Manolin appears in relatively few pages of The Old Man and the Sea, mostly in the opening and closing sections of the novella, which creates a genuine challenge for students asked to write a full essay analyzing his relationship with Santiago. There simply isn't as much direct textual material to draw on compared to essays about the marlin fight itself.

A fair rubric for this prompt needs to account for this limited textual material by rewarding depth of analysis on the available scenes rather than expecting the breadth of evidence a more central relationship in the novella might support.

This also means the strongest essays on this topic often need to draw connections between Manolin's brief on-page appearances and Santiago's frequent internal thoughts about the boy during the fishing trip itself, since a significant portion of the relationship's development happens through Santiago's memory and longing rather than direct scenes together.

Grading criteria should explicitly credit students who make this connection between direct scenes and Santiago's internal references to Manolin, since missing this link often results in a thin essay that only covers the opening and closing pages without engaging with the relationship's full presence in the text.

What a Strong Essay on This Relationship Includes

The best essays on this topic treat Manolin's absence during the central fishing trip as meaningful in itself, analyzing how Santiago's loneliness and his repeated wish that the boy were there shape the emotional tone of his struggle.

• Analyzes the direct scenes between Santiago and Manolin in the opening and closing sections
• Connects Santiago's internal references to Manolin during the fishing trip to the relationship's development
• Considers what the relationship reveals about Santiago's need for legacy or connection
• Examines Manolin's own perspective and loyalty toward Santiago where the text allows
• Addresses why Hemingway chose to keep Manolin largely absent during the central conflict

Common Weaknesses in These Essays

The most common weakness is an essay that simply summarizes the two scenes where Santiago and Manolin appear together without connecting them to the rest of the novella, producing an essay that feels disconnected from the central fishing trip that makes up most of the book's length.

A second common issue is treating the relationship as purely sentimental without engaging with its thematic function, such as what it suggests about mentorship, legacy, or the transmission of skill and values from one generation to the next.

Encouraging Students to Draw on the Full Text

Before assigning this prompt, it helps to explicitly point students toward Santiago's internal references to Manolin scattered throughout the central chapters, since students skimming for scenes with both characters physically present will miss a substantial portion of relevant material.

This kind of guidance in the prompt itself tends to produce noticeably richer essays than leaving students to locate this scattered evidence entirely on their own.

Pairing This Prompt With a Mentorship or Legacy Theme

For classes exploring mentorship or intergenerational relationships as a broader unit theme, this relationship essay pairs naturally with similar prompts from other assigned texts, allowing for a comparative extension that deepens the analysis beyond this single novella.

Grading these extended comparative versions requires accounting for how well a student connects the two relationships thematically, rather than simply describing both independently within the same essay.