OLD MAN AND THE SEA

People need to make decisions every day. Some decisions are more important than others. Your decisions could be as minor as what you are going to order at a restaurant or as important as weather or not you are going to go running through a field wet and wearing metal armor during a thunder storm. I don’t think that what you order will affect you that much. But running through the field would be a very serious decision. Maybe you have a really good reason for it and maybe nothing bad will happen, but that’s the whole point of making decisions.

In the old man and the sea, the old man had to make lots of important decisions. One of the most important decisions is weather or not to take the boy with him. Some good things that could happen would be that the boy could keep the old man company and that the boy could help catch fish. Some bad things would be that the boy’s parents get mad because they told him not to go fishing with the old man and the boy could get hurt. In the end the old man chose not to bring the boy."No the old man said, your with a lucky boat. stay with them.'' p10.Maybe that was the right decision and maybe it wasn’t.

Another decision that the old man made was to keep going after the fish even when it went far out to sea. Now this decision was probably the wrong one since he lost most of his equipment, had the fish get eaten by sharks, and he hurt himself pretty bad. Now if he didn’t follow the fish so far he probably would have been better off. But who knows he might have hit some strong storm and have his ship sink if he went back sooner. ''Fsh that you are. I am sorry that i went too far out."p115. But maybe if he turned back he would have caught a bigger fish and be able to bring it back. You never can tell how a decision will work out.

Another decision that the old man made was hoe much to prepare for the trip. The old man didn’t bring any food. Only brought a bit of water and only had the necessary gear needed to catch a fish. There are so many things that he could have brought to make the trip easier."I wish I had some salt."p59. If he had a battleship he would have caught that fish in two seconds. (Although I doubt that the old man could get his hands on a battleship.) But even if he just had an extra harpoon or a radio his trip would of gone much smoother. "It would be wonderful to do this with a radio.p48. The radio would help him pass the long time on the boat, and the extra harpoon would have enabled him to fight off the sharks easier.

The truth is that decisions need to be made all the time. Some decisions are simpler then others like jumping off a cliff or not. And some decisions are more important than others. In the old man in the sea the old man had to make tons of decisions. And if he decided something differently then the whole book would have changed completely. But whatever floats your boat I guess.