Symbolism and Imagery in Earnest Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea - Research Paper Example

Symbolism and Imagery in the Old Man and the Sea Introduction This paper would discuss and evaluate various instances of symbolism and imagery found in the world renowned novel, “The Old Man and the Sea” of Earnest Hemmingway. The whole novel is full of different symbols and the use of imagery and figurative language by the novelist is superb and sublime. Hemingway's marlin is a powerful force throughout the novel. When Santiago hooks the fish on his first day at sea, he quite obviously approaches the marlin with the attitude of a hunter. The relationship between the old man and the marlin could be compared to the connection between a soldier and his noble foe, or two like-minded men forced into a kill or be killed situation. Nearing the end of their struggle, Santiago holds a great respect for the fish and even seems to believe that the fish feels the same way towards him. Sea is also a recurrent symbol that represents human life and its problems with their gigantic magnitude. Symbolism and Imagery Although Santiago put up a valiant effort at sea, nature ends up defeating him. The marlin gives him the toughest fight, as well as the most problems. Santiago fights for three days and nights against the marlin attempting to pull it in. During this battle, nature defeats Santiago through bodily afflictions. During his three day struggle with his future prize, Santiago goes from strong to weak considerably quick. In his first hours of fighting with the marlin, Santiago says to himself "I have no cramps and I feel strong" (Hemingway 46). Within the next twelve hours, Santiago becomes angry because his left hand has become cramped and will not open. He goes on to talk with himself about the occurrence, stating "What kind of a hand is that" (Hemingway 58). Obviously, the failure of his hand to operate correctly disgusts him. Later in the novel, Santiago reminisces about the problems his left hand has always given him, and goes on to call it a traitor due to its lack of strength (Hemingway 71). Not only does his hand cramp, he begins to feel tired and weak from age, poor sleeping habits, and the digestion of the dolphin's nauseating meat. Frequently throughout the novel, Santiago is either referred to as or calls himself "tired" and "old." One such example of this is on page ninety-five of The Old Man and the Sea, where Santiago directly states "I am a tired old man" (Hemingway). Age, as many know, is a product of nature, and something that man cannot control. Therefore nature has indirectly caused Santiago's lack of energy through his old age. Another reason for his tiredness is the little amounts of sleep he is getting. While fighting the marlin, Santiago sleeps few hours, if any, which can cause other problems such as cramps and dizzy spells. "Keep my head clear," he says to himself, as he's struggling to concentrate (Hemingway 95). The digestion of the dolphin does not aid his already poor condition. Santiago points out to himself that a dolphin is "a miserable fish [when] raw" (Hemingway 80). Upon his digesting of the dolphin, he "felt faint and sick and could not see well" (Hemingway 94). When combining the factors of weakness, tiredness, and injury, Santiago suffers with an intense amount of pain while battling the marlin. Although he does kill the marlin, nature defeats Santiago when fighting the sharks. When the first shark attacks Santiago's catch, it bites off the best part of the marlin. As Santiago stated, "He took about forty pounds" (Hemingway 103). After the first attack, many more follow until the marlin is completely devoured by sharks. By that time, Santiago knows he has lost the battle, as well as his prize. The most important and explicit statement Santiago makes is after the marlin is totally devoured. Santiago says, simply and plainly, "Now they have beaten me" (Hemingway 112). Sociological Symbolism In addition to losing as struggle with nature, Santiago's poverty, poor luck, and loneliness easily defeats him in his losing battle with society, even though he was once called "The Champion." Santiago's poverty is the result of a society that Santiago is too weak to be a part of. As Linda Wagner states, Hemingway describes Santiago's shack extremely singularly (Wagner 49). Also described in the novel are Santiago's one shirt, one chair, and one photograph of his wife, which used to be mounted on the wall but had been taken down (Hemingway 15-16). Obviously, if Santiago can only afford the one shirt that he wears every second of every day, he does not make enough money to buy adequate apparel. Furthermore, Santiago lives in a shack and has a makeshift stove which is actually charcoal that has been placed on the floor of his shack. If Santiago was not poor, one could suggest that he would own an actual stove. Poverty is displayed in everything he owns, whether one analyzes something's condition or the quantity of something Santiago owns, and it is therefore reasonable to conclude that society defeats him through a lack of acceptance within his small town. (Cox, 17) Not only does poverty make Santiago unacceptable in society, his poor luck displays him as a washed up fisherman. It is apparent from the beginning of the novel that Santiago's best days are behind him when Hemingway states that he has gone eighty-four days without catching one fish. A direct result of this is the pity the other fishermen feel towards Santiago. