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The Definition of human spirit in The Old Man and the Sea“The Old Man and the Sea”, a novella created by the American writer Ernest Miller Hemingway, it describes around the fight between an old Cuban fisherman and a big marlin in the sea. After the old man subdues the big marlin, sharks devour the fruit of the old mans victory. The sea symbolizes the human society, the big marlin symbolizes the human desire and the life ideal, the shark symbolizes the tragic fate that cant be got rid of, and the old man Santiago is a representative of tough guys. The novella discusses human beings in details and focuses on the humans spiritual power, and it is just the power that helps human make great achievements. A definition of human spirit prosecutes to the end in the work: Human can only be destroyed, cannot be defeated.Ernest Miller Hemingway, a great American writer, who has won the Noble Prize for literature, creates the great work: “The Old Man and the Sea”. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in a doctors family in 1899, his mother was fond of literature very much, which influenced Hemingway a lot in his future literature creation. Hemingways father dared to let go, after deeply thinking, he thought he should let little Hemingway get rid of some dependence on him as early as possible, to cultivate his independent ability. In this way, with his fathers advice and encouragement, Hemingway began his independent activities, and soon he had a wind range of interest, he was really fascinated by fishing, hunting and some adventure activities. Then the little Hemingway fell in love with reading. Fishing, hunting and reading, the three hobbies formed from his childhood, increased his experience, plays an important role on his way of literature creation.Ernest Miller Hemingway is a modern literature master, has a lot of literature work throughout his whole life. Among the American writers in the twentieth century, he is always mentioned in the same breath with Faulkner and Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingways four famous novels: “The Sun Also Rises”, “A Farewell to Arms”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “The Old Man and the Sea”. In addition to the four novels, he also created many outstanding short stories, making his contribution to modern novel more than Scott Fitzgeralds. After graduating from high school, he worked for “star” as a internship reporter for six months, at the same time, he also wrote and created. He got advice and encouragement from some famous novelists. For the nearly 10 years of time, he published many works, the most famous was “The Sun Also Rises”. In 1929,he published “A Farewell to Arms”, which is the best work among the “lost generation” literature creation. In 1930, Hemingway published “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, whose background is the Spanish civil war against fascism. In 1952, Ernest Miller Hemingway publish his novella “The Old Man and the Sea”, which made him win the Nobel Prize for literature. He is proficient in narrative art, plays his unique role in the contemporary style, leave many precious works for us.Here what I will study and discuss is just the novella “ The Old Man and the Sea”. This book is a medium-length novel wrote by Hemingway in Cuba in 1951, published in 1952, is one of the most famous works of Hemingways. The novella talks about that an Cuban old fisherman Santiago caught no fish in continuous 84 days, finally he caught a big marlin by himself, but the fish was so big that pulled his little boat on the sea for 3 days, finally it was killed by Santiago and was tied by the side of the boat. But back to shore, it suffered sharks attacks repeatedly, when back to port, only bones left. Hemingway wrote the whole story in detailed narration, through the description of the sinister natural environment, he highlighted the old mans tough guy image, praised the stubborn spirit in the old man. Although the novella is a simple story, of a not long length, but its meaning is rich. It becomes one of the classic works that influence history, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. It is taken as teaching material of heroism and human spirit, being enduring classic.Santiago is an old Cuban fisherman. We know very little about his past, but we can observe what the old man is like, what his life is at the very beginning of the story.“The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of the neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his cords. But none of these scars were flesh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.” With the vivid picture of Santiago jumping into our eyes, suspense immediately piled up in our minds. Furthermore, Santiagos life is not in good condition. He lives in a shack in which there is only a bed, a table, one chair and a place on the dirty floor to cook with charcoal. He is so poor that he had no pot of yellow rice and fish to eat. For eighty-four days he fished in a skiff without taking a fish. Eighty-four days is a long period of time, eighty-four days without a fish is very unfortunate for a fisherman. For a weather-beaten, poverty-stricken and lonely old man like Santiago, the misery might be beyond anyones intolerance, for a man can tolerate failure, but cannot tolerate continuous failure. Too much failure will sure defeat a man even with strong will. For this reason, we may arrive at the conclusion that Santiago will give up fishing.From all mentioned above, we see Santiago is given a specific character in a specific circumstance and is put in a very difficult situation. For, the more difficult the conditions are, the greater spirits will be shown in Santiago, the more exhilarating the story will be and the more artistic appeal the old man will display. As the story proceeds, it speaks itself. Before talking about his