《The Old Man and the Sea》is a short novel, one of Earnest Hemingway’s most famous work,was published in 1952. This is a story based on a true man and a true story, this story is so fascinating that it is an epic. This article focuses on analyzing tough end of Santiago, the hero. Santiago is tough, he persisted life in extremely hard situation, even death threat does not intimidated him. However, killing the marlin fish, he felt great compassion and sorry. This is because the nature law works - kill or be killed. The writer, Earnest Hemingway himself in life is a tough man, striving hard, taking adventures to seek his literature career. And when he was really in bad situation, he even killed himself, which is also a proof of motif of the story.
Key Words: background; struggle,courage,honor for life, symbolism