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway writes that the older fishermen "looked at [Santiago] and were sad." Some fishermen went as far as to make fun of him because of his fishing drought. (Hemingway 11) Obviously they do not realize the intense struggle Santiago has faced, and this is another way in which Santiago is unlucky. If they had realized what had happened, it is a possibility that they would have sympathized with Santiago. Since they are "uncomprehending" according to Stoneback, they cannot even feel the least of Santiago's pain and suffering (Stoneback 3041). Explicitly displayed by Santiago's poor luck is the fact that the men within society, especially the men who are of a high social ranking, do not view Santiago as being worthy, and furthermore, they do not even understand the rough times the poor man is facing. (Lewis, 40) Therefore, one can conclude that bad luck gives Santiago the status of outcast. His position of outcast is displayed most obviously by the fishermen who poke fun at his struggles through life. The outcast status pushes Santiago further away from a relationship with man, and therefore society defeats him. If there had been any significant others in Santiago's life, he would not have been alone at sea in the first place, and definitely would not have been struggling to get ashore and back into his shack. Another example of his loneliness is the fact that he speaks to the fish he fights and catches. Because Manolin cannot go fishing with him, he must find other ways to amuse himself and must make new friends. Therefore, he befriends the fish in the absence of Manolin's company. Santiago also feels lonely when he looks at his wife's picture, and that is the main reason why he takes it down (Wagner 49). Santiago's struggle with society is also marked by the fact that he is a fallen hero--one who has gotten too old and weak to keep his status as a heroic figure. It is apparent in the novel that Santiago's best days are behind him. As stated above, Santiago was once called "The Champion." He was called "The Champion" because when he was young and in Africa, he defeated a native in an extremely long arm-wrestling match (Hemingway 70). Now, in his old age, Santiago is not recognized as anything that contains even the smallest importance in his community, compared to his earlier years when he was the was one of the strongest and most respected men in Casablanca. Society forgets his power in his youth and only notices his weakness in his age. Santiago's dreams of the lions also symbolize the fact that Santiago is a fraction of the man he used to be. Wagner states in her article that Hemingway uses the lions in Santiago's dreams to make Santiago look young and strong. Wagner depicts Santiago as an old and unlucky person. (Wagner 49) Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the lions symbolize Santiago's youth and strength when he was in Africa. Obviously, he dreams of that youth and strength because he does not have it anymore, and therefore he must have experienced a downfall. Struggle as a Prime Symbol When at sea, Santiago struggles with himself when he realizes the pain and suffering both he and the marlin are experiencing. Even though he comes to the conclusion that he must kill the fish, Santiago debates himself on the topic of the killing of noble creatures for the sake of living. It is obvious here that Santiago feels that the fish is not meant to be eaten, and is too wonderful a creature to have to deal with man. On the same page, Santiago says to himself "I do not understand these things...It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers" (Hemingway 75). Santiago's reasoning here is that there is nothing that justifies the killing of a noble fish, such as the marlin. As stated above, he believes the fish to be a brother, and not an enemy. This shows that he would rather watch the marlin swim away than have to kill him and sell him in order to make a living. Another example of Santiago's struggle with himself is that he considers to the marlin to be his brother. Santiago's love for the marlin is established early on when he explains to the fish the extent of his respect for him (Flora 47). As Wagner writes, "had he not come to love [the marlin], he would not have struggled so valiantly to save little more than its carcass" (Flora 48). The love Santiago has for the fish symbolizes his utmost respect for him, and through respect, he ends up befriending the fish and actually talks to him throughout the novel, in the absence of Manolin. While also at sea, Santiago notices the hunger pains the marlin is experiencing and even states that he wishes he could feed the marlin. Santiago also states that the marlin is one of his three brothers, the other two being his hands (Hemingway 64). It is more than likely that one would rather defeat an enemy than a brother. A brother is symbolic of something that is of equal status. Santiago's feeling of brotherhood between himself and the marlin closes the gap between man and beast, but he cannot overcome himself, because he ends up killing the marlin. It is obvious here that Santiago has lost a struggle with himself as he is not able to do what he wishes. Sea Symbolism One ever-present symbol in Hemingway's novella is the sea. It represents the vast, limitless stage of life and the unpredictability of the world that surrounds it. Even more so, the sea represents Santiago's eternal friend and enemy. Santiago believes himself