EXPLORATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF POOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ON SANTIAGO AND MANOLIN IN AN ECONOMICALLY DEPRIVED CUBAN SOCIETY IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Abstract

This paper’s assiduous concern is to take the wraps off the influence of poor socio-economic conditions on Santiago and Manolin of an economically deprived Cuban society through the delineation of their poverty-stricken lives in Ernest Miller Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea. The then poor socio-economic conditions of the Cuban society snatches the beautiful moments of the old man's life and it turns him into a formidable man who vehemently invigorates him to undergo the untold sea-suffering out in the deep sea. On the other hand, Manolin's life is also influenced and associated with that poor society which compels Manolin's parents to send him to fishing boats instead of sending to school. The long tiring and challenging fishing activities are the barriers to the way of his education resulting from economic deprivation of the Cuban society. Throughout the whole of the novella, Santiago shows serious courage and assiduousness and leaves no stone unturned to catch a fish in order to kick away his poverty. Though he was unable to catch any fish for eighty-four-days, he was not disappointed at all. He relentlessly endures marine aches and pains in the deep sea for days. Poverty ingrains intense firmness and incredible strength in his inner faculty to fight against it.