At first glance, Santiago in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea appears to be a loser. After all, at the beginning of the story he has not caught a fish for a great deal of time, and by the end of the story he has lost the monster marlin to sharks. By any conventional standards, Santiago would seem to be a failure. However, the story is a little more complicated than such standards allow. While Santiago loses his catch and returns home with nothing but a marlin's skeleton, he still manages to valiantly fight to bring the fish home. Indeed, the epic fight to catch and keep the marlin turns into an inspiring story of struggle, hardship, and the steely resolve not to buckle under pressure. As such, though Santiago loses his marlin, his heroic struggle becomes an inspiring feat of strength and courage. In that case, I would call him a winner, rather than a loser.
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