The purpose of my paper is to explore the main notion of struggle for existence through the character Santiago, who in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea undergoes a struggle, which shows greater connection between man and nature and his continuous effort to overcome the difficulties through optimistic approach .John Steinbeck’s The Pearl portrays about the central character Kino, who experience external and internal conflict after the discovery of pearl for his materialistic pleasure. A kind of moral lesson is derived to realize his greed which turns his life to mourn and clearly pictures the destructive nature of materialism. Keywords: notion of struggle for existence, man and nature, optimistic approach, external and internal conflict, materialistic pleasure etc.