Abstrakt
The Biblical influence and symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea, autor Mariana
Szabóová, Univerzita: Žilinská Univerzita, Fakulta prírodných vied, Katedra: Anglický
jazyk a literatúra, vedúci bakalárskej práce Ján Kozoň, Žilina, apríl 2009
Cieľom bakalárskej práce je analýza biblických prvkov v diele Ernesta Hemingwaya
Starec a more. Táto práca sa zaoberá vplyvmi, ktoré má Biblia na postavy tohto
známeho diela.
Bakalárska práca pozostáva zo štyroch hlavných kapitol. Prvá kapitola prezentuje
základné a všeobecné informácie o historickom a literárnom pozadí doby, v ktorej bola
kniha napísaná. Druhá kapitola pozostáva zo základných informácií o autorovi
Ernestovi Hemingwayovi a stručne opisuje štýl a literárny jazyk novely. Tretia kapitola
je zameraná na biblické prvky v diele a zaoberá sa analýzou hlavných postáv
a porovnáva ich s hlavnými postavami Nového Zákona. V poslednej kapitole sa
venujeme ďalším symbolickým prvkom, ktoré sú taktiež prepojené s Kresťanstvom.
Kľúčové slová: symbolizmus, biblické prvky, Ježiš Kristus, utrpenie, Kresťanstvo
Abstract
The aim of the bachelor paper is to analyze the biblical features in the novel The Old
Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway. This paper deals with the influence that
Bible has on main characters in the famous novel.
Our paper consists of 4 essential chapters. The first chapter presents some general
information about the historical and literary background of the period in which the book
was written. The second chapter consists of the basic information about the author
Ernest Hemingway and briefly describes the style and figurative language of the novel.
The third chapter is focused on Christian features and deals with the analysis of the
main characters and compares them with the major figures in the New Testament.
In the last chapter we deal with other symbolic features that are accordingly connected
with Christianity.
Key words: symbolism, biblical features, Jesus Christ, suffering, Christianity
2
Čestné prehlásenie
Čestne prehlasujem, že svoju bakalársku prácu som vypracovala samostatne a všetku
použitú literatúru uvádzam v zozname.
Žilina, 23. apríla 2009
...............................
Mariana Szabóová
3
Poďakovanie
Touto cestou by som sa rada poďakovala vedúcemu bakalárskej práce, PaedDr. Jánovi
Kozoňovi, PhD., za poskytnutú pomoc a užitočné rady.
4
Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................6
1. Prologue to modernism and lost generation..................................................................7
1.2 Historical and literary background..........................................................................8
1.3 The iceberg principle...............................................................................................9
2. The life of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)................................................................11
2.1 Literary period.......................................................................................................12
2.3 Style and Figurative Language in The Old Man and the Sea................................13
3. Christian features in The Old Man and the Sea..........................................................14
3.1 Numerology in The Old Man and the Sea.............................................................16
3.2 Santiago - a Christ-like figure...............................................................................19
3.3 Best known analogies between Santiago and Christ ............................................26
3.4 Manolin..................................................................................................................28
3.5 Marlin....................................................................................................................29
3.6 Pedrico and Santiago´s wife..................................................................................30
4. Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea....................................................................31
4.1 The title..................................................................................................................33
4.2 Manolin´s age........................................................................................................34
4.3 Use of baseball in The Old Man and the Sea........................................................35
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................37
References.......................................................................................................................38
5
Introduction
The Old Man and the Sea is the last major work written by Ernest Hemingway. It won
the year’s Pulitzer Prize in 1954. A great deal of Christian symbolism is hidden in the
novel and one must be able to read between the lines to detect it. At the first sight the
novel might seem quite ordinary but after rereading it one has a feeling there is still
something concealed that might be discovered. The impact of the novel on the readers is
impressive.
The aim of our bachelor paper is to deal with the Christian features and symbolism in
The Old Man and the Sea and to accomplish the great influence of the Bible on main
characters in the book. To be more precise we deal with the parallels between Jesus and
Santiago, the main character in the novel. Biblical parallels among Jesus Christ and
Santiago are of profound interest to us. For instance, Santiago´s suffering represents the
suffering experienced by Jesus. We also deal with the criticism of some noted critics.
Our paper consists of 4 essential chapters. The first chapter presents some general
information about the historical and literary background of the period in which the
novel was written. Moreover, we tried to clear up Hemingway´s often used theory of
Iceberg.
The second chapter consists of some basic information about the author Ernest
Hemingway and briefly describes the novel´s style and figurative language.
The third chapter is focused on Christian features in the novel and deals with the
analysis of the main characters and compares them with the major figures in the New
Testament. The main character in the novel, Santiago, is in the center of our attention.
We also concentrate on the other characters – Manolin, Marlin and the Sharks, Pedrico
and Santiago´s wife. We aim to attest that all of them symbolize the major figures in the
New Testament.
The fourth chapter, the last one, deals with other symbolic associations that are also
connected with Christianity. We focus on Manolin´s age and application of baseball in
The Old Man and the Sea.
The following hypothesis arises of those mentioned thoughts: Ernest Hemingway
decided to construct his story to reflect upon the life of Jesus Christ. All of the
characters in the novel represent the major figures in the New Testament.
6
1. Prologue to modernism and lost generation
The large cultural wave of Modernism, which gradually emerged in Europe and the
United States in the early years of the 20th century, expressed a sense of modern life
through art as a sharp break from the past, as well as from Western civilization´s
classical traditions. Modern life seemed radically different from tradition life – more
scientific, faster, more technological and mechanized. Modernism embraced these
changes.
In literature, Gertrude Stein developed an analogue to modern art. Using simple and
concrete words she developed an abstract, experimental prose poetry. The quality of
Stein´s simple vocabulary recalls the bright, primary colors of modern art. By
dislocating grammar and punctuation, she achieved new ´abstract´ meanings. Meaning,
in her work, was often subordinated to technique, just as subject was less important
than shape in abstract visual art. Subject and technique became inseparable in both the
visual and literary art of the period. Kathryn VanSpanckeren (1994) states: „The idea of
form as the equivalent of content, a cornerstone of post-World War II art and literature,
crystallized in this period“.
Technological innovation in the world of factories and machines inspired new
attentiveness to technique in the arts. To take one example: Light, particularly electrical
light, fascinated modern artists and writers. Vision and viewpoint became an essential
aspect of the modernist novel as well. No longer was it sufficient to write a straightforward third-person narrative or use a intrusive narrator. The way the story was told
became as important as the story itself. Many American writers experimented with
fictional points of view. To analyze such modernist novels and poetry, a school of
´New Criticism´ arose in the United States, with a new critical vocabulary.
Despite modernity and unparalleled material prosperity, young Americans of the 1920s
were “the lost generation” – so named by Gertrude Stein.
“Kathryn VanSpanckeren (1994) claims: “The secure, supportive family life, the
familiar, settled community, the natural and eternal rhythms of nature that guide the
planting and harvesting on a farm, the sustaining sense of patriotism, moral values
inculcated by religious beliefs and observations – all seemed undermined by World War
I and its aftermath.”
7
1.1 Historical and literary background
The world depression of the 1930s affected most of the population of the United States.
Workers lost their jobs, and factories shut down. Businesses and banks failed, farmers,
unable to harvest, transport or sell their crops, could not pay their debts and lost their
farms. Kathryn VanSpanckeren (1994) points out: “Midwestern droughts turned the
´breadbasket´ of America into a dust bowl. Many farmers left the Midwest for
California in search of jobs, as described in John Steinbeck´s The Grapes of Wrath
(1939). At the peak of the Depression, one-third of all Americans were out of work.
