Character of Santiago in ' The old Man and the Sea" Essay (Essay Sample)

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The old man and the sea
Throughout 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 laughing stock due to having gone for many days without catching fish. To be precise, they were forty-four days and it seemed he was destined to break his record of eighty-seven days. Even after he struggles and manages to catch a big marlin, his efforts prove futile as it is destroyed by sharks. Santiago always made choices throughout the novel in his fishing expeditions and at the end, there were always consequences.
On the 85th day of his dry spell without catching fish, Santiago chooses to sail far in areas other fishermen have never been. It is there he finds a challenge that he has never encountered his entire life. He hooks an eighteen-foot marlin and they have to struggle with it for several days. According to Hemmingway, at some point during the struggle, all he could do was to endure and not think, while resting on a 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 consequences of him choosing to go deep fishing into the sea extreme are physical taxation with the marlin and the deep cut he sustained on his hand.