A Fight Against The Sea by Melanie D.

There are many works of literature that show the struggles of man against many forces, but The Old Man and the Sea represents this idea in a unique way. Santiago is an old fisherman who has gone 85 days without catching a single fish and is now caught up in a possibly life or death fight with the biggest marlin he has ever seen. He has many obstacles to overcome, including loneliness, rigor mortis in his hand, and severe lack of rest, all of which he proves he can handle. These obstacles helped to form the story and made it much more interesting.

Santiago went out on a small skiff all by himself, hoping to catch a big fish after an unlucky dry spell, but after being alone against a large fish for a whole day, he is engulfed by loneliness. Throughout the tale, Santiago is constantly thinking of how he wishes Manolin was there to help him, “ ‘I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this’ ” (48). Santiago states that he wishes the boy were with him for both help and companionship several times throughout the story. With no people around, Santiago talks to the birds that rest on his boat to keep himself encouraged, “ ‘Stay at my house if you like, bird… But I am with a friend’ ” (55). Santiago does anything he can to fend of the lonesome feeling that surrounds him, and lasts for three whole days without another human soul in sight.

During his journey at sea, Santiago is affected by his old age, which is one more battle he has to fight in order to catch the marlin. His left hand suffers from rigor mortis and cramps up constantly, making it very hard for him to keep a steady hold on the fishing line. He talks to the hand as if it was a person, “ ‘What kind of a hand is that, cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw. It will do you no good’ ” (58). Santiago cannot control what his hand does, and his body causes other problems for him too. Holding the weight of an 18-foot fish for three days is not a task that can easily be done, and it would take incredible inner and bodily strength to complete.

Fatigue haunts Santiago throughout his entire journey. He doesn’t sleep, barely has time to relax, and eats only the small fish that he can catch with his extra lines. He starts hallucinating slightly, and getting dizzy from lack of sleep and water. “ ‘But you have not slept yet, old man, it is half a day and a night and now another day and you have not slept. You must devise a way so that you sleep a little if he is quiet and steady. If you do not sleep you might become unclear in the head’ ”(77). Santiago’s strength helps him fight the need for sleep, and he manages to last three days and nights with less than a few hours of rest.

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella that shows the way courage, strength, and faith can work to overcome an enemy. It is a story about the many obstacles a protagonist must face, but in this case, he does not have a companion, the muscles of youth, or any rest to help him. These are all things that greatly affect the story, and an entirely different tale would have been told if the smaller internal and external battles had been left out. Even though the fish came back in a meatless skeleton, Santiago was victorious because he came back alive and proved that he could catch a huge fish and he did it with pride.