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Theme Of Symbolism In The Old Man And The Sea

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Authors all have different ways of displaying the inner turmoils of a protagonist in a novel. When displaying a complex quality of a character such as the torturing of a character's soul must be delicately executed. Ernest Hemingway, author of The Old Man and The Sea and Robert Pirsig author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance both take a similar metaphorical approach to conveying a tortured soul. A tortured soul has no definition but is seen as a character who is presented with a depressing tone. This character may make reference to a troubled past, while not mentioning a brighter future. Robert from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Santiago from The Old Man and The Sea both exhibit these qualities. During the …show more content…

He is a man who appreciates nature and working on his motorcycle. Robert can’t help but to over analyze every aspect of life which leads to him being more unlikeable. The reader picks up on an inner turmoil with Robert where his soul seems to be subject to torture. “But he saw a stick and ailing thing happening and he started cutting deep, deeper and deeper to get to the root of it...but he took on so much and went so far in the end his real victim was himself” (Pirseg 93). This torture spawns from his not being able to understand how he is suppose to help his son conquer mental illness, when he himself can’t fully conquer his own insanity. He knows his son is doomed for the same fate he has suffered. Robert constantly wants to fix things by applying philosophical ideas towards them, but is frustrated when he can’t solve his son’s problems this way.
The Old Man and The Sea, is a tale of an old man named Santiago who is a fisherman. He hasn’t had any luck with fishing, resulting in the other town members viewing him as a lame old man. A boy who used to fish with him inspires to change up his usual fishing tactics resulting in him catching a great huge fish. After fighting the fish for a couple days in his tiny boat he ties it to the side, headed for shore. On the way in sharks eat his entire catch leaving a skeleton to show for his work. The reader can see a clear metaphor painted by Hemingway. The fish

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