The old man and the sea

Throughiout in Hemmingway’s  novel “The old Man and the Sea” , Santiago suffers terribly due to the choices he makes. At the beginning of the book, he is his village loughing stock due to having gone for many days without catching fish. To be precise, they were fourty four days and it seemed he was destined to break his own record of eighty seven days. Even after he struggles and manages to catch a big marlin, his efforts prove futile as it is destryoyed by sharks. Santiago made always made choices throughout the novel in his fishing expeditions and in the end, there were always concequences.

On the 85^th day of his dry spell without catching fish, Santiago makes a choice to sail far where other fishermen have never been. It is there he finds a challenge that he has never encountered his entire life. He hooks a a marlin that is eighteen foot and they have to struggle with it for a number of days.According to Hemmingway, at some point during the struggle all he could do was to endure and not think, while resting on stepped mast (35). His determination of the choice he had made is further illustrated when he promises the fish that before the end of the day, he will have killed it. (Hemmingway 43) The consequesnces of him making a choice to go deep fishing into the sea extreme physical taxation with the marlin and the deep cut he sustained on his hand.

After Santigo had caught the marlin and is attacked by the sharks, he makes a choice to to fight them and not let them steal his prized marlin. During the struggle, he even reassures himself that as a man he can never be defeated, though he may be destroyed ( Hemmingway 87) Even though he puts up a spirited fight, the sharks devour the marlin and he is only left with the skeleton of the head and tail. The consequence of the choice he made to struggle with sharks results to extreme physical tavxation and loss of the marlin to the sharks.

When Santiago makes a choice to go deep in the sea, he wants to restore his pride and not break his own record of 87 days. He is determined to remove the tag that has been put on him as being Salao (unlucky). When he finally starts struggling with the marlin, he admits to himself that his choice was to go to the sea far where there was no one else in order to find him(marlin), and at that moment they are together and no one cah help either of them (Hemmingway 39). He returns later even though without the marlin and exhausted. What he has is the skeleton of head and tail of the marlin. The consequence of his choice is he is once again respected in his small village. Additionally, he gets to get Maolin back as the parents of the boy no longer see hin as bad luck.  

From the analysis above, it is evident that a man always makes choices and at the end there are always consequences. This is evidenced though the character of Santiago. In order to avoid defeat of being branded a man of bad lack, he decides to go deep in the sea and the consequence is he has to struggle with the marlin for three days before he can kill it and he is left with physical taxation an injury on his hand. Additionally, when he is attacked by the sharks, he makes a choice to fight them. The consequence becomes him undergoing physical taxation and in the process he looses his catch. Finally, with the last consequence he is able to earn back respect in the village after returning with the skeleton of the head and tail of the marlin and wins the young boy back. It is a choice he had made from the beginning to avoid defeat.

Work cited

Hemmingway, E. (2002). The Old Man and the Sea.Beirut: Typo press

Instructions

Every person makes choices and lives with the consequences. Choose one
character from The Old Man and the Sea and describe a choice he made
and the results of that decision.

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