts (p.
50). Later on Santiago describes
Perhaps it was a sin to kill the fish. I suppose it was even though I did
it to keep me alive and feed many people. But then everything is a
sin. …You were born to be fisherman as the fish was born to be a
fish. …You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for
food, he thought. You killed him for pride and beca use you are a
fisherman. …Besides, he thought, everything kills e verything else in
some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me a live. (p. 78-79)

Santiago tries to emphasize his opinion that the ki lling of the great marlin and the
sharks is the nature of fishing. It applies only a single article; kill or be killed.
All those thematic oppositions, young/old – victory /defeat, honor/dishonor –
human’s fate/effort – kindheartedness/heartless, re fer to the struggle of human in
life. This theme, the struggle of human in life, is deducted from those thematic
oppositions. The age of human affects the expectati on towards life. It affects also
to the efforts human make; efforts that create vict ory/defeat condition,
honor/dishonor status but the results of the effort s in many times are the result of

78
the fate. No matter how hard any man tries, being k indheartedness or heartless but
still human do not know the result for sure.
Symbol dwells within every text because it always p resents something.
Some in explicit ways but some in implicit ways. Th e readers put themselves as
homo significans , thus they produce symbolic condensation of the te xt. The
readers never take the text as autonomous subject r adically. Indeed, the text is
autonomous in itself. But then the fact comes ahead that there always lies
something beneath it. The readers always seek somet hing within the text. So then,
the readers creates their own semion . They relate what is written in the text with
their world and give meaning for the text based on their references.
The readers get these topics while doing a close re ading over the novel:
1. The sea is a place for fishing and fishing needs lu ck
The world is a place for living and living needs lu ck
2. The novel calls the sea as el mar or la mar , it depends on how they view the
sea.
The readers call the world as bold or beautiful , it depends on which side they
stand.
3. The novel shows the struggle of an alone man at the sea.
The world is place for every man to struggle by him self
4. The close reading on codes itself gives the readers a description of destiny.
Santiago and DiMaggio are almost the same, they dif fer only in age. Both of
them give their best in life, but Santiago is poor and mocked while DiMaggio

79
is rich and famous. This comparison between Santiag o and DiMaggio causes
an impression that this novel talks about destiny. Destiny makes them to be
different each other.
5. The novel describes the struggle in particular way and the novel ends with the
lose of the old man because of bad luck.
The world is a stage of destiny.
Those topics in The Old Man and The Sea produce an image of the struggle
of human in life. The comparisons are implied but t he readers recognize them.

4. The Characters
Character is a fictional person described or impers onated in a work of
imaginative literature. The writer analyzes only th e characters who take important
role in the novel. Some characters involved in the novel are excluded from the
analysis since they do not have massive contributio n in the story.
a. Santiago
Santiago is the hero of the story. He is an old Cub an fisherman. In the
beginning of the story he is told as having bad luc k for eighty four days without
catching any single fish.
Santiago appearance is drawn in the beginning of th is novel into these
descriptions:
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles i n the back of his
neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin can cer the sun
brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were o n his cheeks. The
blotches ran well down the sides of his face and hi s hands had the

80
deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none
of these scars were fresh. They were as old as eros ions in a fishless
desert. (p. 5-6).

Although he is an old man, but his eyes shines a vi vid spirit: “Everything
about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and
were cheerful and undefeated” (p. 6). He has strong shoulders and his neck is still
strong too (p. 12). Santiago knows to take care him self. He often eats white eggs
of turtle to give himself an extra power during per iods of time (p. 26) and he also
drinks a cup of shark liver oil each day to give hi m good stamina and good vision
(p. 27). He is a skillfull fisherman (p. 37). He ha s a powerful right hand. Santiago
was called as the champion because his strong right hand made him to win a great
arm wrestling against the great negro from Cienfueg os at his younger age (p. 50-
52).
Santiago is a wise man also. Santiago shows his wis dom by forbidding
Manolin to join in his unlucky boat. Santiago gives his wise arguments that
Manolin should obey his parents and must follow log ical reason rather than his
emotion. Manolin should still in the lucky boat and not in Santiago’s boat. He
advises to Manolin: “If you were my boy I’d take yo u out and gamble,” he said.
“But you are your father’s and your mother’s and yo u are in a lucky boat.” (p. 8).
The old man shows his wisdom in another occasion wh en he is going to
fish. He is kind of person who always thinks far be yond any happening. He says
that “Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a

