By Erika D.

In the novella The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago endured many obstacles. Over the course of the story, he has to fight for the marlin, as well as fight for his life. Santiago is a very poor man who has had no luck for 84 days, and he hopes that on his 85^th day he will be rewarded for his times of suffering with an enormous fish. The old man’s wish comes true, but not without a heavy price to pay. Stuck far out in the ocean, the old man now struggles with loneliness, hunger, and a constant battle against sharks.

The old man is very poor, and before he even sets out to find the fish, he struggles. He lives in a small shack, and resorts to pretending that he has a good meal when he knows that he has little to eat. “But they went through this fiction every day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.” (16) The boy always went along with his pretending, but tried to help him as well. Santiago did not want him to worry, and seemed perfectly fine with his living conditions. This shows his strength, and his ability to make the best of the situation at hand.

Santiago is very forlorn on his little skiff, and has no one there with him to help pass the time. He feels very lonely, and starts to miss the boy. Thoughts of Manolin are what keep the old man going when he feels close to quitting. He focuses on the boy when he needs to focus on the fish, and on what he is doing. He continuously thinks of how much different it would be with Manolin there, “ ‘I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this.’ ” (48). He knows how much easier it would be if the boy was there, and he also knows that it would be a good experience for him.

When Santiago finally succeeds in catching the marlin, the reader then has little time for belief that his troubles are over. He now has a very large fish strapped to the side of his very small skiff, and has to travel quite a long distance back to shore. The fact that the fish has now bled into the ocean does nothing to help the situation. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to Santiago when sharks begin to attack his marlin. Santiago knows that if a large number of sharks come, he is no match. “The old man’s head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope.” (101) Still, he puts up a good fight. When the sharks are gone, he doesn’t want to look at the marlin, for fear of what is left -or isn’t left- and he continues the ride back in silent dismay. He had to fight so hard to catch this fish, but getting it back was one obstacle that he could not completely overcome.

Santiago was a strong character that had many struggles throughout the story, and had to fight very hard to get what he wanted. Many of the obstacles that stood in his path were inevitable to him, yet we know nothing of it. He always knew that he could be pushed as far as his mind would take him, and he made it through with an experience to remember. Fighting through this was a strength for him that he knew he had, and he proved that he would never give up, and always keep going.