By Erika J.

In English class, we read a novella called The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The book was about an old man with a love for fishing who goes on a four day adventure to catch a fish, but in the end he loses it. The main character, Santiago, faces many struggles and conflicts, in order to catch the fish. His struggles and conflicts shape the plot of the book and is very important.

One thing that Santiago struggles with while trying to catch the marlin is he is old, and has been doing this so long that he has scars and the fishing life gave him skin cancer. He struggles with the fact that he might not be able to do it anymore. “The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from the handing heavy fish on the cords. But none of the scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert,” (10). This gives a very good idea of how Santiago is. He is old and this shows how much the fishing his whole life has done to him. When he attempts to get the fish I think that being how he is, it would be hard for him to get it.

A second thing that he struggles with is actually killing the fish. “You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who,” (92). He was slowly getting weaker and you can tell by this sentence. He is no longer able to speak due to the lack of water and when he says I don’t care who kills who, this really shows that he is weak and not caring anymore. “Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man,” (92). He knows he was getting weak and his mind was thinking all this bad thoughts because he wasn’t focused on what he was doing.

A third struggle he has is finishing the work he has to do when he kills the fish. Trying to get the fish takes a lot out of him, so in the end when he gets the fish, he has no more strength to do what he needs to do after he gets the fish. “I am a tired old man. But I have killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work,” (95). It is hard for him to get all his strength back when it takes all his might to kill the fish, and he is not going to be able to do it anymore without straining out all of his energy.

Santiago faces many struggles that shape the plot of this novella. He is old and the sun is giving him skin cancer, he struggles with killing the fish after he catches it, and he struggles with his strength he is during the whole process of doing it. I think these struggles also shape the type of person he is. Hemmingway gives specific examples of how he is a successful person. He also never gives up, and fights for his passion and love of fishing. Santiago being old doesn’t stop him at all. I think that he is a success because of this.