George Washington

Life is full of challenges. Real people and literary characters are similar in that they are often defined through their struggles. Older people have the experience of time, an opportunity to face long unique sets of obstacles that become the milestones of their lives. Hardships might result from nature, fate or society. The character of Santiago faces challenges from all three in Ernest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea.


The most obvious struggle that the old man faces is with nature. The story is set far out on the Gulf Stream, past where other fishermen are expected to roam. The author places the action there deliberately, emphasizing that the struggle between Santiago and his prey would have no human interference, but would be a battle between man and nature. “My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people,” stated Santiago. “And no one to help either of us” (50). This isolated setting made the battle a primal struggle more intense for the reader because it was simplified into a struggle between man and enemy.


The fish that the old man battles is abnormally huge, a mammoth marlin capable of providing a battle that lasts for days. Santiago needs to use all of his strength and wits to match the fish’s strength. He acknowledges that the match is even, and shows respect for his enemy. “Never have I seen a greater or more beautiful or a calmer or more noble thing than you brother” (92). Santiago adopted a reverent tone towards the enemy because the reader feels that the struggle carries an almost spiritual importance. Although he honors the fish, he also understands that it is necessary for survival to catch it.


The old man also faces the challenges presented by his own advanced years. “No one should be alone in their old age, he thought” (48). He must remind himself to eat, as he is becoming forgetful. Santiago battles hunger and poverty. Yet he battles these challenges with faith and his spirit is strong. “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and they were cheerful and undefeated” (10).


Santiago has to fight the hopelessness of old age, not with himself, but the lack of faith in him shown by others. Although he had his young friend have faith that he will succeed in his quest, others do not believe. “Many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not angry" (11). He had his own faith in himself and the support of a young boy whom he had taught to fish. Others have trouble believing that an old man such as Santiago could possibly catch anything of size or worth.


Fate is responsible for some of Santiago’s failures. He has not caught anything in eighty four days. Santiago tried to put a good face on things, reassuring his young friend with an endless spirit of optimism. “Eighty five is a lucky number” (16). Yet, after he has lost the enormous fish and retires with nothing to show but an eighteen foot skeleton, he remarks, “Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her” (117)?


Santiago has faced challenges from nature, from society’s expectations of his failure, from age and from fate. At the end of the tale, he is exhausted and is technically no richer than he previously was. Yet the reader has been enriched by his adventure. Hemingway has created a character through struggle, one whose spirit and strength are larger then the fish he hunted.