the old man and the sea

I must read Hemingway.  I must? Well, I did. I read about an old man and his struggles as a fisherman.  I learned of his hard work, dedication and perseverance. Although he was old and poor, he was experienced and still fought with and for the best of them.

The entire book was his struggle at sea, and his love and friendship with a young boy who cherished and looked up to the old man.  At sea, the old man has a continuous internal dialoge with himself about his life.  He compares himself to the fight a fish that he has caught is putting up.  The fish fights on the hook for days and at the end of it all, it is eaten by a shark and the fisherman returns home empty handed.

What? Empty handed? So what was the moral of the story.  I sat there dumbfounded.

Was it that he never gave up? And that when he returned home, he had gained the respect of his community and fellow fisherman because he had survived such a fate?

Was it the lesson of hard work and believing in yourself, no matter what - that failures are a part of life and make you stronger.  Or is it just simply a story about the old man and the sea?