fishing out in the sea, I will discuss the attitude of Santiago towards his fate. He is unfortunate and everything about him is old, but we can see his optimism and hopefulness about his future from his eyes, “His eyes were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” He is poor, but he doesnt care, he went fishing for eighty-four days and only came back with “the sail patched with flour sacks, looking like the flag of permanent defeat” and without taking a fish. But he still talked about his baseball and dreamed of the lions on the beach, which are the source of strength and courage, and continues to sail out fishing. All these reveals his personality, his optimistic attitude towards life. We can not only see his confidence, his hope, and his strong will in his cheerful and undefeated eyes, but see his great ambition and courage to challenge nature and decide his fate in his never-stopping pursuit in the sea.Santiago is persistent and confident, which is perfectly mingled in his fighting against the marlin and sharks. In his eyes, “Every day is a new day”, every day will bring new hope. After eighty-four days without a fish, he sailed out of the harbor for fishing again on the eighty-four days. This time, he was lucky enough to hook a great marlin two feet longer than his skiff. Then the fight between the old man and his rival, the great fish began. For two days, the fish tortured the old man as it swam out to sea and tried to make its escape. It made surge to pull the old man down on his face and the blood ran down his cheek, his hands were cut, leaving him terrible pain. He was in danger and in great trouble. Only by cutting the line and letting the fish go could he get rid of his trouble immediately. The old man was facing his choice. But the old man didnt do so. The only thought was “Fish, Ill stay with you until I am dead.” When hungry, he ate some tuna, when too tired, he slept a bit and dreamed his lions on the beach, when having a cramp in the hands, he clenched his teeth and rubbed it against the trousers and tried to gentle his fingers. He believed that “Pain does not matter a man”. After the extremely hard and bitter struggle which most people cannot bear for two days and nights, he, at last, succeeded in killing the giant marlin and fastening it to his skiff. He won the victory. But the old man was not allowed to return peacefully. If this had happened Santiago would not have been so heroic and respectable. Instead an unexpected and exciting story which perfected the figure of the old man in the returning trip took place.In his returning trip, the more dangerous and terrible disasters pied up in him, schools of sharks came to attack the marlin of the old man. The sharks were so extraordinary that they were fish “built to feed on all the fished in the sea, that were so fast and strong and well armed that they had no other enemy”. His rivals were so powerful and fearful that he couldnt escape his defeat. But the old man had no fear at all and prepared for the fight. Now another heart-stirring fight between the old man and the sharks began.First he succeeded in killing a shark, but the dead shark made him lose his harpoon and all the ropes besides forty pounds of his marlin. He knew that his fish was bleeding and more sharks would follow the fresh scent to take his fish and a very bad time was coming. Since his harpoons and all the ropes had gone, he had to lash his knife to the butt of one of the oars as a weapon. As he had expected, two sharks came with the scent and were killed. Unfortunately, when he killed them, the knife blade snapped. It was getting dark. Again, many sharks headed straight for the skiff swimming side by side. Again, the old man defeated the sharks. But by the midnight, the sharks came in a pack. At this very moment, the old mans mind was clearer than ever. He knew he was doomed to lose the fight and more fights were useless. Still he never stopped fighting because stopping fighting meant he was defeated. How could he accept defeat? “ But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. It was pitch dark. He had no weapons, so he jerked the tiller free from the rudder and beat and chopped with it, holding it down again and again. Finally, he saw one shark came against the head of his fish, and he knew all was over. He swung the tiller across the sharks head where the jaws were caught in the heaviness of the fishs head which would not tear. He swung it once and twice and again. He heard the tiller break and he lunged at the sharks with the splintered butt. He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again. The shark let go and rolled away. That was the last shark of the pack that came. There was nothing more for them to eat.What an exciting description it is, what a perfect combination of courage and persistence and dauntlessness in Santiago. Now before us stands a fearless and strong-willed man, a man of indomitable spirit, who is so touching and unforgettable.At last, he sailed back into the harbor exhaustedly, with a skeleton of his fish and a broken skiff. He failed, however, he is not defeated, despite the fact that he has been beaten, as he himself admits, by his violation of the scared code. He pronounces that nothing beat him really and that his only fault was that “He went so far”.Santiago is not just a fisherman who only knows the skills of fishing but a man who ponders the social problems and cares for the development and the future of the human society. He declared: The human being may suffer great disasters, but people have an indestructible strength to overcome them and welcome the beautiful future, even they might be beaten many times. Many facts will prove that the old man was optimistic about the future: Although he was beaten, he was still hoping, he could go out sailing, his courage still remained.In addition to the old man, another character in the novella is the little