Defeat Quotes - Quotes, The Old Man and the Sea | The Old Man and the Sea - Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. (1.1)

The Old Man and the Sea opens with a discussion of defeat, but ends on a note of resilience.

As he watched the bird dipped again slanting his wings for the dive and then swinging them wildly and ineffectually as he followed the flying fish. The old man could see the slight bulge in the water that the big dolphin raised as they followed the escaping fish. The dolphin were cutting through the water below the flight of the fish and would be in the water, driving at speed, when the fish dropped. It is a big school of dolphin, he thought. They are widespread and the flying fish have little chance. The bird has no chance. The flying fish are too big for him and they go too fast. (2.38)

The old man’s future defeat is foreshadowed by the bird’s failure to catch a fish.

For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion and there had been a return match in the spring. But not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from Cienfuegos in the first match. After that he had a few matches and then no more. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing. He had tried a few practice matches with his left hand. But his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it. (3.91)

The old man separates, in his mind, his left hand from his own self, so that the hand is defeated, not him.

For an hour the old man had been seeing black spots before his eyes and the sweat salted his eyes and salted the cut over his eye and on his forehead. He was not afraid of the black spots. They were normal at the tension that he was pulling on the line. Twice, though, he had felt faint and dizzy and that had worried him. 

"I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this," he said. "Now that I have him coming so beautifully, God help me endure. I’ll say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them now. (4.22, 4.23)

The old man fears defeat because of pride – he fears "failing himself," not the fish; nor is he concerned for the need to eat or make money from his catch.

"But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he thought. Now the bad time is coming and I do not even have the harpoon. (4.93)

The old man draws a distinction between "destroyed" and "defeated," and leaves us wondering which he is, and which the fish is, by the end of the tale.

"Ay," he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood. (4.112)

The old man recognizes defeat when it comes, never deceiving himself and always facing reality.

Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller. (4.132)

Even when he admits defeat, the old man still continues to try, to struggle.

Now it is over, he thought. They will probably hit me again. But what can a man do against them in the dark without a weapon? (4.161)

The old man recognizes that "it is over" at several different points, yet continues to struggle. This raises the question, when is it actually over?

He knew he was beaten now finally and without remedy and he went back to the stern and found the jagged end of the tiller would fit in the slot of the rudder well enough for him to steer. He settled the sack around his shoulders and put the skiff on her course. He sailed lightly now and he had no thoughts nor any feelings of any kind. He was past everything now and he sailed the skiff to make his home port as well and as intelligently as he could. In the night sharks hit the carcass as someone might pick up crumbs from the table. The old man paid no attention to them and did not pay any attention to anything except steering. He only noticed how lightly and bow well the skiff sailed now there was no great weight beside her. (4.168)

The old man accepts defeat matter-of-factly, without mourning or grief.

The wind is our friend, anyway, he thought. Then he added, sometimes. And the great sea with our friends and our enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. 

"Nothing," he said aloud. "I went out too far." (4.171, 4.172)

The old man seems to say that he was beaten by himself, by his own poor judgment, rather than any other force.

"They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me." 

"He didn’t beat you. Not the fish." 

"No. Truly. It was afterwards." (5.22-5.24)

The old man leaves us wondering who are the "they" that beat him – the sharks, or something more?

"I know how to care for them. In the night I spat something strange and felt something in my chest was broken." (5.44)

The old man is physically defeated by the end of the story, but his spirit is not broken, as he still dreams of the lions.