the old Man and the Sea the Fish

The fish is a very important character in The Old Man and the Sea. So important, that I'm still confused as to why this novel isn't called the old man and the fish. Seriously the fish is far more important than the sea in this story. The fish is probably in more of the story than the sea is, which is hard considering that the fish lives in the sea. My point exactly. The fish is important not because of what it does, but because of what it forces the Old man to do. We get the experience of learning so much about the Old man because of how he reacts to the actions of the fish, and how far he's willing to go to ensure that he catches the fish. When the fish started pulling the boat, the Old man could have easily cut the line and gone on with his life, but he didn't. "I'm being towed by a fish and I'm the towing bitt. I could make the line fast. But then he could break it. I must hold him all I can and give him line when he must have it. Thank God he is traveling and not going down." (Hemingway 45) He didn't cut the line, he decided to carry on and catch the fish no matter how long, or how bad of an idea it was. This shows that the Old man can be extremely determined, or extremely obsessive, either one works. The fish also brought out the carefree nature in the Old man. He went through all that trouble to catch the fish, then when he lost it he didn't even care. "What do you want done with the head?" "Let Pedrico chop it up to use in fish traps." "And the spear?" "You keep it if you want it." (Hemingway 124) The concept of him not caring for the fish shows that he cares more for the journey than the destination, and that he simply wanted to prove that he could catch it.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.