Bathvar Virajee

1. Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
Prepared by - Bathavar Virajee
Course: - M.A. English
Semester: -3
Enrolment no: - PG15101001
Submitted to: - Smt. S.B.Gardi Dept. of English
MKBU
Email id: - bathvarvirji@gmail.com
Paper no: - The American Literature.

2. Introduction:
• The Old Man and the Sea
“The old man and the sea” is
written by Earnest
Hemingway.
• Published in 1952.
• He was an American Author
and journalist.
• He committed suicide in
the summer of 1961.

3. Symbolism:-
• What is symbolism?
Symbolism is everywhere ; symbolism exists
whenever something is meant to represent
something else.
“Symbolism means use of symbol like object,
characters, figures or colour to represent abstract
ideas, concept or qualities”

4. Symbolism in the Novella:-
• Sea
• Base ball
• Lion
• Marlin and sharks
• Numbers like, three, seven, forty
and eighty five
• Crucifixion and Christianity

6. The Lions
• The lions is symbol of
Santiago’s
Pride.
• Santiago dreams of lions
twice, first in his bed in
the Village and in his boat.
• The lions are also
symbolized as Santiago’s
affinity with nature

7. The marline
• Marline symbolized as
strength and putting up
such struggle.
• Marline represents both
the perseveration of
man’s social status and
his incessant life powers.
• His brother
• Mirror image

8. The Sharks
• Santiago considers
the shark’s base
predators, not
worthy of glory.
They represent
destructive force in
life that serve no
purpose.

9. Symbol of Baseball
• The novella introduced
important symbol of
baseball.
• There is recurring
reference to DiMaggio who
symbolic Santiago's
determination, will power,
enthusiasm and physical
strength at the age of 75
years.

10. Sea
•According to Hemingway, man
was most able to prove himself
worthy in isolation.
• The sea, in the novel
represents the universe and
Santiago's isolation in the
universe.
• It is at sea, with no help and no
recognition, that Santiago faces
his ultimate challenge.

11. Crucifixion and Christianity
• Old man’s struggle represents and
compared with the struggle of
Jesus Christ.
• Hemingway wrote that sound
Santiago made while having the
cramps were the same as the
reaction “some would have having
nail passed through their hand and
into blood”
• The old man and Jesus suffered in
many of the same ways.
• The old man was the fisherman of
fish and Jesus was the fisher man
of soul.

12. Conclusion
There are many symbols in this novella,
with this symbols we can understand this
novella in a better way.
In this novella Hemingway symbolized
person, place or thing to represent the real
meaning of his writing.

13. References :
• http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/them
es.html
• http://www.slideshare.net/jinalparmar/symbo
lism-in-the-old-man-and-the-sea-40207880
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_
and_the_Sea

14. Thank you…