【正文】 knowing that he has no chance against the sharks, he continues the struggle against them. For Santiago, a man who struggles against fate will not be defeated. You can destroy him, but you can never defeat him. This is the essential truth of the “Hemingway code.” And Hemingway defines the theme: the will to challenge and maintain dignity in the face of adversity. Santiago lost the fight against the sharks but he was not afraid. His value lies in the fact that he rose from his failure and regained his confidence. The success alone is meaningless without the initial setback. Santiago obtained more experience and taught them to Manolin. The Marlin he hooked had nothing left but a skeleton, but it won great love and respect for him. To us readers, the relationship between the protagonist and the Marlin somewhat embodies the very existence and faith of human beings. The Marlin is graceful and noble, and its existence supports Santiago?s life and his faith. Yet the sharks are those dark forces that are destructive to human life. They are indicative of all the violence and injustice in the world. For them Santiago has no respect. What he has is but ruthless revenge and a desire to conquer. In the end he loses, but he is glorious. Hemingway vividly creates an image of a tough man. Santiago emerges as a guy who reflects the author39。 it is not for that he does not catch any fish, but for he has continued to ply the waters for eightyfour days. Though he used to be a very skillful and successful fisherman, now he is a loser. This time he has two roads: to give up fishing or to keep on trying. He has to choose one from them. Under such situation people usually think that he should choose giving up fishing because of his bad luck. But which one does he choose actually? Santiago refuses to be discouraged. To him the first fruitless eightyfour days means nothing, and his optimism and hopefulness have never gone. In his mind he never abandons the chance of success. If he cannot go out into the sea, his life will bee meaningless. Still firm in trying for big success, he makes his resolution to struggle against his misfortune in order to be recognized by his fellow fisherman as a professional. Full of hope and confidence, he firmly believes in what he is doing now and what he will do, so he chooses the latter firmly and decides to go far out into the sea. When he faces the failure, he refuses to be rejected and bitter, instead he remains cheerful and confident. He struggles against defeat bravely and never gives up. These characters and spirit of him just reflect Hemingway?s philosophy of life: when faced with the misfortune and miserable fate, man should not be discouraged, instead, he should be optimistic and hopeful and struggle against them. “But,” he thought, “only I have no luck any more. But who knows? May be today every day is a new day.” 15 This sentence shows that Santiago is an optimistic man, he maybe luckless, but he is not pessimistic. He believes that everyday is a new start, and the new start will bring him better luck. Though his sail looks like the flag of permanent defeat, he does not accept it. So he makes up his mind to go far into the deeper sea and try his luck, being optimistic that he will catch a really large fish. Santiago was all hurt in some way, yet he was not defeated. However, there are some differences in the characterization of Santiago. He is active and chooses to be injured. Unlike the others he suffers only physical harm, not mental pain, and as a result retains his optimism until the end of the story. Santiago accepts his fate with great tranquility and his injuries he regards as insignificant occurrences. The threat of destruction is always there for Santiago to face, and it is because of this that the life attitude of Santiago towards his fate bees something pure and definite, his life being more meaningful as a result of destruction, and it is this obstacle, destruction that he has to overe. As one critic said, the world is always testing us, threatening us and presenting us with obstacles. The important thing is to persist when confronted with them, then we will succeed. Dream of the Lions on the Beach Most of the time, the lions appear to be mere cubs, playing like young cats in the dusk, and Santiago loves them as he loves Manolin. The cub lions are symbols of youthful possibility, a foreshadowing of great things to e. The image of them always makes the old man happy。 He hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a good harpoon with all his strength. He hit it without hope but with resolution… “But I killed the shark that hit my fish”, he thought. 10 He kills the Mako shark finally, but it tore off about forty pounds of flesh. In the killing, the old man loses his harpoon and all the rope too. And now his fish bleeds again and there will be other sharks attracted by the scent and trail of blood in the water. But the old man inspires himself by saying aloud, “ But man is not defeated. A man can be destroyed but not defeated…The dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. But I was more intelligent than he was.” 11