THE STORY - SUMMARY AND NOTES

THE DAY AFTER

Manolin finds him in the morning; he's been checking the shack each day, as we would expect. He sees the old man is alive and he cries.

At what? Evidence of the old man's suffering, perhaps-the hands. Or at the tragedy of it all. Like many others, he's seen the skeleton still lashed to Santiago's skiff. It measures eighteen feet. Mark off eighteen feet somewhere, and imagine a fish. Manolin brings coffee. Santiago awakes.

"They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me." "He didn't beat you. Not the fish."

"No. Truly. it was afterwards." The galanos, of course, They did it. At least that's what Santiago is suggesting. He doesn't mention, as he did to himself, that it was "nothing" but his going out too far.

"Now we fish together again." That's Manolin talking. On whose authority will he and Santiago fish together again? Apparently on his own. He's making a break, coming into his own personhood, and he does so boldly: "The hell with luck... I'll bring the luck with me." As for his family's opinion of this and of his previous parental orders, "I do not care."

Is this the redemption bought by Santiago's (Christ's) suffering-the coming into being of a real person? And, if so, is Manolin the leader now? That's one opinion, although Manolin himself says he will fish with Santiago "...for I still have much to learn." He's crying again as he leaves Santiago's shack. In contrast to Manolin's tears (he alone has a depth of feeling for what happened) are the remarks of some tourists who view the skeleton of Santiago's brother.

They think it's a shark. In that case, they have good and evil mixed up, don't they? They do not understand the significance of these events. They see only a skeleton. They are ignorant of the magnificence of Santiago's struggle.

Of course, that often happens. Even Santiago isn't certain of what good and evil really are and he's not about to attempt to solve the problem now.

He's dreaming about the lions.

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