The Unbroken Spirit: Lessons from The Old Man and the Sea

In a previous post, The Broken Spirit, I reflected on the ending of George Orwell's 1984 and how it left me deeply unsettled. Luckily, I decided to read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway right after and it felt like a breath of fresh air.

Where Orwell shows us the broken spirit, Hemingway show us the one that endures. One story ends with surrender, the other with persistence. Hemingway's story is not about triumph, but about inner strength, the quiet kind that keeps a person standing even when all is lost.

Santiago, the old fishermen who has gone 84 days without catching a single fish, spends days battling a marlin far greater than himself. His hands tear, his body trembles, he grows sleepless, yet despite every obstacle, he keeps fighting. He constantly talks to himself, pushing his mind to stay alert and focused on the task at hand. And when he finally catches the marling after days of struggle, the victory is short lived. Sharks devour his prize on the journey home, leaving behind only a skeleton, the proof of his effort, but not his success.

Still, The Old Man and the Sea reminds us that endurance itself is a quiet form of victory. Santiago loses the fish, yet gains something far greater: proof that meaning survives even when success does not

It makes me wonder how much effort and value we place on being "successful" all the time, instead of finding meaning in what we do, enjoying the journey, and finishing what we start.

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” - Ernest Hemingway