If you haven't read Ernest Hemingway's book, The Old Man And The Sea, I highly recommend it.

To some, it is a fish story.  To those who look deeper, it is a narration of a man at battle with himself.  He is pushed to the absolute limit of his skill and endurance, and, after apparently scoring a tremendous victory while totally alone, he is robbed of his prize by sharks.  Yet, he perseveres and he is the only one alive who is aware of the devastating battle he has so recently fought.

Hemingway's underlying theme is man can be defeated, but not destroyed.  Conversely, the story also affirms that man can be destroyed, but not defeated.

Hemingway was a flawed individual, as all of us are.  Yet, he created some of the most memorable literature ever to emanate from America. When I occasionally reread one of his works, the words invade my soul as beautifully as they did on the first reading.

He won the Nobel Prize for Literature for the compendium of his writings and for introducing an altogether new style in fiction.

That, of course, was during the days when the Nobel actually meant something.