Observation

This was a popular question. However, many of the candidates gave mere narrations of Santiago as a fisherman, rather than his persistent fight for survival despite the failures he encounters.

The following points were expected from the candidates:

• Santiago is a poor fisherman who is labelled unlucky by the other fishermen. Yet he is a great fighter. He fights poverty. He also fights nature, in the form of the mighty ocean to catch fish.
• At sea, the cold of the night can be intimidating. He uses his sack to fight the cold lest numbness of limb disable him.
• He also fights hunger while at sea. He relies on raw tuna and dolphin for food and rations his water to assuage his thirst.
• When he catches the big fish, he fights sharks who take chunk after chunk of the great fish until all that is left is the head and the skeleton. Considering the weapons at the old man’s disposal for fighting the sharks, even the loss of the fish to the sharks is a victory.
• At the end, the old man earns the respect and empathy of the other fishermen and the people in the community

Candidates’ performance in this question was fair.