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Santiago's Power of Observation

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Santiago's Power of Observation
Santiago’s power of observation

Through the old man and the sea, Santiago is given heroic proportions. He is “a strange old man,” still powerful and still wise in all the ways of his trade. After he hooks the great marlin, he fights him with epic skill and endurance, he is determined to “fight them until I die,” because he knows that “man is not made for defeat….a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Santiago’s spiritual excellence, confidence, perseverance and conscious of introspection make believe us about his whole life is closely connected with the sea thus he dedicates full effort in fishing. And with all these he contains another very strong characteristic and that is his power of observation. Conscious of introspection helps him to gain courage from his icon DiMaggio. A man possesses such spiritual power has enough reason to win. With his wonderful observation power he picks each and every element, so beautifully that we never feel monotony during our reading the novella.
We come to know about Santiago’s introspection as he sails far out on the sea. In searching for and in catching his big fish, Santiago gains a deepened insight into himself and into his relationship to the rest of created life. For the birds that rests on his line and for other creatures who share with him such a capricious and violent life, the old man feels friendship and loves “the birds have a harder life than we do expect for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful”. He always thought of the see as la mar. He always thought of her as feminine. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.
Santiago sees a man-of-war bird overhead and notices that the bird has spied something in the water. There is a large school of dolphin traveling fast, too fast for either the bird or Santiago to capture. He watched the bird dipped and slanting his

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