OMS: Choices Essay by Corey C.

People make decisions every day, and Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea makes one that will later lead to his perish. Santiago is in his mid eighties, and he fishes with a teenage boy named Manolin. Manolin enjoys the time he spends with the old man. Together they are on a dry spout of fishing, and haven’t caught anything in eighty-four days. On the fortieth day, Manolin’s parents don’t let him fish with Santiago anymore. Santiago desperately needs a fish, and quickly decides that he will go out fishing by himself.

Once out at sea, Santiago hooks onto a large 18 foot marlin. He keeps the line taught, and when he can, tries to pull in the fish. Santiago cuts his hand severely; “He felt the line carefully with his right and noticed his hand was bleeding,” (55-56). If Santiago didn’t decide to go by himself, he could have the extra strength of Manolin, and this could of saved his hand. Throughout his time at sea, he complains about the pain, and he gets a little delirious. He also falls and cuts himself below the eye.

The fish is a lot stronger, and this greatly influences Santiago’s trip out at sea. The fish is constantly swimming, and Santiago is constantly pulling the line in, and Santiago’s strength is draining quickly. Santiago didn’t bring any food with him initially, and he only has a bottle of water. Luckily he catches other fish while the marlin is hooked. “’Now,” he said, when his hand dried, “I must eat the small tuna. I can reach with him with the gaff and eat him here in comfort,’” (57). Without the fish for food, I believe he would have died. Santiago is probably dehydrated too; sense he only had one bottle of water.

Santiago is getting very lonely on the skiff. Manolin did not come with him, and his wife passed away. Santiago starts talking to a bird, and from there it all goes downhill. He talks to himself, and is going crazy. He is longing for the boy to be there with him; “Then he said aloud, “I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this,’” (48). Finally Santiago is able to get the marlin up close enough to the boat to spear it. He pulls it up to the side of the boat, and ties it up. On the way back to Cuba, hoards of sharks eat the fish. This is a mind blowing defeat.

At the end of the book Santiago gets back to his hut, and it says he takes a long and deep sleep. I believe he dies. Going out to sea alone was a bad choice to make, because it resulted in his death. His hand and cheek were bleeding causing him to lose a good amount of blood and getting a little delirious. The combination of losing energy, and not eating made him more delirious. When you add in the dehydration, and the mind blowing defeat of having the fish being eaten by a hoard of sharks was just too much for Santiago to comprehend. All of that along with his old age caused him to die in his sleep.