Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway, who is widely known as the most popular American author led an adventurous life and published many of his stories. During his career Hemingway wrote many notable books including the Old Man and the Sea, which received several prizes including the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prize. This novel, although short, is far from underdeveloped Hemingway managed to pack a huge amount of symbolism and meaning into the book. The astute reader quickly sees the numerous similarities between Hemingway and the character Santiago. Upon closer examination, the various symbols of nature, the code-hero and the Christ-Figure also come to light. ON July 21, 1899, one of America's greatest writers was born. Hemingway was born into the family of Grace Hall and Clarence Hemingway in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway was the second of six children and was brought up in a rich environment of culture, learning and music and a variety of arts from his mother. After the years Hemingway spent under his parent's roof, his life was consumed mostly bouncing around the world covering wars, having numerous adventures, writing novels, and having many love affairs. During Hemingway's life he had a total of four wives and an exub
During the time that Hemingway spent on his book he used much symbolism connecting his world with Santiago's. In the book the turtles, dolphin, and flying fish appear to have a connection with Santiago. As Santiago drifts in the sea, he thinks of the turtles that he has known his whole life and says, " Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been butchered."(37) Apparently Santiago feels a great connection to the turtles as he thinks, " I have such a heart too, my feet and hands are like theirs."(37) Santiago's compassion for the large, strong sea creatures reminds the reader that the old man is at his best when surrounded by the sea and its animals. The last section of symbolism is the Christ-Figure. The Christ-Figure possesses strong values and beliefs and often suffers greatly due to those convictions. The Christ-Figure will stand up for his morals and not let people entice him to the point that he forgets them. The Christ-Figure also possesses humbleness as the code-hero does. The Christ-Figure also has disciples whom he instructs. Santiago is the perfect example. Santiago is not portrayed as a bitter old man even though most of the town has turned its back on him. He does not pride himself in catching the big fish because he knows that he went out too far, and for this he suffered. His disciple is Manolin who has much faith in his teacher and has gave Santiago much loyalty. One other symbol of Christ's story is when the sharks attack. This can be portrayed as when Christ was turned over to the authorities, and beaten and cursed. When Santiago carried the mast across his shoulders it parallels Christ's bearing of the ! cross as he was walking to his doom. The most notable event of the story is when Manolin and Santiago contemplate their extreme bad luck and speak of the day when they will once again fish together and catch big fish. Another aspect of the code-hero, is that he never boasts of his will power and his bravery, he possesses UN-humanlike humbleness. Santiago is proud but he will not accept his past actions as testimonies to his name. He must prove himself and when congratulated by
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1466
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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