Santiago's Suffering

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway deals with the effect of endurance and suffering on the human spirit, and how some of the suffering is necessary. Santiago suffers the most throughout the book. First, he suffers physically when trying to bring the fish to his boat. Secondly, his mental endurance allows him to continue on, his mind never let his body give in, even though his body told him to. Third, his spirit is hurt by all of the younger fishermen and the words they say and also by Manolin’s father sending him with another fisherman.
Santiago goes through a lot of physical suffering. The first physical damage that Santiago suffers is the "line burn that had cut his flesh." The cut "was in the working part of his hand." (57) It
Santiago was a physically strong man, but he was even stronger mentally. His mind knew all that he did and kept him from surrendering. When his body was on the verge of giving in to the fish, his mind would not allow it. He thought of the great DiMaggio and he asked himself, "Do you believe the great DiMaggio would stay with a fish as long as I will stay with this one? he thought. I am sure he would . . . " (68) And to give him more confidence and the will to go on, he thought of the arm wrestling match in the Casablanca tavern. He remembered how, "For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion." (70) This flashback gave him strength, which his mind used the best it could to bring the fish
One night while he was out with Manolin, "They sat on the Terrace and many of the fishermen made fun of the old man." (11) That did not hurt his spirit nearly as much as not having Manolin go fishing with him everyday. Manolin no longer went fishing with Santiago because as he said, "It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him." (10) Santiago had not caught a fish for eighty-four days. Manolin’s father wanted his son to be on a boat that caught fish so he could make some money. This made Santiago think that if he caught a fish, a great fish, that Manolin’s father would once again allow him to fish with Santiago. Santiago also felt a need to restore his own pride in himself. In a way he, himself, was beginning to feel that he was not as great of a fisherman as he used to be. He felt that not only would Manolin be allowed to go fishing with him if he caught a fish, but he would also, once again, be noted as a great fisherman, not only by others but also by