The Old Man and the Sea: A Gory Allegory

The Old Man and the Sea: A Gory Allegory

by Sam Newman

            The novel The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1952, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, and was cited as one of the main reasons Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. This book can be interpreted as having many different themes (e.g., persistence, suffering, admiration for one’s opponent, the ephemeral nature of success, aging and the concern over losing one’s abilities). Because the book can be construed as having so many different meanings, I think this book is like an allegory for almost anything (sports, schoolwork, facing a major life obstacle). The particular theme that stood out to me was persistence.

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago—an elderly Cuban fisherman once esteemed for his fishing skills—has not caught a fish in a long time (84 days). He is now seen as an incompetent fisherman in his village. Santiago has a helper boy named Manolin who takes care of him by bringing him food and giving him a place to stay. The boy is no longer allowed by his parents to fish with Santiago, because the old man is considered to be an unskilled has-been. The old man is trying to catch a great fish that will repair his damaged reputation and earn him notoriety. He also fantasizes about the money he will earn, both because a massive fish can provide plentiful meat and because it is rare and difficult to catch. After months of fishing alone and not catching anything, Santiago is ecstatic when he finally gets a bite and it is a marlin. However, because the marlin is not giving up, he must struggle through three whole days of pain and suffering (every time the marlin changes direction, the fishing line cuts into Santiago’s arms, back, torso, and hands). During the three days, Santiago admires the fish for fighting back, and he feels comradery with the marlin as they both persevere. The old man finally reels the marlin in close enough to shoot it through the heart with a harpoon.

Feeling accomplished, Santiago starts to sail back to his village, trailing the marlin behind him in the water because it was too big to fit in the boat. The blood from the marlin spills into the water and attracts sharks, which Santiago fights off by shooting them with harpoons and stabbing them with his knife. Sadly, the sharks eventually eat all the flesh of the marlin, leaving only it’s skeleton. When Santiago returns to shore, he puts the huge skeleton on display and the village people realize that Santiago is indeed still a competent fisherman. The old man’s primary relationship is also repaired because now Manolin is allowed to fish with Santiago again.

In The Old Man and the Sea, one of the evident themes is perseverance. Perseverance is initially demonstrated when Santiago continues to fish for 12 straight weeks, despite being unsuccessful. After he hooks the marlin, Santiago ends up spending three days and nights trying to reel in the unpredictably moving fish. During this ordeal, he gets many cuts on his skin but persists despite injury. Next, Santiago spends a whole evening fighting off sharks who are ravaging the marlin (even after losing his harpoon he starts stabbing sharks with his knife).  He endures through all of these difficult situations.

You might be wondering why a story about a worn-out angler is relevant to you. Kids our age face many obstacles and daily challenges. The theme of perseverance is relevant today for students because they must endure through long sessions of homework over multiple years to make it in the modern world. Sometimes when you have a difficult time-consuming homework assignment, you must stick with it relentlessly until you can harpoon it through the heart.