81
new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rath er be exact. Then when luck
comes you are ready” (p. 23).
In many occasions, Santiago shows his wisdom but se ntimental in his
thought. One time he says that man is born lucky si nce they do not have to kill the
stars, or the moon, or the sun (p. 55). Another tim e he says that the marlin fish
that he has hooked suffers great punishment. He sta tes that the hook means
nothing for the fish, but the punishment of hunger and something that the fish
does not understand mean a big disaster (p. 56). Th en Santiago says also that luck
is a thing that comes in many forms and no one is a ble to recognize it (p. 87).
Santiago is a man full of pride. Although he is ver y poor (p. 12), but he will
not steal to get food. He prefers not to eat than t o lose his pride. Eating food that
comes from stealing according to Santiago is disgra ceful, but it is not disgraceful
to take someone’s gift. Santiago “was too simple to wonder when he had attained
humility. But he knew he had attained it and he kne w it was not disgraceful and it
carried no loss of true pride.” (p. 8-9). In anothe r occasion Santiago shows what
kind of man of him, a man full of pride, when he ad vises Manolin about
borrowing from others. Santiago states about borrow ing from others that he tries
not to borrow, “First you borrow. Then you beg.” (p . 12). He is kind of man that
needs to prove himself. He is proud to be somebody rather than someone,
therefore he tends to show others proofs about his pride (p. 46-48, 72, 77).
Santiago is a sentimental man. One occasion he says that flying fish are his
principal friends. He feels sorry for the small del icate dark terns. Santiago thinks

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that the small delicate dark terns are too delicate and fine for the cruel ocean.
Santiago talks about the sea as a feminine creature . He considers the sea as la
mar ; things that he loves. Santiago thinks of the sea as a kind and beautiful, but
willful, woman, who showers both favors and curses when one least expects them
(p. 20-21). Santiago shows also his empathy to the great fish that he has hooked
(p. 35). In another time, Santiago says to the grea t fish: “I love you and respect
you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” (p. 39). Santiago
feels that it is unjust to kill the fish but he mus t kill him though (p. 48, 55, 78).
Santiago is a religious man. On the brown walls of the flattened overlapping
leaves of the study fibered guano there is a color picture of Jesus’ Sacred Heart.
Next to it, there is a picture of the Virgin of Cob re (p. 10). In the middle of the
sea, there are many times Santiago prays to God to help him to overcome his
problems. Once he prays “God help him to take it.” and then he says “Christ
knows he can’t have gone.” (p. 30) and then again h e prays “God let him jump”
(p. 39), “God help me to have the cramp go” (p. 43) , “God help me endure. I’ll
say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them
now.” (p. 65). He is alone and he realizes that God is the only hope surviving the
battle against the sharks (p. 76).
The old man states that he is not that religious bu t his confession shows his
religiosity. A religious person in some situation b ends his knees before God. He
confesses:

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“I am not religious,’ he said. ‘But I will say ten Our Fathers and ten
Hail Marys that I should catch this fish, and I pro mise to make a
pilgrimage to the Virgin de Cobre if I catch him. T hat is a promise.”
He commenced to say his prayers mechanically. Somet imes he would
be so tired that he could remember the prayer and t hen he would say
them so fast so that they would come automatically. Hail Marys are
easier to say than Our Fathers, he thought.
“Hail Mary full of Grace the Lord is with thee. Ble ssed art thou
among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, J esus. Holy
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of the
death. Amen.” The he added, “Blessed Virgin, pray f or the death of
this fish. Wonderful though he is.” (p. 47).

