Social Issues in "The Old Man and the Sea"

There is one main social issue in The Old Man and the Sea. The biggest social is the fact that the villagers did not like the Old Man just because he was down on his luck and was not catching any fish. There was not really any reason for them to look down on him, because he had not been cruel to any of them or mean. He was nice to all of them, was very patient with them, and showed them every kindness. He did nothing against any of them, waved to everyone he saw, stayed out of the way of other people, and was just a good guy in general. The rest of the villagers loooked down on the Old Man because he had not been able to catch any fish recently. The Old Man had been out of luck lately, and no fish had come near him so that he might have even had the chance of catching any, so none of it was even his fault. He had done nothing wrong, he had just not caught anything, so there was no reason for the villagers to dislike him. Some of the villagers, the Boy in particular, had nothing against the Old Man, because the Old Man had done nothing wrong and had even taught the Boy how to fish. The Boy really liked the Old Man, and did everything that he could to help him. The Boy's parents though, looked down on the Old Man, because he had not been able to catch anything. They even made the Boy go fish with a different company, because the Old Man had been unlucky. The Boy's parents did not like the Old Man, but there was no apparent reason for their dislike of the Old Man. While there are many social issues in the world, Ernest Hemingway decided to focus on the world's dislike of people that were unlike themselves, and he portrayed it very well in his book.