“Character cannot be developed easily and quietly,” Helen Keller once said. “Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” Through suffering triumph emerges and through struggle there is honor. Ernest Hemingway's fictional tale, The Old Man and the Sea, is a simply written tale that tells of an old man's courage, perseverance, and victory despite being destroyed. The protagonist Santiago is an elderly fisherman, who lately does not seem to be very successful in his fishing career; however, one day, while going out to sea, a large marlin seems to have taken his hook. After spending three days at sea searching for fish, yet returning home empty-handed, Santiago earns the respect he deserves for his dedication and relentless determination despite adversity. In The Old Man and the Sea honor in struggle and suffering is shown in Santiago's hero, DiMaggio, in how Santiago is compared to Christ, and in Santiago's final battle with the Marlin. Santiago shows his admiration for DiMaggio, a baseball player, due to their similar situations and how both DiMaggio and Santiago overcame pain to achieve their dreams as a baseball player or fisherman. Trying to explain his admiration for DiMaggio, Santiago says to Manolin, his friend and student: “I'd like to take the great DiMaggio fishing. They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as us and would have understood (22).” Similar to Santiago, DiMaggio's father was also a fisherman, suggesting that DiMaggio came from humble circumstances like Santiago's; Furthermore, DiMaggio also has a bone spur in his heel, but despite his health condition, he plays as well as other p...... middle of paper ...... perseverance. In The Old Man and the Sea, honor is represented through suffering and destruction by Santiago's admiration for DiMaggio, Santiago's Christ-like character, and, most significantly, by Santiago's fight with the marlin. DiMaggio is special to Santiago because he overcomes his pain and perhaps his poverty to become an exceptional baseball player. Santiago and Christ are both physically destroyed; however, both are by no means defeated. Indeed, Christ rises from the dead in glory, and Santiago's struggles and labors are transformed into new determination after killing the fish. Santiago is honored after bringing the fish home, because he has suffered hunger, thirst, loneliness, pain, in the open sea, yet he finds healing and life through the fish he tries so hard to catch and protect. After all, when something is truly worth fighting for, it is won with pride and triumph.