The Old Man and the Sea presents Santiago, the old man, as he struggles against nature, the sea, and ultimately himself. In this, Ernest Hemingway illustrates the necessity of not only experiencing, but learning from one's own pain and allowing others to gain from one's own experience, as Santiago did for Manolin. Santiago displays that "pain does not matter to a man" (Hemingway 84). He has endured this pain in order to fulfill his duty as a fisherman. Enduring this pain, he is able to keep his head high and his pride alive despite Santiago's inability to catch a fish in an 84 day period. Unwilling as he is in his mind to accept this lack of cooperation on la mar's part, he admits that this luck is out of his hands and continues. This struggle, which intensifies throughout the book, serves to develop in Santiago the humility and skill...