Ambibolities And Ambiguity In The Old Man And The Sea

Santiago valued all of the things he loves, respects, and honors, such as his boat, the boy (Manolin), baseball, and the fish. “Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great Joe DiMaggio.” (Hemingway 17). During this quote, Santiago and Manolin are talking about baseball statistics and such from the paper. The Yankees were and still are a very good baseball team. The old man’s favorite baseball team is the New York Yankees and his favorite player is Joe DiMaggio. Santiago looks up to Joe DiMaggio and follows all of his stats in the paper. DiMaggio wasn’t fully healthy one season, but he finished the season very well and never told anyone he was hurt. So when Santiago was in pain when he was catching the fish, he was trying to be just like his favorite Yankees player, and not complain or make excuses.

In both competitions, Santiago demonstrates a great sense of will power and perseverance. For example, the arm wrestling match was also a test of endurance, just like his battle with the marlin: “They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line…the odds would change back and forth all night…but [Santiago would] raise his hand up to dead even again” (70). Similarly, he fights the fish for three long days and does not give up. After this twenty-four hour arm wrestling game, “everyone called him The Champion” (70). This defeat was important for Santiago because it proved that Santiago once had enough strength to beat the strongest man on the docks, who is implicitly compared to the marlin. It is also interesting to note that during this part of the narrative, Santiago also remembers another worthy opponent: Joe DiMaggio, another hero who shows an amazing strength of will that helps him overcome adversity. With this flashback, then, Hemingway establishes a sense of heroic virtues as spiritual rather than physical qualities.

Throughout the journey, Santiago encountered many struggles and hardships, however he never gave up. Throughout The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway wants to show Santiago’s perseverance and Santiago as Christ. Santiago is faced with many struggles throughout his journey of catching the marlin yet he preservers through his struggles. Santiago was once known as the champion fisherman by locals, however he had not caught a fish for eighty-four

“He did not truly feel good because the pain from the cord across his back had almost passed pain and into dullness that he mistrusted.”(74) Once both the fish and Santiago had reached the breaking point of conflict the story seemed to slow down in time to exemplify the adverse conditions that both characters were suffering from. The old man proves himself worthy of personal suffering with the cuts and scars on his hands and back along with all of the pulling and slipping the cords had upon his fragile body. Hemmingway shows in a big way how an out of proportioned conflict with an old fisherman and an 18 foot long marlin helps to magnify the significance of Santiago searching for his rebirth to manhood. With constant abstraction describing the fish and the sea in relation to brotherhood create interesting questions for Santiago to ponder. His rationalization for his fishing is that he was born to do it. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Hemmingway proves that this fish represents all of Santiago’s built up tension to total the size of a gigantic marlin that is perceived as devastating but not unconquerable. The old man’s hopes and aspirations can overcome the adversity of the marlin’s size, along with the conditions of the old, hungry, and exhausted fisherman. Through outright suffering Santiago achieves a goal above his previous manhood by combating pain and

Biblical is a type of allusion used in this book because the old man carries the mast up the hill to his shed and Jesus carried his cross up the hill where he got crucified.

The old man’s journey into the abyss of mentality is representative of self will, for his motivation isn't one to linger alongside, but he respects the Marlin for its tolerance. Santiago’s first day of scouting the Marlin he expresses his sentiment for the fish as he liess on his back stating “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends” (54). Santiago’s intellectual paradox of light and dark is not only his motivation but his internal struggle. I personally can relate to Santiago, as my Marlin is self evident as myself. My personal endeavours aren’t done, so to speak, for others, as I feel success isn’t tangible or measured in dollars, but as a token of respect for oneself. In retrospect, I found success and triumph in an array of shapes and sizes, as Hemingway’s exemplifies, success is not gauged by caliber, it's an everyday elation that is disregarded when one lacks self respect. Being my own Marlin I ever so ask myself, How much a dollar cost? Because, enjoying the simplest of victories, such as in education, sports, or hobbies, is essential. Working step by step is what elevated my respect for, not only my work, but for others. Regardless of effort, I know in the end that my greatest mentor is myself, and action comes from within, as the Marlin did for Santiago, I'm doing for my future

Death is the unavoidable force in the novella, the one fact that no living creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests, is never an end in itself: in death there is always the possibility of the most vigorous life. The reader notes that as Santiago slays the marlin, not only is the old man reinvigorated by the battle, but the fish also comes alive “with his death in him.” Life, the possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of death.

