OMS Thesis Essay

       
        

          In life everyone makes choices, every choice has a consequence. We all make choices some are as simple as wither or not to bring a bottle of water to school the next day. Others are as challenging as deciding what you want to do when you graduate. Some choices you make in a slip second, like deciding to push snooze or to get up in the morning. Others take years like what you want to major in while you are in college.

            In Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man in the Sea, the main character, Santiago is faced with many choices. One of the choices that me makes that makes the book is whether or not he should go out and catch the marlin. Catching the Marlin was his biggest dreams in life. While he is out on his skiff he is faced with many problems, like fighting sharks,keeping a strong will, and keep chasing the marlin. Santiago was encountered by a hungry group of Mako Sharks while trying to catch the marlin. He needs to keep a strong will in order to keep after the Marlin. He needs to keep going after the marlin, when he his sleeping and the marlin jerks the line, he makes the decision to wake up and reel the marlin back in.

           With his conscious decision to go after the Marlin, he was forced to face a series of shark attacks at the Marlin. the marlin was attacked by a group of hungry mako sharks. While he saw the shark coming, he made the decision to fight the shark off. knowing he could die from it. but he wanted to ensure the marlin and him would survive. As sharks keep coming in for an easy meal on the marlin, Santiago keeps fighting them off and reeling in the marlin. “The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail” (101). When the shark bites into the marlin Santiago has a sudden burst of energy to reel in the fish once it gets bit by the Mako Sharks.

          Santiago was a very strong willed man. He didn’t give up on the marlin while he was faced with so many obstacles. “He knew he was broken now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer”(119). He [Santiago] used his resources well enough to get himself and the carved up marlin back to his hometown of Havana. If he didn’t do that then he would’ve ended up stranded in the Gulf of Mexico until his carcass ended up on the shore of some country that boarders the Gulf.

           In the book, Santiago accidentally falls asleep while going after the Marlin. He makes the decision to wake up once the Marlin tugs on the fishing line. "He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up against his face and the line burning out through his right hand"(82). With that decision to wake up and fight the marlin some more, he went through a lot of pain. The line was ripping through his right and, and then when his left hand found the line it started to burn through his left as well. Then, he raised it up and put is back into it, and it started to hurt his back. So he went through all of this pain just to catch a marlin in the Gulf of Mexico.

           Santiago was faced with a lot of problems and challenges with his endeavor of catching the Marlin. He made his decisions in a very timely matter. He used his resources he had inside of his skiff, and it ended up saving his life. He brought back the marlin to Havana. Even though no one knew he was the one and no one knew that it was even a Marlin, they all thought it was a shark carcass. In life, everyone makes decisions. Some can be simple other can me really complex. Other choices people make occur in a split second, and others it will take many years to get your final choice.