The book “The Old Man and the Sea” was written by Hemingway in 1951. Just as Hemingway himself said, the work is the best one he ever wrote in his life. The book was so successful that it enabled Hemingway to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.
First the famous words in Hemingway's books “A man can be destroyed but not defeated". It had to do with the persistence of a man in achieving what he wanted to get done inspite of all adversities, taunts and hardships to turn defeat into victory, thereby showing the triumph of human spirit to overcome life's problems and take control over one self-turning that into a victory.
The story of is quite simple: and Cuban fisherman finally fished a very big marlin after eighty four days’ taking no fish, but the fish was too big, the old man spent three days conquering the marlin. However, on his way home, he and the big fish were attacked by a lot of sharks. At last, when he came back, only the head, tail and vertebra of the fish remained.
However, “Every day is a new day”, a pack of sharks broke all his hope. He never gave up, he fought with the sharks even after losing his tools. This proved his bravery again, “Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” After the first shark took away about forty pounds of the fish, the old man said like that. I thought it also showed the topic meaning of the book. The old man really gave me a vivid lesson, not only by his heroic behaviors, but by his simple words.
Destruction means to completely ruin or spoil. Santiago experienced this destruction. It started with 84 days of not catching anything. He was being crushed but his spirit and pride prevented defeat. During the fight with the marlin, he physically was being destroyed. He had a choice to spare his life and let the fish go but he knew he had to overcome his destruction so he kept at it and caught the fish. And finally, the fight with the sharks was his hardest battle.
Defeat means to have been beaten in a battle or a contest. Santiago is never defeated in the novel. Even when he says at the end when Santiago says, “they beat me Manolin, they truly beat me,” we know that Santiago really wasn’t defeated. He defeated his enemies. His enemies throughout the novel were the marlin, the sharks, and Mother Nature. He defeats the marlin by killing it, and defeats mother nature by surviving in the ocean on that skiff for three days. The only battle that has a hazy result is the one between the sharks and Santiago.
In the Old man and the sea, Santiago says, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” The true statement can be referred to throughout the novel. Santiago is in the end physically destroyed, but mentally he is not defeated. Santiago’s courage and pride pushes him forward throughout the novel, even when it looks like hope is lost, but is never defeated.
I cried after reading the book. I felt sympathy for the old man’s unfortunate experiences, what’s more, I felt honored for the old man. At the end of the book, the old man was dreaming about the lions as usual. Lions stand for vigorous vitality and youth. This is another show of the old man’s inner thought. Such a man will never be defeated.
Now I think reading the book isn’t a task for book report any longer. I have been absorbed in the book or the old man. It is really a great inspire to me. I can be destroyed but never be defeated!
Moreover a Victory over crushing hardship is the heart of heroism, and in order for Santiago the fisherman to be a heroic symbol for humankind, his trials must be monumental. Victory, though, is never final, as Santiago's successful slaying of the marlin shows. Hemingway vision of heroism is Sisyphean, requiring continuous labor for quintessentially ephemeral ends. What the hero does is to face adversity with dignity and grace. What we achieve or fail at externally is not as significant to heroism as the comporting ourselves with inner nobility. As Santiago says, “But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
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