Santiago likes baseball much. He is the big fans of the Yankees. The
Yankees is one of the teams that play in the Americ an League of American Major
League Baseball. He likes the Yankees because there is a player named Joe
DiMaggio. Santiago believes that the Yankees will n ot lose since Joe DiMaggio
always plays well for the team even when Joe DiMagg io suffers injury. There are
many things that make Santiago loves Joe DiMaggio. First thing to mention is that
Joe DiMaggio as a fisherman’s son maybe as poor as Santiago and the second
thing is that Joe DiMaggio plays full of determinat ion in every chance given (p.
11, 14-15, 49-50, 78).
Santiago is an optimistic person. He realizes that he has no luck for eighty
four days (p. 29) but the fighting spirit is never gone away. Santiago refuses to let
his past bad luck cast a shadow over his upcoming o pportunity. He focuses on
what he is doing and giving the best of him. Manoli n has asked Santiago whether
he is ready to handle a big catch. Santiago answers the question full of confidence.
Santiago says that he is able to handle an upcoming big fish since he knows many
tricks (p. 9). When Manolin, his friend and pupil, gives opinion that Santiago is

84
the best fisherman, Santiago does not reject or acc ept the statement but then he
replies: “I may not be as strong as I think,” the o ld man said. “But I know many
tricks and I have resolution.” (p. 16). Santiago sa ying “My big fish must be
somewhere.” obviously reflects the optimistic spiri t of him (p. 24).
Even great man with battling soul should have a sit uation in his life where
the fighting spirit in the point of decrease. It co mes when Santiago begins to
realize that he is alone. Many times Santiago wishe s that he had had Manolin
beside him, but then many times also he convinces h imself that he has only
himself and he must have resolution (p. 32, 34, 36- 37, 41).
When Santiago commits to fight until the fish is be aten, it shows that his
battling spirit is never extinguished. He proclaims to the fish: “Fish,” he said
softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead. ” (p. 38). Even when Santiago’s
left hand is cramp, his endless fighting spirit man ifests in his words: “Cramp then
if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good.” (p. 42). He tries
to be practical rather than to complain his left ha nd. Santiago then changes his left
hand which is used to handle the cord to the right arm (p. 43). But then in another
time Santiago condemns his cramp. He hates a cramp because it humiliates
oneself especially when one is alone (p. 45).
Santiago shows his determination also in the strugg le against the fish. He is
surely a man that will never give up (p. 46-47). He motivates himself to be calm
and strong (p. 67) because he knows that any pain d oes not really matter to a man

85
(p. 62) and a man is not made for defeat; “a man ca n be destroyed but not
defeated” (p. 76).
The name of Santiago may signify three things. The first meaning is a saint.
This meaning comes from the Spanish word santo ; a saint. Then the second
meaning and the third meaning come from the other n ames of Santiago de Cuba
town. Santiago de Cuba is a town in the southeaster n of the Cuba island 540 miles
from Havana. People call the town as City of Heroes or City of Giants. 26 So then
the second and the third meaning signify a hero or a giant.
The story of The Old Man and The Sea itself reflects these three meaning.
Santiago is a symbol of a saint because he is an in nocent, kind, and religious
person. Santiago may be a symbol of a hero because he fights hard for what he
believes. Santiago may symbolize also a giant becau se he fights alone with a great
marlin fish and lots of sharks while nobody perhaps unable to do that.
b. Manolin
Manolin, Santiago’s friend and disciple, is a good young boy. Manolin
highly respects his teacher, Santiago. Manolin beli eves that the eighty four days
without fish of Santiago’s will come to an end. Man olin usually goes fishing with
Santiago but when his parents command him to go wit h another boat, Manolin
obey his parents. Manolin’s parents argue that the old man is definitely and finally
salao , that is the worst form of unlucky. Manolin goes t o another boat is not

26 This information comes from
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Cuba
– http://www.ibike.org/cuba/espiritu/7-Santiago.htm

