Interpretations of the Old Man

“I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and a real shark, but if I make them

good and true enough they would mean many things. The hardest thing is to make something

really true and sometimes truer than true.” – Ernest Hemingway, 1954

An Allegory? Many critics believe The Old Man and

the Sea is a Christian allegory...

Important Elements to Consider:Sacrifice, Sin, Rebirth, Power…

Of Christ -…his sacrifice?

Manolin as disciple?

“cutting his forehead…”“scars on his hands”

Of Cain -...killing his brother?

“...he picked the mast up and put it on his

shoulder”

“He is my brother. But I must kill him...”

He does not profit...Wandering = Dreams?

No reason “I am a fisherman...he is a fish”

The Old Man and the Sea could be his way of coping with old age and the loss of his youthful vigour.

Strength vs. “tricks”/know-how

Loss of wife/ Battle against marlin The fight against old age is a lonely one

“He dreamed of lions...they played like young cats”/ Memory of arm wrestling inability to put the past behind him

An Exploration of Old Age?Hemingway, during his youth,

was known for his virility and tried to maintain his youthfulness well

until his death at 61.

Hemingway has been quoted as saying: “What I want to be when I

am old is a wise old man who won’t bore...Would like to make

good love until I was eighty-five...I wouldn’t sit on park benches...”

What, then, do we make

of the ending?Last novel he published. Circumstances of his death

A Parable...(A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson)

About perseverance in the face of defeat?

• Physical pain – forehead, hand, back, thirst, hunger

• Emotional pain?• "Fish," he said softly, aloud,

"I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”

• “I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures.”

• “Fight them,” he said. “I’ll fight them until I die.”

About man’s relationship with nature?

• Connection with Nature? – “He is my brother”– “I am a strange old man,”/"If

you’re not tired, fish," he said aloud, "you must be very strange."

• Man’s Dominance?– Catches the fish– Kills seven sharks– Man wins? Old man =

Legend? Continues on in the end?

• Nature’s Dominance?– Old man’s reliance on fish– Old man loses?– Sharks, marlin win?

An Existential Tale?• Unpredictable universe?

– “unlucky” – eighty-four days without a

fish – sharks

• Free will?– “The old man knew he was

going far out”– Could release the marlin– Why doesn’t he?

• Hemingway Code?• What is Hemingway

telling us about our lives?

Existentialism is a philosophical movement

that centers on analysis of individual existence in an

unpredictable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate

responsibility for acts of free will without any

certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or

bad

What do you think?Other interpretations?