every adversity, brings in the huge marlin, and battles with sharks. Santiago is a testament to perseverance, and that's what keeps the story from being a tragedy.

It's not a tradgedy in the classical sense.  It does not have a true hero.  It's basically a man and a fish.  All of the action occurs on a different level.  The tragic point is the battle going on inside the head.  I find it sad, but I would not say it's tragic.

It is going to be difficult to make Hemingway's work a tragedy.  The very idea of Santiago representing one of the quintessential Hemingway Heroes would preclude a sense of tragedy in it.  If one tried to paint this as a tragedy, it would have to lie in the very idea that Santiago is poised against society.  Santiago's condition of loneliness is tragic.  Grieving for his wife, years after his death, Santiago's life is one where his state of being is seen as unlucky and unfortunate.  The fact that he identifies with Dimaggio is another example of a tragic condition.  Santiago loves the fact that Dimaggio fights through pain and endures unspeakable physical and emotional pain in giving everything in being "Joltin' Joe Dimaggio."  Santiago could have identified with Gehrig or Ruth, figures of triumph or monolitic admiration. Yet, he chooses Dimaggio because of the melancholy quality that is intrinsic to the Yankees legend, something that he sees in his own state of being in the world.  Santiago's condition of respecting nature and yet killing it to live is something of tragic conditions.  When Santiago discusses the pain of killing a marlin while its mate watched the ordeal, one sees the tragedy in both the situation and how Santiago identifies with it.  Santiago is a character that will never receive validation, perhaps his most hauntingly tragic condition.  There will never be the type of triumph and sense of totality that he might deserve or that he might want.  In the end, Santiago recognizes this, but has no other choice than to persevere with his desire to fish, to live, and to dream what no one else can.  In this, Santiago is both tragic and human, a connection that Hemingway might be saying is inseparable, like the marlin and its mate.

Certainly, Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is not a tragedy in the classic sense as defined by Aristotle in which a man of noble stature undergoes  a change, or reversal, in fortune and falls from a state of happiness to one of misery; moreover, the  hero's misfortune is a direct result of his own act that is criminal in nature. In addition, this act is called hamartia, an act committed in ignorance of some fact or even for the sake of some greater good.

Nevertheless, if the reader employs the broad definition of tragedy as defined thusly,

A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending,

Hemingway's narrative can, then, be considered tragic in a modern sense:

• The old, poor fisherman Santiago, who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish sets out in his boat to catch a big fish; when he does so, however, he must endure a strenuous struggle to bring it in to his boat; then, he must  return it safely to shore with him. It is this struggle that comprises the majority of the narrative; in this struggle, Santiago exhibits all the traits of the Hemingway Code Hero, such as "grace under pressure":

His hope and confidence had never gone. But now they were freshening as when the breeze rises....He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.

(Still, the "code hero" Santiago is not a tragic hero in the true sense, and the novella is not a classic tragedy.)

• Santiago exhibits great courage in the face of adversity. In order to regain his pride and the respect of others, Santiago knows that he must act alone. So, he fights the great fish in what may be a losing battle. And, despite losing all its meat to the sharks, Santiago returns with proof of his catch and attains fulfillment as he underscores again his manhood, having proven his courage and strength to have caught such a great fish. In this sense, Santiago demonstrates the noble nature characteristic of a hero.

• Although the ending in sorrowful, it is meaningful. Bravely, Santiago has acted, and bravely he has faced death. In the end, as Santiago dreams of the lions, it is evident that he is not defeated in mind, even though he has greatly injured his old body since something in his chest "was broken." Santiago's dream of the lions as he sleeps is symbolic of his renewal of his manhood and his courage to go out another day. Thus, the ending of the novella becomes meaningful as Santiago, like his hero Joe DiMaggio, endures and survives, and he derives meaning from the end of his struggle with the sea which has defeated him. 

When considering whether Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" can be categorized as a tragedy, it is appropriate to first arrive at common ground on the definition of "tragedy" in the context of literature.  For purposes of discussion, the definition of "tragedy" from the Encyclopedia Britannica will be used:

"tragedy: branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.  By extension, the term may be applied to other literary works, such as the novel."

Using that definition, "The Old Man and the Sea" can most definitely be considered a tragedy.  An elderly, exhausted fisherman named Santiago struggles with a prize catch, a large marlin, finally prevailing against that fish only to lose it to sharks: that constitutes a tragedy in most any literary definition used.  Hemingway's description of Santiago is such that the reader can only view his protagonist in somewhat sorrowful ways, for example, in the way that the young Manolin's parents forbid him from accompanying Santiago on a fishing expedition, preferring instead that the boy work with successful fishermen.  When Santiago's victory over the marlin turns to defeat because of the sharks, he can do nothing but go to bed and dream of a better life.

I certainly feel that there are some tragic elements in Hemingway's novel, but I am not entirely convinced that it is a tragedy.  When I think of a tragedy, I am inclined to consider works that present a narrative of disunity, lack of totality, and fragmentation where answers are challenging to ascertain as part of the definition of tragedy.  The idea of being "Destroyed, but not Defeated" is a reflection of Santiago.  While the old man might have failed, he emerges as a unifying force, an example of how to stand in the world.  The human predicament is shown to be one where victory and triumph is present, even if not present in the final results.  I think that this is why the work is not one of tragedy, but one where the unifying force of comedy and totality is present.  With the ending of the work, the emergence of Santiago as a force that asserts his own voice, and the idea that there is a positive force within consciousness makes this work so comic in nature:

Yet the struggle to achieve one’s dreams is still worthwhile, for without dreams, a human remains a mere physical presence in the universe, with no creative or spiritual dimension. And so at the end of the story, Santiago, in spite of his great loss, physical pain, and exhaustion, is still “dreaming about the lions”—the same ones he saw in Africa when he was younger and would like to see again.