It was pitch dark , dreadful and alone on the deep sea – like where you can’t see the shore and the glow of the sky . A man struggles with a bland 85 days of no luck without a catch – the fisherman . He talks to himself throughout the journey which started off the shore 2 nights ago with a skiff , a spirit to fight the odds and will to catch a catch for what he would have died for – who will win ? irrelevant is a win or loss , relevant is to stay , stay afloat to catch a marlin .
Marlin is mulish , so is the man – a man can be destroyed , not to be defeated . This is what man wanted to show to the marlin , the good fish . Man loves marlin , but he has to kill it . After all he is a fisherman , he is born for that and fish is a fish for him , but he still loves the marlin .
This book narrates the life of a fisherman and the catch (the marlin) , the perseverance of a broken man though not defeated – the story of dark nights and a lesson of a lifetime .Metaphor is life , to hang on till you are not turned into ashes , you never know a morning , brighter one just along the way. Don’t give up – you can still see the shore and the glow .
The fisherman loses the catch , the sharks were the antagonists , but sharks eat the prey and whatever smells them blood and sharks are born for that – that’s not your story and your story to catch a fish . The man comes back and sees the shore , rests and readies again to board the skiff to the sea for another catch – sharks do not matter to him any way now .
And he is a fisherman – remember he is born to catch a fish and he still loves the marlin .
***
Go and read the book – you learn the lessons of life through a fisherman’s endurance – if you don’t get it nevertheless you are a better a fisherman at the and of it – either way you learn .