86
because he is not loyal to the old man but rather h e is simply a good young boy (p.
5-6).
Manolin is a true friend of Santiago. He is five ye ars old when first time
goes fishing in Santiago’s boat (p. 7). He takes ca re the old man everyday.
Manolin is always there to make sure that Santiago has enough food to eat, a shirt
to wear, and a friend to talk to (p. 7-8, 13-14, 93 , 94). Manolin believes that bad
days may come but it surely goes if one’s has faith . No one will have bad luck all
the time (p. 6). He supports Santiago and convinces the old man that he will be
pleased if Santiago lets him go fishing together ag ain (p. 6, 93).
Manolin is a snivel person. He is sometimes overly emotional. He ever cries
after watching Santiago’s condition back from great battles against the great
Marlin and the sharks. Then again, Manolin cries al so when someone concerns
much to the Marlin fish rather than to Santiago (p. 91-92). It shows also that
Manolin cares the old man so much.
c. Great Marlin
The great marlin is a non-human character but this character is important in
the story line. The great marlin measures eighteen feet from nose to tail (p. 91)
which is two feet longer than the skiff (p. 46). Hi s purple pectoral fins set wide as
wings and the great erect tail slicing through the dark while swimming in the
water (p. 49). His eye is huge and a horse (p. 49). His head and back are dark
purple, the stripes on his sides showed wide and a light lavender. The great
marlin’s sword is as long as a baseball bat and tap ered like a rapier (p. 45). The

87
great marlin’s tail is higher than a big scythe bla de and its color is a pale lavender
(p. 66). Its weight approximately over fifteen hund red pounds (p. 71).
d. Manolin’s Parents
Manolin’s parents are a realistic parents. They mak e Manolin to leave the
old man’s skiff because the old man is salao . Manolin’s parents order Manolin to
go fishing with a lucky boat (p. 5-6).
Manolin’s fatherlikes baseball but not as much as S antiago does. Manolin’s
father thinks that the great man in the American Ma jor League Baseball is John J.
McGraw (p. 15). Manolin’s father has this argument is not because McGraw’s
achievement in American baseball but rather because McGraw often comes to the
town (p. 15).
e. Perico
There is no much information about Perico. Perico i s the owner of a small
food shop ( bodega ) who gives newspapers to Santiago. Santiago is abl e to follow
the news of American Major League Baseball from the newspapers given by
Perico (p. 11).
f. Martin
Martin is the owner of the restaurant named the Ter race. Martin is a
generous person. He has given many things for both the old man and the boy. It
makes the old man tries to pay back for it (p. 13-1 5).

88
5. The Readability
A novel is a work of hierarchical structure. It mea ns also that a work of
literature is structured by elements, the elements within are related each other and
bonded in a single unity. Readers must read a work of literature through analyzing
the language units as the basic stair and then to t he next stair, which is the
coherence and intelligibility of plot, theme, and c haracter.
Readability deals with coherence and intelligibilit y. Coherence and
intelligibility focus on plot, theme, and character . The solid cohesion between
these three elements (plot, theme, and character) m akes a novel to be considered
as having coherence and intelligibility. In other w ords, a novel which conveys a
unity between its plot, theme, and character is a r eadable text.
The novel has its coherence and intelligibility. Th e theme of the novel is
structured by the plot and the character. The strug gle of human in life cannot be
framed into the readers’ mind if the plot does not have a lot of climaxes. The
novel offers the readers a great picture of what is called as ‘fight until death’or
‘stay until succeed or perish’. This kind of fight will not bring a condensation to
the readers’ mind if there is only a climax within the plot.
The character to be a focus is Santiago and it is n ot just a story of any
fisherman. He gets about two third section of the n ovel. The fight that refers to the
struggle of human in life will cause no effect if t he character is weak. It needs a
strong character and Santiago it is.

89
1). Santiago is a man of pride. He has great spirit by the look of his undefeated
eyes, and
2). He is a fisherman who is strong, proficient, and fr ustrated. It makes the three
days journey at sea fighting againsts a great marli n, sharks, pain, loneliness to
cohere within plot.
The fact that Santiago loses the fight just to crea te the theme. The lost of the
fight is not because of the old man’s age. The read ers know that he still has the
power to gain a victory, but it is human’s fate tak ing the result of the fight. It ruins
every human’s effort if the luck is not with him. T he plot, theme, and character
are delivering the big idea; the picture of the str uggle of human in life.

