Old Man and the Sea #2

In the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, the conflict is simple: An old man, Santiago, goes to sea and attempts to catch the greatest fish of his life. Although the old man makes a great attempt, he unfortunately does not end up catching the fish. Although the conflict seems to be a very simple one, lots of small and large events affected the final outcome and the rest of the old man's life. The old man has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish, so the boy has not been allowed to fish with him. The boy's parents do not think fishing with the old man is good for the boy to be spending all of his time. If the boy did continue to go fishing with the old man, many bad events could have been avoided on the fishing trip. A gain of the conflict would be the strengthening of the young boy and the old man's relationship. The boy missed the old man when he was gone for so long, and when Santiago got back the boy helped care for him. The boy says he does not care what his family says anymore. "Now we fish together again." (Hemingway 125). The old man will now be able to pass along all of his vast knowledge of the sea to the boy.

One major loss of the conflict is obviously the fish. The old man chases this fish way farther into the ocean than he would have liked. When a shark attacks and takes a chunk out of the marlin that far into the ocean, there is no hope for the fish to last until they get back to shore. Plagued by many more sharks attacks on the way back the home, the old man realizes that it was not worth it to him or the fish to go that far out to catch the marlin. Th old man wanted to catch this fish purely for his own pride and to show the other fishermen that he is not a joke.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.