When I first read The Old Man and the Sea, I felt an impulse in my body, and a sense of freedom that had been bound for a long time came to me. The tough image of the old fisherman Santiago left an indelible impression in my heart.

He didn't catch any fish for 84 days in a row. Later, he fought bravely and finally caught a marlin. On the way back, he got into a fight with the shark. As a result, the marlin was still eaten by the shark, leaving only a fish skeleton-"18 feet long". The old man and the sea is not a plot novel in the general sense, but more like an allegorical novel. With the help of the story of the old man Santiago, the author shows his heroism in the life-and-death struggle. The author sent his "tough guy" to nature with symbolic brushstrokes, and let him have a thrilling fight with marlin and fierce sharks at sea to show the hero's "grace under pressure".

"invincible" is the expression of Santiago, a tough guy, and it is also one of the themes of the novel. For example, he was deadlocked with marlin for a day and a half, and his left hand kept cramping, like a curled eagle claw, and his right hand was pulled out by a rope. He put his hand into the sea and said, "Not bad. Pain is nothing to a man. " At the last moment of fighting the marlin, he was dizzy and still said to himself, "But you, you will never collapse." Hemingway regards the world as an arena, and any hero's behavior can be realized. As the work says, people can be destroyed, but they just can't be defeated. A real tough guy is someone who dares to challenge fate, nature and failure. He may fail again and again in his struggle, but his spirit will never collapse. This is where human dignity lies. Only when people surpass themselves in this heroic struggle can they prove their worth.

After reading the novel, let's come back to reality. People often say that students nowadays are very tired. Yes, the pressure of entering a higher school, social pressure and even family pressure are overwhelming. So some people escaped and returned. They are not tough guys. Some people cry and even commit suicide after failure. They are not tough guys. Some people are lucky enough to succeed, so they are complacent and arrogant, not tough guys. A real tough guy is someone who falls down, gets up and wants to jump up after getting up.

At the end of the novel, the author specially arranged a plot: the loneliness and failure of the old fisherman were understood by a child, and the old man left the child with an unbeaten spirit. This ending seems a bit bleak, but the impulse brought by the novel cannot be erased. Be a strong person, I said to myself.