Notes on the dismantling of the book 'The Old Man and the Sea'

A person of noble soul will treat their opponents as friends and bestow dignity upon life.

In the letter "To Harvey Breit" by Hemingway

San Diego has become a tough hero, an unbreakable man.

The old fisherman lives on in my mind, just as he always has.

There's nothing symbolic about it; the sea is just the sea, and the old man is just an old man.

A boy is just a boy, a fish is just a fish, a shark is just a shark; all this talk about symbolism is nonsense.

Tracing the faintest clues in an author's work to speculate about their private life feels quite despicable.

Great works always possess a structure of invitation; what they want to tell you must be deciphered by yourself.

Do not regard the ocean as an enemy, but rather as a benevolent female who often bestows favors upon us, and even when occasionally fierce, it is due to her unintentional mistakes.

The delicate black terns, they are always flying, searching for food, but almost never find any. Thus he thought, the life of birds is even harder than ours, born frail and unsuited for life at sea.

San Diego even felt sorry for the big fish that had nothing to eat, "I wish I could feed that big fish. It's my brother."

It is in the struggle against disaster that humans can appreciate the nobility of pain.

In the struggle with the shark, he lost his nobility, being overwhelmed by a despicable attack.

When he dragged the enormous fish skeleton back, he didn't care about the big fish or the sharks; he let his small boat drift away, quite in the state of mind of Zhuangzi's "drifting like a boat without ties."

San Diego wrote the word "noble" above the vast sea for us; he maintained his composure and grace in failure, calm and collected, even though he gained nothing, but returned to the hut by the seaside.

He fell asleep and even dreamed of lions; those who previously said he had met with misfortune could not help but widely praise his great deeds.

Noble souls will time and again come ashore with dignity, just like the bones of a great fish, becoming a certain spirit.