The old man and the Sea

Santiago feels the life is draining from his old body. The youth of his past only exists in the memories he clings to. Santiago is obsessed with proving his worthiness to those around him; a worthiness that says I am still here and I am still a man. He had to prove himself to the boy: "the thousand times he had proved it mean nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it" (66). And he had to prove himself to the marlin: "I'll kill him....in all his greatness and glory. Although it is unjust. But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures" (66). His masculine identity of a fisherman is not, then, one of inner peace and self-sufficiency; it requires constant demonstration of one's worthiness through noble action.