My thesis explores Santiago's struggle alone for authentic? existence. To struggle is painstaking, hut he intends to achieve the possibility of living to the hilt in spite of failure of death. Even if he is bound to destruction, he insists on being destroyed on his own terms. He sticks to his own codes in order to exist authentically and die with dignity. His insistence on authentic significance and "grace under pressure" in a God-abandoned universe bears resemblance to atheistic existentialism.
Man and beast are contrasted as intelligence and nobility. What distinguishes man, apart from his intelligence? The capacity for hope, probably. 'But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated'. Hope is a duty of man. Without it his intelligence would merely be balanced by the beast's courage and strength, and he would suffer defeat as frequently as achieved victory. He must regard the capacity for hope as one of his most precious possessions. But he must not be arrogant or unchivalrous.
