How Does Santiago Show Endurance

Every single person endures, it’s how much you can endure until you break that makes people’s endurance different and unique. Weather you’re mentally enduring talking politics with your opinionated family on Thanksgiving or you’re enduring the physical pain of a gunshot wound, you continue to endure the pain and see the day through. Endurance is the ability or strength to continue, especially despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions. In Ernest Hemingway’s book, The Old Man and the Sea, an old man named Santiago does just that. Santiago goes through many grueling challenges that make him endure physically and mentally. He not only endures the pressure and stress of catching and bringing the fish back to shore, but does so with grace. Santiago endures until the end, and he never gives up. Hemingway made Santiago the person he himself strived to be. It is Santiago’s perseverance, will to endure and grace under pressure that makes Santiago Hemingway’s hero.

Endurance is critical; without endurance the smallest thing would destroy us mentally and/or physically. Santiago uses endurance constantly, from staying happy and dignified when being made fun of, to winning an arm wrestling match
against a man twice his size and forty years younger than him. If Santiago didn’t have endurance, he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did. Because of endurance Santiago was able to stay strong, beat arm wrestling, catch the Marlin, fight off the sharks, get through his depressing life, persevere forward and so much more.

When under pressure, we tend to doubt and give up.
Giving up is effortless, it’s easy to give up, but almost impossible to keep going. Santiago did just this, he was given an almost incompatible task but pursued to persevere and continue his journey even though he was under a ton of pressure. All while trying to catch a Marlin bigger than his boat, going through physical and mental pain, Santiago managed to catch a whole other fish, gut, and eat it. This proves that Santiago has Grace under pressure. If he would have let the stress consume him, he would have failed on his journey but he didn’t. He changed stress into grace and strength and didn’t let the pressure of his journey destroy him. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not
defeated.”

Heroes play a big part in everyone's daily lives. Having a hero is having someone to look up to, learn from and/or someone you strive to be. Santiago is Hemingway's hero because of many different reasons. Santiago isn't hemingway's hero because they are both good fishermen, while that may be something important to Hemingway that is not why. Santiago has Dignity, Unity with the world, Sense of understanding, Loyalty, Determination, Endurance and more. Santiago isn’t perfect. That's not Hemingway's reason for him being his hero. He made Santiago into his hero because that is everything that Hemingway wanted to be. Santiago is someone to look up to because after everything he’s been through he still lives life to the fullest and never gives up no matter how hard life may seem.

Because Santiago endured through his challenges all while having grace under pressure, he was able to complete his journey. The fish still got eaten by sharks and he never got to bring home the marlin but he still caught the fish and proved everyone that doubted him wrong. Because he persevered he was able to do the impossible. Many other people gave up on Santiago and even made fun of him, but Santiago believed in himself, endured through the physical and mental pain, and because of that, he caught the Marlin and achieved his goal. Just like Hemingway, we should look up to Santiago; endure through challenges and remain calm under stressful times. If we do this, we too can be successful. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” -Santiago