Old Man And The Sea

PSY 203 ADULTHOOD AND AGING

Below, two quotes, one from Erickson and one from the book. Both sum in the best of ways what we have explored, both in the reading, and in this book.

“If there is any responsibility in the cycle of life it must be that one generation owes to the next that strength by which it can come to face ultimate concerns in its own way. “ ( ERICKSON)

“ I am a strangeold man” ( the old man and the sea)

The old man and the sea is a story about the struggle of an old fisher man and the catch of his life. The story starts by giving us a sorrow insight of the life that this old fisher man now has. It strikes us to our core, and makes us relate to the old man by highlighting the struggles of growing old. With the loss of bodily strength, hand and eyecoordination, motor capability, and overall spark, the introduction of this book makes it evident that this once, fruitful and successful fisher man, is now a tall tale of what once was.

We must understand, as the class reading indicates, the role of culture in old age. That is that in this specific realm of society, fishing village, the inability to catch fish essentially represents the “death” ofthe person; as he is no longer a productive member of society, this is aggravated by the fact that this old man seems to be have no relatives to rely on for comfort. There is no evidence of children, whom traditionally in rural communities, such as this one, would play an essential role, as the reading explains, in assisting in transcending from middle age to elder-hood. With no relatives, thereading begins to paint the story of a lonely old man, suffering and going through different crisis that will be explored in the following paragraphs.

We must understand how this decline must have played out in his development into elder-hood of Santiago. Although in modern society, we retire and consequentially end our productive cycle, and this does represents a crisis, as explained bythe class reading, this is replaced by other aspects and benefits of adulthood, such as passing on wisdom and the essential “what I need to know to why I know the things I know.” In the case of Santiago, he has nothing to replace his decline of productivity except the joy of spending time with the young Manolin, which is symbolically juxtaposed by the desire of Manolin's parents to end hisrelationship with the old man. This is in direct connection with the fact that although Santiago has taught the young man to fish, it seems that in the later years of this relationship, there seems to be no real benefit for the young man. Manolin has now even left the old man to fish with younger fisherman, with lucky fisherman, who seem to be bringing fish. Leaving Santiago alone on his bad luckstreak. It seems that although, this is clear to Manolin, he has grown close to the old man, and against his parents wishes, has become a sort of caretaker to help the old man perform some of the basic necessities of life. It makes us wonder, if Manolin was never introduced, if whether or not Santiago would have been motivated enough to continue with the assertion of his elder-hood.

The declineand end of productivity essentially represents a new stage in life. As we see in the book, the total decay of productivity represents a huge crisis for Santiago. The fact that he can no longer catch fish, makes him into an outcast of society, and ultimately into a “salao” ( a person with bad luck) Although essentially the books argues that in societies were there are few elders, it should inessence make late adulthood into a position of respect, this does not seem to be the case with Santiago. Rather he seemed to be viewed as a burden to the overall community. Moreover, being this a rural fishing community it is clear that, at least in Santiago's case, he does not have a retirement fund, pension or social security that can allow his complete retirement, thus in essence the old man has no...