The Role of Pride in Santiago's Plight - Book Report/Review Example

Pride becomes a tragic force for Santiago when he thinks he can conquer the sharks and the sea. Santiago says: "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" (Hemingway 75). This defeat shows that life struggle is the essence of life for Santiago. Through the main theme, Hemingway states that everyone is responsible for his own actions, and it is useless to blame everything around. Santiago is described as the person full of life experience, but still, he is a weak man influenced by arrogance and greed.

Pride helps Santiago to fight with dignity and honor. For him, it is the only way to avoid new mockery and suffering. He says: You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more' (Hemingway 97). A mature person acts in accordance with his own ethical code developing an approach to life that helps him get through the day.

But certain distinctions made within the scope of these propositions are by no means widely recognized: for instance, fresh, strong feeling in Santiago. Pride in Santiago's plight plays a double role: it helps him to survive and fight with life circumstances and, also, pride defeats him and becomes the main cause of his tragic end. Because of pride, Santiago does not give up but struggles with life and nature. Also, the theme of pride in Santiago's plight shows the hopelessness and futility of people's dreams when life is to be taken as the true image of the human condition: frightened, lonely, Godless, thrown unwillingly into a world influenced by poverty and hardship.