Irony-Old Man and the Sea

In the book The Old Man and the Sea Santiago has not caught a fish in eighty four days. He is looking forward to catching the biggest fish of his life. Everyday he compares himself to the great DiMaggio saying would the great DiMaggio do this or that? Yet everyday he goes out on that sea to see if he would be able to catch one fish. On the eighty fifth day he set out to sea, he had his hopes high and ready to catch a big one. Santiago caught the huge fish and stayed out at sea for three days, each day waiting to reel it in. Finally he reels it in and it is too big to haul onto his little boat. The sharks come and eat his great big fish all the way to the carcass. He finally gets home and people mistake it for a shark. The irony of all this is that Santiago set out to sea to see if he could get this big fish. After finding this huge fish, he only comes home with the carcass and nothing to show. The irony is that Santiago had not caught a fish in eighty four days and he finally caught one and it got eaten. Now Santiago has nothing to show anybody, which it was probably the biggest fish he had ever seen or got. When Hemingway says, "What a fish it was, the proprietor said. There has never been such a fish. Those were two fine fish you took yesterday too. Damn my fish, the boy said and he started to cry again. Do you want a drink of any kind? the proprietor asked. No, the boy said. Tell them not to bother Santiago. I'll be back. Tell him how sorry I am. Thanks, the boy said" (Hemingway123). This shows how people feeled sorry for the old man because they new that he had not caught a fish in a long time and it was unlucky that he was unable to bring the big fish home safely.

Bibliography

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.