boy. Although there is no little boy appearing throughout, in the novella, he accounts for a considerate length. The novella begins with that the little boy didnt abandon the old man, finally the boy and the old man got together. In the middle part of the work, the boy didnt appear, but in the threes of hard and tense sea drift, because of the feeling of longing to be companied and other reasons, the old man thought of the little boy many times, so readers can always feel the boys existence. Later, when Hemingway talked about the factors of the novellas success, he mentioned the little boy in the same breath with the old man. He said, “My luck is that I have a good old man and also a good little boy.” The little boy helped to present the old mans grace under heavy pressure, make the old mans situation worse and worse, pressure heavier step by step by writing the little boy. Under such pressure, the old mans failure appeared especially solemn and stirring, and the old mans attitude towards failure could be called “elegant”. Carlos Baker said that “In The Old Man and the Sea, the role of the boy make people more sympathy for the old man.” Because in the head and the tail of the story, we see the old man through the boys reverence and compassion to the old man. But in fact, in the little boys inner world, there isnt the only a static reverence and compassion, the boys feelings about the old man develops along a more in-depth trajectory, from sympathy to heartache, and this kind of feeling is stronger and stronger, and finally up to limit out. The boy had a sincere emotion to the old man, respected but worried about the old man. Besides, the little boys second importance lies in his traction for readers. Through the direct positive description of the little boy, not only reveals the boys simple and complicated feelings to the old man, but also depicts the boys individual character. The purpose is to enhance the appeal of the work, enrich the connotation of the work. We can say that, without the boy, the old man cant be what we see now; without the boy, the work cant be what we read now. What the little boy gives us is not a figure, the boys image in the readers mind is clear, no matter how detailed the description of the little boys is, only let the readers feel the presence of the old man more strongly.After analyzing characters, Id like to talk about the symbolic significance embodied in “The Old Man and the Sea”. The sea, in the whole work, plays an important role. It is the material world that the old Santiago lives in, is all content of his life. The sea provides mysterious large fish for him, offers him the platform to show his courage and perseverance. While the vast mysterious sea, although she is beautiful, she sometimes can be cruel. At that time, McCarthyism run rampant in the United States, democracy and progressive forces were crazy, the whole America was filled with horrible atmosphere. The sea in the work is just the dark unrest society at that time. The sea is always dark, the sea is so cruel, isnt it the symbol of the United States at that time? As for the big marlin the old man caught, huge marlin fishbone, as the prove of the fight between the old man and sharks, it can be said not only the symbol of victory, but the symbol of failure. It is just the transformation of opposition and unity that let us see the tough guy spirit again. In the image of the big marlin, all of the descriptions in the novella have more rich connotation. There are many different kinds of interpretation about sharks symbolic significance, such as the symbol of death, the symbol of time, the symbol of revenge and so on. But in Hemingways eyes, shark is the symbol of evil forces, is the tragic fate that cant be got rid of. Spontaneously, there is a lion representing energy and hope against the evil forces. Lion is brave and strong, hates the evil, can create the miracle. The lion in the old mans dream is the reflection of his tough guy spirit and indomitable fighting spirit.After “The Old Man and the Sea” publishing, people start to talk about a “tough guy” spirit. In this novella, we can see an ordinary people make great achievements through his extraordinary courage and self-control. The novella discusses human being in details and focuses on humans strength, it is just the strength that help people make achievements. I want to analyze Hemingways definition of human spirit from several perspectives: Pride, Dignity, Success and Heroism.First, Pride. Of course, 84 days of bad luck is a kind of humiliation for Santiago, who is capable of fishing as a skilled fisherman. On the surface, Santiagos pride forces him to deep-sea adventure, to capture marlin. He tries to air into the open sea to show his ability, but to cause misfortune. Hemingway doesnt condemn him because of the pride his heroine filled with. On the contrary, Santiago becomes a paradigm that prides can drive people achieve something or more. Because the old man admits that he kills the big marlin out of pride: “He doesnt kill it in order to make a living, to sell the fish to buy food, he kills it because of his pride.” Pride becomes the source of Santiagos strength, without strong sense of pride, there wont be the fight between the old man and the marlin, or more likely, the old man has given up before.Santiagos pride also inspires his desire beyond natural destructive power. The whole novella, no matter how tragic the environment is, the old man is showing his unremitting determination to catch the marlin and put it back to the shore. When the first shark comes, Santiagos determination is mentioned twice. At the beginning, Hemingway says the old man is filled with determination but almost no hope. Then after a few sentences, he says he is full of determination but is attacked hopelessly. The old man faces every challenge with the same unwavering determination. He is willing to pay the price of his life to