The Old Man and the Sea Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Santiago

An old Cuban fisherman, eighty-four days without a catch, whose eyes are cheerful and undefeated. He rows farther out than anyone, hooks a marlin longer than his skiff, and fights it for three days—then fights the sharks for the right to keep it. He loses the fish and comes home with the skeleton, but he never loses the fight in himself.

Appears in:: Part 1: Eighty-Four Days of Nothing; Part 2: The Fish That Tows the Boat; Part 3: Two Feet Longer Than the Skiff; Part 4: The Sharks Take Everything
Themes:: Defeat and dignity; Respect for the adversary; Endurance through pain; Age and inheritance; Man and the sea

Manolin

The boy Santiago trained, ordered by his parents onto a luckier boat after forty days. He brings the old man food, helps carry his gear, and cries at his wounds. In the end he defies his parents' arrangement and declares they will fish together again, because he still has much to learn.

Appears in:: Part 1: Eighty-Four Days of Nothing; Part 4: The Sharks Take Everything
Themes:: Defeat and dignity; Age and inheritance

The marlin

The great fish that takes the bait at one hundred fathoms and tows Santiago's skiff for three days. Santiago calls it his brother—greater, more beautiful, calmer, more noble than anything he has seen—and killing it costs him everything he has.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Fish That Tows the Boat; Part 3: Two Feet Longer Than the Skiff; Part 4: The Sharks Take Everything
Themes:: Defeat and dignity; Respect for the adversary

The sharks

The galanos that smell the marlin's blood and strip it to a skeleton on the way home. Santiago calls them killers, not fishermen, and destroys his harpoon, knife, and tiller trying to hold them off.

Appears in:: Part 4: The Sharks Take Everything
Themes:: Defeat and dignity; Respect for the adversary; Man and the sea

How they are connected

Key relationships

Santiago The marlin
He rows farther out than anyone, hooks a marlin longer than his skiff, and fights it for three days—then fights the sharks for the right to keep it.
Santiago The sharks
He rows farther out than anyone, hooks a marlin longer than his skiff, and fights it for three days—then fights the sharks for the right to keep it.
Manolin Santiago
The boy Santiago trained, ordered by his parents onto a luckier boat after forty days.
The sharks The marlin
The galanos that smell the marlin's blood and strip it to a skeleton on the way home.

Go deeper

The Old Man and the Sea themes & symbols

Defeat and dignity · Respect for the adversary · Endurance through pain · Age and inheritance

Themes explained

Read the full The Old Man and the Sea summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

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