Quote 141
He started to pull the fish in to have him alongside so that he could pass a line through his gills and out his mouth and make his head fast alongside the bow. I want to see him, he thought, and to touch and to feel him. He is my fortune, he thought. But that is not why I wish to feel him. I think I felt his heart, he thought. When I pushed on the harpoon shaft the second time. Bring him in now and make him fast and get the noose around his tail and another around his middle to bind him to the skiff. (4.71)
The old man’s feelings for the fish are not pride at having killed a creature so great. Rather, they are respect and brotherhood for a creature he sees as equal to himself.
Quote 142
He did not like to look at the fish anymore since he had been mutilated. When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit. (4.90)
It becomes as if the old man’s battle with the marlin were a battle with himself.
Quote 143
But he liked to think about all things that he was involved in and since there was nothing to read and he did not have a radio, he thought much and he kept on thinking about sin. You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more? (4.104)
The old man’s feelings for the fish impose the question of morality onto his struggle.
Quote 144
Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much. (4.108)
I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fishermen will worry. Many others too, he thought. I live in a good town. (4.146)
One of the old man’s key characteristics is his ability to humbly recognize that others are helping him. He carries no false perceptions in terms of his own abilities, and knows his dependence on others.
Quote 145
He could not talk to the fish anymore because the fish had been ruined too badly. Then something came into his head.
"Half fish," he said. "Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing." (4.147, 4.148)
The old man’s guilt is ultimately not at killing the fish, but at having violated what he sees to be fundamental code of fishing by "going out too far." The phrase, of course, has greater meaning than the literal distance out to sea. The old man may have gone too far in time, as well, fishing past his physical capabilities.
Quote 146
He liked to think of the fish and what he could do to a shark if he were swimming free. I should have chopped the bill off to fight them with, he thought. But there was no hatchet and then there was no knife.
But if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together. (4.149, 4.150)
The old man finds kinship with the marlin against a common enemy.
Quote 147
The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought. Then he added, sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. (4.171)
The old man sees no difference between a "friend" and an "enemy," because both arise from and command respect.