Many saw the Depression as a punishment for sins of materialism and loose living. “
The depression turned the world upside down. The United States had preached a gospel
of business on the 1920s. Many Americans supported a more active role for government
in the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Federal money created
jobs in public works, conservation, and rural electrification. Artists and intellectuals
were paid to create murals and state handbooks. These remedies helped, but only the
industrial build-up of World War II renewed prosperity.
Kathryn VanSpanckeren (1994) emphasizes: “After Japan attacked the United States at
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, disused shipyards and factories came to bustling life
mass-producing ships,
airplanes,
jeeps,
and
supplies.
War
experimentation led to new technologies, including the nuclear bomb.”
8
production
and
1.2 The iceberg principle
Ernest Hemigway, in his message to the Swedish Academy, claims: „Things may not be
immediately discernible in what a man writes... And by these, and a degree of alchemy
that he possesses, he will endure or be forgotten.“
Hemingway believes that if a writer knows what he is writing about and is writing truly
enough, he may omit things that he knows and the reader will have a feeling of those
things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. Ernest Hemingway even states:
„The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above
water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow
places in his writing.“
According to P.G. Rama Rao (2007) the iceberg theory points to the literary technique
of suggestion which means implied expression rather than explicit statement, or a subtle
hinting at something by creating an impression through suppression. When carried
further, it leads to symbolism, kind of literary expression which is non-transparent and
which beckons us beyond the literal meaning to a meaning or meanings lurking
elsewhere. P.G. Rama Rao emphasizes that anything that signifies something else is
a symbol, in a broad sense. A concrete thing may connote an abstraction; an event may
stand for a complex situation; may have an anagogic or mystic significance. Symbolistic
writing is thought-provoking and makes possible the reader´s active participation in the
business of literature. Symbolism is like an invisible bridge linking up the seen and the
unseen, the known and the unknown. As it functions in this capacity, sometimes, it may
have a certain indefiniteness about it.
P.G. Rama Rao (2007) claims that Hemingway uses symbolistic techniques in a closely
controlled way. He scarcely ever loses his control over his writing techniques, just as
his protagonists or he himself would handle with the greatest control a gun or a fishing
rod or a glass of liquor. But he is quite conscious of the possibility of the symbols
carrying more meanings than intended. Hemingway also seems to believe that a writer´s
use of symbolism is always unconscious. He thinks that what a writer makes truthfully
may mean many things. A writer may not insert symbols artificially in his work, but, as
his conscious mind is occupied with making real things, his unconscious mind sort out
things in such a way that the things so made have a symbolic or ironic significance and
all the writer´s intellectual and moral equipment including his training, tradition, and
honesty goes into this kind of creation.
9
P.G. Rama Rao points out: “It is difficult to agree with Hemingway when he says that in
a good book symbols are never arrived at beforehand and stuck in. Hemingway´s own
practice, at times, does not uphold this view. Hemingway´s remarks to interviewers
should be taken with a grain of salt, for he never liked to be interviewed and was either
impatient or attitudinizing during the interviews. But he is truthful and precise in his
writings and his theory of “The Iceberg” throws considerable light on his technique of
understatement and symbolism (“The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only
one-eight of it being above water”). Symbolism is a kind of understatement. The writer,
who consciously uses a symbol, omits certain things and leaves it to the symbol to
suggest them. The writer may have a literary allusion in mind, a mythological or
religious allusion, or may be very strongly aware of a situation, physical or
psychological, but may no say it in so many words and only suggest it by some subtle
touch. The allusions in the writer´s mind also serve the purpose of lighting up a
situation and making the general meaning clear.”
“The dignity of movement of an iceberg,” Hemingway once said, “is due to only oneeighth of it being above water. His short stories are deceptive somewhat in the manner
of an iceberg. The visible areas glint with the hard factual lights of the naturalist. The
supporting structure, submerged and mostly invisible except to the patient explorer, is
built with a different kind of precision – that of the poet-symbolist. Once the reader has
become aware of what Hemingway is doing in those parts of his work which lie below
the surface, he is likely to find symbols operating everywhere, and in a series of
beautiful crystallizations, compact and buoyant enough to carry considerable weight.”
Carlos Baker (1972: 117)
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2. The life of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Like many other fine novelists of the 20th century, Hemingway came from the U.S.
Midwest. Few writers have lived as colorfully as Ernest Hemingway, whose career
could have come out of one of his adventurous novels. He was born in Illinois, and
spent childhood vacations in Michigan on hunting and fishing trips. Although his
parents wanted him ho became a doctor, he had no interest in continuing in his studies
after high school and began his writing career as a sports reporter.
When the country entered World War I in 1917, he was anxious to take part in it.
However, because of an eye problem, he was only accepted as a member of ambulance
corps in Italy where he was badly wounded and hospitalized. While spending six
months in a Milan hospital, he experienced his first serious romance with an American
nurse – material for A Farewell to Arms published in 1929. After the war, as a war
correspondent based in Paris, he met American writers Sherwood Anderson, Ezra
Pound, F.Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Gertrude Stein, in particular, influenced
his spare style. In 1925, supported by Aderson and Fitzerald, he published his first
collection of short stories, In Our Times. His first novel The Sun Also Rises, appeared
one year later and immediately established his reputation as a novelist along with his
characteristic “Hemingway style” of the tip of the iceberg.
On a safari in Africa, he was badly injured when his small plane crashed. Still, he
continued to enjoy hunting and fishing, activities that inspired some of his best work.
The Old Man and the Sea (1952), a short poetic novel about a poor, old fisherman who
heroically catches a huge fish, won him the Pulitzer Prize one year later and in 1958 the
Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“Discouraged by a troubled family background, illness, and the belief that he was losing
his gift for writing, Hemingway shot himself to death in 1961.” Kathryn
VanSpanckeren (1994).
11
2.1 Literary period
Hemingway was a modernist who succeeded in developing his own unique style.
Modernism omits the explanation, interpretations, connections, summaries, and
distancing that provide continuity, perspective, and security in traditional literature.
Zuzana Fabianová (2004) states: “A typical modernist work will seem to begin
arbitrarily, to advance without explanation and to end without resolution, consisting of
vivid segments juxtaposed without cushioning or integrating traditions. It will suggest
rather than assert, making use of symbols and images instead of statements.” Modernist
writers simply incline more to suggestion, vividness and directness and so the form of
texts changes as well. Their content in the American background is based on real
experience and protagonists are usually outsiders or marginal people unable to uncover
the truth.
Hemingway was one of the members of the Lost Generation – a group of artists
disillusioned and sceptical about the post-war world and man´s fate deprived of firm
securities in life. As a stoic, he portrays a courageous patience of a person suffering
physically or mentally. Most of his characters are physically or mentally impotent
people and most often reach some kind of defeat. They are tested in various crucial and
border situations of their lives to find out whether they are morally strong. Although his
protagonists are often defeated physically, they gain a moral victory and learn how to
lose with honor.
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2.2 Style and Figurative Language in The Old Man and the Sea
The style of Ernest Hemingway is very simple, influenced by his experience as a
journalist. He tries to catch the maximum of the present moment. He focuses more on
showing the emotion rather than describing the emotion itself. His diction is neutral and
simple from an every-day repertoire acquiring new values in the context. He avoids
using extra adjectives and necessary are only those that fit the situation and directly
communicate the meaning.
