How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Day.Paragraph). We artificially created chapters by defining "days," because there are no chapter breaks in The Old Man and the Sea. Here’s how we divided up the days:- Day 1 = the start of the book until the old man falls asleep for the night
- Day 2 = begins when the old man wakes up and goes until sunrise of the next day
- Day 3 = begins at sunrise and goes until the old man dreams about the lions
- Day 4 = begins when the old man wakes and ends when the old man gets back to his shack for the night
- Day 5 = begins with the boy seeing the old man in the morning and goes until the end of the book
Quote #13
Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for. (2.96)
The old man believes that his own life as a fisherman is as much the natural order of things as the sharks eating his fish later on.
Quote #14
"Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish." (3.16)
Santiago sees men and beasts as equal in the face of luck.
Quote #15
He looked at the sky and saw the white cumulus built like friendly piles of ice cream and high above were the thin feathers of the cirrus against the high September sky.
"Light brisa," he said. "Better weather for me than for you, fish." (3.52, 3.53)
The old man gains confidence by examining the conditions in the natural world. It is on his side, it seems, not the fish’s.