Biblical Symbolism In Old Man Essay, Research Paper

Susan Sublett

Classicss of World Literature

Dr.Haavisto

April 24, 2000

Biblical Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway & # 8217 ; s novels were adventuresome, colourful, and romantic, as was his personal life. In fact, many critics have concluded that his dramatic life was Ernest Hemingway & # 8217 ; s finest work, and it was the experiences he had along his restless and frequently violent journey that provided the literary universe with some of American literature & # 8217 ; s most influential novels. Like all great authors, Hemingway used his life as the varied landscape for his novels. Though the supporters were, so, fictional, their emotions and observations were pure Hemingway. As with any other creative person, his personal experiences were interwoven in his work, and offer the lone true glance anyone will of all time hold of the existent

Ernest Hemingway, as opposed to the devilish bon vivant frequently portrayed by the media.

Hemingway continued to see himself as a vernal adventurer despite his official entry into in-between age. However, by the fiftiess, he could no longer deny the presence of & # 8220 ; father clip, & # 8221 ; and decided to face the issue caput on in the medium with which he felt most comfy, fiction. The consequence was the 1952 novel, The Old Man and the Sea, a brief novel with a capable affair representative of the heroic tradition of Grecian philosophers and scriptural bookmans. As Hemingway himself was approximately to get down the slow journey towards old age, many believed his life was the inspiration for the Cuban fisherman Santiago, who seemed to hold been left behind by life. Incredibly, the narrative of The Old Man and the Sea is contained within a three-day and three dark periods. The supporter is a adult male on a solo journey, contending a conflict while still keeping his ain moral credo. Hemingway sets the lone tone of the narrative with his simple gap lines, & # 8220 ; He was an old adult male who fished entirely & # 8221 ; ( 1 ) . That remarkable line spoke volumes about Santiago, whose pride would non be in any manner diminished by the transition of clip.

Santiago has been out on his fishing boat for 84 yearss without a gimmick. He believes he is destined to populate out his life cursed by bad fortune. His lone comrade is a immature male child, Manolin. Despite his parents & # 8217 ; prayers that he work for another fishing boat, Manolin refuses to go forth Santiago, intimate that one twenty-four hours, his & # 8220 ; angle will come in. & # 8221 ; Santiago knows that clip is no longer on his side, and each trip out to sea for that ever-elusive gimmick might stand for his concluding journey.

After the first dark, something begins to take the come-on. Santiago recognizes that this is no ordinary fish, but a immense marlin. The competition becomes a conflict of volitions between the tired old adult male and the vigorous fish. Finally, the marlin is near adequate to harpoon, but the mako sharks get to it at the same clip, rending off a one-fourth of its meat. Santiago has merely the huge skeleton to demo for his labor, but becomes the talk among his fellow fisherman, who have ne’er seen such a big skeleton. The old adult male has successfully met the challenges of the elements, and at least temporarily, his ongoing race against clip. Although the fish remains an unachievable award, Santiago & # 8217 ; s restored self-respect is a triumph of deeper moral value.

Although on the surface, it would look that Santiago is the embodiment of the aging Ernest Hemingway, many critics believe that although the narrative may hold personal significance, there are many religious intensions which are evidenced by the scriptural symbolism which is ever-present in The Old Man and the

Sea. Hemingway would often reason that, & # 8220 ; No good book was of all time written that had symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in & # 8221 ; ( Gagne 1996 ) . However, he did admit that one time the words were arranged on the page, they could take on a symbolism which the writer ne’er intended, but is however powerful.

There can be no denying of the similarities between the old fisherman, Santiago, and Jesus Christ. First, Christ was the religious instructor of his adherents merely as Santiago was learning the male child, Manolin, life & # 8217 ; s lessons in morality. Hemingway is specific in depicting Santiago & # 8217 ; s run of bad fortune as enduring for 40 yearss, which is indistinguishable to the 40 yearss when Jesus wandered through the wilderness, with his journey finally climaxing with his Sermon on the Mount. Is this simply happenstance, or is Hemingway conveying a subliminal comparing to his readers?

