chrisk.art.blog

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Old man and the Sea, Santiago lived an impoverished life: he lived in a small cabin and the bed on which he slept was made of old newspapers.

The old man could barely fend for himself and almost always had food to eat through the benevolence of his apprentice, Manolin.

Santiago was not just poor but abjectly unlucky, for which reason his colleague fishermen despised him with passion. And why was that so? His unluckiness was described as “salao” which is the worst form of unlucky. He had gone for fishing for 84 days without making any catch.
He was an old man. He was very frail at his age yet he would not allow his adversaries mar his determination to achieve something big.

He therefore set out to go on a fishing expedition in which he was determined to catch a fish which had never been caught by any fisherman in the history of fishing.

Out there on the seas was Santiago with his boat. He battled with cold and loneliness such that he took a sea bird as his friend in the boat. He was out on the sea for good two days without a catch.

The following day, after making many throws of his line, he caught a fish which was bigger and heavier than the boat he was using to fish. At long last came success but was it guaranteed? He had to battle it out with the hunted fish : the fish drifted him to its own desired direction. Between he fisherman and the fish, who was fishing who now?

His bad luck one would conclude was congenital, and a fait accompli. The trail of the blood of the caught fish attracted a host of sharks that competed for to have a meal out of the catch. He fought the sharks with all his might. He lost his knife and a number of weapons he could use to fight the sharks in the process. And on the third day when he made it to the shores of the sea, he was left with only the fish’s head and bones. The flesh were all eaten by the sharks.

Santiago’s tail is that of resilience and the stubborn determination to keep doing the thing he set out to do, no matter the odds that stood his way.

In the end, he did not return home with the fish intact as he desired, Santiago was fulfilled because first, he broke the chain of unluckiness and second, he was also able to make a catch of fish whose kind had never been caught by any fisherman in the history of fishing in the whole area.

One cannot help but be like the Santiago, standing firm and resolute in precarious conditions, and determined to go out all and give all out in an effort to achieve a thing one has set out to pursue in one’s life.

Even if one is too unlucky as Santiogo was, they have that fighting spirit, to challenge any obstacles put on one’s way, and to push through to achieve one’s dreams.

The abject poverty did not stop him from being ambitious and clear about what he needed to do to make a big catch. The dejection by his fellow fishermen did not hold him back from going on a fishing expedition to fulfil his dream of catching a big fish which no one has ever caught.
In fact, Santiago knew he was unlucky, yet he kept going out to the seas every time.
We don’t have to wish there were no obstacles but prepare ourselves adequately to be able to overcome them on our way.

To end, don’t wish anything was easy to do, wish you were prepared enough to handle it.