The Old Man and the Sea as I understand it

To be honest, rather than reading a novel, I was watching a documentary introducing fishing. The abundance of fishing-related vocabulary and fish-specific names in the text makes me hard to recall that I am reading a novel. Hemingway's use of simple declarative sentences and a large number of nouns and verbs to convey specific meanings is simple and easy to understand, while also giving the reader room to imagine for themselves, which confirms the principle that he adheres to when writing - the iceberg principle. Those who are familiar with Hemingway will know that he often portrayed "tough guys" in his works, and that most of these characters were lower-class people who suffered setbacks but always had a strong will. This is the value that Hemingway himself held – heroism. In this book, he definitely held on to this value. We can see it from the sentence that Santiago said “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Here's how I read that sentence: true heroism is that you still have a passion for life even though you have recognized the cruelty of reality. In Santiago’s fight with the Marlin, the old man treats the fish as both a brother and a rival and they both have respect for the other. The old man persisted in his fight against the Marlin and tried to bring it back to shore, even though he was exhausted. At meanwhile, the huge fish also struggled to break free of the hook and reclaim life for itself. It’s obviously that both the old man and this fish have great spirits that are hard to defeat. I would like to present my personal interpretations of the book in these two ways. First of all, what are the fish and the old man Santiago represent? For my part, the Marlin represents to “desires” that the utilitarians are looking for. While the old man represents normal people, especially the utilitarians. What the old man sought was this big, fat fish, and what he got were bones. The old man gets the Marlin but loses it to the shark, which is a symbol of the cruel life. The message of this story is that people are always in a hurry to get a result and fail to appreciate and enjoy the process. But at the same time, the old man and the fish were brave and strong enough to face the outcome when they knew it would not be satisfactory, and they persisted in their spirit of defiance, which is the value that the author wants to convey. Furthermore, I want to analyze the meaning of this book’s title “the Old Man and the Sea”. Firstly, there is no denying that the old man Santiago is definitely the main character of this book. While I think the sea, which is blue, conveys a kind of somber, lonely atmosphere, which represent that this old man is a little bit isolated. Meanwhile, the sea is mysterious and full of energy, which implies that Santiago is endlessly powerful and has a heroic spiritual will within him. Secondly, this story is ostensibly about the battle between the old man and the fish, but in reality there are multiple relationships. It is about the unity of man and society, man and nature, and man and others in opposition to each other. The sea symbolizes the fickle reality of society, and the Marlin is not just an animal in opposition to man, but the alter ego of the old man. For instance, the old man's own words “You had better be fearless and confident yourself!” and “I killed it in self-defense”, show the old man reflecting on his actions in the face of this large fish, as if he were having a conversation with his fish brother. It is through the mirror image of the fish that the old man is able to re-establish his self-image. This is the relationship between humans and humans. What’s more, the old man eventually defeated the big fish using the man's so-called “cleverness” and sharp fishing tools, ostensibly a victory for the old man. But in reality the old man does not really get the big fish, he loses. That is, the sea is eternal, while people are instantaneous. You can destroy a fish, but you cannot really defeat it. Nature is invincible, and the human spirit can only live forever if human treats it well. This is the relationship between humans and nature. Last but not least, I still remember the sentence that Santiago said in this story “I failed because I went too far out to sea.”, which I suppose is a symbolic phrase. It not only means that he went too far away from the shore but also emphasized that he had exceeded the boundaries of what is proper for man and nature, and man is bound to be rewarded when people go beyond the boundaries of nature. This is where the social significance of this story lies, and also shows the relationship between humans and society. In summary, Hemingway used simple words and sentences to portray a stunning picture of an old man's struggle with fish. But this seems a bit “childish” story conveys lots of important values and reasons that are worth analyzing deeply.