Quote 28
After he judged that his right hand had been in the water long enough he took it out and looked at it.
"It is not bad," he said. "And pain does not matter to a man." (4.8, 4.9)
I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad. (4.29)
The old man later answers his question about pain, suggesting that man’s superiority to beast is his ability to withstand pain.
Quote 29
But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left. That and baseball. I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain? It was no great thing, he thought. Any man could do it. But do you think my hands were as great a handicap as the bone spurs? I cannot know. I never had anything wrong with my heel except the time the sting ray stung it when I stepped on him when swimming and paralyzed the lower leg and made the unbearable pain. (4.95)
The old man hinges his equality with "the great DiMaggio" on his ability to withstand pain.
Quote 30
I must not think nonsense, he thought. Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her? I would take some though in any form and pay what they asked. I wish I could see the glow from the lights, he thought. I wish too many things. But that is the thing I wish for now. He tried to settle more comfortably to steer and from his pain he knew he was not dead. (4.159)
The old man’s pain becomes an asset to him, keeping him alive on the boat.