In this book about the struggles of an old man, the loneliness of the sea, and the importance of faith and perseverance, we can find the true meaning of life.
There is Always a Bright Sun After a Dark Night
In this book, as the title suggests, it’s just an old man and the sea. There is an occasional boy who follows him, but most of the events center around an old fisherman and the sea. The old man’s epic battle with a giant marlin in the middle of the ocean will have you on the edge of your seat.
In fact, the old man has been out at sea for 84 days and hasn’t caught a single fish, and he’s been labeled as a bad lucky man. Even the boy who learned to fish from the old man was forced to switch to another boat by his parents.
The old man was once called a champion, and he was very strong and good at catching fish, but he could not overcome the weight of time. The old man’s age was evident in the wrinkles and furrows of his thin body. But of all the parts of his body, his eyes still burned with unrelenting fire. Having lived his entire life by the sea, his eyes had come to resemble the sea.
Life is full of despair, but life is beautiful
The old fisherman’s hope was crushed under the weight of time, but he still rowed with hope. A lone boat on a deserted sea, a lonely old man, and an elusive fish were a battle against himself, a battle against loneliness. But the old man never gave up hope. Rather, he consoled himself and called out to the sea. He decided that today was his lucky day, that every day was the beginning of a new day, and that he shouldn’t just sit and wait for luck, but be ready for it to come at any moment.
Life is a series of despair. It’s said that we are traveling from birth to death. But life is beautiful because there is hope in despair. The old fisherman had not caught a single fish for 84 days and many more, but he never gave up hope.
Perhaps the old man is not sailing to catch fish, but to find joy in his solitude, and in that sense, his fight with the big marlin after 85 days is truly inspiring. When the old man finally won the long fight with the marlin, he felt like he had the whole world. The marlin was two feet longer than the length of the boat, so even after catching it, he couldn’t put it on the boat, so he tied it to one end of the boat and rowed toward shore.
Our lives are like a food chain. The old man won the fight with the marlin after a hard-fought battle, but he lost it to a shark before he could get home. The short but powerful message of his conversation with the boy is that when he finally returns home, all he has left is the pain and suffering of his wounds, but he still has hope for tomorrow. He promises to have another great voyage with the boy once his wound is healed.
We grow young with faith and old with despair
Life is lonely. Hemingway may have chosen an old man to represent the loneliness of life, and so the book’s lonely voyage on the sea and the long fight with the fish suggest our own lives. Although he is an old fisherman who is not looked upon by the goddess of fortune, Santiago is a strong character who never gives up.
We grow younger with conviction and older with despair; we grow younger with confidence and older with fear; we grow younger with hope and older with disappointment.
Whether you’re in your 20s or your 60s, there is a part of you that is drawn to wonder. There is also a childlike curiosity about the unknown and a sense of excitement and joy about life.
We have an invisible receiver in our hearts. As long as you receive inspirations of beauty, hope, joy, courage, and strength from nature, from man, and from God, you are a youth.
If the inspiration is cut off, and the mind and body are stretched out like ice on a slope, you are old, though you may be twenty years old. You may be eighty years old and still be a youth, as long as you hold your head high and ride the waves of hope.
It is so. The old man’s body had grown old under the weight of his years, but his eyes were as young as the blue sea. We all become helpless old men when we give up, when we despair. We see the hopes and dreams of life shining brightly in Santiago’s strong will to fight until death.