6. The Narrative Contracts
A novel is called as fulfilling poetics of narrativ e contract when a novel
contains scenery or a situation that the readers ca n imagine to be happen or might
be happen in the real world. The readers focus this narrative contracts’ issue upon
three matters: (1) what deductions or connections t he narrator presumed to accept
by his readers (2) how does the narration guide the reader to imagine the novel’s
world, and (3) how is the position of the narrator within a novel to bring the
readers grasping meaning.
The narrator makes such impression to the readers t hat the novel tells a
struggle. At first the narrator starts the story wi th a gloomy situation and then he
makes some hope for it. The gloomy situation is the salao of Santiago but then he

90
presents Santiago as someone who will be able to ov ercome his bad luck by his
undefeated eyes. It happens again in the way narrat or tells the coming of the mako
shark. He does not tell it right after the defeat o f the great marlin, but he
foreshadows it before. The narrator describes the g reat marlin starts to panic
because of something worries him and Santiago start s to think the coming of the
sharks that will destroy his precious fortune. But he postpones at the time when
the readers need to know by saying “It was an hour before the first shark hit him.”
The way the narrator tells the story of the old Cub an fisherman named Santiago is
tremendous.
The narrator gives the readers the situation within the novel. He helps the
readers to get into the story. In the opening of th e novel the narration set up the
atmosphere to the readers. The narrator describes a gloomy setting; an old man, a
perpetual bad luck, isolation, and a permanent defe at.
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in th e Gulf Stream and
he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a f ish. In the first
forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a
fish the boy’s parents had told him that old man wa s now definitely
and finally salao , which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy
had gone at their orders in another boat which caug ht three good fish
the first week. …The sail [of the old man’s skiff] was patched with
flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat (p.
5)

The narrator gives the readers the image of a true poor old man, as the main
character. He makes the readers as if they saw him with their own eyes.
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles i n the back of his
neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin can cer the sun
brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were o n his cheeks. The
blotches ran well down the sides of his face and hi s hands had the

91
deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none
of these scars were fresh. They were as old as eros ions in a fishless
desert.
Everything about him was old except his eyes and th ey were the same
color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated ( p. 5-6).

Then he also puts addition to describe the appearan ce of the old man. He
does it with precision. The narrator explores almos t every detail of the old man.
He contributes also in giving the readers such a pi cture that the old man is poor
also.
They [the old man’s shoulders] were strange shoulde rs, still powerful
although very old, and the neck was still strong to o and the creases
did not show so much when the old man was asleep an d his head
fallen forward. His shirt had been patched so many times that it was
like the sail and the patches were faded to many di fferent shades by
the sun. the old man’s head was very old though an d with his eyes
closed there was no life in his face. The newspaper lay across his
knees and the weight of his arm held it there in th e evening breeze.
He was barefooted. (p. 12-13)

The readers notice also that the narrator describes the old man in detail. For
the other characters, the narrator seems to describ e less rather than the old man.
He puts the old man in the first priority for detai l. The narrator creates such
implicit scheme to the readers that it is the old m an’s story and not the others’.
The narrator makes the readers knows thoroughly abo ut the poor condition
of the old man. The readers are able to imagine the house of a poor old fisherman
because of the narrator’s description. The narrator describes it so realistic.
They walked up the road together to the old man’s s hack and went in
through its open door. The old man leaned the mast with its wrapped
sail against the wall and the boy put the box and t he other gear beside
it. The mast was nearly as long as the one room of the shack. The
shack was made of the tough bud-shields of the roya l palm which are

92
called guano and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place
on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal. (p. 10)

The narrator prefers to use the word shack rather than house . The diction of
the word shack is incomplete, the readers cannot imagine it with the real world
since there is so many shack they can imagine. The description above gives a
picture, that this old man really lives in a poor s mall house.
The narrator helps the readers also in giving the r eason for the coming of
mako shark. The dispersed blood in the water sugges ts the logic reason. The
narrator builds also a particular situation as if t he readers saw the shark with their
very own eyes. His description for the shark’s fin in such a way that he prefers to
use other words. But these words are used in the se nse of terrified situation.
The shark was not an accident. He had some up from the deep down
in the water as the dark cloud of blood had settled and dispersed in
the mile deep sea. He had come up so fast and absol utely without
caution that he broke the surface of the blue water and was in the sun.
then he fell back into the sea and picked up the sc ent and started
swimming on the course the skiff and the fish had t aken. (p. 74)

