What point of view has been used in The Old Man and the Sea? Please explain.

Whenever we think of points of view or narration in
fiction, there are three main types of point of view that are adopted. Firstly, there is
first person narration, where the narrator is a character who appears in the story and
relates it from his or her point of view, using the first person, "I." Secondly, there
is third person limited, where the narrator is not a character in the story, but is
exterior to it, choosing to follow around only one character and having access to their
thoughts and feelings alone. The story is told in the third person, "he," or "she."
Finally, there is the omniscient narrator, where again the narrator is exterior to the
story and the tale is told in the third person, but the narrator can see the feelings
and thoughts of all characters, having a god-like perspective on the
action.

A quick examination of the text of this great
novella reveals that the point of view is omniscient, as the narrator stands outside of
the story and takes a wider perspective on it. It does, clearly, follow Santiago around
for the majority of the tale, but it equally follows Manolin, revealing his thoughts and
feelings, and the thoughts and feelings of other characters, such as what the other
fishermen think of Santiago:

readability="5">

The older fishermen... looked at him and were
sad. But they did not show
it.

This reveals that the
point of view is that of the omniscient narrator, which allows the universal
significance of the tale to be more clearly suggested.