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1、The Old Man and the Sea: Hemingways Tragic Vision of Man In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway uses an effective metaphor to describe the kind of prose he is trying to write: he explains that if a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the rea
2、der, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.1 Among all the works of Hemingway which illustrate this metaphor, none, I think,
3、does so more consistently or more thoroughly than the saga of Santiago. Indeed, the critical reception of the novel has emphasized this aspect of it: in particular, Philip Young, Leo Gurko, and Carlos Baker have stressed the qualities of The Old Man and the Sea as allegory and parable.2 Each of thes
4、e critics is especially concerned with two qualities in Santiago-his epic individualism and the love he feels for the creatures who share with him a world of inescapable violence-though in the main each views these qualities from a different point of the literary compass. Young regards the novel as
5、essentially classical in nature; 3 Gurko sees it as reflecting Hemingways romanticism;4 and to Baker, the novel is Christian in context, and the old fisherman is suggestive of Christ.5 Such interpretations of The Old Man and the Sea are not, of course, contradictory; in fact, they are parallel at ma
6、ny points. All are true, and together they point to both the breadth and depth of the novels enduring significance and also to its central greatness: like all great works of art it is a mirror wherein every man perceives a personal likeness. Such viewpoints, then, differ only in emphasis and reflect
7、 generally similar conclusions-that Santiago represents a noble and tragic individualism revealing what man can do in an indifferent universe which defeats him, and the love he can feel for such a universe and his humility before it. True as this is, there yet remains, I think, a deeper level of sig
8、nificance, a deeper level upon which the ultimate beauty and the dignity of movement of this brilliant structure fundamentally rest. On this level of significance, Santiago is Harry Morgan alive again and grown old; for what comes to Morgan in a sudden and unexpected revelation as he lies dying is t
9、he matrix of the old fishermans climactic experience. Since 1937, Hemingway has been increasingly concerned with the relationship between individualism and interdependence;6 and The Old Man and the Sea is the culminating expression of this concern in its reflection of Hemingways mature view of the t
10、ragic irony of mans fate: that no abstraction can bring man an awareness and understanding of the solidarity and interdependence without which life is impossible; he must learn it, as it has always been truly learned, through the agony of active and isolated individualism in a universe which dooms s
11、uch individualism. IIThroughout The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is given heroic proportions. He is a strange old man,7 still powerful and still wise in all the ways of his trade. After he hooks the great marlin, he fights him with epic skill and endurance, showing what a man can do and what a man
12、endures (p. 64). And when the sharks come, he is determined to fight them until I die (p. 116), because he knows that a man is not made for defeat. . . . A man can be destroyed but not defeated (p. 103). In searching for and in catching his big fish, Santiago gains a deepened insight into himself an
13、d into his relationship to the rest of created life-an insight as pervasive and implicit in the old fishermans experience as it is sudden and explicit in Harry Morgans. As he sails far out on the sea, Santiago thinks of it as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she
14、did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them (p. 27). For the bird who rests on his line and for other creatures who share with him such a capricious and violent life, the old man feels friendship and love (pp. 26, 46). And when he sees a flight of wild ducks go over, the old man
15、 knows no man was ever alone on the sea (p. 59). Santiago comes to feel his deepest love for the creature that he himself hunts and kills, the great fish which he must catch not alone for physical need but even more for his pride and his profession. The great marlin is unlike the other fish which th
16、e old man catches; he is a spiritual more than a physical necessity. He is unlike the other fish, too, in that he is a worthy antagonist for the old man, and during his long ordeal, Santiago comes to pity the marlin and then to respect and to love him. In the end he senses that there can be no victo
17、ry for either in the equal struggle between them, that the conditions which have brought them together have made them one (p. 92). And so, though he kills the great fish, the old man has come to love him as his equal and his brother; sharing a life which is a capricious mixture of incredible beauty
18、and deadly violence and in which all creatures are both hunter and hunted, they are bound together in its most primal relationship. Beyond the heroic individualism of Santiagos struggle with the great fish and his fight against the sharks, however, and beyond the love and the brotherhood which he co
19、mes to feel for the noble creature he must kill, there is a further dimension in the old mans experience which gives to these their ultimate significance. For in killing the great marlin and in losing him to the sharks, the old man learns the sin into which men inevitably fall by going far out beyon
20、d their depth, beyond their true place in life. In the first night of his struggle with the great fish, the old man begins to feel a loneliness and a sense almost of guilt for the way in which he has caught him (p. 48); and after he has killed the marlin, he feels no pride of accomplishment, no sens
21、e of victory. Rather, he seems to feel almost as though he has betrayed the great fish; I am only better than him through trickery, he thinks, and he meant me no harm (p. 99). Thus, when the sharks come, it is almost as a thing expected, almost as a punishment which the old man brings upon himself i
22、n going far out beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world (p. 48) and there hooking and killing the great fish. For the coming of the sharks is not a matter of chance nor a stroke of bad luck; the shark was not an accident (p. 99). They are the direct result of the old mans action in killing
23、 the fish. He has driven his harpoon deep into the marlins heart, and the blood of the great fish, welling from his heart, leaves a trail of scent which the first shark follows. He tears huge pieces from the marlins body, causing more blood to seep into the sea and thus attract other sharks; and in
24、killing the first shark, the old man loses his principal weapon, his harpoon. Thus, in winning his struggle with the marlin and in killing him, the old man sets in motion the sequence of events which take from him the great fish whom he has come to love and with whom he identifies himself completely
25、. And the old man senses an inevitability in the coming of the sharks (p. 101), a feeling of guilt which deepens into remorse and regret. I am sorry that I killed the fish . . . (p. 103), he thinks, and he tells himself that You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food. . . . Yo
