Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

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.

 

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 straight-forward 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.”

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 production and experimentation led to new technologies, including the nuclear bomb.”

 

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.
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 one-eighth 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)

 

 

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).

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 „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).

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 three-day 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).

 

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.
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.

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).
„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.
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).

 

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.
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.
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.
„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).

 

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 fighter-metaphor intensifies the combative elements of the Christ model“. Wolfgang Wittkowski (1967: 16).
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).

 

 

 

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).

 

 

 

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).

 

 

 

 

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).

 

 

 

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 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).

 

 

 

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).

 

 

 

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.
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.“
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).

 

 

 

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.

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                                                                       <http://books.google.com/books?id=yP-cgVNr55wC&hl=sk
3. Dunlavy Valenti, Patricia. Understanding The old man and the sea. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
4. Fabianová, Zuzana. Sprievodca dielami Anglickej a Americkej Literatúry. Bratislava: Enigma, 2004. ISBN 8089132146, 9788089132140
5. Halverson, John. „Christian resonance in The Old Man and the Sea.“ English Language notes 1964: 50-54.
6. Hurley, C. Harold. “Just ´a boy´ or ´Already a Man?´: Manolin´s age in The Old Man and the Sea.” The Hemingway review. 1991: 71-72
7. Hurley, C. Harold. “Hemingway´s Debt to Baseball in The Old Man and the Sea: A Collection of Critical Readings.” The Hemingway review. 1992: 106-108.
8. Johnston, Kenneth G. “The Star in Hemingway´s The Old Man and the Sea.” American Literature. P.: 388-391.
9. Losada, Luis A. “George Sisler, Manolin´s age, and Hemingway´s use of baseball.” The Hemingway Society. 1994: 79-81.
10. Plath, James. “Santiago at the plate: Baseball in The Old Man And the Sea.” The Hemingway review. P.:  65-80.
11. Price, S. David. “Hemingway´ The Old Man And The Sea.” Oklahoma State University. 1997: 5.

12. Rama Rao, P.G. Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2007. 9 Mar. 2009    <http://books.google.sk/books?id=nFtv6YbkoGwC.
13. Scharper, P .J. “Hemingway, Byron, the adolescent hero.” Literature and Arts. Dec.13, 1952: 303-304.

14. Scott, Steven. “Storytelling from Hemingway to Barth.” Mattoid. The General Issue. P.: 74-84.
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