“Concentrating on the nature, country, and the scene he complements the fact with the
feeling of loneliness. “To achieve this, he uses a so-called principle of the iceberg:
seven-eights of meaning, the characters´ motives and their deeds are under water for
every part that is shown.” Fabianová Zuzana (2004: 188).
Descriptive passages of the sea and the sky take turns with Santiago´s thoughts,
monologues and dialogues with his body, the fish and the sea. There are occasional
instances of figurative language, mostly similes, metaphors and a few personifications.
13
3. Christian features in The Old Man and the Sea
The major allusions to Christ and the Christian tradition in the novel are inescapable
and this chapter deals with them according to the theme of the work. Furthermore,
biblical influence in The Old Man and the sea has been widely recognized by many
noted critics.
When The Old Man and the sea appeared in 1952, Philip Young wrote that it was
a metaphor for which Hemingway indicated his deep respect and enlisted ours through
the enhancing use of Christian symbols. John Halverson (1964) states that if the reader
has been told that Santiago is in some way to be associated with Christ, he can hardly
avoid finding more subtle allusions, especially on rereading the story.
According to P. G. Rama Rao (2007) there is a strong religious streak in Hemingway´s
fiction even as it is pronounced in Hemingway´s life and his intense Catholicism.
Hemingway´s fiction has a religious theme and he employs symbols including
Christological ones. He points out that The Old Man and the Sea has a predominantly
Christian and Christological symbolism and it has more biblical flavor than any other
work by Hemingway.
Joseph Waldmeir (1957) points out that what Hemingway is really committed to is not
orthodox religion, but the Religion of man. He states: „Hemingway did not turn
religious to write The Old Man and the Sea. He has always been religious, though his
religion is not of the orthodox, organized variety. He celebrates, he has always
celebrated, the Religion of Man: The Old Man and the Sea merely celebrates it more
forcefully and convincingly than any previous Hemingway work. It is the final step in
the celebration.”
Other critic, Melvin Backman, claims: „When we reach The Old Man and the Sea, we
seem to have come a long way from the early works, but there is a pattern into which all
of them fall. It is true that the old man is the hero who is not left alone, at the end of the
story, with death or despair. He is old and womanless and humble. Yet in him we have a
blending of the two dominant motifs – the matador and the crucified.”
There are enough hints in the novel to suggest that Santiago is a Christ-like figure, that
his suffering and nobility do constitute what we may call the phenomenon of
Crucifixion, and that the novel does have its own Christian or religious association.
14
„A close and careful study of The Old Man and the Sea gives us a definite impression
of the fact that here is a novel, the scope of which is not just limited to a presentation of
realistic details about an old fisherman´s desperate and protracted struggle with a huge
fish and the sharks; instead, we do realize that here is a novel which is indeed a
successful work of art, poetic, symbolical, full of images, and ambiguous in a rich and
positive sense.“ Ishteyaque Shams (2002: 109).
Halverson (1964) points out that the implicit call in The Old Man and the Sea is not to
the church, but to the example of Christ. Hemingway´s religion has been called a
„religion of man“, but this is not necessarily un-Christian. For theologians remind us
that if God became man in Christ, it is also true that man became God.
„And Santiago´s final stature, saintly and God-like, suggests apotheosis. It is probable,
furthermore, that in the Old Man´s struggle with the marlin, Hemingway meant us once
more to hear the echoes of the Crucifixion. The fish, a firmly established traditional
symbol of Christ, is harpooned at noon. The Old Man clearly feels an identity with the
fish, suggesting man becoming God and sacrificing himself. And the Christian
resonance is there not only to extend the dimensions of the principals´ example but also
to support the moral and spiritual lesson of faith, hope and charity. By such means
Hemingway also comments indirectly on the practice of Christianity, its
institutionalization in the contemporary world: Santiago´s personal commitment to his
religion is superficial, a matter of perfunctory prayers and observances; but his
unconscious example is profoundly Christian, indeed imitatio Christi.“ Halverson
(1964: 53-54).
15
3.1 Numerology in The Old Man and the Sea
Some critics strongly emphasize that the key in The Old Man and the Sea is in the
numerology, especially the number three. Santiago´s return in three days from the
death-like sea parallels resurrection. According to Joseph J. Waldmeir (1986) the threeday span in each of the last three Hemingway´s novels, published during his life-time,
looks like the Christological entombment symbol. In addition to the well annotated
references to the crucifixion itself and to the other events of Passion Week, G. R.
Wilson (1986) points out that the author has provided some helpful clues quite early in
the book.
We might begin with the precise number of days preceding the events of the novel. At
the beginning we are told that Santiago „had gone eighty-four days now without taking
a fish.“ Why eighty-four days of bad luck and not some other number? According to
John Halverson (1964) it is possible that Hemingway was counting the number of days
since Christmas, for the calendar of the novel corresponds almost exactly to the
religious calendar commemorating the life of Christ from the Nativity to Easter.
However, the date of Easter varies from year to year, so that the number of days from
Christmas varies accordingly .
„But one year fits the time scheme of the novel: the year 1951, when Hemingway was
writing it. Santiago´s homecoming – his carrying of the mast up the hill, his stumbling
under its weight, his collapsing in a cruciform position – seems to allude clearly to the
events of Good Friday. This homecoming takes place on the eighty-eighth day of the
novel´s calendar. Good Friday was the eighty-ninth day from Christmas in 1951. The
discrepancy of a day may be a deliberate inexactness; or Hemingway may have made
the common mistake of substracting 25 from 31 to get the number of days from
Christmas to the end of December and arriving at the number 6, forgetting that you have
to add one more day to get the right inclusive number. If we accept this discrepancy,
then we see that the events of the novel take place in a period corresponding to Holy
Week. Thus the calendar of the novel – looking back to the first eighty-four days,
accounting for five current days, and looking forward to three more – almost exactly
parallels the Christian calendar for the year 1951“ Halverson (1994: 51-52).
16
The importance of eighty-four period is also underlined by G. R. Wilson: „If we add to
this eighty-four day period the three days covered by the book´s action, we get a total of
eighty-seven days. Shortly thereafter, the boy recalls: „But remember how you went
eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.“
(p.10) In this way, Hemingway establishes two separate time spans of eighty-seven days
that are important in the old man´s life. The „forty days“ and the three days covered by
the novella´s action are clear references to Christ´s Passion, respectively, and have been
so noted by nearly every critic. We know that Hemingway was familiar with the
liturgical calendar, and the basic fact that he chose to make such heavy use of Christian
symbolism in The Old Man and the sea argues against coincidence.“ G. R. Wilson
(p. 389-370).
Wilson identifies that the first of two time spans in the old man´s life, the eighty-seven
days followed by the three fruitful weeks, suggests the liturgical Mystery of the
Incarnation. During this period the Christian liturgy commemorates Christ´s assumption
of his earthly life and the establishment of his claim as the Son of God. Similarly,
Santiago establishes his claim in the eyes of the boy and becomes the hero. In the
dialogue concerning doubt and faith (p.10) we can see the existence of a master-disciple
relationship between the old man and the boy. In the three weeks during which the old
man and the boy „caught big ones every day“ (p. 10), Hemingway is supposed to be
alluding to the three years of Christ´s public activity during which he was with the
apostles and taught them how to become fishers of men, a role paralleled by Santiago
who teaches the boy how to become a good fisherman. Furthermore, the faith of the
apostles in Jesus of Nazareth was affirmed by performing miracles, and the boy´s belief
in Santiago seems to be founded on the miracle of three bounteous weeks.
