Old Man and the Sea Essay

Throughout life, people have to face challenging situations and go against obstacles. Whether these obstacles are critical to one's life, dangerous, emotional, or don't affect the person greatly, people have to overcome and get around one obstacle until the next ones comes up. Like what Ken Lintz said, "An obstacle is often an unrecognized opportunity," meaning that overcoming an obstacle can lead to great success in a new opportunity, is something that everyone can learn.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is challenged to fight his way through multiple forces. Him trying to overcome these obstacles are not just because of the threat to his survival, but also for his own personal content and confidence. All throughout the book, the Old Man has to face the power of the Marlin, the sharks and ocean, his own loneliness without the boy there with him, and his lack of energy. His peaceful fishing adventure changed to a not so happily ever after ending unfortunately. Without breaking down these barriers one at a time, Santiago would never have been able to progress like he did though, even if in the end he didn't end up bringing home the Marlin as proof.

Throughout the entire story, Santiago is facing all the elements within the ocean. These include the Marlin, sharks, finding food, and more. For the majority of the story the Marlin is the main struggle and obstacle the Old Man must overcome. Even though Santiago is very anxious to bring the Marlin home, he doesn't rush the hunt and remains patient. Catching this fish would mean he would break his bad luck streak that had been going on for over eighty days, and he would gain more respect as a fisherman, not only from other people, but himself.

Also, there are multiple minor obstacles including the sharks and also Santiago making sure that he provides for himself by catching food. In the end, the Old Man defeats the Marlin. With the Marlin on the side of the boat though, it doesn't mean it will be safe. The aggressive sharks come and quickly pick away at the Marlin leaving nothing, "I could not have expected to kill them, he thought. I could have in my time. But I have hurt them both badly and neither one can feel very good," (114).

Another critical part of his journey is that the Old Man must be cautious about making sure he takes in enough food for energy. Although Santiago managed to catch the Marlin and catch enough food to stay alive, the sharks took away what he had worked so hard for but Santiago never gave up on trying to beat the sharks.

On this fishing outing, Santiago was all alone. Manolin, the boy, wasn't there as someone he could talk to or use as a second pair of hands. Even though Santiago is very wise, he is also very aged and worn out. Without the boy there, Santiago is lonely and begins to not only talk to himself, but also the dead Marlin. At one point, Santiago hurts himself badly with the rope like in this passage, "If the boy were here he would wet the coils of line, he thought. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here," (83). The Old Man is so used to having Manolin there to admire him and keep him company. Since he is alone and traveling solo on this trip, Santiago has to work extra hard physically and also mentally because he has no one to talk to. That is another example of an obstacle that Santiago has to overcome throughout The Old Man and the Sea.

Lastly, lack of energy and tiredness are a big barrier for Santiago while overcoming the Marlin. Due to having to hold the rope at all times and the Marlin pulling the boat outwards, it was very difficult and rare for the Old Man to find time to rest. Like in this passage, "Even if I sleep twenty minutes or a half hour it is good. He lay forward cramping himself against the line with all his body, putting all his weight onto his right hand, and he was asleep," (81) shows how valuable time to sleep was to Santiago. He managed to overcome this though and find time to get small portions of rest in order to function and hunt down his prey, the Marlin.

All throughout the story, Santiago defeats many obstacles while mainly, only one defeats him. Without his effort and tenacious attitude to catch the fish, he probably would never have came close to catching the Marlin or making it home, Santiago should be proud of overcoming so many obstacles. Even when things started to get bad, the Old Man still tried and put in everything that he had in effort to save what he had won. During everyone's lifetime, they will go through hard times and most of these situations won't end easily, it takes time and effort. It may end how that person wanted it to, or it could be the total opposite, that's life.