Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Allegory

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The Old Man and the Allegory From most books, the reader finishes the last page, and they don’t think anymore about what they read unless they have to. In Ernest Hemingway’s most famous work, “The old Man and the Sea” for the reader to know Hemingway’s real point, they are required to think. This type of literature is called an allegory, where everything means something else. Santiago, the main character of the book, does not just represent an old fisherman, Hemingway wrote Santiago as the idealized human being. This human, has many stupendous qualities, such as his manliness, endurance, pride, and determination. He exemplifies these qualities in a famous quote, “‘But man is not made for defeat,’ he said,’A man can be destroyed, but not defeat.’,” (Hemingway 70). These qualities help him catch the largest fish in his career. …show more content…

These two are an even match and appreciate each other, “‘Fish’ he said,’I will stay with you until I'm dead.’,” (Hemingway 44). This amazing human has an idol just like you and me. In this case, baseball player Joe DiMaggio, who has a bone spur acts as an idol. Joe represents the determination of fighting through pain, which this human does a lot in the story. The ocean in which the ideal man fights his ideal opponent is life. This life has struggles, peace, and evil. The peace, represented by the turtles, minds its own business, and always remains calm. Sharks, the evil in the story, attack the true opponent after it has been defeated by this ideal man. The Evil seems to be neverending, but the ideal human can do its best to fight it off. While doing all of these activities the human makes friends with quite a few sea birds, symbolising the connection to nature Hemingway believes the perfect human

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