Santiago,老人 an old man about sixty years old, fished alone with nothing caught in eighty four days. No one would like to talk to him for his extremely bad luck except a boy who always came to help after the day and finally left to another boat under the pressure of his parents. Ignoring the contempt from the younger fishermen and sympathy from the older, on the morning of the 85th day, the old man started his fishing with determination and rowed his old boat very far in the sea where he believed there would be big fish. Fortunately the old man met with a big fish as he had wished and finally defeated the big Marlin with two days and nights struggle after overcoming great difficulties. But more unfortunately there were many sharks coming after his boat attracted by the smell of the blood of the big Marlin. After death-and-life struggle, when he finally got rid of the sharks coming after the boat, the big Marlin was bare skeleton.

　　The Old Man and the Sea tells a frustrated experience of the old man who fishes alone in the sea in plain languages. Through the simple lines, a “tough guy” image is shaped and heroism is praised. The whole story starts with a peaceful beginning which is some trivial of life and talking with the boy, and suddenly turns to its climax which is the dangerous fighting with the big fish and sharks alone in the sea, and ends with the old man’s return with the bare skeleton of the big Marlin. Though the boy only appears at the beginning and the ending in the novel, he plays an indispensible role, it is his inspiring and supporting that helps the old man to be “graceful under heavy pressure”.

　　In the book, the old man prepared his fishing properly and preciously than any other fishermen so that “Then when luck comes you are ready” as the old man thought to himself. In reality, some of us keep complaining that they are born in wrong time or good luck never knocks their doors. In fact, good luck sometimes just comes when they are not ready. Taking Newton for example, if he had not acquired a lot, millions of apples could never make him discovery the gravity. So if we just keep studying as much as we can, good luck will finally find us and a bright future is ahead of us. The old man never gives up hope. When all of people think he is doomed, he still strongly believes that he will get a big fish. And he does. So never giving up hope is very important to us. This reminded me of the sentence in Churchill’s speech “Never give up, never, never, never…”. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated” has always been inspiring me when I counter with some setbacks in my life. Setbacks are inevitable in pursuit of our goals, but we should never be frustrated and should be “graceful under heavy pressure” like the old man. It is his relentless pursuit that contributes to the victory.

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