这部小说，是象征主义小说的典范。里面的每个人物，每个情节，甚至每句话，都被研究者赋予了深厚的多重含义。且不去细究那些含义，就个人的直观感受，最有震撼的一句话便是：“Nothing! He said aloud. I went out too far.” ——这是老人在捕到了大鱼又要失去它之前，对自己说的一句话。这句话，既不是悔恨也不是失望，只是在陈述一个事实：他的确走的太远，虽然获得了前所未有胜利果实，却无力保护那丰硕的成功。联想到近日盛议的Amy Chun的教育方式，真希望她不是“went out too far”，也希望自己在孩子的教育乃至生活中，不要“went out too far”。
读这本书的感触良多。比如：
一，一个人老了与否，取决于他的眼睛。 “The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hand and the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” 任何人都会老去，然而，唯独自信的人眼睛永不老去。８４天没钓到鱼，其他渔人都相信他老了。支持他、相信他的惟有那个他在他渔船上长大的孩子。可孩子是别人家的，只能听父母的话离开了他的渔船。他独自出海了，在捕鱼的两天两夜里，他又冷又饿又渴又伤又孤独，却以非凡的耐力，只睡了几个小时，喝了半瓶水，吃了几条生鱼，与巨大的马林鱼抗衡，最终杀了它。这一切的背后，是对自己坚定不移的信任。
二，没有人喜欢孤独终老。然而，如果这是一个事实，则必须面对。“I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this. No one should be alone in their old age, he thought. But it is unavoidable.” 在海上的几天里，老人屡屡想到那个孩子，希望那个孩子在身边，帮助他，看着他，一起经历那非凡的际遇。然而，事与愿违，每当那时，他都会嘲笑自己，然后提醒自己眼下最重要的是什么，然后，命令自己去做。
三，人在无助的时候，会寻求无名的力量，通常是宗教。”With his prayers said, and feeling much better, but suffering exactly as much, and perhaps a little more.”在海上， 老人总共有过两次祈祷的念头，头一次念了１０遍《天主经》和《圣母经》，第二次没时间念。祈祷或者不祈祷，与捕鱼无济于事。但至少，能缓解心理压力。这也是我自己虽不信教，却不反对别人信的原因。能有一种方式疏解压力总是好的。
四，真正的男人是可以摧毁但不可以屈服的。” …man is not made for defeat, he said. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” 老人非常清楚杀死大鱼后会遭遇什么——新鲜的血必定引来嗜血的鲨鱼。果然，在杀了第一条袭击的鲨鱼后，他说了这句话。随后的几波袭击过后，他已筋疲力尽，又弹尽粮绝。可他依然坚定不移地说：“Fight them, he said. I’ll fight them until I die.”午夜，新的鲨群袭来，他没有任何可以和鲨群相抗衡的东西，他用尽了船上可用的所有东西，坚持到最后。
五，世上最美好的地方，是自己的家。“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.”老人终于回到岸边，一无所有。可是，当他推开破旧的门，和衣躺到床上的时候，他立刻陷入了沉睡，忘记了刚刚经历的一切：捕猎，搏杀和孤独。他再次做了个美梦：在年少时去过的非洲黄金沙滩，狮王带领着狮群优雅地散着步。
六，每个人都要有梦，一个美好的令人遐想给人力量的梦。“…he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come biding through it. He smelled the tar and oakum of the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning.”这个梦，在短短的小说里出现了三次：第一次是老人出海的前夜；第二次是在海上的第二天黎明，在真正开始捕杀大鱼前；第三次是全书的末尾，最后一句话：“The old man was dreaming about the lions.”同时，在为数不多的对话和自言自语里，这个梦几次被提到。且不去说这个梦的象征意义，仅从简单的生活而言，能有一个能让人放松切不断让人感受到美好生命的梦，该是漫长而单调的生活里多么幸福的事。
七，如果没有亲人，那么你必须要有朋友，哪怕只有一个。书里的老人是个孤独的人。他妻子早逝，无儿无女，只有一个自5岁起就在他船上长大的孩子陪着他。而那个孩子，也在故事开始的时候，在老人连续四十余天没捕到鱼的情况下，被父母带走了。老人孤独地出了海。在海上的三天三夜里，他时常想起孩子，想让他帮忙，想让他经历那历史性的捕猎，也想让他静静地陪着自己，哪怕一整天不说一句话。那个孩子，也是书里出现的唯一一个跟老人有对话的人物。他热爱老人，崇拜老人，照顾老人。当老人消失了三天，终于回来后，他忍不住热泪长流，失声痛哭。决心跟随老人： “Now we fish togetheragain.” “No. I am not lucky. I am not lucky anymore.” “The hell with luck,” the boy said. “I’ll bring the luck with me.” “What will your family say?” “I do not care. I caught two yesterday. But we will fish together now or I still have much to learn.”......
在孩子的坚持下，老人终于默认了孩子的决心。书的末尾，在孩子的照顾下，老人睡着了，“…and the boy was sitting by him watching him.”读书至此，不由眼热鼻酸。