„A later reference, also tied to a discussion of faith that immediately precedes it,
identifies this eighty-seven day span as a ´great record´ in the eyes of the boy, just as
Christ´s life on earth, as attested in the Gospels, constitutes a great record in a different
sense of the word. And when, to the boy´s comment, the old man responds, „´It could
not happen twice´“ (p. 19), he underlines the unique nature of his incarnation as hero.
Finally, the importance of all this is to be found in the theological concept that only
through the Incarnation of Christ, through his assumption of human form, can his
eventual sacrifice have redemptive value for mankind; were he only divine, the Passion
could have no human meaning because it would involve no sacrifice.
17
Similarly, Hemingway seems clearly to be establishing Santiago´s „great record,“ which
concluded with three triumphal weeks´ bounty, to render more meaningful the second
eighty-seven day span, which is to end with three days of agony and apparent defeat.“
G. R. Wilson (p. 370-371).
If the first span suggests the Mystery of the Incarnation, then the second span seems
correspondingly to suggest the Mystery of the Redemption. We are here concerned with
that period of the liturgical calendar beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on
Ascension Thursday. This period includes the mortification and death of Christ, the
instruction of the disciples in the meaning of Christ´s sacrifice by his repeated
appearances during the forty days following Easter and two mysteries – the
Resurrection and the final Ascension into Heaven. G. R. Wilson assures that looking at
The Old Man and the Sea with this in mind may clarify several matters: „First, the old
man, like Christ, achieves a triumph in apparent defeat. While Christ´s triumph is over
physical death, Santiago triumphs over the dentuso and the galanos which, though they
destroy the great marlin, cannot diminish the heroism that has led to the union of man
and nature climaxing the battle between fisherman and fish. In addition, Santiago is
able, again like Christ, to return to his disciple with the evidence of the hero-deed that
he has accomplished. The redemption that Santiago brings back to the world is to be
found in a recognition of the deep resources of human strength made possible when
man is properly attuned to his world, a strength that the old fisherman has painfully and
heroically exemplified.“ G. R. Wilson (p. 371).
The liturgical gloss of incarnation and redemption is important because it strongly
underlines the mythic dimension of The Old Man and the Sea. G. R. Wilson adds:
“Contrary to those critics who would minimize this work, the Christian symbolism is
not simply a pat overlay attempting to give weight to an otherwise mundane story, but
rather it constitutes the basic technique by which Hemingway presents his view of man
as a coherent and intrinsically important part of the cosmos in which he must find
value.” G.R. Wilson (p. 372).
Joseph J. Waldmeir (1986) claims that the novel with its heavily Christian metaphors
and symbols – ranging from an intricate numerology to the almost explicit portrayal of
the Old Man as a Christ figure – was at once a metaphor for what he identified as Ernest
Hemingway´s religion of man, and itself the culmination, the ultimate statement of that
credo.
18
3.2 Santiago - a Christ-like figure
The novel itself consists of several protagonists, of which we can see two of them as
main, who represent the major figures in the New Testament. These are Santiago and
Manolin. In following pages our aim is to discover and analyze the parallels between
them and major figures in the New Testament.
Santiago is the Spanish name of Saint James. He is called ´the best fisherman´ by
Manolin, the boy who admires the old man and loves him. Jesus taught Peter, John and
James how to ´catch men´ instead of catching fishes. He gave them a new life and made
saints out of ordinary fishermen. The same kind of conversion comes to Santiago, who
is like any other fisherman in the beginning.
„As we go through The Old Man and the Sea, we find that it is the old fisherman,
Santiago, who is projected as the main symbol in the novel, and that all other symbols,
including the sea as a symbol, revolve round this very main symbol.” Ishteyaque Shams
(2002: 95).
Carlos Baker (1956) point out that the man Santiago is only a simple fisherman, like his
namesake the son of Zebedee, mending his nets by the shore of Galilee and Santiago
shows, in his own right, certain qualities of mind and heart which are clearly associated
with the character and personality of Jesus Christ in the Gospel stories.
According to Ishteyaque Shams (2002) it is important to take note of the fact that
Santiago thinks of and speaks out in the name of Christ when the big fish is about to be
hooked and when he gets a vague idea of the huge size of marlin. ´Christ knows,´ says
Santiago, ´he can´t have gone;´ or, ´Christ,´ says he, ´I didn´t know he was so big.´
Moreover, Shams points out that it is significant that we see the old fisherman offering
prayers so that he may be able to catch the big fish.
„Santiago undergoes every possible pain and suffering to be able to catch the fish or to
kill it, and this element of pain or suffering coupled with the twin elements of piety and
compassion for the fish, does have its own Christian association. And in the present
novel we get the first inkling of Crucifixion in Santiago´s uninhibited, spontaneous
reaction to the arrival of sharks near the dead fish: ´Ayo,´ he said aloud. There is no
translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make,
involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.“ Ishteyaque
Shams (2002: 104).
19
„And as Hemingway gives us Santiago´s Picture in sleep ´with his arms out straight
and the palm of his hands up,´ we immediately see his resemblance with Christ, and the
very phenomenon of Crucifixion is brought vividly before us.“ Ishteyaque Shams
(2002: 95).
As the novel opens on Monday of Holy Week and ends on Good Friday, John
Halverson (1964) points out that the Old Man´s journey from the shore to his shack is
another parallel with Christ. The shack reminds the Holy Tomb. When Santiago lies on
his bed, Manolin brings him a clean shirt, like Joseph of Arimathaea brought clean cloth
to wrap the body of Christ. The boy also brings some things for Santiago´s injured
hands, as ointments were brought for the dead Christ. Furthermore, Manolin stays with
Santiago and keeps watching him as a watch was set over the tomb of Jesus Christ.
„A three-day brisa is expected, when the Old Man will presumably be resting and
sleeping and recovering; at the end of this time, he and the boy will go out again. This is
surely a parallel to the period of Christ´s burial (and descent into Hell, according to the
Creed) and resurrection on the third day.“ John Halverson (1964: 52).
Halverson (1964) states if the idea of the Crucifixion hover behind and about Santiago´s
agony, as it seems to, it will not be gratuitous to look further into the significance of the
Crucifixion and the Old Man´s relation to it.
There are a lot of parallels between the Old fisherman and Christ when Hemingway
describes his famous fishing. A majority of the connotations occurs, in fact, when the
old man is out in the ocean. The Santiago´s endurance is admirable when he fights
against the fish. He states he will stay with the marlin forever on three separate
occasions. He claims he will continue the battle with the sharks when he says: „I´ll fight
them until I die“ (p. 102). His intention to persist is very similar to Jesus Christ´s
intention when he decides to stay on the cross till the end. Santiago´s hope and faith are
similar to the Christian faith, hope and love. Compared to Jesus on the cross, Santiago
was left alone when he had to agonize with the big fish. During the battle with the fish
the thought of his idol is a source of inspiration, satisfaction, and even a sense of
obligation for Santiago: „I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio.“ The famous
baseball player symbolize Jesus Christ whose followers want to deserve. In fact,
Santiago is able to do everything to be resultful. He even risks his life and nothing in the
world can stop him.
