On their outing Laila’s father relaxes, re-reading Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Why does the novel resonate with the father?

Laila's father sees a similarity in the old man's conflict with the fish that he believes parallels the struggles the people are fighting against in his own country. In the Old Man and the Sea, Santiago struggles to catch a fish and obtain a goal, only to see it torn apart. He views his country in the same way..... struggling to be better, only to be torn apart by war.