Santiago, a Christ Figure? (by John Frye)

From a website titled “Spark Notes” about Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, I learned the following: “In order to suggest the profundity of the old man’s sacrifice and the glory that derives from it, Hemingway purposefully likens Santiago to Christ, who, according to Christian theology, gave his life for the greater glory of humankind. Crucifixion imagery is the most noticeable way in which Hemingway creates the symbolic parallel between Santiago and Christ. When Santiago’s palms are first cut by his fishing line, the reader cannot help but think of Christ suffering his stigmata. Later, when the sharks arrive, Hemingway portrays the old man as a crucified martyr, saying that he makes a noise similar to that of a man having nails driven through his hands. Furthermore, the image of the old man struggling up the hill with his mast across his shoulders recalls Christ’s march toward Calvary. Even the position in which Santiago collapses on his bed—face down with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up—brings to mind the image of Christ suffering on the cross. Hemingway employs these images in the final pages of the novella in order to link Santiago to Christ, who exemplified transcendence by turning loss into gain, defeat into triumph, and even death into renewed life.”

The conversation revolves around the word “purposefully”in the Sparks Notes first sentence. I have read that Hemingway himself has affirmed he intended no purposeful religious connections in his novella The Old Man and the Sea. Scot McKnight and I have a ritual of reading TOMATS at least once a year. I have catalogued the religious references in the story and it seems incredulous to me that Hemingway can “beg off”that the religious symbolism was not purposeful. The clincher for me is the reference to the stigmata. Hemingway wrote, “‘Ay,’he [Santiago] said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.”How can this not be a profound, purposeful reference to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?

Carlos Baker in his book Hemingway: The Writer as Artist makes this observation, “Santiago shows, in his own right, certain qualities of mind and heart which are clearly associated with the character and personality of Jesus Christ in the Gospel stories. There is an essential gallantry, a kind of militance”( 299). Santiago’s humility, formal prayers, and love for the marlin are offered as examples of a Christ-like figure (299-302).

How some can write that there is no comparison of the Old Man, Santiago, and Jesus Christ is beyond me. Carlos Baker continues, “Were these symbols intentionally put into the story?  Who can know for sure? Hemingway, himself, when questioned, said:  There isn’t any symbolism.  The sea is the sea.  The old man is an old man.  The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish.  The sharks are all sharks, no better or no worse.  All the symbolism that people say is sh*t.  What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.  Personally I think that Hemingway used these images to convey meaning.  He didn’t intend to make Santiago, Christ or a Christ-type figure, he simply used images that all readers would be familiar with, to help us feel the old man’s struggle, pain, and sacrifice, and to share his triumph when he returned with the experience of the catch of his life.”

So, I am caught betwixt and between. Is Santiago a Christ-figure or not? Many Hemingway scholars say yes, but Hemingway said no. Lukas McKnight pointed me to a 1999 TIME magazine article where we, once again, can read Hemingway’s own words about symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway stated, “No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in…That kind of symbol sticks out like raisins in raisin bread. Raisin bread is all right, but plain bread is better.…I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things. The hardest thing is to make something really true and sometimes truer than true.”

What do you think?  Is Santiago a Christ-figure or not? Dust off your copy and read the story again.