Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Crucifixion Imagery
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.
Life from Death
Death is the unavoidable force in the novella, the one
fact that no living creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests,
is never an end in itself: in death there is always the possibility
of the most vigorous life. The reader notes that as Santiago slays
the marlin, not only is the old man reinvigorated by the battle,
but the fish also comes alive “with his death in him.” Life, the
possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of death.
Whereas the marlin’s death hints at a type of physical
reanimation, death leads to life in less literal ways at other points
in the novella. The book’s crucifixion imagery emphasizes the cyclical connection
between life and death, as does Santiago’s battle with the marlin.
His success at bringing the marlin in earns him the awed respect
of the fishermen who once mocked him, and secures him the companionship
of Manolin, the apprentice who will carry on Santiago’s teachings
long after the old man has died.