20
On one occasion Santiago is called by Manolin „the best fisherman“. Jesus, too, was so
called by apostles. Santiago hopes that no fish will be strong enough to change
Manolin´s opinion: „I may not be as strong as I think. But I know many tricks and
I have resolution“ (p.25). There is the expression implying the willful acceptance of
suffering: „he took his suffering“ (p. 71). Jesus before his captivity felt fear and was
resolved to suffer in the similar way. In either event it is the victory in defeat.
„Suffering and gentle and wood blend magically into an image of Christ on the cross.“
Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 4). Santiago´s battle against the sharks is very dramatic.
The Old Man trains his body and mind and uses them with great economy, risking his
body without reservation only if necessary. When his body does not satisfy his
demands, then he despises it. He endures his suffering like Jesus did. He decides to
show the boy „what a man can do and what a man endures“ (p. 73). Santiago yearns,
too, to give his performance in front of spectators, in front of his pupil, his model and
idol, and his fellow fishermen. Since this is not possible, he performs for an invisible
forum. „His struggle becomes a testimony of self and the experience of his own
championship. Finally, Santiago stages his performance for the great marlin.“ Wolfgang
Wittkowski (1967: 6).
The sharks represent those who would tear apart anyone´s success. The sharks might
symbolize the enemies which Jesus had, especially, when he was giving his life.
There is a big alikeness between Santiago and Jesus, when Santiago calls the fish as
„brother“. Christ loved everyone, even enemies, and treated them like his own brothers
and sisters. However Wolfgang Wittkowski (1957) states that Santiago only loves
certain people and animals, while detesting the others. He also identifies that Santiago is
not „gentle“ like Jesus, but rather like the fighters who still do not feel as Christians do.
Santiago calls the fish brother as an equal, ideal opponent and sharer in his destiny. In
such union and kindship with his opponent, it is no wonder that Santiago feels
compassion for the fish between rounds, and when the pride of his victory has faded,
compassion remains. „Beyond any and all Christian feelings he is bound to the fish in
antagonism toward the sharks and in the pride of the fighter and the killer. In the end, it
is not a question of the marlin or the sharks, but simply of the fact that the old man has
been defeated.“ Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 6).
21
After the sharks begins to mutilate the carcass of the marlin, Santiago expresses his
sorrow at having killed the marlin.
He starts to love and respect his opponent. Had he known this in advance, he would not
have gone out so far and would not have killed the marlin. Santiago´s unhappiness
about what has happened, and about the marlin, are legitimate. He has feelings of regret,
sin, and guilt. He tries to ignore such sentiments every time and exhorts himself to
continue fighting. At the end of the story Santiago still thinks and acts contrary to those
ideas. According to Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967) it was within the relationship of
Santiago and the marlin that critics thought they had uncovered a decisive
transformation from pride to love and humility in Santiago, a cessation of the previous
coexistence of pride and love, of the greatest sin and the greatest virtue.
Santiago even wonders whether it is not a sin to kill the fish. He tries to satisfy his
conscience and relieves himself: „You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was born
to be a fish.“ He next claims: „You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and sell for
food. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman.“ Critics consider his
mention of pride as self-reproach. „Those who give the story a Christian and moral
interpretation are thus correct that allegiance to the code of the fighter and a feeling of
sin are mutually exclusive. The voice of remorse turns out to be – as in the discussion
about sin – a hidden challenge to the Christian and moral way of thinking, the ´pride of
the devil´.“ Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 8).
At the end of his journey Santiago asks himself what actually was the thing that beat
him and replies: „Nothing. I went out too far.“ After Christ´s death some people have
asked what caused his defeat. The answer they have given is - Love – love made him to
go so far. Nobody defeated him. Santiago also remains champion. „The fight with the
marlin is kept separate from the fight with the sharks. The defeat in the latter does not
count.“ Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 10).
„The figure of Christ on the Cross occurs in the early dialogue „Today is Friday.“ The
legionnaires argue the merits of the crucifixion as if it were a fighting match, as if
Christ´s conduct were that of a fighter in the ring. The central leitmotif is the repeated
commentary, „He was pretty good in there today,“ and Jesus „took his suffering.“ As
with all Hemingway heroes, in his defeat Christ preserves to the end the unity of
suffering and fighting.
22
One can now clarify the meaning of the analogies between Santiago and Christ on the
Cross. In spite of clear allusions, for instance the great DiMaggio „who does all things
perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur“, Santiago shares exemplary stature with
Christ only in very general terms. Specifically, he shares with him affirmation of
genuine virtue in the fighter. In the moment of Santiago´s total exhaustion, he detects
a copper-like sweet taste in his mouth and spits. It may have been the taste of vinegar on
a sponge. The blood on Santiago´s
face reminds the blood beneath the crown of
thorns.“ Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 14).
Santiago´s hand is also covered with blood and scars like Christ´s hands. Some critics
believe that throughout his entire struggle Santiago thinks about his hands like a person
crucified. Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 14) states: „Drawing parallels between his scars
and those of Christ, between him and Christ, is a rather provocative equation.“
When Santiago is locked in a battle with the fish, he wishes to show Manolin what sort
of man he is. He has proved it thousand times but it ´meant nothing´. He says: „I had
told the boy I was a strange old man. Now is when I must prove it.“ Santiago yearns to
show the boy what a man can do with his confidence, skills and tricks despite his age.
Jesus had a similar attitude. The apostles knew his mastery, however, he kept proving
them that he is the Son of God. Before his captivity he took Peter, James and John on
top of the hill and showed them his glory. He wanted to reinforce their faith in him.
Santiago is not only old but also companionless. Manolin is his only friend. When he
sails, he looks all across the sea to learn how alone he is. He wishes to have the boy to
help him. He says aloud: „I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this.“ Jesus felt
similar desolateness when everybody left him. On the cross he cried with a loud voice:
„My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?“ The only person who has never left
Jesus was his mother. Mary believes in her Son like Manolin believes in Santiago.
Santiago is a man of humble birth. He lives in a shack that is made of the royal palm.
There is only a bed, a table, a chair and a place on the dirty floor to cook with charcoal.
He is very poor, however, he does not miss anything. When Manolin proposes to get
him another soap, a shirt or some shoes, he does not accept help easily. He is a very
simple person, like Jesus, and leads ascetic way of life. He often goes fishing without
eating. When he battles with the fish, he eats raw fish to give him strength. Santiago
seems to treasure Christ-like simplicity and humility very much.
23
Santiago is very tolerant, thankful and grateful to everyone. If anybody does something
good for him he feels obliged and tries to repay it. Pedrico has also done something
good for him and when he comes back with a big fish, he instructs Manolin: „Don´t
forget to tell Pedrico the head is his.“ The same attitude showed Jesus, when he
promised his followers to be blessed when they give up everything for him.
Santiago´s sleeplessness is another parallel with Jesus. During his fight with the fish he
wants to relax but he refuses it immediately. When he battles he cannot sleep. It is
known that Jesus often did not sleep quite. Instead of sleeping he was praying.
„Like Christ he has capacity for intense suffering for a great cause. In spite of feeling
dizzy and weak with exhaustion, he continues battle. With his prayers said, he feels
much better but suffering exactly as much and perhaps a little more but he consoles
himself saying that „...pain does not mater to a man“. He remains undefeated even in
his failure with the sharks. What makes him great is his determination, endurance and
capacity for intense suffering.“ R.N. Singh (1999:12).
