Willpower of One
[INSERT HOOK] In the novella, Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, Santiago is an older man struggling to succeed as a fisherman in his small town. He is very unwavering in his desire to want to finally do something great. Santiago’s relentless determination drives him to stay at sea and endure all of the hardships in order to prove that he is able to make great achievements.
Santiago, being old and a fisherman, has many small health complications that keep holding him back and making everything much harder for him. The most prevailing issue he faces are his hands. Years of fishing and his old age have caused his hands to easily cramp and callous. “The speed of the line was cutting his hands badly, but he had always knows this would happen…” (29). Santiago knew he was putting himself in the position to undergo pain but he did what he had to do anyways in order to achieve his goal.
A bottle of water, and no food is not what most would think to take with them when they go out to sea for multiple days, but that is what Santiago does. He completely relies on himself and the ocean to catch the raw fish for himself to eat. Raw fish can cause many complications when eaten, but he does not let that stop him, “A flying fish is excellent to eat raw and I would not have to cut him up. I must save all my strength now” (23). Just another instance where Santiago is sticking it out and not letting anything that he can control get in the way of what he wants to achieve.
The threat of shark attacks alone is something that would keep people from going out to sea in a small boat alone, but again not much discourages Santiago. After