The old man and the sea

Everything around the old man is lined to the natural world. The sea personifies a woman to Santiago with her many moods. The birds are Santiago's friends, the sharks his enemies. Santiago muses about turtles, jellyfish...We begin to sense a theme here: that the old man defines himself through the elements of the sea. The old man's sense of morality and justice is seen through the lens of the sea. Nature however is unrelenting to the old an weak. Santiago must contend with his own frailties in an environment of survival of the fittest.