The Old Man as a Heroic Christ-Like Figure
           One of the great writers
of the twentieth century, Ernest
Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and a Nobel prize in 1954 for his
superb work on what proved to be his final great work, The Old Man and the
Sea (back cover). The Old Man and
the Sea is a novel about Santiago,
the old man, and his adventure alone at sea in search of a monster fish. Having gone eighty-four days without catching
a single fish, Santiago
is determined to end his drought. Santiago sets out to fish
without the help of Manolin, the boy, who is forced
to stay home by his parents because they consider the old man to be bad
luck. Regardless, Santiago goes out to sea on his skiff and
ends up hooking a huge marlin. The old
man catches and kills the marlin only for it to be eaten by hungry sharks. Santiago
rows his skiff back home with only the skeleton of the once mighty fish to show
for his efforts. Although the old man
does not come back home with a prized fish to show off to the villagers, he is
a hero. Santiago is a Hemingway hero who suffers much
like Christ.Â
One of the ways that Santiago
is a Christ figure can be found in the relationship between the old man and the
boy.
