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What is Santiago's role as fisherman? What is the relationship between Santiago and Manolin?

The Old Man and the Sea is set in Cuba in the mid-twentieth century. Santiago is a poor and elderly fisherman. He is independent, owning his own boat and selling his catch to earn money, rather than working for a big company. Although is is very skilled and careful, and has earned respect for that, he has gone for 84 days without a catch and is considered unlucky as a fisherman, although the villagers still care for and respect him to a degree.


Manolin is a young boy who was once apprenticed to Santiago. Because Santiago has not caught fish for so long, his parents have apprenticed him to a luckier fisherman, but Manolin still respects and loves his mentor and brings him food. Santiago loves Manolin almost as he would a son and still mentors the boy even though the boy is no longer his apprentice. 

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