This is the most inspiring novel I have ever read, Ernest Hemingway used his brief and forceful statements created a vivid character. But his suicide make me reconsidered. I don’t believe a man who can write these novels was with a weak heart. You might have read that Hemingway died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but hereditary hemochromatosis, iron overload, bronze diabetes was undoubtedly the underlying cause of his deat In the book, I was touched by some details. Santiago did not catch a fish during 84 days. On the morning of the 85th day, he decided to go to the farther sea, when he saw the After long time waiting, he caught a marlin fish, but it didn’t appeared on the surface. Then the old man said “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.” After three days, the marlin finally was defeated by Santiago. But the story doesn’t end here, it just a beginning.The smelt of blood attracted the sharks, Santiago said,”a man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. It is also the most important theme in the book, which is never say never. Another theme in this book is evident,” Success in the achievement of being carries with it the most valued of man’s possessions, the capacity for love.” Santiago loved the fish, the sea and nature, such as the porpoises around his boat. He loved his job as well, he spent his whole life in fishing and never stopped. His connection with fish is strong, so he wondered if it is ethical to kill it, if killing is a sin.
Monday, May 19, 2014
The man can be destroyed but never be defeated--The old and the sea (1)
In the book, I was touched by some details. Santiago did not catch a fish during 84 days. On the morning of the 85th day, he decided to go to the farther sea, when he saw the After long time waiting, he caught a marlin fish, but it didn’t appeared on the surface. Then the old man said “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.” After three days, the marlin finally was defeated by Santiago. But the story doesn’t end here, it just a beginning.The smelt of blood attracted the sharks, Santiago said,”a man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. It is also the most important theme in the book, which is never say never. Another theme in this book is evident,” Success in the achievement of being carries with it the most valued of man’s possessions, the capacity for love.” Santiago loved the fish, the sea and nature, such as the porpoises around his boat. He loved his job as well, he spent his whole life in fishing and never stopped. His connection with fish is strong, so he wondered if it is ethical to kill it, if killing is a sin.
Through the experience of protagonist, Santiago, his brave, indomitable and bigoted personality is worthy of our admiration. Santiago was a common man, but his character doomed him not to be ordinary. Ernest Hemingway once said, “everything he wrote was based on experience; and few men have experienced so much.The old man is presented from beginning to end as one who has achieved true existence. His response to every situation is the response of a spiritually fulfilled man.Initially, we commiserate in his meager existence, but admire him in his determination to break his run of bad luck. He doesn’t need any of our commiseration; the strong will never need it. He has the most strongest power in his heart, which is a dream. As what he said, a man can be destroyed but not defeated. Was he defeated by the sharks? Absolutely not. “Similarly the novel posits two kinds of defeat: Failure to compete successfully in a materialistic, opportunistic world where this only is the measure of a man and failure to maintain one's being regardless of external defeat. Thus the real story concerns the meaning, in terms of fundamental human values, of human existence.” I think it is easy to beat a person in one hand, such as force. But it is hard to defeat him when he has a strong heart. In China, there is a proverb what is “Failure is the mother of success”. Nothing can defeat a man only if he lost his persuasion.
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