the Terrace as a community

The Terrace is the central social and communal hub of the fishing village in The Old Man and the Sea, a place where the daily rhythms of the fishermen's lives intersect with the broader economic and social currents of the community. It is here that Santiago and Manolin share a beer after the old man's eighty-four-day run of bad luck, and it is here that the village's judgment of him is most plainly visible. The Terrace functions as a stage upon which the community's values—its respect for luck, its admiration for skill, its economic realities, and its capacity for both mockery and compassion—are enacted and observed.

A Space of Social Judgment and Solidarity

The Terrace is where the fishermen gather after their day's work, and it is here that Santiago's long streak of bad luck is publicly acknowledged. Many of the younger fishermen make fun of the old man, but he is not angry. Others, the older fishermen, look at him and are sad, though they do not show it and instead speak politely about the current, the depths they have drifted their lines at, and the steady good weather. This dual response—mockery from some, silent respect from others—defines the Terrace as a space where Santiago's status is contested. The successful fishermen of that day have already butchered their marlin and carried them to the fish house, while those who caught sharks have taken them to the shark factory on the other side of the cove. The Terrace thus overlooks the entire economic cycle of the village, from the catch to the processing and sale, and the old man's empty skiff is a visible counterpoint to the day's successes.

A Site of Generosity and Mutual Aid

Despite Santiago's poverty and bad luck, the Terrace is also a place of generosity. Martin, the owner of the Terrace, sends supper to the old man and the boy—black beans and rice, fried bananas, stew, and two bottles of Hatuey beer—without being asked. The old man, in turn, vows to give Martin the belly meat of a big fish, and later, after he has caught the marlin, he thinks of the great DiMaggio and wonders if the great DiMaggio would be proud of him. The Terrace is thus a node in a network of reciprocal obligations that sustains the old man. The boy, Manolin, also uses the Terrace as a base for his care for Santiago, bringing the food from Martin and later, after the old man's return, fetching a hot can of coffee from the Terrace to bring to the shack. The proprietor, when the boy comes for the coffee, remarks on the greatness of the fish Santiago caught, saying, "There has never been such a fish," and expresses his sorrow for the old man's ordeal.

A Window onto the Village's Economic Life

The Terrace is situated in a position that allows a view of the entire harbor and its economic activities. The fishermen who have been successful bring their marlin to the fish house, where they wait for the ice truck to carry them to the market in Havana. The shark factory, on the other side of the cove, processes the sharks, removing their livers, cutting off their fins, and skinning their hides. The smell from the shark factory sometimes comes across the harbor, but on the day Santiago and Manolin sit on the Terrace, the wind has backed into the north, and there is only a faint edge of the odor. The Terrace is thus a place where the economic realities of the fishing life—the market, the processing, the competition—are always present, even if only as a smell on the wind. The old man, who has gone eighty-four days without a fish, is acutely aware of this economic pressure, and his determination to go "far out" is partly a response to it.

A Place of Return and Reflection

After Santiago's epic struggle with the marlin and the sharks, the Terrace is the first place the boy thinks of when he goes to get coffee for the exhausted old man. The boy asks for a can of coffee, hot and with plenty of milk and sugar, and the proprietor, Martin, offers his condolences. The Terrace thus serves as a point of return, a place where the community can acknowledge the magnitude of what Santiago has done, even if the old man himself is too exhausted to participate. Later that afternoon, a party of tourists on the Terrace looks down into the water and sees the great long white spine of the marlin's skeleton, with its huge tail lifting and swinging with the tide. A woman asks a waiter what it is, and the waiter, meaning to explain what has happened, says, "Tiburon," or "Shark." The tourists, misunderstanding, admire the beauty of the tail, while the old man, up the road in his shack, dreams of the lions. The Terrace, in this final scene, becomes a place where the meaning of Santiago's struggle is lost in translation, reduced to a tourist's curiosity, even as the old man himself has transcended the need for the community's understanding.