The Old Man and the Sea is a story about a man named Santiago who must face many obstacles in order to obtain and keep his prize, which is a marlin. Santiago, in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old man and the Sea, faces many overwhelming obstacles; however, it is through the overcoming of these obstacles that Santiago achieves inner success. At the beginning of his journey, Santiago’s main objective was to simply catch a fish, a huge marlin but unforeseen difficulties forced Santiago to look at himself in a different light. With great persistence, Santiago triumphed over his own self-doubt, self-defeat and pride and ends his journey with an enormous sense of accomplishment and many lessons learned.
There were many times Santiago was in situations in which he did not believe in himself but triumphing over those situations is what gave him his success over self-doubt. When Santiago was alone out at sea he constantly longed for Manolin’s help to catch the marlin because Manolin had always helped him out with everything. When Santiago was at home, he was hardly ever alone because Manolin usually spent most of his free time with Santiago. “‘ . . . I wish I had the boy.’ But you haven’t got the boy, he thought. You have only yourself and you had better work back to the last line now, in the dark or not in the dark and cut it away and hook up two reserve coils’” (51-52). This statement made by Santiago shows he feels lonely because Manolin is not with him. Santiago also feels insecure without the help Manolin provides him and doubts him self without it. Santiago has success over his insecurities of loneliness by forcing himself to stop thinking about Manolin. He does this by using work to occupy his mind and time, instead of thinking about Manolin and slowly those insecurities of loneliness of disappear. Santiago is not as young and strong as he used to be and this causes him to feel that his health could be a barrier in his way of catching the marlin but by removing this barrier he gains more confidence. “‘Cramp then if you want…it will do you no good’” (58). This sentence tells the reader that the cramp causes Santiago to worry that his age and health will not allow him to catch the marlin. He feels this way because he is old and does not have the strength that he had when he was a young man and he needs all the strength he can get. To get rid of the cramp in his left hand, Santiago eats the Bonito to give his cramped hand strength and then lets it rest. He decides to use his right hand, which does not have a cramp, to do all the work. As a result the cramp slowly starts to un-knot giving him not only a sense of relief and a boost of confidence but success over self-doubt of age. The fact that the marlin is in the water and Santiago cannot see it at all times causes great worry for him but when he overcomes this obstacle he has lost self-doubt of his intellect and instincts. The marlin at any time could’ve done something unexpected and get away. This forced Santiago to always think ahead and predict the marlin’s every move. “The old man would have liked to keep his hand in the salt water longer but he was afraid of another sudden lurch by the fish and he stood up and braced himself . . . ” (57). This action of Santiago’s shows us he is very alert of all the marlin’s actions and is constantly watching out for anything fishy. Since, Santiago doesn’t know what the marlin is thinking or planning to do he is always prepared for the unexpected causing him to gain more trust in his instincts and not doubt his intellect. Santiago’s success over self-doubt is what allows him to lose all insecurities about his abilities and truly believe in himself.