Following, Hemingway specifically limits the time-frame of The Old Man and the Sea to three yearss and three darks. It is during this three-day period that Santiago & # 8217 ; s physical staying power and mental endurance is tested as it ne’er has been earlier. He recognizes that his clip on this Earth is coming to a stopping point, and that he may ne’er once more be blessed with an chance to stagger in & # 8220 ; the large one. & # 8221 ; Similarly, Jesus was put the ultimate trial of doggedness when he was placed on the cross for a period of three yearss. He endured his agony with amazing composures and self-respect, recognizing that there was much more at issue in this battle than the life of one adult male. As Santiago was entirely with lone his ideas for company on those darks at sea, he realized that there was much more at interest in this human competition than simply one of a fisherman trying to do a gimmick. There was a adult male & # 8217 ; s award and religious unity which was finally at issue.

The physical hurts incurred by Santiago besides had scriptural deductions. As Santiago & # 8217 ; s enfeebled custodies try to strong-hold the fishing enticement, the flesh from his custodies is distressingly lacerate, much in the same manner as Christ & # 8217 ; s was when he by the nails on the cross. Besides, Santiago suffers a serious cilium to his dorsum from the fishing line. This seems to match with the whipping of Christ shortly before his conveyance to Calvary. During Santiago & # 8217 ; s three-day brush with the great fish, he is besides forced to defy a blinding concern similar to the caput hurting endured by Christ which was a consequence of the thorny Crown forced upon him by the Romans when they labeled him as King of the Jews.

Another similarity occurs with the timing of Santiago & # 8217 ; s violent death of the fish. It occurs on the 3rd twenty-four hours of his conquering at about midday which is the clip when a Roman soldier Pierces Christ with a lance. Almost rebelliously, Santiago wields his boat & # 8217 ; s mast much in the same manner as Christ carried the cross upon which he was to decease. When Santiago eventually collapses in his bed after his physically and emotionally wash uping ordeal, so, excessively, does Christ as he eventually allows decease to catch him.

There is besides grounds that the symbol of Christ displacements from Santiago to the fish at the flood tide when he kills the fish. As most bible pupils are doubtless cognizant, a fish has ever been a prevailing symbol of both Christ every bit good as the Christian faith itself. This is apparent during Catholic Mass when the priest or fisherman becomes united with the fish which represents Christ. When The Old Man and the Sea reaches its inevitable pinnacle, when Santiago is in a one-to-one battle with the fish for endurance, they, in kernel become one. They are both smartly contending for the same thing, and at that minute where merely one of them can emerge winning, it is impossible to separate between the two. They are both virtually swinging at opposite terminals of the fishing line, humor

h their lives both hanging in the balance.

The most compelling piece of scriptural symbolism is the religious journey that Santiago takes on his boat while waiting to catch the fish. He is a adult male who has suffered more than his portion of letdowns. Santiago & # 8217 ; s reverses have defined the adult male more wholly than his successes of all time could and hold reinforced his sense of resoluteness. Santiago is the personification of the proverb, & # 8220 ; If it doesn & # 8217 ; t kill you, it makes you stronger. & # 8221 ; Christ & # 8217 ; s life was ne’er easy from his birth in a stable to his eventual decease as a sufferer on a cross. His battles did non snuff out the moral fire which burned within Christ ; alternatively, it blazed with even greater strength.

Santiago is at war non merely with the elements but with himself. Santiago must invariably pay war with the conditions, his ain ripening organic structure and the sharks who have a similar appetency for the marlin and the physical strength to wrest the quarry off from him. For the makos, the fish was nil more than tasty morsel

with which they could temporarily fulfill their hungriness stabs. For Santiago, it defined his really essence non merely of his manhood but of his moral fibre.

Jesus was invariably being subjected to enticements of the

flesh and of the psyche. At times he needed to exhibit self-control which would hold toppled other mortal work forces. Christ ne’er lost sight of the religious issues which defined his life, and refused to give in to fleeting pleasances. These represented simply fugitive recreations which were missing in significance when 1 is focused on the complete image of world and the fortitude with which work forces and adult females must be imbued in order to undertake hardship. Jesus was really much a fish who invariably needed to coerce himself non to recover the come-on of enticement which was often flashed before him.

