The second conflict I detected in The Old Man and the Sea was a common one found in many books. Santiago versus nature. The old man is being pulled out to sea by a large marlin, which Santiago believes he will be able to catch and eventually kill quickly. However, Santiago did not weigh in the numerous factors such as the heat, hunger, thirst, and the weather, which could all cause many problems for the old man, especially at his age and the fact that he was alone.
The heat while out on the ocean can be unbearable at times, due to the fact that Santiago is completely surrounded by water, which the sun reflects off of and onto his boat. Therefore, Santiago could have suffered from heat stroke or heat exhaustion for not being in shade. Because, I do not believe Santiago was wearing any sunscreen or protective clothing or anything like that. So, he was putting himself at great risk by going into the water unprepared.
In addition to heat, the old man did not bring enough food or water to last him the extended period of time he was out at sea. Like I said, Santiago did not exactly know how long he was going to be on the gulf, but he still should have come prepared. All he had was some small fish and a bottle of water. The gulf was all salt water, so unless he filtered out the salt, there was no way for Santiago to get more water should he run out. For food, Santiago did have the advantage of being completely surrounded by fish, so he could fish if need be. As it turns out, Santiago did catch two small fish to eat.
The weather was another unpredictable factor to being on the ocean. Santiago had been around the water long enough to tell if a hurricane was about to pop up or something like that. Even still, if foul weather were to arise unexpectedly, Santiago would have nowhere to go. He's completely surrounded by water in a small skiff.
So, the weather, heat, and lack of food and water provided conflicts in the novel for the old man.
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