The Old Man and the Sea- the Marlin

In the book "The Old Man and the Sea" the marlin fish was a very important character. In some ways, the marlin was like the antagonist of this book, but I could also see it being like a protagonist too. The antagonist in a book is the character that opposes the hero of the book. The marlin could be considered like an antagonist because in the book, the hero of the book, the old man, struggles against the marlin. The challenge that the hero or the old man faces in this book is trying to catch and kill the marlin. The marlin is a difficult opponent because it is a huge, very strong fish. The old man wants very badly to kill the marlin because he is so desperate for a catch and the marlin would be an incredible catch that would astound all the people in the old man's town who doubted his fishing abilities. The marlin is very difficult to catch because it is a very strong fish and the old man is not prepared enough to easily catch it. The marlin pulled the old man's boat for days through the sea before the old man could kill him. The old man could not pull the marlin up to his boat. He had to wait for the marlin to swim up closer to the boat and begin circling closer to the boat before he could kill it because if he tried to pull the marlin up to the boat, his line could break and the marlin would get away or the hook would create too big a cut in the marlin and the marlin would be free. The old man had to be very careful and precise. The marlin could be considered the antagonist of the story because it is battling the old man but it could also be considered the protagonist of the story because the old man did not really consider the marlin to be his enemy, but more of a brother. The old man thought the marlin to be a very worthy opponent, he considered it of more than a fish, he considered the marlin to be "great". To the old man, the marlin was an incredible creature that he would not be ashamed to lose to.



Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.