By Connor F.

Throughout ones life, we face many obstacles and challenges, which not only change us, but shape the rest of our lives forever. In Old Man and the Sea, a novel written by Ernest Hemingway, the main character Santiago , a simple minded hard-working fisherman, is forced to deal with obstacles that change his life and him as a person. These nagging troublesome obstacles and challenges consist of fatigue, hunger, and sharks. These obstacles not only greatly infected the plot, but changed Santiago as man for the rest of his life.

Capturing a 12-foot marlin alone at sea is not an easy thing to do. Imagine being Santiago , an 80 year old man, in a petite skiff capturing something three times his size. It is amazing that a man that old struggles with only fatigue as one of his problems, and not facing his death. Santiago struggles with tiredness in the story when he says: “You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills you.” (92). This quote shows his fatigue, because you can tell he is not only physically tired, but so mentally exhausted that he is pushed to such an extreme brink of destruction that he does not even care what happens with the marlin.

The second obstacle or challenge that Santiago faces on the open sea, is overcoming hunger. This could be looked at as his fault, for going out to sea ill prepared, but no one expects to be on a four day fishing trip chasing one marlin. Throughout the story Santiago neglects the pestering hunger, but at this point in the story he is finally forced to recognize it, : “And I do not know whether the sun will rot or dry what is left, so I had better eat it although I am not hungry. The fish is calm and steady. I will eat it then I will be ready.” (59). This directly shows how he is starving, because it shows that Santiago is finally making time to eat. It also shows that he must have been putting it off for a long time, and when the fish is calm he is making time to satisfy his own hunger.

The third and final obstacle and challenge that Santiago faces, is the ever relentless sharks. On his trip home, after finally catching the marlin, numerous sharks attack, and tear the marlin to pieces. He fends off many sharks and it shows it when he says,: “But I killed the shark that hit my fish, he thought. And he was the biggest dentuso that I have ever seen. And god knows I have seen big ones.” (103). Losing the marlin was a crushing blow to Santiago , he fought hard on the sea for four days, and to return home with nothing is heartbreaking. The quote directly shows how the sharks were a huge problem because he discusses how they are ever relentless and huge.

In conclusion, seeing how Santiago overcame many challenged throughout the novel, you can see how he is truly an amazing person. Santiago was an 80 year old man stuck alone at see on a tiny skiff, fighting something three times his size. But not only that, he had to also struggle with fatigue, hunger, and sharks that tried to kill him. This shows that Santiago is not only an extraordinary man, but also a pretty tough s.o.b. So next time you consider someone to be tough, picture an 80 year old frail man, capturing a giant, with nothing but a fishing pole and the determination given from god