The Old Man and the Sea: The Fish

The fish is one of the very few characters in Old Man and the Sea and he does not even have any spoken dialogue, but he is a fish after all so that does make sense. But his importance to the novel because he does not speak at all and his presence has such an adverse affect on Santiago and he is the driving force of the novel. The fish is the antagonist to Santiago but the conflict is viewed as a good thing by Santiago due to the fish bringing out so much in him. He views the fish as his equal and his brother and feels great remorse for having to kill such a noble and magnificent creature. The fish is a marlin and is the largest marlin that Santiago has ever seen. The fish has it's own struggle against Santiago and tries for three days to break free of the hook only to be killed by Santiago. I viewed that as a somewhat sad story because he put up the fight of his life (literally) for three days only to be stabbed by a harpoon, drug back to Havana, and on the way back be devoured by sharks. That does not really strike me as a very good end to such a noble creature. But I digress because it would either have been the old man or the fish who would make it out alive. The fish causes Santiago to bring out his all and realize how important the boy is in his life so I think that overall the fish helped Santiago become stronger and a better man. The conflict is not a physical one but mainly a psychological one. It is to see who will break first and become tired and it is the fish who loses the battle. Out of the three characters in the novel the fish is easily one of the most important, but all characters do have their rolls.