The Old Man and the Sea

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Such is the message that Ernest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea forcefully sends to the reader. When Santiago, the old Cuban fisherman, undertakes his fishing exploit, he hopes to reverse the 84-day streak of bad luck, but he heroically comes back with the greatest catch of his life. Mocked by his fellow fishermen and abandoned by Manolin, his young apprentice and friend, Santiago endures extreme pain caused by the cord around his body, and resists attacks of fierce sharks, alone amidst the vast sea, to bring a giant marlin to the shore.
The Old Man and the Sea is written in plain but forceful language. Published in 1952, it earned its author the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and played a major part in awarding him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.