26、u killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman (p. 105). Earlier, before he had killed the marlin, Santiago had been glad we do not have to try to kill the stars (p. 74). It is enough, he had felt, to have to kill our fellow creatures. Now, with the inevitable sharks attacking, the old man s
27、enses that in going far out he has in effect tried to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. For him it has not been enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers; in his individualism and his need and his pride, he has gone far out beyond all people, beyond his true place in a capricious and
28、 indifferent world, and has thereby brought not only on himself but also on the great fish the forces of violence and destruction. I shouldnt have gone out so far, fish . . . , he declares. Neither for you nor for me. Im sorry, fish (p. 110). And when the sharks have torn away half of the great marl
29、in, Santiago speaks again to his brother in the sea: Half-fish, he said. Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both (p. 116). The old mans realization of what he has done is reflected in his apologies to the fish, and this realization and its implications are emphasized
30、 symbolically throughout the novel. From beginning to end, the theme of solidarity and interdependence pervades the action and provides the structural framework within which the old mans heroic individualism and his love for his fellow creatures appear and function and which gives them their ultimat
31、e significance. Having gone eighty-four days without a catch, Santiago has become dependent upon the young boy, Manolin, and upon his other friends in his village. The boy keeps up his confidence and hope, brings him clothes and such necessities as water and soap, and sees that he has fresh bait for
32、 his fishing. Martin, the restaurant owner, sends the old man food, and Perico, the wineshop owner, gives him newspapers so that he can read about baseball. All of this the old man accepts gratefully and without shame, knowing that such help is not demeaning. He was too simple to wonder when he had
33、attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride (pp. 9-10). Santiago refuses the young boys offer to leave the boat his parents have made him go in and return to his, but soon after he hooks the great marlin he wishes increasi
34、ngly and often that the boy were with him. And after the sharks come and he wonders if it had been a sin to kill the great fish, the old man thinks that, after all, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. But then he remembers that it is not fishi
35、ng but the love and care of another human being that keeps him alive now; the boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not deceive myself too much (p. 106). As the sharks tear from him more and more of the great fish and as the boat gets closer to his home, the old mans sense of his relationship to hi
36、s friends and to the boy deepens: I cannot be too far out now, he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence. Many of the older fisherman will worry. Many others too, he thought. I live in a good town (p. 115). In th
37、e end, when he awakens in his shack and talks with the boy, he notices how pleasant it was to have someone to talk to instead of speaking only to himself and to the sea (p. 125). This time he accepts without any real opposition the boys insistence on returning to his boat, and he says no more about
38、going far out alone. This theme of human solidarity and interdependence is reinforced by several symbols. Baseball, which the old man knows well and loves and which he thinks and talks about constantly, is, of course, a highly developed team sport and one that contrasts importantly in this respect w
39、ith the relatively far more individualistic bullfighting, hunting, and fishing usually found in Hemingways stories. Although he tells himself that now is no time to think of baseball (p. 37), the game is in Santiagos thoughts throughout his ordeal, and he wonders about each days results in the Gran
40、Ligas. Even more significant is the old mans hero-worship of Joe DiMaggio, the great Yankee outfielder. DiMaggio, like Santiago, was a champion, a master of his craft, and in baseball terms an old one, playing out the last years of his glorious career severely handicapped by the pain of a bone spur
41、in his heel. The image of DiMaggio is a constant source of inspiration to Santiago; in his strained back and his cut and cramped left hand he, too, is an old champion who must endure the handicap of pain; and he tells himself that he must have confidence and . . . be worthy of the great DiMaggio who
42、 does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel (p. 66). But DiMaggio had qualities at least as vital to the Yankees as his courage and individual brilliance. Even during his own time and since then, many men with expert knowledge of baseball have considered other contempo
43、rary outfielders-especially Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox-to be DiMaggios equal or superior in terms of individual ability and achievement. But few men have ever earned the affection and the renown which DiMaggio received as a team player-one who always displayed his individual greatness as par
44、t of his team, one to whom the team was always more important than himself. It used to be said of DiMaggios value as a team player that with him in the line-up, even when he was handicapped by the pain in his heel, the Yankees were two runs ahead when they came out on the field. From Santiagos love
45、of baseball and his evident knowledge of it, it is clear that he would be aware of these qualities in DiMaggio. And when Manolin remarks that there are other men on the New York team, the old man replies: Naturally. But he makes the difference (p. 17). The lions which Santiago dreams about and his d
46、escription in terms of Christ symbols further suggest solidarity and love and humility as opposed to isolated individualism and pride. So evocative and lovely a symbol is the dream of the lions that it would be foolish if not impossible to attempt its literal definition. Yet it seems significant tha
47、t the old man dreams not of a single lion, a king of the beasts, a lion proud and powerful and alone, like the one from which Francis Macomber runs in terror, but of several young lions who come down to a beach in the evening to play together. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the be
48、ach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy (p. 22). It seems also significant that the old man no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife (pp. 21-22)-that is tha
49、t he no longer dreams of great individualistic deeds like the one which brings violence and destruction on him and on the marlin. Instead, the lions are the main thing that is left (p. 65), and they evoke the solidarity and love and peace to which the old man returns after hunting and killing and losing his great fish. These qualities are further emphasized by the symbolic value of the old fisherman as he carries the mast crosslike up t
