What are the causes, gains, and losses of the conflict dealt with in this book?

The conflict of Old Man and the Sea begins that morning when Santiago leaves the harbor for sea. He decides to go out farther than any other fisherman and after a while he hooks a magnificent Marlin, which is the cause of the conflict in this story. The conflict of this book is the struggle between man and fish as they both battle as hard as they have to for survival.

During this great battle many things are gained. The old man gains self worth because before this day he had not caught a fish for a very long period of time and everyone made jokes about him(Hemingway, 13). He also gains respect for his worthy opponent because he puts up a hard fight for many days and at this time the old man has no control over the fish or even the direction his boat is traveling. Santiago also gains an understanding of the beauty and ugliness of nature. He catches this beautiful Marlin that he respects very much but the fact that he had to kill it in turn kills him. He is also disgusted by the fact that his extraordinary fish is slowly devoured by sharks that he can barely fight off.

Many things are also lost in this story. Santiago loses the magnificent fish that he struggles so long for to the sharks. He fought so hard against this fish, but in the end he was fighting for the fish trying to keep it beautiful against an enemy that is sly and of great number. Santiago also loses a few of his possessions during the conflict. While fighting the sharks after he catches the marlin he loses his knife to the watery depths of the sea. He also loses a good amount of blood while trying to hold onto the line with the massive fish at the other end.

The cause of the conflict between Santiago and the marlin and the sharks is due to Santiago needing to fish to survive. He does it everyday and on this day he got lucky and unlucky.

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