Santiago's death

One thing that I didn’t think about until a while after reading the Old Man and the Sea was if he died at the end. After I finished the book I didn’t give it much thought. I just assumed that he was asleep like it said he was, but then I gave it some more thought. I now think that at the end of the story, that Santiago is dead. There is quite a bit of evidence to support this thought. The first is that the fish he caught was like his final task. He wasn’t able to catch anything for a really long time but after catching this fish he could bring his life to a close. It was the largest and best fish he had ever caught in his life and it seems appropriate that it would be his last time at sea and the last thing that he catches. Even though he does not bring the fish back in a state that it would be worth anything, just the fact that he accomplished the task of catching it seems to be enough. Also at the end of the story, it is stated that he is thinking about the lions on the beach again. This is very important to the idea that he has died at the end of the novel. In the middle of the story he says that he has had the dream before and its always the same. That really means a lot because it is so definite in his mind. He says that he has the dream at milestones in his life. Also he states that he is always happy when the having of this dream occurs. And the ending of his life could definitely be happy because he has completed everything that he has needed to do in his life. He ends it on his own terms really, because it could have bee anytime before that. Just the fact that he has this dream at the time that it is at makes the idea that he has dies extremely plausible.