Question- Comment upon the marlin separating episode in the novel "The Old Man and The Sea".

Or
The marlin-separating episode in "The Old Man And The Sea' records Santiago's endearing capacity for genuine sensitivity and sentiment. Discuss.

Answer-

The marlin takes the bait and starts moving towards the northwest with the old man hopelessly tied to the fish because try as hard as he may, he cannot pull the fish up. After some time the old man begins to pity the great fish he has hooked and this feeling of compassion brings to his mind the flashback of "the saddest thing" that he ever saw. He recalls that once he separated a female marlin from her mate by catching and killing her. Her male companion stays with his mate during her "panic-stricken, despairing fight." The male marlin circles with the female marlin as Santiago brings her to the side of the boat. When Santiago guffs and clubs the female fish and hoists her abroad with the help of his disciple Manolin, the male fish leaps high into the air for one last glimpse of his mate. before plunging deep into the ocean. "He was beautiful, the old man remembered and he has stayed."

The flashback records Santiago's compassion and respect for the male marlin and provides evidence of his capacity for genuine sensitivity and sentiment. Though he is a fisherman whose duty is to kill fish he does not take his conquests of the ocean creatures lightly and is deeply moved to the feeling of remorse, pity and grief even by a mere resemblance of an episode that took place in the past.

The event, however, also raises. doubts in the minds of the skeptical readers. If he has much tender feelings towards noble marlin, why does he, then, continue to fish for them?"The daily dilemma", says Brenner, "of wanting to catch a noble fish and of feeling that every catch is an act of betrayal and treachery reveals a man whose psychological confusion is mere hypocrisy. By anthropomorphizing the marlin of both the flashback and the central story Santiago shows his inability to come to terms with his identity as a killer and his need to continually apologize to creatures to whom he feels compelled to attribute human traits. At the least he is a mixed up human being, not a sage old man."

The episode presents Santiago as a sentimentalist who assigns unwarranted or excessive emotions to people, creatures or objects Santiago is absolutely certain in his mind that the Marlin he killed is a female Marlin and the other one which remained close to her was a male Marlin and undoubtedly her mate. Experts, how- ever, suggest that it is impossible to ascertain the sex of a marlin until it is dissected, cut open and its anatomy studied. Santiago is also sure that the mate circles besides the receding female out of grief and leaps into the air only catch the last glimpse of his dying beloved. Santiago thus interprets the mating habits of the marlin in human terms and presents the marlins as if they were like humans or better, like geese, who mate for life. Biologists, however, say something totally opposite regarding the matter. Brenner quotes the name and opinion of David Grobecker, Director of the . Pacific Game Fish Research Foundation in Kona, Hawaii to prove that marlins do not mate for life. Brenner says that Dr. Grobecker acknowledges the possibility that the so called mate of Santiago's hooked female could well be a female marlin following the hooked fish out of curiosity, circling out of perplexity at the hooked female's odd behaviour and leaping out of water in puzzlement, not grief or farewell. "By interpreting the "mate's" behaviour. according to some human drama that does not apply to marlin. Santiago's sentimentalization of the episode shows him projecting his own self-pity onto it? he feels sorrow for the bereft "mate" whose loss of his spouse" mirrors Santiagos's loneliness and wish for companionship." -(Brenner).

Moreover, by calling the episode "the saddest thing he ever saw with them Santiago gives further proof of his over sentimentality. There are many other sights related to the fishing adventures that may exceed the sadness of Santiago's flash- backs. A malformed marlin because of underwater struggle with predators or an aged marlin with fungus-ridden flesh will when caught definitely be sadder sights than one recalled by Santiago. Many other such examples may be given. It is only because Santiago identifies with the presumably lonely mate that he calls the event "the saddest thing that he ever saw.""If, says Brenner, "Santiago was a more intelligent or self-perceptive man, he might be bemused by his sentimentality find it embarrassing or at least distance himself from his judgement that the flash-back with the marlin "mates" was "the saddest thing that he ever saw".

The skeptical critics consider Santiago's habit of identifying creatures of his world as brother as a symptom of a neurotic obsession. The obsession," they believe "suggests that, unable to view his relationship with nature as either a Darwinian "survival of the fittest" or a harmonic integration in some overarching and unfathomable mystery, Santiago needs to read his encounters with marlin in fraternal terms because of a deep incapacity to reconcile himself to his role as killer of nature's creatures" Thus, many analysts have interpreted the marlin separating episode in negative terms and perhaps they have every right to do so because a masterpiece like "The Old Man And The Sea' inheres in itself distinct possibilities of various interpretations. But to consider such a heart touching episode in purely academic terms, in an over critical manner is perhaps a bit unjust. Critics may apply any number of psychological principles or quote any number of expert scientists to prove their negative interpretations, on the first reading the episode really proves that Santiago has an endearing capacity for genuine sensitivity and sentiment Though born as a fisherman and carrying out his duties to the best of his abilities. he still can feel real sympathy for his adversaries. That speaks volumes about his saintly disposition.

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