A man can be destroyed but never defeated The novel "The Old man and the sea" is simple in plot but profound in meaning. An unlucky old man called Santiago fished alone for 84 days without taking one fish. At the 85th day he found an exceptionally huge fish that is 2 feet longer than his skiff. In order to make a miracle, He held the line for 2 day-and -nights, over all the difficulties mentally and physically, finally he managed to kill the fish and bound it to his skiff. However, groups of sharks came to his trophy by tracing its scent. The old man defeated all the sharks but lost the meat of the fish. Being tiered with wounds, he came back to the shore with the huge spine. After finishing the story, an affection of respect mounted in me. What a tough, strong-minded man he is. First, he has a clear, noble destination, or we can call it a powerful opponent, the great purple fish. In the story, the old man regarded the fish as the most "beautiful”, "noble”, “calm” thing. As he had said: “I love you and respect you very much, but I will kill you dead until this day end." It is generally known that in every circumstance, destination is always the most critical step in one's journey. One can never do his utmost until he realizes how lofty his goal is. Second, the procession of his fight against the fish plays an important role in the plot. As we can imagine, an armless old man in a completely uncertain environment, confronted an enormous fish alone which is lager than his skiff. In such a rival of man against the whole environment, all the belongings could be neglected but the will and intelligence. The old man was so keen to put all his strength into the competition that he even hated his cramp. Maybe we'll never come cross that kind of dangerous situation, but who knows how many tough rival are confronting us in the future, all we can do is to calm down and face it bravely with our strong will and intelligence, just like the old man. What impressed me most is the old man's reaction when he lost the fish slice by slice. One might think though he had spent a hard time in catching and killing the fish, he was still happy and satisfied in achieving his goal. But seeing what you got by risking your life robbed again and again by your own eyes can be doubtlessly unbearable. However, the old man choose to coping with this situation with optimism, as he once said, "Think about something cheerful, every minute you are closer to home, you sail lighter for the loss of 40 pounds." Sometimes we'll find our success or opportunity vanishing bit by bit, but if we get into desperation instead of trying to save what is remained, we would be defeated to the core. Although the old man lost every thing but the skeleton and scars at last, he is still the winner. Sometimes, we are not reaching our destination although we spared no effort. But life is fulfilled by every drop of sweat and every single footprint. I think maybe that is what the novel really wants to tell us. We can not surrender to destiny no matter how hard it would be, and then can we finish our journey without regret. As the word by the old man goes “A man can be destroyed but never defeated." 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/ce32ab2582eb6294dd88d0d233d4b14e84243e46.html