The Old Man And The Sea

655 Words3 Pages
In Ernest Hemingway's masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea, much symbolism is used to help the readers understand the message he is trying to relay. The Old Man and the Sea isn’t just about an old man fishing on the sea. There are many messages hidden inside the book that are often overlooked. Some elements are overlooked simply because they do not necessarily seem important. For example, the marlin represents many things including glory, strength, and beauty. The sharks represent death, and defeat. Even the old man, Santiago has a hidden meaning that may have been overlooked. He symbolizes Christ in many ways and aspects of life. The marlin represented many different things. For example, he symbolized strength glory and durability by giving Santiago such a struggle. Santiago felt fortunate to have such a worthy opponent. His struggle led to him becoming a legend among the other fishermen. This struggle would be Santiago's last challenge. However, Santiago ended up tricking the marlin, which led him to see the marlin as very noble. Santiago thought of him as his equal, a sort of friend. ‘’ This fish is my friend too…’’ (75). Even though the marlin was indeed his friend as well as his equal, the old man knew he still needed to capture and kill the fish to regain his acceptance from the other fisherman. This was very hard for the old man to do. The sharks come about to represent defeat and death. The sharks tried to defeat Santiago’s success by eating the poor marlin. ‘’Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.’’ Even though the old man admits his defeat, he is still set on not giving up. The sharks could also represent those who would tear apart anyone's successes. These repulsive, scavengers find delight in bringing torment, defeat or
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