The Old Man and the Sea: Day Three Summary & Analysis

Before daylight, something takes hold of one of Santiago's other baits, which are still in the water. Santiago quickly cuts all of his other lines so that nothing interferes with the marlin's line.

After Santiago cuts the other lines, the marlin makes a sudden, surging dive that pulls Santiago downward. He cuts his face, just below the eye, on the line. Santiago tells the marlin he will never give in, and will fight until one of them dies.

The marlin continues to pull the boat to the northeast. Santiago senses that while the fish doesn't seem to be tiring, it is swimming at a shallower depth. Santiago hopes the fish will jump, so that its air sacs will fill, stopping it from diving so deeply. If the fish died while deep underwater, Santiago knows he would not be strong enough to pull it up. Santiago holds tight to the line and occasionally pulls it taught, but he is fearful to pull on it because the line might snap or the hook might pull free from the marlin. He tells the marlin that he loves and respects it, but vows to kill it before the end of the day.

A warbler (small song bird) flying south lands on the marlin's line. Santiago talks to the bird, wondering why it is so tired. When he considers the hawks that the bird will have to escape when it comes near land, though, he tells it to take a nice rest and then go "take your chance like any man or bird or fish."

As Santiago is talking to the bird, the marlin lurches again and the bird flies away. Santiago notices that there is blood on the line—the pull of the line has cut his left hand. He thinks that the marlin must itself have been injured to lurch in that way. He berates himself for letting the bird distract him, and vows not to lose focus again. Santiago washes his cut hand in the salt water, then carefully positions himself and eats the tuna he caught earlier in order to keep his strength up. Even so, his left hand soon cramps.

As he tries to nurse his cramped hand, Santiago sees a flock of wild ducks in the sky and realizes that no man is ever alone on the sea. He continues to try to uncramp his hand, and thinks of the cramp as a betrayal by his own body. He wishes that Manolin were there to rub his hand for him.

Suddenly, the marlin jumps out of the water. The magnificent fish is dark purple and huge, two feet longer than the length of the skiff with a sword as long as a baseball bat.

Santiago holds the line with both hands to keep the fish from breaking the line. He thinks that if he were the marlin he would give a final pull on the line until something broke. He gives thanks that fish are not as intelligent as men, although he thinks that they are "more noble and more able."

Santiago has seen many fish over 1000 pounds and caught two fish of that size in his life, but never when he was alone and out of sight of land. And this marlin is bigger than any he had ever heard of or seen. He thinks that to catch this fish will be a great accomplishment.

Although Santiago is not religious, he promises to say 10 Hail Marys and 10 Our Fathers if he catches the marlin. He says the prayers, and feels better, though the pain in his back and cramped hand is just as strong.

Realizing it will be dark soon, Santiago decides to rebait a small line to catch some more food. He thinks about why he wants to catch and kill the marlin: To show "what a man can do and what a man endures" and to prove to Manolin that he is indeed a "strange old man."

As the day approaches its end, Santiago wishes he could sleep and dream of the lions again. Then he wonders why the lions are the only things left for him to dream about.

Eventually Santiago's hand uncramps, but he feels tired. He hopes that the marlin also feels tired. If it isn't, he thinks, then it is a very strange fish.

To distract himself, Santiago thinks about baseball. He tells himself that he must try to be worthy of the great DiMaggio, "who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel." He wonders if DiMaggio would stay with the marlin as long as he will stay with it, and knows that DiMaggio would.

It occurs to Santiago then that men may be inferior to the "great birds and beasts." For a moment, Santiago wishes that he were the marlin. That is, unless sharks were to come. If the sharks come, Santiago thinks, both he and the marlin would be in trouble.

To prop up his own confidence, Santiago remembers when, as a young man in Casablanca, he arm-wrestled a great "negro" who was the strongest man on the docks. The battle lasted an entire day, and finally Santiago won. For a long time after that he was known as "The Champion."

Just before dark, Santiago's small line is taken by a dolphinfish. He pulls the dolphinfish into the boat and clubs it to death. It seems to Santiago that the marlin has begun to pull with a bit less strength. He positions himself so that the line puts less stress on his back. He feels confident because he's learned how to handle the line and because he has recently eaten and will eat again soon, while the marlin hasn't eaten anything.

When it becomes completely dark, the stars come out. Santiago thinks of the stars as his friends. The marlin is also his friend, he thinks, but he must kill it. Santiago is glad that men do not have to kill the sun, the moon or the stars as they do their fellow creatures. He feels sorry for the fish, and thinks there is no one worthy of eating him.

Santiago rests for two hours, after which he decides to eat the dolphinfish he caught. When he cuts the dolphinfish open to fillet it, he finds two fresh flying fish in its belly. He eats half the dolphinfish and one of the fish. When he runs his hand through the water after skinning the fish, he notices that his hand has left a trail of phosphorescence in the water.

Finally Santiago falls asleep. He dreams at first of a vast school of mating porpoises leaping in the water. Then he dreams of sleeping in his bed in the village, with a north wind blowing coldly over him and his hand asleep from having slept on it. Finally, his dreams turn to the lions walking along the long yellow beach in the early dark, and he is happy.