The Old Man and the Sea, a novella by Ernest Hemingway, takes place in a small fishing village located near Havana, Cuba, facing the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1940s. Santiago, the protagonist, goes eighty-four straight days of not catching a fish; on the eighty-fifth day, he rows the farthest away from shore that he has ever been before. While he is far away from shore, a large blue marlin is hooked on one of his lines, and that is the beginning of the three-day struggle between Santiago and the fish. When he finally gets the fish within striking distance, he harpoons it, and the fish dies. On his way back to land, with the fish tied to the boat, sharks follow the blood scent and destroy his catch. When he returns with a monstrou
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