Tough Struggle

Everyone faces struggles and obstacles in life when trying to reach a goal. Some are minor speed bumps and others are mountains people have to climb over. People face struggles and obstacles in a variety of aspects of their life. They can be from trying to earn enough money to buy a new ipod or struggling in academic classes in school. These struggles are unrelated but a challenge all the same. In The Old Man and the Sea, the main character, Santiago faces struggles and obstacles in his fight to land the great marlin he has hooked. The marlin’s shear size was a main obstacle. The attacking sharks created mayhem for Santiago. Also his cut and cramped hand had an effect on his abilities of reeling in the fish. He has to over come obstacles in this story to succeed in making money off this fish.

Santiago has to overcome the cramping in his hand he gets. This cramp is so terrible it completely disables the use of the hand. He now has to hold on to the fish with one hand." What kind of a hand is that" he said "cramp if you want it will do you no good."(58) This doesn’t allow him to do anything else. Santiago now can’t eat or try and catch a fish on another line because he has to maintain all his strength in clinging onto the fish. He has to suffer from lack of food and the lose of a whole arms strength. He overcomes this obstacle by rubbing his hand on his leg to take out the knots. While Santiago is doing this he is maintaining concentration on holding on to the fish and reacting to its changes in swimming pattern.

The sheer size of the fish created an obstacle all its own. "The man pulled on him all that he could to bring him closer. For just a moment the fish turned a little on his side.”(91) Santiago had to physically pull the 1500 pound fish to the side of the boat on his own. For a man who seems to be about 80 years old this is a tremendous feat to over come. Could you imagine the strain on your fatigued muscle? This old man dragged the enormous fish through the water. Even though he isn’t as strong,he was determined to catch the fish. Determination enabled him to catch the fish.

The mako sharks attack when they smell blood of the fish in the water. "The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the click chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail."(101)The old man is ill prepared for the fight ahead of him. He has his harpoon which he soon loses and then breaks his knife not long after that. He continues in his fight against the sharks to save the meat of the prized marlin he has just caught. Now you might be thinking if sharks came after my fish I wouldn’t bother trying to fight them off because its just one fish. Yes, I know it is just one fish but when looking through the old man’s eyes you see more than just one fish. You see the biggest, most magnificent marlin he has every seen and he just caught it. In 86 days he has not caught a fish and with this beautiful creature he has ended his unlucky streak and will be able to sell the fish for a lot of money. Fighting off mako sharks became an obstacle when he chose to fight them he didn’t have to, but he felt the need to.

From fighting through pain, to conquering the fish and taking mako sharks head on this man fought many obstacles. He felt the need to go through mountains rather than take the detour. By taking this path in life he challenged himself and came out on top sometimes and fell short at other times. Although when you look back on it he never once gave up or got discouraged. He kept his head up and pushed through the tough times.