„Towards the end of the novel, the old man turns desireles, indifferent and stoic. When
he visualizes the endless game of killing going on in the universe, he sheds fear and
turns indifferent to death for he learns that for to the on that is born death is certain and
certain is birth for the one that dies. He performs his appointed task to the utmost of his
ability and skill and is crowned with the glory of the prestigious prize. He feels satisfied
and does not bother about the fate or the fruit of his action for he knows that to action
alone he has a right and never at all to its fruits. Abandoning attachment, with an even
mind in success and failure, gain and loss, he sleeps of this worries and anxieties
Over and above, he has unique poetic sensibility unstained by reason. He is gifted with
an imaginative insight of a poet with which he can see the fish deep into the sea and feel
how his adversary is hungry, tired and sleepless. He identifies himself with the fish to
feel his suffering. From the manner of his behavior and movements, the old man
realizes how great and dignified his adversary is. It is this quality that distinguishes him
from other fishermen and makes him great, loveable and intensely human.“ R.N. Singh
(1999:13).
R.N. Singh (1999) emphasizes that Santiago by the end of the novel is not what he is in
the beginning. He is a man completely transformed – a man spiritually re-born. He is
a saint, an enlightened one. He does not change or progress in the ordinary sense.
24
„The development in his character that does occur might be best compared to the
spiritual progress, a saint might achieve as a result of an ordeal that tests character traits
already acquired. As a saint should, he lives and moves within a medieval world of
sorts, with a clearly defined chain of being. The story of Santiago is posed in terms of
paradoxes central to religious faith, and the protagonist successfully practices the
fundamental natural principles of harmonious opposition, compassionate violence and
victorious defeat.“ R.N. Singh (1999:14).
25
3.3 Best known analogies between Santiago and Christ
When the Old Man sees the ´galanos´ coming, he says: „Ay“ – a noise such as a man
might make, feeling the nail go through his hand and into the wood. Santiago is the man
crucified and the ´galanos´ are the soldiers of the crucifixion. Overleaf Santiago is
himself crucifier and killer. „As he leans against the wood and so reminds one of Christ
on the Cross, he says: „I will kill him though. In all his greatness and his glory.“ (73).
Indeed, he drinks shark oil, and the teeth of the ´dentuso´, the great Mako shark,
resemble his fingers, especially when they are bent into claws. ´Dentuso´ is the
strongest fish of the sea, a champion like Santiago. It has killed many sharks and yet ´all
his greatness and his glory´ calls to mind Christ on the Cross. The struggles between
Santiago, the marlin, and the sharks are evidence that „everything kills everything else“.
Each is sent out into life to fight and to suffer, to crucify and to be crucified.“ Wolfgang
Wittkowski (1967: 15).
Analogy when Santiago lies on his bed „face down with his arms straight and the palms
of his hands up“ (134) is very disturbing. Santiago falls into his face whenever the
marlin pulls him off his feet. „It is the same force of habit which makes the fighter
assume the ´facedown´ position in a given situation, though the only purpose for the
gesture is an artistic one; a variation of the Christ-analogy in which the protagonist
refuses to admit defeat. This is the obvious purpose of one allusion to the Passion“.
Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 15).
Santiago comes ashore. Although he is exhausted he shoulders the mast and climbs up
the steep bank. On the top he falls and lies there „with the mast across his shoulder.“ He
tries to get up, however, it is too difficult. He sits with the mast on his shoulder and
looks down the street. Finally, he struggles to his feet and goes on. The mast brings
reminds Christ making his way towards Golgotha. „All allusions to Christ on the Cross
are simultaneously allusions to the fighter in the ring. On the contrary, it sanctifies
a non-Christian ethos. It implies that a perfection, an authenticity is only possible on the
bases of this ethos. Thus the fighter-in-the-ring model subsumes the Christ model. The
Christ analogy is, at the same time antithesis. Stated differently, in Santiago the fightermetaphor intensifies the combative elements of the Christ model“. Wolfgang
Wittkowski (1967: 16).
26
Santiago falls down many times before he reaches his shack much like Christ kept
falling on his way to Golgotha. When Santiago takes the mast he does it without
hesitation. „Actually, he carried the mast already at the beginning of the story, and when
he finally does return home empty-handed, after 87 days, he has repeated his record
streak of bad luck.The ´permanent´ defeat does not detract from his accomplishments.
On the contrary, it reinforces what matters: the affirmation of „what a man can do and
what a man endures.“ Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 16).
„When Santiago cries out as a man might „feeling the nail go through his hands and into
the wood,“ the simile fairly leaps the page. He climbs a Calvary-like hill, though in the
night, he falls under a cross-like mast, but five times rather than the traditional three, he
goes to sleep in a cruciform position, but face downward and palms up, which does not
exactly correspond to the image of Christ on the cross.“ Halverson (1964: 51).
27
3.4 Manolin
Halverson (1964) claims that the salvation brought by the Crucifixion is represented by
the boy Manolin, the ´new man´. At the end of the novel Manolin is assuming
responsibility and initiative and he is growing up to take the Old Man´s place. John
Halverson adds that perhaps this direction and promise are indicated in Manolin´s name,
a Spanish form of Emanuel, meaning „God with us.“
Quite obvious parallel is the teacher-disciple connection between Santiago and
Manolin. The boy learns from Santiago not just the tricks of fishing, but everything:
„you can teach me everything,“ Manolin says. The same attitude had also apostles to
Jesus who was not just a friend but first of all he was their Teacher. Manolin believes in
the old man and takes charge of Santiago after his return. He would take care of the old
man when he said to him: „Keep warm old man. Remember we are in September.“
Nevertheless, the boy makes the choice between family and the Old Man: „What will
your family say?“ Santiago asks. Manolin´s answer is clear: „ I do not care.“
„Manolin is an excellent specimen of a faithful and devoted disciple ready to sacrifice
all for knowledge and service of his master who is, indeed, an enlightened one.“ R.N.
Singh (1999:17).
As we have already mentioned, Santiago´s name is symbolician as well. Saint James,
the apostle of Jesus, is his namesake. Saint James was fishing with his brother John
when Jesus called him to be his follower. The Christ´s words: „Follow me“, changed his
life. He forsook all, and followed Jesus without hesitation. In the same way Manolin
wants to be with the Old Man and follow him.
„In imitation of Christ he taught, won converts, suffered, and died a martyr. Through
long generations of official and unofficial apostolic succession the call has been
repeated: Follow me. And Manolin in turn hears it from his Saint James.“ Halverson
(1964: 53).
28
3.5 Marlin
Christological element can be seen not only in Santiago but also in marlin. Many critics
also points out the parallel between the marlin´s death and the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ. The marlin´s strange death occurs at noon and Santiago had an unforgettable
vision of it. „It is, perhaps, worth remembering also that while Christ did not die at
noon, His ordeal began then, as does the marlin´s and that the observers of his death
also had a strange vision.“ P. G. Rama Rao (2007: 68).
P. G. Rama Rao (2007) compares the passage when the old man drove his harpoon into
the fish´s side with the vision of Jesus on the cross high up in the air with a spear
piercing his side. The Christological symbolism moves back between the marlin and
Santiago. The marlin is harpooned first and lashed to the wood of the boat. As for
Santiago, there is a vivid image of the old man as he settled against the wood of the
bow, and took his suffering as it came, telling himself: “Rest gently now against the
wood and thing of nothing” (58).
