Friendship Quotes - Quotes, The Old Man and the Sea | The Old Man and the Sea - Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

"Santiago," the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. "I could go with you again. We’ve made some money." (1.4)

Only the boy, not the narrator, refers to the old man by name. This suggests that the boy knows him in a way that few do.

The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him. (1.5)

Hemingway uses simplistic language to convey the strength of emotions.

"Yes," the old man said. He was holding his glass and thinking of many years ago.

"Can I go out to get sardines for you for tomorrow?" 

"No. Go and play baseball. I can still row and Rogelio will throw the net." 

"I would like to go. If I cannot fish with you. I would like to serve in some way." (1.17-1.20)

The boy’s love for the old man manifests itself in a desire to help him.

"I remember everything from when we first went together." 

The old man looked at him with his sun-burned, confident loving eyes. (1.26-1.27)

The man and the boy are similar in the value they place on memories of the past.

"Who gave this to you?" 

"Martin. The owner." 

"I must thank him." 

"I thanked him already," the boy said. "You don’t need to thank him." 

"I’ll give him the belly meat of a big fish," the old man said. "Has he done this for us more than once?" 

"I think so." 

"I must give him something more than the belly meat then. He is very thoughtful for us." (1.99-1.105)

One of the old man’s key characteristics is his ability to humbly recognize that others are helping him. He carries no false perceptions in terms of his own abilities, and knows his dependence on others.

Where did you wash? the boy thought. The village water supply was two streets down the road. I must have water here for him, the boy thought, and soap and a good towel. Why am I so thoughtless? I must get him another shirt and a jacket for the winter and some sort of shoes and another blanket. (1.112)

The boy feels so deeply for the old man that nothing he does seems enough to him.

"So do I," the boy said. "Now I must get your sardines and mine and your fresh baits. 

He brings our gear himself. He never wants anyone to carry anything." 

"We’re different," the old man said. "I let you carry things when you were five years old." (2.12-2.13)

The old man’s friendship with the boy is based on mutual respect.

In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do except 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. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea. (2.21)

The old man finds friends on the ocean because he is lonely without the boy.

"The bird is a great help," the old man said. Just then the stern line came taut under his foot, where he had kept a loop of the line, and he dropped his oars and felt tile weight of the small tuna’s shivering pull as he held the line firm and commenced to haul it in. (2.50)

The old man has a supernatural kinship with the sea and its inhabitants; his claim that the bird is "a great help" is immediately followed by confirmation.

"I wish I had the boy" the old man said aloud. "I’m being towed by a fish and I’m the towing bitt. I could make the line fast. But then he could break it. I must hold him all I can and give him line when he must have it. Thank God he is travelling and not going down." (2.77)

The old man’s feelings for the boy are based on the boy’s helpfulness and assistance.

Then he said aloud, "I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this." (2.87)

The old man’s feelings for the boy are based on companionship.

His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us. (2.96)

The old man and the fish necessarily have companionship because of their mutual isolation from the world.

A small bird came toward the skiff from the north. He was a warbler and flying very low over the water. The old man could see that he was very tired. 

The bird made the stern of the boat and rested there. Then he flew around the old man’s head and rested on the line where he was more comfortable. 

"How old are you?" the old man asked the bird. "Is this your first trip?" (3.10-3.12)

The old man makes friends with the creatures of the sea because he identifies similarities between them and himself.

"Stay at my house if you like, bird," he said. "I am sorry I cannot hoist the sail and take you in with the small breeze that is rising. But I am with a friend." 

Just then the fish gave a sudden lurch that pulled the old man down onto the bow and would have pulled him overboard if he had not braced himself and given some line. (3.18, 3.19)

The old man’s statement that the fish is his friend is juxtaposed with their competition.

I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. Slowly and conscientiously he ate all of the wedge-shaped strips of fish. (3.43)

The old man prioritizes his role as a fisherman over his feelings of brotherhood for the fish.

It will uncramp though, he thought. Surely it will uncramp to help my right hand. There are three things that are brothers: the fish and my two hands. It must uncramp. It is unworthy of it to be cramped. The fish had slowed again and was going at his usual pace. (3.63)

The old man is conflicted over the feelings he has for his hand, just as he is towards the fish.

It was dark now as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets in September. He lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he could. The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends. 

"The fish is my friend too," he said aloud. "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars." (3.105, 3.106)

The old man identifies friendship with that which he reveres – the stars, the marlin, and DiMaggio.

"Keep my head dear," he said against the wood of the bow. "I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work." (4.69)

The old man identifies the fish as his brother both before and after he kills him.

He started to pull the fish in to have him alongside so that he could pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast alongside the bow. I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him. He is my fortune, he thought. But that is not why I wish to feel him. I think I felt his heart, he thought. When I pushed on the harpoon shaft the second time. Bring him in now and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around his middle to bind him to the skiff. (4.71)

The old man’s feelings for the fish are not pride at having killed a creature so great. Rather, they are respect and brotherhood for a creature he sees as equal to himself.

He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated. When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit. (4.90)

It becomes as if the old man’s battle with the marlin were a battle with himself.

But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in and since there was nothing to read and he did not have a radio, he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin. 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? (4.104)

The old man’s feelings for the fish impose the question of morality onto his struggle.

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much. (4.108)

I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fishermen will worry. Many others too, he thought. I live in a good town. (4.146)

One of the old man’s key characteristics is his ability to humbly recognize that others are helping him. He carries no false perceptions in terms of his own abilities, and knows his dependence on others.

He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly. Then something came into his head. 

"Half fish," he said. "Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing." (4.147, 4.148)

The old man’s guilt is ultimately not at killing the fish, but at having violated what he sees to be fundamental code of fishing by "going out too far." The phrase, of course, has greater meaning than the literal distance out to sea. The old man may have gone too far in time, as well, fishing past his physical capabilities.

He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free. I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with, he thought. But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife. 

But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together. (4.149, 4.150)

The old man finds kinship with the marlin against a common enemy.

The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought. Then he added, sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. (4.171)

The old man sees no difference between a "friend" and an "enemy," because both arise from and command respect.

"No," the boy said. "Tell them not to bother Santiago. I’ll be back." 

"Tell him how sorry I am." 

"Thanks," the boy said. (5.15-5.17)

The boy makes clear to others his friendship with and love for Santiago.