superior to the fish, believing that despite the unbelievable weight on the line, he would reel the fish in like any other catch. As the struggle between the old man and his fish continues, their "hunter and hunted" relationship blurs and gives way to a much stronger, more meaningful connection. The relationship between the old man and the marlin could be compared to the connection between a soldier and his noble foe, or two like-minded men forced into a kill or be killed situation. He protects his accomplishment until he literally has nothing left to fight with, and nothing left to protect. Even though he may have caught the uncatchable fish, Santiago did not win. Organic allegory or otherwise, "The Old Man and the Sea" remains one of the great symbolic literary pieces of our time. (Davis, 187) The simplistic, honest style of Hemingway's prose reads like the very tips of vast icebergs afloat on every page; there is always more behind, if only you care to look. After Hemingway's publication of Across the River and Into the Trees, many critics declared that Hemingway had burned his genius and that he could never more reach again the peaks he had achieved with previous publications. In this short novel we can easily portray the Hemingway as hero: he is a man fighting against the adversities that try to defeat him. Here the enemy of the man is the same nature, which hits him again and again. Santiago is a real master in fishing, but he has not had any luck in a long time. Once he was very strong, but he is growing old and his reputation is imperiled now. Still he feels that he has strength enough; he is still young of spirit. It means nothing that he has proved his strength before in his good days; he needs to prove it again and again. As Hemingway says above the importance of his writing is what is not written, it is what the reader can bring himself out of the reading. To read Hemingway implies that the reader has to do a great exercise in finding what the writer has omitted. Here we find the point to consider Hemingway among the modernist writers. Knowing this we cannot simply satisfy ourselves with the literal reading of the book, we have to search for these seven eights that remain hidden under the surface of the text. We have to examine all the symbols and metaphors that are there in order to discover the real meaning of the text. The first symbol is given without opening the book; the title itself provides us the first metaphor. In putting together the two forces, the man and the sea, he is comparing both strength and making then equals. It is a confrontation between the human being and the environment, the force of the nature, presented here as the maritime setting. The symbol of the sea is the most important one. When Santiago is in the sea he looks at the sea as a female character. This implies some relation between the man and the sea. Santiago sees the sea not as a competitor, but as a friend, a comrade. What is seen is a kind of communion between Santiago and the sea. Reinforcing this idea is the importance of the gender of the sea. Being female, the sea and the fisherman are like a marriage, a union that cannot be divided. Using the Spanish language for calling the sea, la mar, we realize of the importance of the sea for him, on the contrary, the other fishermen call it el mar, treating it just as a source of wealth and as an adversary. All the illusions of victory of Santiago disappear when the sharks devour the fish. Here, at the end of the book the fish without flesh is a symbol of the defeat. Santiago, in his persistence in catching it has ruined it. The resemblances of Santiago and Hemingway Before the publication of The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway suffered the most depressing decade of his career. Across the River and Into the Trees, published in 1950, was a disappointment at best, causing popular opinion to label Hemingway as a has-been? On this basis, in The Old Man and the Sea many have noted the parallels between the old man and Hemingway; and they are no wrong. It is quite clear the relation of the artist and his work up to the point that many have rejected the novella on the basis of being narcissistic. Despite this, the moments where Hemingway speaks through the old man are among the most honest and penetrating in the novella. From the opening focus on Santiago's lack of luck, to the cruel sharks that devour his great work, Hemingway writes about himself into these lines. The first coincidence we find is in the first sentence "He was an old man that fished alone..." Here the first thought that comes to us is the identification of Santiago, the fisherman, as Hemingway. In the next lines it is related that "everything about him was old except his eyes". Here Hemingway feels the same, old in his body but with a young interior. The figure of the eyes acts as a symbol of the soul. Going on reading we see that Santiago has had very bad luck fishing, he was a good fisherman, but he has passed so many days without fishing anything. This is quite similar to what happened to Hemingway. Hemingway had been acclaimed for his early works, but with the publishing of Across the River and Into the Trees he received very bad criticism, even more, the critic has condemned him saying that he cannot innovate in his work; that he has done everything and he has run out of new ideas. We can create another link between Santiago and Hemingway in this aspect. Hemingway appeared to have run out of luck after the