The Old Man and the Sea: Conflict

The conflict in The Old Man and the Sea was very obvious to me. Santiago was on an eighty-seven day streak of not catching a single fish. In the beginning of the book, there is a moment when Manolin asks Santiago if he has any dinner. It is apparent that he has no money due to not having any fish to sell, but Santiago says he has food. Both he and Manolin know that he is lying, though. I think the conflict was between Santiago and the sea. The conflict arose when Santiago left to go fishing early the next morning. He successfully managed to hook a large marlin, but that was not the climax. The old man struggled to keep the marlin steady for days. He could not reel the marlin in because he was afraid that if he put too much tension on the line that it would snap. At times, he has to let out the line a little when the marlin starts pulling too hard or diving deep. For days the conflict continued. Santiago patiently let the marlin slowly tow him away from the shore. He prayed for the marlin to rise up to the surface and jump out of the water so that the marlin’s air sacks would become fuller and he would not be able to dive any deeper. When Santiago finally did gain some line from the marlin, the marlin would dive again and waste all of Santiago’s effort. I thought that the climax was not when he finally caught the marlin, but when the sharks began to feast on it. The falling action was when Santiago gave in to the swarms of sharks and allowed them to eat the marlin he had worked so hard to get. I think that this conflict, like the writing, was simple yet brilliant. It appears to almost be too obvious to the reader, but I think that the conflict was deeper and more intelligent.