Other contributions of the narrator to structure th e novel’s world to refer the
readers towards the real world can bee seen also in the analysis on plausibility.
The narrator within the novel acts in many ways. So metimes he is the one
who gives report about the events, situations and o r the sceneries within the novel.
The narrator takes position as the third person in the novel to tell the story to
readers.
He was and old man who fished alone in a skiff in t he Gulf Stream
and he had gone for eighty-four days now without ta king a fish. In the
first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without
a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was definitely

93
and finally salao , which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy
had gone at their orders in another boat which caug ht three good fish
the first week. (p. 5)

The readers may notice that the narrator makes hims elf and the readers outside the
story. If only he and the readers were inside the s tory there would be no such
introduction about the old man and his emphatic con dition. He, the narrator, needs
to introduce the old man and builds the conflict wi thin. It makes the readers start
to wonder who is the old man and how pity he is.
The narrator takes role in the story but he is not involved in the story. He
plays as the reporter. He reports the conversation of the characters within the
novel and gets no involved but observed.
“Santiago,” the boy said.
“Yes,” the old man said. He was holding his glass a nd thinking of
many years ago.
“Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow? ”
“No. Go and play baseball. I can still row and Roge lio will throw the
net.”
“I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you, I w ould like to serve in
some way.”
“You bought me a beer,” the old man said. “You are already a man.”
(p. 7)

This passage shows the characters’ conversation is “neatly and perfectly” record
by the narrator. The readers do not realize that th e narrator, virtually, stands still
there to give report. He does not join the conversa tion but continually gives every
word report of the characters within the novel. Bu t there is an omniscient role
when he reports: “[Santiago was] thinking of many y ears ago”.
He follows the events, situations, and or sceneries with his eyes and tells it
to the readers.

94
When the boy came back the old man was asleep in th e chair and the
sun was down. The boy took the old army blanket off the bed and
spread it over the back of the chair and over the o ld man’s shoulders.
They were strange shoulders, still powerful althoug h very old, and the
neck was still strong too and the creases did not s how so much when
the old man was asleep and his head fallen forward. His shirt had
been patched so many times that it was like the sai l and the patches
were faded to many different shades by the sun. the old man’s head
was very old though and with his eyes closed there was no life in his
face. The newspaper lay across his knees and the we ight of his arm
held it there in the evening breeze. He was barefoo ted. (p. 12-13)

This passage displays the presence of the narrator. He links the readers and the
story smoothly. The readers may make claim that the narrator is not in Santiago’s
shack because it is true, but the narrator gives su ch kind of atmosphere as if he
were there to witness the event by his very own eye s.
The narrator sometimes gives his opinion also in hi s report.
The shark swung over and the old man saw his eye wa s not alive and
then he swung over once again, wrapping himself in two loops of the
rope. The old man knew that he was dead but the sha rk would not
accept it. Then on his back, with his tail lashing and his jaws clicking,
the shark plowed over the water as a speed-boat doe s. The water was
white where his tail beat it and three-quarter of h is body was clear
above the water when the rope came taut, shivered, and then snapped.
The shark lay quietly for a little while on the sur face and the old man
watched him. Then he went down very slowly. (p. 76)

The readers are given in depth report by the narrat or. The narrator does not give
the report of “the shark plowed over the water” but he later adds with words “as a
speed-boat does”. This phrase gives an assumption t hat the narrator wants the
readers to imagine it well since they probably neve r have met a “shark plowed
over the water”. The phrase “as a speed-boat does” helps the readers imagine it
well.