publication of Across the River and into the Trees. Ultimately, to catch the big fish of popular approbation, one must have luck, that refers both to the old fisherman and to Hemingway. Hemingway seems to be saying here that he does his job as well as he does every time, so that when the fortune comes back to him, he will not be caught by surprise. "The thousand times he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it" In these lines we also can establish a similarity between the fisherman and the artist. Here Hemingway speaks of the incredible whimsicality of public opinion, and the brevity of fame. The writer, as the fisherman has to prove his quality work after work. The sharks which destroy Santiago's great prize and make useless his sacrifice have often been compared to the literary critics, who devour the writer's work. Hemingway includes the sharks in his novel in order to show how the literary critics can destroy any work. For this reason we can read the story as an allegory of the artist struggle. It is not only based in Hemingway’s life, but in every artist life. The fish represents the work, the fisherman the artist and the sharks the critics. The novel is really a metaphor of the relation of the artist with his/her work and all that involves him. The story understood as a Christian allegory The text is rich in Christian allusions, in this aspect, the Old Man is seen as Jesus Christ, and therefore, the text has been seen for the critic as a Christian parable. In short there are some facts that nobody will miss: Santiago is the Spanish name for Saint James, who, according to the Bible, was a fisherman before hearing the call of Christ. The old man personifies the ideals of Christ in myriad ways, most notably his lack of resentment or antagonism towards his adversaries. However, many have taken issue with this comparison, contending that although Santiago suffers greatly, it is for his own pride and livelihood, not for the salvation of mankind. Doing a deeper research in the book we can clearly establish more similarities with the biblical history. Conclusion The numbers are very important in the short novel. Another symbol in the sense as the one above is the number of days Santiago is in the sea alone, three, compared to the biblical history, three were the days that took Christ in rising from the death. Hemingway was a Christian, and he was aware of these details. At the end of the book Santiago recognizes that he is old and some day he will die. But this does not matter to him, because he also knows that his teachings will last him in Manolín. We see a perfect communion between characters, the old man and the young boy are more than master and disciple; they are friends, like Jesus use to think of his disciples. Another correspondence can be made when Santiago sees the next pair of sharks, he utters "Ay": "There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntary, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood" This allusion to Jesus' crucifixion is the most obvious Christian reference in the text. The hopelessness of the moment, in which Santiago sees the ending of his story, and the mercilessness and deviousness of the sharks, certainly elicits comparisons to the crucifixion. At the very end of the story the old man pulls his boat on the shore, unhooks the mast and begins to go the hill up towards his shack. Carrying the mast between his shoulders, he falls and starts again several times, until he has reached his home. At the beginning of the story, Santiago is forced to set sail alone, abandoned by Manolín; and when he return home, after the hard, cruel task, he wins new life in the renewed companionship of his young friend. There is a sense, too, that the old man will go on to teach Manolín many things, and that his spirit will live on in the boy after he has passed away. The same happens in the history of the Church, when Christ is betrayed by his people, he has to go by his suffering alone, and when he resuscitates, he regains his followers and his disciples will create the church. Away from the Christian allegory, but in a similar way, we have a reading of The Old Man and the Sea based in the Greek mythology; there are some references that we can see in the Greek mythology. Works Cited Cox, Ted. "Thematic and Structural Analysis." Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Bloom's Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publisher, 1996. 11-21. Davis, Carl. "An overview of The Old Man and the Sea." Exploring Novels 1998. Literature Resource Center. Gale. Thursday, March 11, 2004. Flora, Joseph M. "Joseph M. Flora on Practical Christianity in The Old Man and the Sea." Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Bloom's Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publisher, 1996. 46-48. Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Lewis, Jr., Robert W. "Robert W. Lewis, Jr., on Santiago's Solitude and Faith." Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Bloom's Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publisher, 1996. 38-41. Stoneback, H. R. "The Old Man and the Sea." Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction. Ed. Kirk H Beetz, Ph.D. Vol. 5. Osprey: Beacham Publishing Corp., 1996. 3041-3045. Wagner, Linda W. "Linda W. Wagner on Hemingway's Language." Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea; Bloom's Notes. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall: Chelsea House Publisher, 1996. 48-51. Read More