The author, Ernest Hemingway, uses many uses of symbolism to keep his readers interested. the old man dreams several times of lions in the novel. In the beginning of the novel he dreams of the lions playing on the beach in Africa. The old man imagines this because it reminds of him of an innocent time in his childhood. he dreams of lions again in the middle of his battle with the marlin, and his dreaming closes the novel also. His dreaming happens at several low points in the novel, after an eighty-four dry dry fishing spell, cutting his hand, struggling to catch the marlin, and losing the marlin. You would think the dream was a bad omen, but it happens after the bad times happen, not before. After he dreams, a good thing always happens to him. Santiago hooks the large marlin, he catches the marlin, and he is reunited with the young boy again. His dreams of the happiness he had as a child, bring happiness to his life in the present.
Another symbol the author uses is comparing the old man to Christ. The old man's journey of loss and then redemption is very similar to Christ's crucifixion. The author does this to make the reader really believe in the severity of the suffering the old man goes through with the marlin. Several images the author creates of the old man a strikingly similar to that of Christ: cutting his hands on the fishing line and carrying his mast away from his boat.
One last image of symbolism the author uses is Santiago's legacy living on through the young boy, Manolin. After the man loses his fish he goes back to the young boy defeated. The young boy says he will fish with the old man again. "What will your family say?" "I do not care." (Hemingway 125). This shows how you can pass your life on through someone or something else even after death. Santiago will teach Manolin all he knows about fishing. By doing this, Santiago has given his knowledge a new life.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.
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