„The huge fish, Santiago´s prize catch, is not only the marvel of creation, it is also
something akin to Christ, for, as we have pointed out earlier, fish has been traditionally
associated with Christ. The next symbol that deserves mention at this point comes to us
in the form of the sharks which represent the forces of death and destruction. In its own
turn, the sea, with all its depth and vastness, symbolizes both mystery and immensity,
and Santiago´s feeling of loneliness during his drift on the sea is quite natural and
understandable.
Besides these major symbols – Santiago, Manolin and marlin, there are other symbols
as well in it in the form of Pedrico, the boy, Manolin, Santiago´s love for the baseball,
and his dreams.” Ishteyaque Shams (2002: 106).
29
3.6 Pedrico and Santiago´s wife
Most of the critics agree that another character in the novel, Pedrico, might symbolize
Saint Peter, one of Jesus´ closest apostles and a great fisherman. Peter was Jesus´ friend
and helped him fish for souls as Pedrico helps Manolin fish for food. Santiago gives
Pedrico the head of the marlin which symbolizes Saint Peter as head of the Christian
church.
The only female character in The Old Man and the Sea is Santiago´s wife, who appears
as an old tinted photograph hidden away in a corner of the room. According to P. G.
Rama Rao (2007) she is the repository of his religion and she now exists only as an old
photograph but the two relics, the pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin of
Cobre, symbolize the good woman and her values and faith. While the picture of his
wife gives him a sense of bereavement and makes him feel lonely, the pictures of Virgin
Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus comfort him and strengthen his heart and hence his
prayers to them during his struggle with the great marlin. Thus The Old Man and the
Sea marks the maturity of Hemingway´s religious symbolism.
“Furthermore, in his shack, he has a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and another of
the Virgin of Cobre. These were relics of his wife. Once there had been a tinted
photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too
lonely to see it and it was on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt.” P. G. Rama
Rao (2007: 70).
„It is important to remember that Santiago, a name that takes us to Saint James,
a fisherman, apostle and martyr from the Sea of Galilee, is the central symbol in The
Old Man and the Sea and that all the other symbols of this novel revolve round this very
central symbol.” Ishteyaque Shams (2002: 111).
30
4. Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
For a long period Hemingway critics have discussed allegorical overtones in The Old
Man and the Sea. The allegorical interpretation of the novel has been mentioned by
reputable critics and scholars. The first of the critical approaches construes The Old
Man and the Sea as an extended autobiographical allegory. According to Steven Scott
(1972) this reading is articulated most completely in the dissertation of Stanley David
Price: „Demonstrates that Hemingway consciously included in The Old Man and the
Sea a level on which there is revealed both allegorical and metaphysical overtones
concerning Santiago as the fisherman-writer, the marlin as the writer´s literature, and
the sharks as the critics who attack the author´s works. Furthermore this tripartite
division concerns not only writers in general but Hemingway in particular.“
Steven Scott (1972) points out the second major critical approach to The Old Man and
the Sea „as Hemingway´s tragic vision“ and points for its significance „to the novel´s
essential Christian morality“. These readings stress Santiago´s identity as „an idealized,
archetypical hero, even a saint if one considers that his name translates as ´Saint James´,
the patron saint of Spain, an apostle, and also a fisherman.
The third critical approach identified by Steven Scott (1972) uses Hemingway´s famous
statement: „I tried to make a real man, a real boy, a real sea and real fish and real
sharks...If I made them good and true enough they would mean many things“ (1954).
The life of Santiago is closer to the most of us than those of many of Hemingway´s
other heroes and we can see ourselves in him and thus find encouragement for our own
struggles. Steven Scott states that critics such as Leslie Fiedler dislike The Old Man and
the Sea precisely because its perceived realism does not quite measure up to the realism
that was expected of it. Fiedler calls the novel a „second-rate imitation“ of his best
work. Finally, in the research carried out by Steven Scott, there are numerous readings
that elaborate on Hemingway´s personal sources – adventures, trips, memoirs, library
holdings – for the Old Man and the Sea, and base their interpretations very strongly on
those sources. He says that Michael Culver, for instance, cites a fishing trip taken by
Hemingway, Henry Strater, and John and Katy Dos Passos as important to the novel´s
realization; Janice Byrne discusses the relevance to the Old Man and the Sea of the log
of Hemingway´s fishing boat, the Pilar; Kathleen Morgan and Luis Losada detect traces
31
of oral literature in the novel and suggest Homeric influences, from both the Illia and
the Odyssey.
P. J. Scharper (1952) states: „The appearance of Hemingway´s latest novel, The Old
Man and the Sea, seems to have done little to settle the current critical disputes as to his
eventual stature as a novelist. By and large, those who have considered him superbly
second-rate have only been strengthened in their opinion, while those who have hitherto
looked on him as a world novelist of frontline point to this latest work as complete
substantiation of their judgment.” P. J. Scharper (1952) points out that The Old Man and
the Sea is another presentation of the “Hemingway hero“ – substantially the same
person who has appeared in various guises. „This radical identity of the Hemingway
heroes has been so long and so widely recognized that critics are justified in calling
these various central characters so many sketches for the composite portrait of that
single person, the typical Hemingway hero. Most of his characters lack a personal
history; they are people without a past who live in and for the present moment – the
only portion of time which has any real meaning for them. Santiago, the old fisherman
alone on the empty sea, whose only link with the past is the fact that he dreams at night
of the lions he saw on the African beaches when he was a young man, is representative
of the intensely personal world of the Hemingway hero.“ P. J. Scharper (13, 1952).
Scharper also identifies the Hemingway´s theme – a secularized, attenuated version of
the Christian paradox that to gain life, one must first lose it. „His latest novel becomes
an affirmation of faith in his earliest artistic conviction that the only meaningful
experience in life is the display of raw courage in the face of a meaninglessly malign
universe.“ P. J. Scharper (13, 1952).
32
4.1 Title
In april of 1936, Hemingway published an essay entitled „On the Blue Water“
(A Gulf Stream Letter). Steven Scott (1972) point out that some critics argue not only
that this story was the original model for The Old Man and the Sea, but that the original
anonymous „old man“ was a Cuban fisherman named Anselmo Hernandez, who in fact
posed for more than one photo with Hemingway, and caused headlines when he
announced that „I knew Hemingway for thirty years ... He said he would write a novel
about me and he did.“ The Esquire story is widely recognized as the „original“ model
for Hemingway´s novel.
Steven Scott (1972) states that if the novel were realism and it were simply and
realistically titled, it would be called, for instance, The old man and the fish. The Old
Man and the Sea does not seem appropriate if this novel truly is a so – called standard
Hemingway venture into realism (with „a real old man, a real boy,“ etc). In addition, he
says that the phrase „Old Man of the Sea“ was, apparently, in relatively common use in
the 1930s, though it seems to have fallen out of common usage. in the 1990s: for
example, in the month before Hemingway´s „On the Blue Water“ appeared in Esquire,
a story by Arnold Zweig was published in Esquire entitled „The Old of the Sea“.
“The title of the The Old Man and the Sea is too simple and clear to call for any
explanation; this novel tells us about the adventure and struggle of an old man, an old
fisherman named Santiago, who, after months and disappointment, goes far out on the
sea, catches a huge fish all by himself on the eighty-fifth day, struggles with the fish in a
spirit of love and hate, and resists the sharks with all the fierceness and strength at his
command, but who, after all this ordeal, is able to bring to the shore only the skeleton of
the huge fish.” Ishteyaque Shams (2002: 95).
