Hemingways Themes Essays - The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's Themes Hemingways Themes by Rachel Spreng Hemingways greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3). Santiagos ordeal, first in his struggle with the big fish, and then in fighting against the sharks, is associated by Hemingway with Christs agony and triumph, (Bloom 2). When Santiago sees the second and third sharks coming, he shouts Ay, and Hemingway notes: There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just such a noise as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hand and into the wood (Waldmeir 28). Santiago is often regarded [as] a Christ figure, and his love for all living creatures and forbearance in physical pain are attributes that support this [idea]. However, Santiago shares few traits with Christ (Brenner 38). In his book The Old Man and the Sea: Story of a Common Man, Gerry Brenner states: Christ is a fisher of men, but Santiago is merely a fisherman; Christ is a figure with a divine mission, Santiago one with a secular mission (to bring back an oversized fish); Christ is a martyr who willingly but reluctantly dies for his convictions, Santiago is a persevering champion who is willing to die only to win a battle with a fish; Christ is a teacher of spiritual and ethical wisdom, Santiago is a professional with skill and slogans to impart (38). The Hemingway hero is often religious, but their religion is rarely central to their lives (Gurko 13). Santiago is Cuban, at once devout and credulous (13). However, neither his religion nor his superstitious beliefs play a role in his ordeal with the great marlin (13). God is sometimes prayed to by the Hemingway hero in a time of crisis, but He is never depended upon (Waldmeir 29). When Santiago says his prayers, he also says, I am not religious, even as he says his prayer (29). After forty-five hours of struggle have passed, Santiago says, Ill say a hundred Our Fathers and a hundred Hail Marys. But I cannot say them now. (Waldmeir 29-30) For those who see this as evidence of Santiagos Christ symbolism, one must suggest that his not saying the promised prayer provide contradiction to that interpretation (Wagner 117). It is difficult to disentangle Santiago and Hemingway, and it can render a reader quite uncomfortable (Bloom 2). Hemingway, like Santiago, denies his religious values (Linck 1). Hemingway, however, did not turn religious to write The Old Man and the Sea (Waldmeir 33). He has always been religious, although his religion is not of the orthodox variety (33). He celebrates, and always has celebrated, the Religion of Man (33). Along with the Christian symbols woven throughout the novella, numerology also adds to the religious symbols in the book (Waldmeir 28). As the story opens, we are told that Santiago had gone eighty-four days without catching a fish (Wilson 119). If we add this to the three days covered by the books action, we get a span of eighty-seven days. Shortly after, the boy recalls, remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.(119) In this way, Hemingway establishes two separate time spans of eighty-seven days that are important in the old mans life. (119) There is also a more intricate form of numerology in the novella (Waldmeir 28). Three, seven, and forty are key numbers in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible (28). As the story opens, Santiago has fished forty-four unsuccessful days alone and forty more with Manolin. The great ordeal with the marlin lasts three days; Santiago catches the fish on the seventh attempt; seven sharks are killed; and the old man rests seven times from the weight of the mast. To be a hero means to dare more than other men, to expose oneself to greater dangers, and therefore more greatly to risk the possibilities