Day Four Reading Log

On the fourth day of the story and the third day of Santiago’s journey he is awoken by the marlin jerkin him.  The fish is jumping in and out of the water badly hurting Santiago.  He eats the other fish he found in the dolphin because he knows he needs sustenance to keep fighting the fish.  The fish is circling and Santiago fights to pull him in.  Eventually he pulls the marlin to the side of his boat and then kills him.  He attaches his fish to the boat and begins to head home.  He thinks the DiMaggio would be proud of him and he thinks about the money he could get at the market for this huge fish.  A mako shark came to his boat smelling the blood the marlin lost and takes a bite.  Santiago spears and kills the shark, but has lost his rope and harpoon.  The shark ate some of the fish and caused more blood to spill out probably attracting more sharks.  The old man still struggles with killing the marlin, but has no qualms about killing the shark.  Shovel nose sharks arrive to feast on the marlin and at first Santiago can fight them off, but still loses some meat.  After a fighting off many sharks and losing lots of meat, one last pack of sharks came and stripped the marlin of all its meat.  He leaves the skeleton of the fish attached to his boat and takes his other supplies back to his house. 

            In this section symbolism comparing Santiago to Christ is used twice.  This is significant to the stories symbolism and themes.  The sharks are introduced and are full of symbolism.  These represent tearing down others successes.  Imagery is still a prominent part of the storytelling and adding to the quality of the novel.