TOMATS - Question Two

In The Old Man and the Sea, the main conflict is that of the one between the old man, Santiago, and the great and powerful fish.  It is his struggles with this great fish that make up the conflict of the novel.  Hemingway spread this struggle greatly throughout the book and set it essentially into three different parts; catching the fish, killing the fish, and the old man’s great journey home with his prized possession filled with struggle and determination. The causes of this treachery is that the Old Man has extremely bad luck at catching fish.  His boat never seems to end up where the fish truly lie.  Also, his helper, the little boy Manolin, left his boat for a luckier one, which leaves Santiago short of two powerful hands(Hemingway 1).  This intensifies the conflict between the man and the fish from not having helping hands.  With every problem there is an answer.  For every right there is a wrong.  One must learn from every situation they are in.  Santiago learned the precious value of perseverance through determination.  He fought for what he wanted and what he needed.  He could have easily given up and gone back to the glowing lights of Havana, but he stuck with what he was given; a needle of luck in a haystack of misfortune.  Only he could know truly if his struggles were worth the time, effort, and agony he went through.  If one looked at the gains of his experience, one would infer that given the choice, he would make the same decision because of its gains.  The gains greatly overpowered the losses.  His loss of strength in the end.  Malnutrition was also a struggle throughout the story, as did the fact that the old man was seemingly losing his mind, slowly, like the fish was driving him to insanity.  Santiago lost his prize, the beautiful Marlin whom he worked so diligently for.  The values that he gained from that experience made it all worthwhile.   

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.