95
Sometimes the narrator switches his position as the omniscient. Readers
understand that an eyewitness does not know what in side one’s mind, but the
narrator tells the story thoroughly. He knows all d etails.
a. The narrator knows what inside a character. He comp rehends what dwells
within a character’s mind.
“Santiago,” the boy said.
“Yes,” the old man said. He was holding his glass and thinking of
many years ago.
“Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow? ”
“No. Go and play baseball. I can still row and Roge lio will throw the
net.”
“I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you, I w ould like to serve in
some way.”
“You bought me a beer,” the old man said. “You are already a man.”
(p. 7)

Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothi ng to eat and his
determination to kill never relaxed in his sorrow f or him. How many
people will he feed, he thought. But are they worth y to eat him? No,
of course not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner
of his behaviour and his great dignity.
I do not understand these things, he thought . But it is good that we do
not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to
live on the sea and kill our true brothers. (p. 55)

The italic words demonstrates the capability of the narrator. He has
omniscient ability as shown by his knowledge to thi ngs dwell inside some
characters’ head.
b. The narrator has knowledge of what happened in the past days.
The old man loved to see the turtles eat them and h e loved to walk on
them on the beach after a storm and hear them pop w hen he stepped
on them with the horny soles of his feet.
He loved green turtles and hawks-bills with their e legance and speed
and their great value and he had a friendly contemp t for the huge,

96
stupid loggerheads, yellow in their armor-plating, strange in their
love-making, and happily eating the Potuguese men-o f-war with their
eyes shut. (p. 26)

The old man had seen many great fish. He had seen m any that
weighed more than a thousand pounds and he had caug ht two of that
size in his life, but never alone. Now alone, and o ut of sight of land,
he was fast to the biggest fish that he had ever se en and bigger than
he had ever heard of, and his left hand was still a s tight as the gripped
claws of an eagle. (p. 46)

No one knows someone’s past days but he experienced it, he is a sorcerer, or
someone tells it. The narrator seems none one of th em. As though the narrator
always besides Santiago and record well every happe ning of Santiago’s life.
The readers, prevalently, never think that the narr ator has such amazing
positions. The narrator can be anything and anywher e he wants inside the
story telling.
c. The narrator knows exactly the dreams of Santiago
The dreams of Santiago are narrated three times on the novel (p. 17, 60, 94).
The narrator tells the old man’s dreams with all th e specifics. One of the
dreams narrated by the narrator is as follows.
He did not dream of the lions but instead of a vast school of porpoises
that stretched for eight or ten miles and it was in the time of their
mating and they would leap high into the air and re turn into the same
hole they had made in the water when they leaped
Then he dreamed that he was in the village on his b ed and there was a
norther and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep because his
head had rested on it instead of a pillow
After that he began to dream of the long yellow bea ch and he saw the
first of the lions come down onto it in the early d ark and then the
other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows
where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-sh ore breeze and he
waited to see if there would be more lions and he w as happy. (p. 60)

97
Again, no one knows a dream when it is happening in someone’s sleeping
time. But in this novel, the narrator knows exactly what is happening inside
the sleeping Santiago.
The role of the narrator is tremendous in the novel The Old Man and The
Sea . The readers can not say “he is fooling us!”, they just follow the unwinding
story without a doubt. Every readers position thems elves as an innocent child who
trust any words from a tremendous narrator. The rea ders, then, become adults
when they finish reading the story. When readers fi nish their reading, they grow
up ; judge the story wether it is plausible or not and may make a symbolic
condensation based on it.
The readers notice also that the narrator describes the old man in detail. For
the other characters, the narrator seems to describ e less rather than the old man.
He puts the old man in the first priority for detai l. The narrator creates such
implicit scheme to the readers that it is the old m an’s story and not the others’.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

The Old Man and The Sea in some ways has defamiliarized the world. It
suceeds to blur the fact and the fiction. The codes within the story is a imaginative
chain to make the flow of the story in certain way to be amazing. Readers are
brought to the setting Cuba during 15 – 19 Septembe r 1949 in Cojímar town. The
story of Santiago in the novel is arranged so well as if it really happened.
The novel itself also gives a didactic message. It says that we do not know
the result of the struggle of every man. It teaches the readers to give their best in
life whatsoever the result.
The Old Man and The Sea gives also such kind conflicts within its world:
Santiago >< Sea
Man >< Sea
Man = Lion

