People face struggles everyday. Whether it be a bad grade or problems at home, we all have to overcome obstacles. In the novella The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, a fisherman named Santiago must do this too. He must face the giant marlin, fight against sharks, and overcome his pain.

After 84 days without catching much, catching this 1,000 plus pound marlin makes it seem like Santiago has finally caught a break. Or has he? After all, the fish puts him through so much. It pulls him extremely far out to sea and causes him a lot of physical and mental pain. His hands and feet get cut from holding the rope so that the marlin won't get away, and he thinks he might be going crazy because he isn't getting any sleep, because if he fell asleep his hands would relax and the fish would be free. The quote, "Just then the fish gave a sudden lurch that pulled the old man down onto the bow and would have pulled him overboard if he had not braced himself and given some line"(55) shows how the fish is hurting Santiago. It is such a strong fish that it could have pulled Santiago into the sea if he had made one small mistake. The rope is also hard to hold and is cutting his hand from having it speed across his hands.

When Santiago finally catches this great fish, he ties it to this side of the boat to get home. He understands that things might happen to it, such as sharks being attracted to the blood. However, he couldn't have guessed how much he would have to do in order to save every bit of the marlin that he could. When the first shark came, Santiago had his harpoon, but the shark got away with that. Eventually, all he is left with is his club, which he doesn't think he could do much damage with. His doubt is shown in the quote "Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death"(112). He thinks that he is to weak and sore and old to be able to keep so many sharks from getting the marlin with just a club. The sharks make Santiago wish he had never caught the fish at all.

During the whole book, Santiago experiences a lot of pain. Before he caught the huge marlin, he was experiencing pain because he hadn't caught much in 84 days. Once he caught the fish, the rope that the fish was on was over his back so his back hurt and it was being cut, and every now and then the fish would go faster and the rope would fly through Santiago's hands, causing them to be cut. Also, at one point his left hand cramped because it had been holding the rope for so long, so that caused him pain. He is also experiencing mental pain, because he is so tired and thinks he might be going crazy of fatigue and dehydration. His pain is shown in the quote "The Old man could hardly breathe now and he felt a strange taste in his mouth. It was coppery and sweet and he was afraid of it for a moment."(119) It shows how he was bleeding because of trying to kill all the sharks. He also couldn't breathe well because he had been working so hard to try to save his fish and destroy the sharks. Being as old as he was, it took a lot of energy to try to kill the sharks with the little resourses he had, so he was in pain and out of breath.

Santiago overcomes all of these obstacles by the end of the book. He catches the marlin, although it put up a good fight and almost pulled Santiago into the ocean a few times. He kills all of the sharks, even though all he had was a club and he didn't think he could do it. He dealt with his pain, so he was able to stay sane and catch the fish. He realized his main goal was to get home, preferably with the fish, but at least alive and healthy.