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The Old Man and the Sea: Critics, Symbolism, Shit
(Old Man Discussions:)
1. The Story
Before the Story
2. The Simple
Story
3. Critics,
Symbolism, Shit
Old Man: Simple . . .
(Spoiler Warning)
A community dismisses a man in his time of bad luck and old age. His bad luck confirms his old
age--perhaps, even if his catchless streak were to end, then he would still be
dismissed--because he is old. Everyone dies, but the mark is visible on Santiago's face and
therefore his defeat is a public fact.
Santiago knows he is old, and he knows that soon he will die. This is the primary condition in
which the story takes place. His one remaining friend, Manolin, a young boy, is no longer
permitted to fish with the old man. He is alone with his age, his bad luck, and the fact of
his death.
But he takes his ragged boat out into the world he knows, the unknowable sea, to face the
elemental, irreversible truths of his existence. And, in fact, he comes face to face with the
greatest fish he's seen in all the years of his fishing experience. His courageous heart
provides the strength Santiago needs to fight the marlin well beyond the scope of his physical
strength--Santiago succeeds when his failure was already a foregone conclusion.
But he cannot win. The sea is too much for an old man, and the sharks strip him of his
victory. But he never quits the fight. He knew he was defeated before he encountered the
marlin, and still he fought, and still he refused to quit. His fight and his persistence are
futile, and he knows it, and still he fights. When he drags his boat at last upon the shore,
and stumbles off to pass out in his lonely home, the villagers marvel at the unparalleled
skeleton of the marlin. The young Manolin sees the skeleton, too, and intuits the story of
what the old man has done. The old man's defeat was certain from the beginning; and his
triumph is inarguable. The effect on Manolin is Truth.
Old Man . . . Not So Simple?
Theme
(Spoiler Warning)
Because Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea with a pure, simple language and
structure, each of the story's elements seems to contain a manifest power, some transcendent
meaning beyond the novella's own scope.
The surface story tells of an old man struggling with, in narrative order: age, luck,
loneliness, commercial fishing boats, the marlin, hunger and dehydration and endurance, the
sea, and the sharks.
Do these elements possess a meaning beyond the surface narrative? The critic first considers
theme: is the old man fighting with nature? With the human condition of aging? With life, or
with death? What is the larger story, here? A casual reading tells the critic that the old
man is fighting against fate: against all of his inevitable failures at the hands of nature and
death. However, a closer, more careful reading should show the critic that Santiago's true
fight is not against anything; rather, his fight is to find his place within the inevitable
order.
Imagery
CHRIST IMAGERY
Once the critic feels comfortable with the thematic environment of The Old Man and the
Sea, how Santiago (and therefore every human being) fought to determine his place in the
natural order, the critic turns to the imagery Hemingway chooses to describe the action of his
scenes. Why does Santiago liken his own heart to the beating heart of a butchered turtle?
Why, in his terrible exhaustion after bringing his boat back to shore, does Santiago flop down
on his sleeping pad with his arms extended, palms up, in fact just like Christ upon the
Crucifix? The critic then recalls the wounds his fishing line cut into Santiago's hands, and
Santiago's struggle with the mast of his boat.
And just like that, the critic has uncovered the Christ imagery that Hemingway intended to show
how Santiago courageously accepted his martyrdom, his lot and fate, the sacrifice he made in
order to be reborn in the form of new courage and endurace within Manolin (Manolin, man, son of
man . . .). An important moment to note takes place on the night before Santiago begins his
voyage: we see the old man through Manolin's eyes. The boy loves the old man, but when the old
man claims to have washed before their shared supper, the boy questions the truth of Santiago's
claim. The boy is almost a man, and soon he must decide to either follow in the path of the
commercial fishers, or the path of the old man. This questioning that takes place is rarely
discussed by the critic. Instead, the critic chooses to make the story a universal metaphor:
resurrected from his inevitable death, Santiago will live on as a figurehead, a redeemer, for
those who have faith in his transcendent sacrifice. But though the story focuses on Santiago's
struggle, the real story is the one that will pass on through Manolin's life. How will Manolin
see that story?
"THE OLD MAN WAS DREAMING ABOUT THE LIONS"
Santiago dreams several times throughout The Old Man and the Sea. During three of the
dreams, the old man is dreaming about the lions. Dreaming about the lions--with their strength
and youthful vigor written into their bodies as they play along the beaches--brings Santiago a
deep, potent feeling of peace and order. He loves the dream lions in the same way that he
loves the boy, Manolin, though he never dreams about the boy.
LIONS AND SHARKS
The critic notes that lions are predators, kings among beasts, and the contentedness that
Santiago experiences in the wake of dreaming about such predators must signify the lasting
truth of Santiago's own meritorious triumph. But why does the critic forget to compare the
lions to those predators Santiago encounters while awake? The critic has plenty to say about
these kings of the sea, these sharks who assure Santiago's eventual failure. Sharks are
mindless mouths, says the critic, untempered forces of decay and destruction. It means nothing
if Santiago kills two or three of them because sharks are inevitable. Killing a shark has no
value, the critic says. Killing a lion, notes the critic who has also read Hemingway's
biography, is a proud, courageous accomplishment. Hemingway loves the safari; therefore, he
can respect, then kill, a lion. But sharks are unworthy of their own status as predators.
But the sharks aren't mindless, nor does Santiago feel any lack of respect for sharks, as a
whole. "The [shark] is cruel and able and strong," Santiago thinks. Later, he compares
himself to that first, Mako shark: "He lives on the live fish as you do. He is not a scavenger
nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of
anything." However, when the galanos come, the shovel-nosed sharks that arrive in
packs, Santiago thinks of these as bad-smelling scavengers.
The lions are different, though, and it has nothing to do with sharks living as scavengers or
mindless mouths. In this respect, sharks are no different than people. They try to live and
then they die. Some make their lives respectable before death takes them; others are like pigs
slobbering at the trough.
The difference is this: sharks, like people, are made for death. So? says the critic. Lions,
too, are made for death. This is true, but when the critic makes symbols and imagery from
sharks, he loses sight of Santiago. Santiago dreams of the lions on beaches he remembers from
his own childhood. He loves the lions the way he loves Manolin. Lions are young, playful, and
strong. They are not made for death, though they will eventually die. They are, within
Santiago's ordering of nature, the pinnacle--the highest attainable goal. They are young,
strong, and without fear. They cannot be questioned. Santiago fights against his own age, his
waning strength, and his fear of inevitable failure. Because failure, death, is inevitable.
But pride in those things that you have--courage, a heart that refuses to quit, and strength
beyond the toll that time takes--earns you the dream about the lions.
Book Search for The Old Man and the Sea
(Old Man Discussions:)
1. The Story
Before the Story
2. The Simple
Story
3. Critics, Symbolism, Shit
Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also
Rises
2. A Farewell to
Arms
3. For Whom the
Bell Tolls
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