There had been many authors writing about the struggle of human beings against the
nature. It can be about a young captain coping with furious waves of the ocean. It can be about a brave man finding his way in a burning desert. However, it had never been about a very
old man alone, fighting against the mighty representative of the nature - the Sea. That was what Ernest Hemingway wrote about in his contribution to the world's modern literature in 1952 - The Old Man And The Sea.
The story is about Santiago, a very old fisherman, who had to struggle everyday to earn a living. Old age had made everything more difficult for him but couldn't put out the confidence and optimistics in his eyes. He still
sailed up everyday with a big belief in his heart. The main story started in a day when he sailed far away from the shore, and an enormous
swordfish got hooked by swallowing the bait. The
fish was big, the fish was strong while the man was too
small and old. The man struggled with the fish all day and all night. There was some moments he seemed to be too exhausted to go on, but he still stood up and kept struggling. He talked to the fish, he encouraged it, he complimented for its persistence, the fish became a friend of the old lonely man on the sea.
After a long time fighting and waiting, the fish eventually surrendered to the power of human. The man sailed back home with the hope of selling it at a good price at the afternoon market. However, the Sea didn't allow him to take away anything from her. The man's happiness was put out when his hooked fish was attacked by the
sharks. The hungry sharks followed the blood trace from the fish and came to tear it out. The sharks were crowded, the sharks were strong while again, the man was too small and old. And again, the man kept struggling, he used everything in hand to fight against the school of sharks. He didn't give up a minute, although the swordfish was torn out more and more until there was nothing left on the swordfish, just the bones. Hopelessly, he steered ashore. Along his boat were only the bones of the poor fish.
The story didn't end in a satisfactory way to some people. After all the efforts, the man had nothing. The Sea seemed to tell him :"You are too small and you are hopeless, I am grand and I am much more powerful than you!" But despite whatever the Sea was trying to say, we can imagine some days later, he would still sail the sea, and begin a new struggle against the nature. This reflects correctly what Hemingway had said :
"Man can be destroyed, but cannot be defeated."
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