The Old Man and the Sea -- Constructing Meaning Essay
Discusses how aspects including symbolism and imagery relate to the meaning of the text.
The Old Man and the Sea is a novella that was written in 1952 by Ernest Hemingway. It is a story that initially makes you think that the author was drunk while he was writing it. How can a book about a man fishing for Marlin become a Nobel Prize Winner? Meaning. By looking into the book and reading between the lines, we can see that in fact The Old Man and the Sea is a complex story, and is well deserving of such an award. I think the meaning of the book is that of life. If you take all of the objects in the book and relate it to life, it is possible to distinguish a giant metaphor that spans the whole novella. Through the use of symbols and the fact that we know the book is operating on a poetic level, and is not meant to be taken literally, we can determine our own version of what Hemingway intended as the meaning.
One of the symbols constantly mentioned in the story is that of the great baseball player JoeDiMaggio. Although it is not apparent without careful study of the text, it can be seen that the ?Great DiMaggio? was a simple fisherman in early life, much like the old man, and achieved stardom despite adversity. The old man has this great battle with an enormous fish, and throughout the whole ordeal, he constantly reassures himself by saying that ?the Great DiMaggio? would have been able to pull through this. Just as DiMaggio managed to struggle through the pain of a bone spur, the old man was able to struggle through the pain of his hands, and his immense adversity in the fish. Referring to the meaning, we can see that this relates to life in that we can always struggle through what is painful, so long as we stick to our principles and our guidances.
The other fishermen had called the old man unlucky, because he had not caught a fish for many days. This is reflected in the sail of the boat. The sail was """"patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat"""" (Pg. 5). Yet, when unfurled, the sail still carries out its function, carrying the old man out into the deepest water where his marlin awaits. Likewise, the old man proves himself when the time comes, giving a lasting impression of endurance.
As mentioned above, the old man?s hands play a big part in making meaning in the story. The scars in his hands are introduced in the opening description of Santiago. His hands """"had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert"""" (Pg. 5). Later, during his encounter with the marlin, the line cuts his right hand when the fish lurches. As his hand cramps, and he begins to worry about the possibility of sharks, the old man's suffering is evident. This image of Santiago's bleeding hand, in conjunction with his suffering at sea, recalls the image of Christ's hands with blood on them caused by the nails used to crucify him. Appropriately, it is only when the boy """"saw the old man's hands"""" (Pg. 89) that he starts to cry, in a manner similar to Mary.
Another symbol shown in the novel is the lions of the old man?s dreams. He first saw them as a young adventurer in Africa, and they can symbolize to him his origins, and the power, serenity and strength he could gain if he could just beat the ultimate gamble: life. We can see via his dreams that he wishes to achieve power and fame (through the lions) and he believes he has the chance to do so, so long as he beats his own mortality.
Life for the old man is but one challenge after the other, with the fish featuring at the top of the list. Much like in our own lives, we have small troubles and tribulations (such as the old man not catching anything for a while), but these are only setting us up for the big things in life, the annoyance and difficulty of living our day-to-day lives. The fish symbolizes the ultimate challenge for the old man, the supreme adventure, and yet a task that is as simple for the old man as what he has done for his whole life. However, his body is the hazard for him, because to beat life, you must beat existence.
There are but a few constants in the man?s life, as well as in our own. While everyday he goes out to sea to attempt to catch a fish and stay alive for the present, we go to work or school in an attempt to make our lives better for the future. The old man?s main unchanging object is his boat. A small skiff that could not weather a storm, his boat is his both his prisoner and his liberator, as it can both deliver good and bad luck. As in life, we get both ends of the stick, and even though we don?t know it, we usually don?t have the bad end.
The fact that the old man talks to himself and the fish is an important factor in establishing meaning in this story in that instead of making him seem crazy, it shows the reader that he has a deep loneliness and no self-consciousness to speak of. The old man uses speech to himself to create a world to live in. He talks to the fish as to him it is his ?brother?, and in talking to himself he boosts his own confidence, and throws down the gauntlet to the fish in a code-of-honour challenge.
While talking to himself, the old man unlocks one of the secrets of life: during battles with adversities, you are also battling yourself. Much like in life, where ?what doesn?t kill us makes us stronger?, the old man learns a lot about himself while combating the Marlin. Before facing the challenge of the fish however, he had to acknowledge that he may not come out of this alive, and at any time he could cut the line and sail home. But yet he stays with he thinks as his fish, and destroys his fears. That is what courage is: destruction of fears.
The irony to this novella though is that even though the old man beats the fish and beats himself, he is in the long run vanquished by more problems in the sharks. Although he does manage to kill some of them, in the end he looses the conflict and is defeated, as in life, by the straw that broke the camel?s back.
Near the end of the story the Christian metaphors return, where near the end of the novel the old man shoulders his mast after getting back from catching the fish, and climbs towards his shanty. It was then that """"he knew the depth of his tiredness"""" (Pg. 88). As the old man stumbles home he falls, and finds the mast on his back too heavy to rise with. The picture of Christ carrying the cross continues as he """"put the mast down and stood up. He picked the mast up and put it on his shoulder and started up the road. He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack"""" (Pg. 88). Even after his three days of suffering the old man dutifully carries his burden on his back, like Jesus, before falling into a sleep.
The sea is one of the biggest symbols in this story. The inhabitants of the old man?s life know it as either el mar or la mar: the bad sea or the good sea. If called la mar, it shows that the speaker has an affinity with the sea, it is feminine and lovable; if called el mar however, it is the masculine sea, and something that is disliked, even hated. Like life, we see our existence as good or bad: la mar when we win lotto or get a promotion, el mar when we loose a loved one or receive bad news. We usually have no control over these things, and are but pawns in the game of life, however since we are rational, thinking beings, we can decide ourselves what our life really means.
So through these symbols and my appointments of meaning, we can judge that one possible meaning of The Old Man and the Sea is that of life. Through the use of highly skilled imagery, we can relate the novella to our own existence and we can see that, like the old man, we are but a small boat on a very big sea.
