what are some characteristics of santiago

Santiago endures a great struggle with a uncommonly large and noble marlin only to lose the fish to rapacious sharks on his way back to land. Despite this loss, Santiago ends the novel with his spirit undefeated. Santiago is an old man in search of redemption. He looks for a glimmer of his youth, perhaps one last time. He longs to be heroic within the construct of his own mythology. Being heroic and manly are not merely qualities of character which one possesses or does not. Santiago believes that one must constantly demonstrate one's heroism and manliness through actions conducted with dignity. Depending on your reading of the novel, Santiago represents Hemingway himself, searching for his next great book; an Everyman, heroic in the face of human tragedy; or the Oedipal male unconscious trying to slay his father, the marlin, in order to sexually possess his mother, the sea.