Man >< Woman Lion >< Lioness
Man
Pride Lion
Pride
Man
Recognition
Santiago >< Joe DiMaggio >< Myth of Virgin of Cobr e
Man+Fisherman >< Man >< Fishermen
Poor+Pain+Alone >< Rich+Pain+Alone >< Poor+Three persons
98

99
Great Marlin + >< Great Leagues ( Gran Ligas , p. 49) >< Storm
Sharks +
September
(hurricane month)
More Successful? >< Successful >< Successful

because of his: because of his: because of their:

but

 survival
 (religious)
finding
 new ‘religion’
refers to
Cuban
Catholic  richness
 fame refers to
others’
recognition
 beautiful
woman refers
to his wife
who is an
actress  a saint ?
 a giant ?
 a hero ?

 survival
 endurance
 no wife (she is
dead already)
 no finding but
skeleton, head,
and tail of great
Marlin
 no richness
 the old man is a
lion without a
‘pride’; a defeated
lion
 the irony of a man having
pride

100
The Old Man and The Sea shows the construction of meaning or symbolic cond ensation as the following graph:

struggle of
human in
life Notes:
Code makes the symbolic condensation possible to happen because all aspects are understood in a specific context. Readability makes the symbolic condensation possible exist because all
aspects cohere in creating the
significance . characters
theme
+
symbol plot
narration Santiago vs. Great Marlin + Sharks + Storm
human + fisherman vs. great thing + common things f or a fisherman

 Santiago does his routine activity
 Santiago is a human + fisherman with lots of conflicts
 Santiago is alone at sea

Omniscient
in detail + focusing to a man
 outside and inside  internal and external conflicts towards him
 conscious and unconscious  aware or unaware
 opened with a gloomy
situation but
hope rises within
 lots of climaxes
 closed with a defeat
situation but
new hope moves upward
Sea ≈ Life

 uncertainty
 cruel-beautiful
 lots of conflicts
 a man alone
 sea = fisherman
life = human  hope – effort – success/failure –

new hope
 a man is a lion, contending for respect a man alone vs. complicated things

there is no
clear indicator
of what
successful is
LUCK ;
unrecognized
matter takes
place in result

101
Yes indeed, The Old Man and the Sea is a great completion for a novel as
Baker says that the novel itself stands as Hemingwa y’s epilogue of writing.
However, there is a lack within this novel. The lac k of this novel is in the using of
the terms albacore and bonito . Even though albacore may also be called as bonito
and they only have a slight difference but an exper t fisherman should have known
it. A bonito is smaller than an albacore. The latin name for (Atlantic) bonito is
Sarda sarda 1 while the albacore’s latin name is Thunnus alalunga 2 and both of
them can be found around Sargasso Sea. This knowled ge is beyond common
people’s. Yet excluding this fact, the novel is sti ll a masterpiece of Hemingway.
The Old Man and The Sea according to close reading signifies a symbol of a
struggle of a man in this world.
Close reading succeeds to capture the force of the novel The Old Man and
The Sea . The novel’s force lies upon the defamiliarization within its story. The
close reading over the novel reveals three subjects of the story; the story of
Santiago as the main character of the novel, the my th of Virgin de Cobre, and the
story of Joe Dimaggio. The previous graph shows tha t these three subjects raises a
great question to the close readers: Is it fair to judge people by their
achievements? and the novel has the answer: It is n ot. The Old Man and The Sea ,
as the title saying, clarifies that all of us are j ust a lonely old man carrying out our
skiff on the sea and being recognized by our grante d achievement from God. It is
the luck making us differ from others.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonito
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albacore

102
Reading a literary work needs a total involvement a nd comprehension of it.
The revelation of literary work will be successful if a reader get intimate to the
work. The understanding of code within a literary w ork helps every reader in his
reading process so the outcome, the meaning charged , is not just any given
meaning.
There are many approaches besides Culler’s structur al approach that are
available to conduct another analysis on the novel. This thesis may be a good
information and comparison material for other resea rchers who want to make
another analysis towards the novel The Old Man and The Sea .

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