Old Man and the Sea

My very boring essay on the old man and the sea

The topic I chose to do is "The main theme of the book is summed up in the single sentence: "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." Discuss in detail the meaning of this theme and the ways in which the book develops and illustrates this idea."

A man can be destroyed but not defeated is true in people who have a passion, strong want, or love of something. This talks about how someone can have really bad luck or have bad things happen to them but they still keep going. They never give up no matter how bad the situation is, and they always have hope. The book shows this theme in many ways.

The old man has gone 84 days without catching a fish. His house and boat are in pour condition. And he himself is wearing down. He has scars all over his hands and his body is old and worn. But most importantly he has a feature that goes against all this, his eyes. His eyes were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. This shows that his body was destroyed but his spirit was not defeated.

Towards the end the old man is heading back to port when sharks show up and start to eat the fish. The old man fights the sharks off using whatever he could use, even though he knew it would be useless, until he runs out of weapons. He is being destroyed by the sharks but he keeps on fighting and never gives up.

In the book the old man tells himself that he is not defeated but that he whent out to far in the ocean. "And what beat you, he thought. Nothing, I went out too far."

In the end the old man is still undefeated which is shown in the end when he talks to the boy. They talk about going fishing again after the old man feels better. Him still dreaming about the lions in the end also is a sing of not being defeated because he still wishes for the same thing.

"A man is not made for defeat...a man can be destroyed but not defeated."