So now lets look at The Old Man and the Sea and see how close it comes to matching the Aristotelian ideal Tragedy.

According to the Poetics, the most important component in Tragedy is Plot. The majority of the Poetics is devoted to plot.

Lets look at the first 10 things the Poetics says must be present in a work as it pertains to plot and how this novel stacks up to this standard.

The Yes/No Test:

1. Is the plot of  a  length that can be easily held in memory? Yes
2. Does the plot focus on one single kind of event and action within a small stretch of time? Yes
3. Do all scenes contribute to the whole? Yes
4. Can you delete any scenes without it affecting the narrative? No
5. Does the plot narrative use frame narratives to avoid long periods of consecutive description? Yes. In parts of this novel the frame narrative helps deepen the plot and helps develop character while staying on task in narrating only a small period of time.
6. Does the plot have simultaneous scenes to make the narrative more impressive. No. However for this kind of story it’s better not to expand beyond the old man since it would break the momentum and continuity syntactically it mirrors the authors concise writing style. 
7. Does most of the plot describe character action and utilize direct dialogue. Yes
8. Does the narrative keep the authorial commentary to a minimum. Yes
9. Is the plot Simple? No. This is a good thing.
10. Is the plot Complex? Yes