Obstacles by Zack G.

Throughout the novella, Santiago has many different obstacles that he has to overcome. His last fishing trip was one of his most challenging experiences. The obstacles that he had to overcome were the fact of being alone, the strength of the marlin, and the lack of food and water. All of these obstacles were working against him, making it very hard for him to even survive out on his trip. Santiago is 85 years old and he still is out in the sea fishing which shows you how determined he was to catch this marlin.

Santiago’s first obstacle that he had to overcome was the fact of being alone. If he had Manolin with him during his last fishing trip I think that he would have caught the marlin a lot faster and he would have been able to successfully bring the marlin onto the boat. At one point in the story Santiago says out loud to himself: “ ‘I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this’ ” (48). Since he did not have the boy with him he got very tired from the fight with the marlin. He barely got any sleep and he didn’t get much time to rest either. Since Santiago was on his own it made it much harder for him to catch the marlin.

Another obstacle that Santiago had to overcome was the lack of food and water. When Santiago was preparing for the fishing trip he never would have thought that his trip would last as long as it did. He packed some food and a good amount of water, but that proved to not be enough. When Santiago has the marling hooked it was for 3 days long. He had no food left on the third day but just a little bit of water. I know that if he had more food that he would have been in a better condition to catch the marlin and he could have got it to his boat quicker. “For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead” (87). He had been very faint and I think this could have been caused by him not having enough water and possibly being dehydrated.

The last obstacle that Santiago had to overcome was the strength of the marlin and the attacks from the vigorous sharks. This was easily the hardest obstacle that Santiago had to face. Santiago had the marlin hooked for several days and he could not reel it in. The marlin had so much power, but the old man was not giving up. Santiago was so determined to catch this marlin he would do anything for it. On about the third day of the marlin being hooked he had the marlin close to his boat and he threw his harpoon at the marlin and killed it. After about an hour a few sharks started appearing and eating the marlin. A few sharks came and Santiago killed some and injured some, but: “One came, finally, against the head itself and he knew that it was over” (118).That shark ate the last piece of the marlin and there was nothing left.

Santiago did his best to try and overcome these obstacles. I don’t think that there was any other way that Santiago could have tried to fight off the sharks.. He did the best he could, but that didn’t help him in the end. Santiago did gain something in his last trip even though he didn’t catch the marlin. He gained a lot of experience and knowledge during his final fishing trip. I think that since he was 85 and he was in very bad condition that he ended up dieing at the end of the book because of the different obstacles he had to try and overcome.