On the surface, The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an old man trying to catch fish to save himself from poverty, but underneath the There are many messages and themes hidden on the surface. The setting takes place in Cuba, in a poor fishing village. The old man, Santiago, is a seasoned fisherman who takes a young boy, Manolin, under his wing. He hasn't caught a fish in 84 days and relies on help from other people in the village. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway conveys his opinions and his own life through the themes and symbolism of the book. Hemingway transmits his idea of ​​success, his vision of the artist, of free will and individualism. Hemingway's view of success is different from most others. Santiago was defeated by sharks and lost his marlin. Tourists even mistake the skeleton for that of a shark. The head, which is the only thing left, will serve as bait. Santiago gets neither money nor food from fish. He derives no material gain from his exhausting three-day fight with the marlin (Gale). “It seems that the old man was beaten, but the reality is that he remained undefeated in his struggle against himself, his exhaustion and the temptation to give up the fight” (Pazos). As Manolin tells Santiago: “He didn’t beat you. Not the fish” (Hemingway 124). Santiago persevered until the end and did everything he could to keep the sharks away. He did not give in to the temptation to cut the line and give up (Pazos). Hemingway shows that success is not always measured in material gain, but in personal gain. The old man says to himself, “You didn’t kill the fish just to keep it alive and sell it for food… You killed it out of pride and because you are a fisherman” (Hemingway 105). Santiago does not receive the $300 h...... middle of paper ......d Man and the sea. Calcutta: Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, 2013. N. pag. Facts on file. Internet. May 13, 2014. Burhans Jr., Clinton S. “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: Hemingway’s Tragic View of Man.” American Literature 31.4 (1960): 446. Academic Research Premier. Internet. May 13, 2014. Gale, Robert L. “The Old Man and the Sea.” Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Literature Series, supplement (1997): 1-3. Literary reference center. Internet. May 13, 2014.Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. 1952. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. 10-124. Print.Pazos, José Gabriel Rodriguez. The Old Man and the Sea. Werlock, Abby HP, ed. The Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom Literature. Internet. May 13, 2014.Prescott, Orville. “Books of the Times.” The New York Times August 28, 1952. The web. May 20 2014.