The one difference between Santiago and Christ is that Santiago is first and foremost a human being, a adult male with defects who has made errors. He is non a God, but instead, an imperfect adult male who struggles to retain his individualism in an every bit imperfect universe. Most god-fearing Christians believe that Jesus Christ was selected to be the boy of God prior to his birth. He is seen in their eyes as more of a God than a adult male. In other words, his Godhead choice has ensured his flawlessness, whereas Santiago needs to wrestle with the great marlin to eventually go the adult male of perfect moral unity, which Christ possessed all

along.

Over the old ages, the term Jesus Christ has been used synonymously with God. To many Christian fundamentalists, they are one and the same. Santiago doesn & # 8217 ; Ts have a God composite and does non ab initio appear to hold anything in common with either God or Jesus. In fact, although it is implied that being Cuban, Santiago must besides be Catholic, the reader gets the feeling that he is non peculiarly spiritual. All of his energies must be concentrated on doing a life ; he has no clip to read the Bible and ruminate about Christ & # 8217 ; s instructions. However, Santiago is besides an honest adult male. It is non until he begins his friendly relationship with the immature Manolin that Santiago non merely confronts his ain mortality but sees his life in moral footings. The waxy male child believes in Santiago despite his failures in much the same manner as Christ & # 8217 ; s followings continue to believe in him. Santiago & # 8217 ; s eventual victory was a lesson that would

constantly remain with Manolin for the remainder of his life.

Literary critic and scholar Clinton Burhans regards the scriptural symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea in realistic and ethical footings. Burhans wrote, & # 8220 ; Out of ( his ) concern with action and behavior in a realistic existence, Hemingway has non evolved new moral values ; instead, he has reaffirmed adult male & # 8217 ; s oldest ones-courage, love, humbleness, solidarity, and mutuality. It is their footing which is new-a footing non in supernaturalism or abstraction but hard-won through existent experience in a realistic existence which is at best indifferent to adult male and his values. . . Through absolutely realized symbolism and sarcasm, so, Hemingway has attractively and movingly spun out of an old fisherman & # 8217 ; s great test. . . a matter-of-fact moral principle and its footing in an basically tragic vision of adult male ; and in this reassertion of adult male & # 8217 ; s most precious values and their reassertion in the footings of our clip rests the deepest and the digesting significance of The Old Man and the Sea & # 8221 ; ( Burhans 201 ) .

The scriptural symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea is excessively rampant to be denied. Santiago & # 8217 ; s struggle on the ramping seas echoes the ordeal of Christ on the cross. The sharks who finally secure the physical award are no different than the Romans who demand Christ & # 8217 ; s lb of flesh to guarantee the continuance of their imperium. As the marlin struggles against the fisherman & # 8217 ; s line every bit good as the mako sharks, he, excessively, resembles Christ who is virtually entirely as he incurs the wrath of his Roman antagonists and endures the treachery of those in whom he had placed the highest trust. The shark and the marlin are both fish by definition, yet both are engaged in a & # 8220 ; endurance of the fittest & # 8221 ; conflict in which merely one can win integral.

The Old Man and the Sea is widely regarded as the last great novel of Ernest Hemingway. Regardless of whatever his original purposes may hold been, the book has taken on a life of its ain. The narrative has withstood the trial of clip because a narrative of a adult male happening interior strength by trusting upon his moral unity is virtually dateless. Although Hemingway was frequently viewed as an atheist by his coevalss, The Old Man and the Sea clearly proves otherwise. Hemingway could hold been mentioning to either Santiago or Christ when he one time remarked, & # 8220 ; There are some things which can non be learned rapidly, and clip, which is all we have, must be paid to a great extent for their geting. They are the really simplest things, and because a adult male & # 8217 ; s life to cognize them, the small new that each adult male gets from life is really dearly-won, and the lone heritage he has to go forth & # 8221 ; ( Mitran 1996 ) .

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