Over and over again he is remarked to be a strange old man, and he himself is the one to glorify that. He seems to struggle with the fact that he must prove himself to the other fisherman who mock him and believe him to be a fallen hero. He sets off to sea in his boat one day, but what he does not know that it will be the three most tiring days of his life. He first catches a smaller fish and instead of turning back, he decides to go farther out into the ocean to see what he can catch with that fish. He soon is dragged all over and back by a shiny purple marlin, that is two feet longer than his skiff. The response to Santiago’s poor decision or lack of creativity to harpoon the marlin instead of try to kill it another was as to not attract mako sharks was confusing. He is shown to be a man of intelligence and greatness, yet his decision to kill the marlin in this manner knowing what could happen proves that he had a distinct motive for harpooning the fish. By the words of Gery Brenner, “that motive is self validation-the need to prove himself”(Brenner 55). In the end, after the three day struggle, when Santiago returns to the dock, he is told by Manolin later that he was said to be lost at sea, and everyone was completely taken away by the length of the mangled carcass that he brought in. The take many get from Hemingway’s novel is

In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the literary device of metaphors. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the ocean to symbolize life, and to depict the role that individuals play in life. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lions to signify people who live their lives as active participants. The tourists in the novel represent the individuals, who in observe their lives and are not active participants. In the novels that Ernest Hemingway writes, he uses metaphors to reflect his life experiences and opinions. The ocean in The Old Man and the Sea is a metaphor, which represents Hemingway 's personal view of life. Hemingway believes that in life everyone must find their own niche and uses the metaphor of the ocean and the

The marlin brings out the best in Santiago as fishing does for Hemingway. The fish and Hemingway have a connection between suffering a battle. Hemingway suffered from mental health and sadly it got the best of him. He is like the marlin, never surrendering at any cost. Hemingway believed in fighting the good fight. Whether he won or lost, he fought the best that he could. Along with the marlin and the old man. Santiago did not want to go another day without catching a fish. Fishing was his passion. Despite others calling him unlucky he fought the good fight. Suffering a hand injury and the group of sharks, he fought the best that he could. Just like the old man, Hemingway did not stop writing and continued his passion of expressing himself. He was never through as a writer. He spent almost 16 years writing this novel because he believed in it. He believed that he could do it. He was inspired by his friend Gregorio Fuentes and his dedication for fishing. Their friendship is represented through Manolin and Santiago. Manolin did not want to fish without Santiago just like Fuentes did not believe in fishing without Hemingway. It was their passion, and their friendship is more important than any fish. Although they had a love for fishing, nothing compares for the love others have for their friends. Hemingway suffered through many obstacles, but the surrounding love and his passion for writing and

“Santiago’s ordeal, first in his struggle with the big fish, and then in fighting against the sharks, is associated by Hemingway with Christ’s agony and triumph,” (Bloom 2). When Santiago sees the second and third sharks coming, he shouts “Ay,” and Hemingway notes: “There is no

The nobility of character of the old man prevents him from feel hate and rancor toward the other fishermen. Despite the taunts of the other fishermen, Santiago is quiet and admits having a bad streak of luck. This makes him an honorable man, which avoids any conflict and is able to recognize his flaws as a fisherman. Although the sea has given him several bitter drinks, he is able to keeping on loving it. “A man is honest when he acts honestly, he is humble when he acts humbly, he loves when he is loving or being loved.” (Waldmeir 165). Perhaps, the crowning act of humility in Santiago is when he is forced to recognize that by his own forces he will not be enough to grab the fish, and decides to carry out prayers to the Almighty. At the end of the hunting of the big animal, Santiago does not become conceited. His simple and humble soul thanks with a prayer for the outcome of his effort. Although the fighting has been severe and bloody, the old man was not self-styled "hero”. Santiago humbly considers himself as one fisherman more, and the categorization as a hero depends on the readers. “It is the knowledge that a simple man is capable of such decency, dignity, and even heroism, and that his struggle can be seen in heroic terms, that largely distinguishes this book.” (Young 131). The evident relation between his humility and dignity helps to place Santiago as a perfect

One might think that destruction is like defeat, but it is not. Think of it like someone rebuilding a house after it was destroyed by a storm; the house might have fallen apart, but it is not gone forever, it is eventually going to return better than ever. The parable, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway shares similar characteristics with the boxing drama Rocky directed by John G. Avildsen. The Old Man and the Sea is set in a fishing village near Havana, Cuba during the 1940s, and Santiago is the protagonist. Rocky Balboa from the movie Rocky that takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1975 displays the same theme as The Old Man and the Sea.

Many of Ernest Hemingway’s stories are either literally or figuratively based on his life experiences. The Old Man and the Sea is a novella written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Bimini, Bahamas, and published in 1952. It was the last major work by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. Its writing was influenced by his life around him. This is shown through the way the novella is written and key events and parts within it. The Old Man and the Sea can be interpreted as an allegory of Hemingway’s life and career at the time he wrote it.

Despite his failures, he sets out in his boat after having caught no fish for eighty-four days. Nevertheless, Santiago never loses his confidence in his fishing abilities. Hemingway describes the humble Old Man with, “His hope and confidence had never gone.”(pg 13) Ernest Hemingway goes on to say, “He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.” (pg 13)