Allegory in Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea

Both Santiago and Christ have general similarities, for Hemingway recreates Jesus as the old man in the novel. He is very patient and suffers willingly just as Christ did. When both are in plain, they don’t complain but do it voluntarily for themselves and others. The love for nature and life is in both the old man and in Jesus. When fishing in the sea, the old man knows he is at the mercy of the ocean that can give or withhold large favors. Since he is the son of the

Besides the old man having many general similarities with the Christ figure, he also suffered willingly just as Christ did at the crucifixion. In the beginning, Jesus is given a crown of thorns that bleeds his head while the old man suffers from a piercing headache. Just as Christ carries his symbol of suffering, the cross, up the hill, the old man bears the mast of his boat, where he struggled with the marlin, up to his home. Both of the symbols of pain, the cross and mast have similar shape. Hemingway recreates the allusion of Jesus carrying his sign of suffering through Santiago. While the old man was on the boat, he cuts his palms by handling the coarse rope. Christ was also bleeding on his hands as nails were driven through his palms to hang him on the cross. There on the cross, he is hung with his arms spread apart, which is also the shape of the old man as he sleeps after returning home. As he rests, the boy comes in and seeing Santiago’s hands, he understands the suffering, which had taken place and begins to cry. When Jesus was on the cross, his disciples saw him and the pain he was in, and they also wept. The crucifixion is the main part of the allegory and Christian mythology. Hemingway makes direct reference to the cross of Christ when he refers to an uttered sound both the old man and Jesus would say. Expressing an unintentional sound, “Ay”. As Santiago tries to bring the marlin back the long journey home, different kin

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