By Amanda T.

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea the main character Santiago is a determined fisherman who has a defined love for the sea, and respects it as much as he respects himself. Most of the story happens while Santiago is out at sea fishing for a great catch that would hopefully change his bad luck. The setting of the story affects the plot structure, the main characters identity, and had a big influence on the conflicts of the story.

The setting of The Old Man and the Sea had a considerable impact on the plot because most of the story happens while the old man is out at sea fishing. Since he is in the sea, he deals with the animals of the sea and the rough waters. After he had killed the marlin, he has to somehow tie the large fish to his skiff with the rope he has left from the fishing line. He had to face numerous sharks that were striving to get a piece of his eighteen-foot catch. "Sometimes he lost the scent. But he would pick it up again, or just a trace of it and he swam fast and hard on the course" (100). Santiago talks about one of the first sharks to attempt to get a piece of the marlin and his attempt was successful and brought more sharks to Santiago’s displeasure. He struggled with getting the sharks away from the large marlin when he lost his gaff to the first shark when he stabbed him. He then had to use his sword and after that he used his tiller.

The setting of this novella also molded the main character’s identity. Santiago had such a great love for the sea and it was all he really knew. "He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her" (29). He thought of and loved the sea as a woman, almost as if it were his wife. When the sea did not provide him with fish for eighty-four days, he still adored her, and thought that he would eventually be able to catch something. He never once gave up on the sea in those eighty-four days because he recalled that this had happened once before and the sea had given him luck with a nice catch. After the sea had thrown sharks and a pulling current at him, he still greatly appreciated the sea.

The setting of the story also influenced the conflicts in the story. One of the first conflicts that the setting impacted was when Santiago was trying to catch the marlin and the marlin kept pulling the skiff further out into the sea. Santiago could not try to pull the marlin in because he thought his lines would break and he would loose the fish. He held tight on the lines and had to hold it across his back to manage the weight of the marlin. “I wish he would turn with the current. That would show that he is tiring” (53). Many of the other conflicts of the book involved the sharks that attacked the marlin. One of the other conflicts that the setting affected was that Santiago had lost so much of his marlin to the sharks, although he did not show much emotion to the loss.

The setting of this book affected the plot structure in more ways than one. The setting also impacted the main characters identity and the conflicts of the story. Even though the sea had in a way caused all this to happen to him, he still loved the sea and thought about going out fishing again once he recuperated. Everyone was amazed by his big catch and realized he could do a lot for his age.