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Theme of Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway's

The Old Man and the Sea

Article · April 2016

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USHA RANI KUMBAKONAM

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 ISSN 2455-393X
JOURNAL OF THE ENGLISH LITERATOR SOCIETY
An International Open Access Refereed Research Journal
Volume 1 Issue 3 - Published Online 1 March 2016
Est. 2015 http://www.literatorsociety.org

Theme of Symbolism in Ernest Hemingway’s

The Old Man and the Sea

Dr. K. Usha Rani

Assistant Professor, Department of English
KL University.

URL: http://www.literatorsociety.org/jels/2455-393X-41.pdf

Abstract
Ernest Miller Hemingway is acknowledged as the most significant writer of 20th
century American literature. The present study reveals various symbolic meaning
incorporated by Hemingway in the novel The Old Man and the Sea. The Christian
Symbolism, Sea and Nature as symbol of life and light of the protagonist against the
life to survive in this world are clearly depicted. The Old Man and the Sea is a simple
realistic story of a Cuban fisherman named Anselmo Hernandez. The details of the
novel have been glanced from Hemingway’s long experience of fishing in the Gulf
Stream. The Old Man and the Sea is the story told smoothly and swiftly, the conflict
is resolved into a struggle between man and a force which he scarcely comprehends,
but he knows that he must continue to strive against, though knowing that the
struggle must end in defeat. Nature is the best resort in all Hemingway’s novels.
Hemingway symbolized the creatures also has to balance the horror of aloneness
which the old man is feeling in his journey with marlin. Hemingway incorporated
the symbolism of youth through the boy Manolin. Hemingway also used the symbol
of Christian symbolism. Hemmingway asserts that Santiago is an attempt to
represent the whole of man’s experience through a system of symbolic
correspondence.
Keywords: Symbolic, simple, struggle, man’s experience
Journal of The English Literator Society ISSN 2455-393X

Full Text
Ernest Miller Hemingway is acknowledged as the most significant writer of 20th
century American literature. No other major American writer has ever equaled the
popular success and worldwide reputation of Ernest Hemingway. The present study
reveals various symbolic meaning incorporated by Hemingway in the novel The Old
Man and the Sea. The Christian Symbolism, Sea and Nature as symbol of life and
light of the protagonist against the life to survive in this world are clearly depicted.
The Old Man and the Sea is a simple realistic story of a Cuban fisherman named
Anselmo Hernandez. The details of the novel have been glanced from Hemingway’s
long experience of fishing in the Gulf Stream. Much of it is on the article” On the
Blue Water” published in Esquire for April 1936. Of all Hemingway’s works, this
novel demands most to be read on both symbolic and story level. This is the story
told smoothly and swiftly, the conflict is resolved into a struggle between man and a
force which he scarcely comprehends, but he knows that he must continue to strive
against, though knowing that the struggle must end in defeat. Hemingway is built
upon with the great abstractions like love and truth, honor and loyalty and pride and
humility. Hemingway used the sea and its surrounding atmosphere, the boy, the
baseball legend DiMaggio, the lions, cocks, the marlin and the most important
Christian symbols for the symbolism purpose. The thoughts of the old man in this
novel regarding all these things convey different sorts of symbolic meaning to us.
The old man is also considered a suggestion of Saint Francis.
Nature is the best resort in all Hemingway’s novels. In this novel the protagonist
Santiago’s contact with Nature is continuous and intense. All the elements in this
novel are controlled by Santiago’s integration in and of consummate beauty. He
begins his action on the sea and in the end becomes a hero on the sea. A great number
of writers have used the sea as something that reveals deep realities of man and the
universe. It is a place where man’s destiny and identity are sought out. Hemingway
also held such an idea of the sea. Santiago considered ocean as a personality in terms
of feminity and calls her ‘la mar’ as the Spanish call her when they love it. It is
feminine because of both her kindness and cruelty. Santiago while going into the sea
on the 85th day thinks of the sea as follows: “She is kind and beautiful, but she can
be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting,
with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea.”
Hemingway symbolized the creatures also has to balance the horror of aloneness
which the old man is feeling in his journey with marlin. Santiago accepts the sub
human beings as human beings and gives them the status of brotherhood. His sense
of brotherhood with creatures of water and air is though with full of love, essentially
realistic and unsentimental. When he finds a land-bird, a warbler which comes to
rest on Santiago’s skiff far out at sea, he welcomes the bird cheerfully and feels very
happy because at least someone is there to talk to him rather than talking to himself.

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We can find such sense of solidarity with the visible universe and the natural creation
in Hemingway’s novels. One of the most important features in the structure of the
novel is that the alternation of dream- memory and actual experience. The main aim
of this device is an attempt to clarify man’s present condition by contrasting the past
with the present. The most recurrent image in the dreams of Santiago is that of lions
and the boy. At first we see Santiago dreaming of lions of African Beaches at night
before his long journey. Here the important thing to notice is that the old man
dreams not of a single lion but of several young lions who come down to a beach in
the evening to play together.
Hemingway incorporated the symbolism of youth through the boy Manolin. The
relationship between Santiago and Manolin is of a special and complex nature.
Hemingway used Manolin’s character to depict old man’s courage as well as his
pitiable condition. The boy arranges supper of black beans and rice, fried bananas,
new bottles of beer and also albacores and sardines which Santiago will use for bait.
This indicates the poor condition of the old man. At the end of the story Manolin
brings coffee and food for the old man and ointment for his injured hands and palms
for a future to work side by side again with the old man. The love of Manolin for
Santiago is like a disciple for a master in the art of fishing. Hemingway also used the
symbol of Christian symbolism. Santiago, the hero of the novel achieves the more
difficult and saintly of all Christian virtues. Santiago’s charity arises not from the
feeling that all are God’s creatures, but from a sense that he and all natural creatures
participate in the same pattern of necessity and are a subject to the same judgment.
His relation to the sea and to the life of the sea is intensely personal. The Christian
religious symbols are quoted through the story. They are aptly interwoven with the
story to give the novel special place among his works.
Hemingway often shifts the symbolism of Christ from man to fish and then back to
man through the story. Before, the old man identified himself with Christ, identified
with Cain and with crucifers of Christ. Hemingway has some reservations regarding
the use of symbolism. He believes the symbols must be natural or practical. The
main idea behind the study is that Hemingway wants to see the world clearly and as
a whole and at the same time any part of life should represent the whole. Hemingway
asserts that Santiago is an attempt to represent the whole of man’s experience
through a system of symbolic correspondence.

Works cited
Hemingway, Ernest The Old Man and the Sea. 1952. New York: Scribner, 2003.
Baker, Carlos Hemingway, The Writer as Artist, Princeton, Princeton University
Press, 1952
--------------.Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,
1969.

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