Symbolism in The Old man and the SeaName: Jinal B. Parmar

Roll no.: 11

Paper no.: 10 The American Literature

M. A. Semester: 3

Year: 2014-15

PG Enrolment no: PG13101025

Email ID: jinal.parmar989883@gmail.com

Submitted to: Dept. of English

Smt. S. B. Gardi

M. K. Bhavnagar Uni.

Dt: 2/10/2014

Introduction:

The Old man and the Sea

• Written by Earnest Hemingway

•Published in 1952

• Story of Old man’s struggle and

adventure

• The short story concern an old

fisherman who battles a giant

marlin for three days and nights

• This novella was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953

What is Symbolism?

“Symbolism is the use of

symbols to signify ideas

and qualities by giving

them symbolic meanings

that are different from

their literal sense.”

Old man Vs. Youth

Man Vs. Nature

“He was an old

man who fished

alone in a skiff in

the Gulf stream...”

Symbols in the Old Man and the Sea

Symbolism in The old man and the sea

• This novella, the symbolism has far

deeper significance

• The book is representation of life as

struggle against unconquerable force

of nature

• In this novella Hemingway

symbolized person , place or thing to

represent the real meaning of his

writing

• In every day struggle of old man there is

deep meaning behind it

• Hemingway is very much connected

with the nature and he uses all nature in

this novella

The Lions

The Marlin

The Sea Joe

DiMaggio

The Mast

The SkiffThe Old

man

Menolin

The Harpoon

Symbols in the novella:

The Lions

• Lions are the symbol of youth, Freedom

and Strength

• The novella begins with the dream of

Santiago whose dream of the lion on the

beach

• lion represent a hunter that is wild, noble

and manly, the King of that particular

environment

• The lions are a symbol from Santiago’s

childhood, he remembers seeing them on

the beach in Africa when he sailed there in

his youth

• The lions symbolize Santiago's lost youth

as well as his pride

The Marlin

• Marlin symbolized strength and

durability and putting up such struggle

• Marlin represents both the

perseveration of man´s social status

and his incessant life powers

• Santiago considered Marlin’s power

equal to him and called him brother

• The sharks run parallel to the

fisherman in the novel who judge

Santiago harshly

• Marlin also represent the “MIRROR IMAGE” of Old man

The Sea

• The Sea represents the Universe and

Santiago's isolation in the Universe

• The Sea represent challenge and

endless “NATURE”

• The sea is presented as

ROMANTICIZED and FEMININE

both “Cruel and Cleansing”

• The symbolism of sea is also describe

as water, clear water is extremely good

and signifies clear thinking

• The sea also symbolizes the

swimming like swimming in dreams

The old man, Santiago

• In the novella Hemingway call

Santiago as old man and it has very

symbolic meaning that shows that he

has lost his youth

• The old man’s eye’s Blue color

represented the color of sea

• Old age, wrinkled skin symbolizes

human fate, human fate raised to the

level of suffering by cosmic processes

• Santiago’s shirt is also symbolic. It is

patched – patched sail looks like the flag

of permanent defeat.

Continue…

• Old man’s struggle represents and

compared with the struggle of Jesus

Christ

• Hemingway wrote that the sound

Santiago made while having the

cramps were the same as the reaction

“someone would have having a nail

passed through their hand and into

blood.”

• The biblical influence of the story

shows that the old man and Jesus

suffered in many of the same ways. The

old man was the fisherman of fish and

Jesus was the fisherman of souls.

Menolin

• Menolin is very symbolic character

• “The old man had taught the boy to

fish and the boy loved him”- symbolizes

as a Christ and one of his disciple

• Between Manolin and Old man there is

vast age differences between them its

symbolizes their skill of fishing

• Manolin is the symbol of hope

• Manolin would take care of the old

man when he said to him "Keep warm

old man. Remember we are in

September."

Joe DiMaggio

Santiago• Santiago sees DiMaggio as an equal

heroic qualities

• symbolizes the indomitable will of the

human spirit.

• Santiago thought that DiMaggio

would understand him because of their

background being the same

• Joe DiMaggio also represents hope

that the old man has for Manolin.

• Santiago wishes that the boy will

grow up and be like the great DiMaggio

strong and young so that he will not be

a poor fisher like he is

The Skiff, The Skiff, The Mast and

The Harpoon

• The skiff symbol of Santiago himself,

as Santiago struggle in his life, the

skiff also have to struggle in the sea

The skiff also symbol of the defeated

human beings.

• The mast is symbol of cross of Jesus

• The lost harpoon is symbol of loss of

power, strength, virility, pride.

Santiago loses his harpoon-the first of

many such losses as he continues a

futile battle with sharks.

Conclusion

• In this novella there are many

symbols

• In the Old Man and the Sea we

find that the symbolism of

Hemingway has far deeper

significance than in the early novel

• Hemingway’s use of symbolism, so

restrained and sparing that the he

cannot be included, with those who

are usually labeled as symbolist

The O ld Man and the Sea Symbolism.mp4

VIDEOThe O ld Man and the Sea Symbolism.mp4

Thank You….