Symbolism in The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

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Recommended: Major themes of the old man and the sea

The premise of the story is simple yet captivating, as anybody who has ever gone fishing knows, for there is a strange allure in capturing and besting creatures as wondrous and intimidating as those who reside in the mysterious depths of the ocean. It is a work so masterful and timeless that it won the Pulitzer Prize and helped its author win the Nobel Prize, “The Old Man and The Sea” did not reach such lofty heights by mere luck. In creating the epic struggle between a monstrous Marlin and an old Cuban fisherman, Ernest Hemingway crafted an intricate web replete with symbols and allusions to Cuban culture, a country that served as his home for some time and the place where the novel was written. In order to properly understand and appreciate the depth of this tale, one must comprehend these most prominent of symbols and how they relate to the culture of the characters in the story: Baseball and Joe DiMaggio, the lions, the skiff’s mast, the marlin, and the sharks.
One of the most obvious and recurring symbols in “The Old Man and The Sea” is baseball and Joe DiMaggio. Baseball, much like being a fisherman, is an occupation that requires tremendous amounts of skill, patience, and luck. Throughout the novel, Santiago, the old Cuban fisherman, thinks about baseball and about the New York Yankees, often specifically about the great player DiMaggio. He often wonders about the scores of the baseball games and compares his struggle to the pain DiMaggio experiences from the bone spur in his heel. DiMaggio, in this way, represents a multitude of things. He is a symbol for the struggle between nature and man and of the pain that Santiago endures while battling the marlin. He also represents the skill that the old man has acquired through m...

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...Sea” Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952. Pp.1-127
Wagner, Erica. "Baseball in Cuba." The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.18 Issue 1. 5 Mar. 2004. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .
Major League Baseball (MLB). “2014 Opening Day rosters feature 224 Players Born Outside the U.S.” MLB Press Release, 1 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2014
US Department of State (USDOS). "International Religious Freedom Report 2009." Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, And Labor. USDOS, 26 Oct. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .

Burhans, Clinton. "The Old Man and the Sea: Hemingway's Tragic Vision of Man." Jstor. Duke University Press, 1 Aug. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .

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