What does Santiago possess that is not essential to his survival as a fisherman?

Most of Santiago's possessions are related to his craft. His only other belongings are kept in his shack. A portrait of Jesus, his beloved wife's belongings, as well as a photo of his wife kept under his shirt because it made him lonely to see it. Other things were mere necessities..... furniture, eating utensils...... the bare minimum. Santiago didn't even own a real pillow. He rolled the newspapers inside of his trousers and made do.

The shack was made of the tough budshields of the royal palm which are called guano and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal. On the brown walls of the flattened, overlapping leaves of the sturdy fibered [15] guano there was a picture in color of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and another of the Virgin of Cobre. These were relics of his wife. Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it and it was on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt.