The protagonist of Ernest Hemingway's novel "The Old Man and the Sea" is Santiago, an elderly Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Determined to break his streak, Santiago sets out alone into the Gulf Stream, where he hooks a giant marlin and engages in a three-day struggle to bring it back to shore. The novel is a meditation on the human condition, as Santiago faces both physical and emotional challenges in his quest for the marlin.