g is all about.When he finally finds his way home, with nothing left but the carcass of the marlin left next to him, he asks himself what beat him. His answer is "Nothing. I went out to far" (120) By telling himself that the only thing he did wrong was go out to far, he is making excuses for himself. He was unprepared for the hunger that would strike him and defenseless against the sharks that would attack his marlin. These were the things that beat him. If he had stopped and let the fish go because he was getting out to far from land, then it would have been the fish that had beat him. Anyway,you look at the situation; the old man was going to lose in the end. The quote above, "I went out to far" sounds like an admission of defeat but "Nothing" seems as though he is saying that nothing beat him. Despite the fact that he is defeated by the sharks that took away his prize fish, he has also, in a way, won. He has won the respect of the townspeople that see the carcass and realize what the man had before it was taken from him piece by piece. He has also gained knowledge of being more prepared. As he tells the boy in the end, " We must get a good killing lance and always have it on board. You can make the blade from a spring leaf from an old Ford" (125). If the man had not gone out so far, then he would have never experienced what he did. He would have come home empty handed and wondered for the rest of his life, if he would have been able to bring the marlin back home with him. And in a way, he did bring it home, by bringing the carcass. The old man's reason for saying that he went out to far is to makehimself feel better. He feels bad for destroying the fish and gettingnothing out of it in return. What the old man does not realize is that hedoes receive something in return. He has an experience that not many otherpeople have had or will ever experience. He has gained knowledge of how tobe more prepared for an ev...