33
4.2 Manolin´s age in The Old Man and the Sea
Most commentators on The Old Man and the Sea refer to Manolin as „the boy“,
however, Malcolm Cowley and Carlos Baker indicate that Santiago´s devotee is more
than a lad, referring to him respectively as a „teen-age boy“ and as one standing „on the
edge of young manhood.“ Although Manolin in his sensitivity toward his mentor is,
indeed, „already a man“.
C. Harold Hurley (1991: 71) points out: „Baker, as with Cowley, does no specify
Manolin´s exact age; but by associating the strength and confidence of Manolin´s
alleged „young manhood“ with that of Santiago´s when he distinguished himself as both
fisherman and arm wrestler, Baker leaves the clear impression that Manolin is more
a grown man than a young boy. Although Santiago refers to Manolin as „the boy“
nearly a hundred times during the book, Hemingway is himself never explicit with the
young fisherman´s age. That Hemingway intended to characterize Manolin as a boy not
yet in his teens is implied. Mature beyond his years, Manolin, by the story´s end, is
nearly ready to move out from under his parent´s domination. Desiring to be taught
everything by Santiago, and not just fishing, Manolin in the ways of the sea and of life
is in many respects already a man, doing what a man must do. But despite his
remarkable level of awareness and sensitivity, Manolin remains in years, if not in
outlook, neither a tee-age boy nor a young man but a small boy no older than ten.“
Luis A. Losada (1994) claims that Manolin´s statement: „The great Sisler´s father was
never poor and he, the father, was playing in the Big Leagues when he was my age“ has
been read as evidence that he is ten years old. On this argument the second „he“ refers
not to George, the father, as most readers would understand it, but to Dick, the son.
Dick was ten when his father finished his career. Losada (1994) emphasizes that the
same statement has been used to argue that Manolin is twenty-two. In this case the
second „he“ refers, as normal in English, to George, who was twenty-two when he
began playing in the major leagues. Another critic found something „quite wrong“ with
the idea that Santiago has been teaching Manolin to fish for seventeen years and
proposed that the passage is an example of a „stylistic lapse“ that competent editing
would have corrected. In the novel normal usage of the referent „he“ in the disputed
passage supports the conclusion that Manolin is speaking about the father, George.
In conclusion Luis A. Losada (1994) identifies that the statement is neither necessarily
determinative of Manolin´s exact age, nor a stylistic imperfection.
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4.4 Use of baseball in The Old Man and the Sea
The use of baseball is very extensive in The Old Man and the Sea. James Plath (1996)
states that baseball and fishing are so closely connected in the old fisherman´s mind that
they blur as much as the distinction between fisherman and fish throughout the novel.“
The baseball references in the novel are connected with American and National League
pennant races in 1950, and to earlier events and personalities in both major league and
Cuban baseball. The references are combined as if occurring in the same season. James
Plath (1996) states that baseball references in The Old Man and the Sea are as obvious
and frequent as allusions to Christian mythos. Many critics have felt that baseball stars
are the heroes of the simple man Santiago and adds to his heroic proportions. Some saw
in baseball references a simple thematic substitution for more familiar Hemingway
athletes-boxers or matadors, while others concluded that baseball provides initiation
talks in which Santiago is the teacher, Manolin the pupil, and baseball a topic through
which desirable attitudes and behavior are taught.
According to James Plath (1996) Hemingway invites the reader to consider the
significance of the external events recorded in the sports section to the internal events
delineated in the novel. It is known that baseball was in Cuba, when the novel was
written, an integral part of daily life. Baseball has always been so important to the
people of Cuba that they measure themselves according to baseball and baseball
players. It is no wonder, then, that The Old Man and the Sea begins and ends with
baseball. At the novel´s end, Santiago gives the boy the spear from the big marlin,
which had been described as being „long as a baseball bat“ (62). The symbolic transfer
is especially meaningful if one considers how important bats are to baseball players. In
the novel Santiago finds immediate comfort, strength and reassurance in thinking about
baseball which he understands very well.
The Old Man reflects on the famous baseball player very much during his great fishing.
He wants to be „worthy of the great DiMaggio, who does all things perfectly even with
the pain of the bone spur in his heel“ (68). Three times the old man thinks if he is really
worthy of „the great DiMaggio“ and he wonders if DiMaggio would stay with a fish as
long as he will stay with that one. Santiago after his victory over the marlin remarks:
„I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today.“
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From our point of view the famous baseball player represents Jesus Christ and the
baseball symbolize the faith. Baseball is real and inspirational for Santiago as the faith.
And when he has killed the Mako shark he speculates: „I wonder how the great
DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him on the brain“. It is obvious that it is very
important for Santiago to compare himself to his Master as often as possible. Santiago
simply follows his hero in pain, endurance, and skill and nothing is hard for him. He is
simply ready to undergo everything. He affirms himself: „Man is not made for
defeat...A man can be destroyed but not defeated.“ Despite the fact there is only fish´s
skeleton at the end Santiago is considered to be the winner.
„The skeleton provides tangible proof of the great Santiago´s achievement, proof that
the old man may still, to a degree, be unlucky, but certainly not unskilled.“ James Plath
(1996: 79).
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Conclusion
The Old Man and the Sea is the main work in the later stage of Ernest Hemingway.
It has influenced American as well as world literature.
In our bachelor paper we aimed to attest that consciousness of God and Christian
lineaments are in the Hemingway´s renowned novel. We found out that Santiago,
the main character, represents Jesus of Nazareth. Particularly, there are many references
in the novel to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Santiago´s wounded hands, the dried
blood on his face, his climbing up the road with the mast on his shoulder, his falling
under its weight and the way he lies in his shack all remind the martyrdom of Christ.
We do accede with some critics who emphasize that the Bible had a powerful influence
on Hemingway´s thinking and writing. This becomes obvious when making an analysis
and also trying to understand the purpose of the author. Going through the novel we
have perceived that the story of the Old Man is as interesting and exciting as its
religious parallels and symbolism are meaningful and fascinating.
Repeatedly, Hemingway enlists us through the use of Christian connotations.
The names of the characters translated from Spanish into English are just one of those
many allusions. In point of fact, characters in The Old Man and the Sea are major
figures in the New Testament.
In addition, many Hemingway´s stories carry religious influence and symbolism. We do
agree with the statement of one critic that sometimes Ernest Hemingway is too
religious. The usage of numbers in the novel is an excellent example. Numbers three,
seven, and forty are key numbers in the Old and New Testaments and Ernest
Hemingway makes a use of them. For instance, often used number three is, in fact,
a symbol of Holy Trinity. Evidently, numbers have a mystical import and they are
Christians connotations in the story.
To summarize, The Old Man and The Sea has a predominantly Christian symbolism
and it has more biblical flavor than any other work written by Ernest Hemingway. There
is a strong religious streak in Hemingway´s The Old Man and the Sea as it is
pronounced in the author´s life and his intense Catholicism. First and foremost, in our
bachelor paper, we wanted to attest that consciousness of God and Christian lineaments
are in the Hemingway´s renowned novel.
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References:
1. Backman, Melvin. “Hemingway: The Matador and the Crucified.” Ernest
Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels. 1962: 135-143.
2. Baker, Carlos. Hemingway, The Writer as Artist. Princeston University Press, 1972.
17. Nov. 2008
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Enigma, 2004. ISBN 8089132146, 9788089132140
5. Halverson, John. „Christian resonance in The Old Man and the Sea.“ English
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and the Sea.” The Hemingway review. 1991: 71-72
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Sea”. The Hemingway review. 1972: 2-17.
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