By Victoria R.

Everyday people face obstacles and other forces. People are affected in many different ways. Some people are affected mentally, and some physically. In the novella, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, the character Santiago has to fight many mental and physical obstacles and forces.

Santiago went without catching a fish for eighty – four days. When he went out to sea on the eighty – fifth day, he went alone. The old man usually brought a young boy named Manolin along with him. Manolin wasn’t allowed to go fishing with Santiago because they had no luck catching fish and they weren’t making any money. After being out at sea for about a day, Santiago began to talk to himself and the things around him. He was struggling with being lonely. “Clear up, head,’ he said in a voice he could hardly hear, ‘Clear up.”(92)

Santiago also struggled against a fish. Ever since the marlin was hooked, he has caused Santiago a lot of strength and energy. The marlin was about one thousand pounds and eighteen feet long. It was just the old man against a huge marlin that was longer than his skiff and a line that could break any minute. He wasn’t expecting a fish that big. He had a very thin line and all he could do was wait until the marlin tired out and died. The marlin would circle the boat slowly and he would get closer and closer to Santiago’s skiff. “The speed of the line was cutting his hands badly but he had always known this would happen and he tried to keep the cutting across the calloused parts and not let the line slip into the palm nor cut the fingers.”(83) His hand and arm would cramp up, and he was getting very tired. Santiago was malnourished, he had very little water and food. The struggle with the fish made the old man weaker physically by the minute.

Towards the end of the book, Santiago struggled against hungry sharks. The marlin that he caught was drawing the sharks to the skiff. Santiago had to figure out how to battle the sharks and keep them from eating his catch. Santiago took his knife and put it on the end to the skiff’s oar to harpoon the sharks. He would punch the sharks with his fist when they came close enough and took the knife out of the oar to stab the sharks. When the blade of the knife snapped and sank down to the ocean floor with a shark, Santiago had to find a new way to defend himself and the fish from the oncoming sharks. He used the handle of an oar as a club and he broke of the tiller to beat the sharks. “He jerked the tiller free from the rudder and beat and chopped with it, holding it in both hands and driving it down again and again. But they were up to the bow now and driving in one after the other and together, tearing off the pieces of meat that showed glowing below the sea as they turned to come once more.”(118) Santiago was tired and weak from dealing with the sharks and most of the marlin was gone. In the end, he defeated the sharks and made it home alive.

Santiago struggled with many obstacles and forces throughout the whole book. Some of the struggles were mental and others were physical. Whether it was being alone or fighting pain and sharks, Santiago was able to get through each obstacle by himself.