The Old Man and the Sea Religion

            “What symbols of religion did Ernest Hemingway use in The Old Man and the Sea?”  In this novel, he used several references to Christ and how he died on the cross. 

            While out at sea, Santiago is trying to keep the sharks away from eating his fifteen hundred pound marlin that is tied to the side of his skiff.  When the second wave of sharks comes, the old man says “Ay” (Hemingway 107).  “There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood” (Hemingway 107).  In your mind you picture a man being nailed to wood, which is exactly how Jesus Christ died.  He had nails in his hands and feet that were attached to a wooden cross.

Being a fisherman, Santiago has to be able to carry all of his belongings from his shack to his skiff.  His belongings consist of a sail, mast, and “the wooden box with the coiled, hard-braided brown lines, the gaff and the harpoon with its shaft” (Hemingway 15).  “The mast was nearly as long as the one room of the shack” (Hemingway 15).  Can you imagine being an old, skinny man trying to haul a mast that is almost as big as a shack from the harbor up a hill?  This alone is a big task.  Try doing this after battling a marlin for three days straight.  The old man got back from his fishing trip and had to bring his mast up to his shack.  “He shouldered the mast and started to climb” (Hemingway 121).  On his way up the hill, Santiago “had to sit down five times before he reached his shack” (Hemingway 121).  This symbolizes Christ’s walk with the cross.  He fell many times but kept getting right back up even though he hurt and was tired.

            After reaching his shack after his struggle with the mast, Santiago collapsed in his bed of newspapers.  “He slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up” (Hemingway122).  This position of the old man shows how Jesus Christ died on the cross, arms out straight with his palms facing up. 

           

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.