The Old man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” ― Marcus Aurelius

Man and Ambition are always inseparable..Being ambitious by nature he always strives to be successful in his career..He is a social animal and he needs to prove himself in the society's terms..Either a businessman or a fisherman..a young man or an old man,To acquire an honorable position in the society,he must be successful in what he does.Success plays most prominent and precious role in a man's life..The story is about an old man,Santiago and his struggle to prove himself ...'The Old Man and the Sea' is a Pulitzer winning novel written by Ernest Hemingway..The work also contributed in winning him the prestigious Noble Prize..

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This is a very simple story of Santiago,the old fisher man with poor luck in Havana..A boy, Manolin,wants to learn fishing from the old man and he takes very good care of him.Santiago returns from sea without fish for 84 days in a row...But the 85th day,once again he goes into the sea with strong determination ..He says to himself, 'This is going to be my luckiest day'..

Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

After a long but fruitful wait,a big Marlin take his bait...His small skiff could not get hold of the big fish..The fish circles around his small skiff .He uses all his strength to keep his line in control .He says the fish is his brother and all the time he keeps talking to the fish ....Two days and 2 nights passed in this manner but he kept his line strongly nevertheless suffering from wounds and spinal pain..

The old man was too tired to hold the line and there is no option left for him but to kill the fish..He ties the dead fish to the side of the skiff..Thinking about getting good price for the big fish he moves ahead  to reach the shore..In the meantime,the blood of the fish attracts a group of Sharks..The Old man kills one of the Sharks with Harpoon..Unfortunately he loses his Harpoon in this process..Finally the Sharks ate the fish leaving the huge skeleton to the skiff..The old man, completely exhausted and almost lost all his senses return to his shack..Though finally it appears to be his defeat,he actually won his battle as a Fisherman by catching the great fish ever...
Mahatma says,Man often becomes what he believes himself to be...These words very well describe Santiago's life....

His thoughts about the great fish (Marlin),
He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able

You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him.


He thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

"But man is not made for defeat,” he said..

The story maintains a constant conflict between hope and despair...He loved and respected the sea..He talks to himself and to the fish in the darkest nights of the sea..He feels fishing is not just his profession, but it is his pride..To keep up his pride as a fisherman he fights with the Sharks till the end..He put all his body and soul in his work, to catch the fish...The readers will be surprised with the Old man's intense willpower and self motivating personality..If the Sea is considered as the world, the big fish resembles the earthly desires we long for..And his battle with the sharks in order to save the fish represents our battle with life in the process of acquiring what we want..

It is a very small book yet recommended for patient readers..Though the book carries a good message,it turns out to be boring at certain points because there is no great concept and it only revolves around the Old man,The Sea and The fish..Nothing more..On a whole, it is a quite good read for me..

The old man's thoughts about the sea,
But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours  and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought