“But man is not made for defeat,” he said.
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
—— The Old Man and the Sea
I began to read this book in October 2005. I remember that it was often raining outside when I was reading the book, and I cried several times. It is really a touching story.
Now I am doing this after thoughts and there are some key words in my mind.
The first word is belief. Just in the very beginning of the story, I remember there is a dialogue between the old man and the little boy who helped him a lot when they were fishing. The old man hadn’t caught any fish in eighty-four days but he still had his confidence.
The old man said to the boy: “ I know you did not leave me because you doubted.”
“It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him.”
“ I know,” the old man said. “ It is quite normal.”
“ He hasn’t much faith.”
“No,” the old man said. “ But we have. Haven’t we?”
And the old man did do things confidently. When he went out to sea on the eighty-fifth day, he went too far and at first saw no big fish at all. Though cold and lonely, he waited patiently. He has encouraged himself for many times that he said maybe today was the lucky day and I would catch a big one. It is never too important to encourage oneself when he hasn’t much faith. The simple words are a kind of encouragement to raise your belief. We will do better if we have belief.
The second word is hand. It may sounds a bit strange, but I did impress by the scene I imagined to the author’s description. I compare my hands with the old man’s. In the story, the old man had such bad hands that always hurt him much. He wished to have good ones. He had good hands but he had lost the good part of them from the day he became a fisherman. What a fisherman does is hurting the hands he had born with and continuously feeling the pain they brought.
It makes me think of my grandpa. My grandpa is not a fisherman, but he has not good hands either. His right hand had some accident before and was not quick any more. When I read the old man’s story, I thought much about my grandpa. I try to feel the sadness both of them have.
I had some similar experience to feel the old man’s pain. I feel my hands terribly biting when I touch the icy water to wash my clothes every winter. This may just be very little pain that the old man suffered. But I did touch by the words that the author described. “Perhaps it was my fault in not training that one properly. But God knows he has had enough chances to learn. He did not do so badly in the night, though, and he has only cramped once.”
The third word is loneliness. There is a sentence in the book that the old man said to himself when he was alone and felt too empty in his heart. The sentence goes like this: No one should be alone in their old ages. But it is unavoidable.
The old man only had one boy to stay with him, but the boy must leave him since he could not catch fish for eighty-four days. He was extremely lonely out in the sea. He spoke to himself loudly in order to feel better. He watched the sun rising up and going down. All around him was water and water forever till he met the biggest fish he had ever seen. He said many times that he wished to have the boy with him. Not only to help him catches the fish, but also speak to him and not let him feel so badly. He even made friends with the fish he caught. It is true that no one should be alone in his or her old ages.
I feel uneasy. Is it certain that as we are growing up, we care less about those who are getting old - not too old, but not powerful or independent enough to be relied on by those young? Do we still look upon them? Do we still have time to take a small walk with them and patiently listen to their prattle?
These are what I have thought. Though at the end of the story, the old man lost most of his fish, everybody respected him for his fight for the fish and pride as well. He had faced the difficulties and gone through all the pain.
Old, stubborn, persistent…no matter what words most of us may describe the old man, I appreciate his spirit. I feel encouraged and touched by his every effort to prove to others, especially the young that he was still doing his best at his old ages. It is not only a way of living, but a positive attitude towards life.
I recommend this book to all the friends who are somehow losing their way of living. I hope they will find the way back as the old man firmly did. |
