Throughout the entire novel, Santiago pines for Manolin to be at his side. I see this in two possible ways. At first, I thought this was a nice, friendly, almost brotherly love. However, now that I think about it more, it seems quite creepy. I would say Manolin is about ten years old, and Santiago is around sixty years old. This fact makes it all the creepier. Maybe when Manolin’s parents forbade him from fishing with Santiago it was actually because of his creepiness instead of his bad luck. Albeit Manolin is a very nice boy for caring for Santiago in his time of need, and Santiago is just a simple and gentle old man, but in today’s world, this would be viewed as molestation about to happen. As I have stated before, I really do like Santiago, and I think he is a great guy, but now that I look back and think of this weird bond, I am a little hesitant to be such a big fan of his. I suppose it was a long time ago, and people did not think that way, but an old man and a young boy spending so much time alone is just weird. Santiago does disprove my thoughts by wishing many times that the boy was there so he could help him with the fishing chores. This makes me feel a lot better. However, even with this fact, Manolin seems kind of like a slave to Santiago. Now I know that none of the other characters think like that, but if you really look at the details, Manolin basically does all of Santiago’s dirty work with little to no recognition for it. Overall, if it were a perfect world, I think the love that Santiago and Manolin share is nice, and it is very genuine. However, I just cannot help but think of Santiago as a pedophile. As I have said before, I respect Santiago greatly, and I truly like him as a character, but it just breaks my heart that he is so creepy.
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