Old Man and the Sea Essay

Overcomming Struggles

Every single day people go through some type of struggle. They can be regular any day things like, figuring out what to wear or getting your homework done all the way to staying alive long enough to get home to your family if you are in the war. But no matter what the obstacle in your way is, it is always up to you, to get past the obstacle and overcome what is in your way. In the book The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago overcomes many important obstacles such as catching the biggest marlin he has ever seen, overcoming his physical injuries, and fighting off the sharks that come to his boat.

The first obstacle Santiago faces is catching the marlin. This marlin is over 18 feet long and over one thousand pounds. “He is two feet longer than the skiff the old man said.” This shows the extreme size of the fish he is trying to kill. He is all alone and he now has to single - handedly kill a marlin 2 feet longer than the boat he is in and then bring it in on his own. This is a huge obstacle for him to over come. He has nobody on his boat to help him with the fish and he has nobody to call to because he is way out in the middle of the ocean where nobody can find
him. This would make me very happy that i caught it but also pessimistic about wheather or not i could reel it in.

The second obstacle that the old man must encounter is his own physical injuries which almost get the best of him. He is having a cramped hand which he will need to hold the fish and back problems. His back is hurting from holding the rope tight against it. “God let me have the cramp go, he said. Because I do not know what the fish is going to do.” This shows one of the problems that the old man is facing. “Finally his left hand found the line and he leaned back against the line and now it burned his back and his left hand, and his left hand was talking all the strain and cutting badly.” This also shows more of the pain that he encounters. He has a hurt back and a hand that keeps cramping and also on his hands he has many cuts and scabs from the dried blood from the rope digging into his hands from hanging on so tight. Also he is physically tired in his entire body which complicates things more. This would have been very hard from him to overcome. Personally, i would be so annoyed with this id just let go and row away.

The last obstacle that Santiago faces out on his fishing voyage is many vicious sharks. The first shark he has to face is one of the most deadly ones in the sea, a Mako shark. “He was a very big Mako shark built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea and everything about him was beautiful except his jaws.” The Mako shark has extremly sharp teeth that, at one sight of them would make me just give up the marlin. He then has to fight that off and succeeds to by ramming the harpoon into his head. But he soon encounters more. The way he fights them off becomes extremly intense and severe. The tries to club them away and stab them but he soon looses all his weapons and he is defenseless so the sharks eat his prized marlin which he
worked so hard to get. He feels hopeless after he looses his weapons but he still finds his was home.

This is the hardships the old man had to go through to catch this marlin. But unfortunately one of the hardships he went through also lost him the marlin. But all throughout the story which ever struggle presented itself to the old man he overcame it. Because even though he lost the fish he saved himself. This is what most people do everyday, is they get past there difficulties and make life better. I find it amazing that through all the things that happens in the book, the old man still seems optimistic.