“Yahweh,” replied the voice in the cave when Moses asked what name the God of the Israelites should be known by, “I am who am” (New Revised Standard Version, Exodus 3:14). Man received this answer to his question of God’s identity more than two millennia ago, but has never been satisfied by it. Instead, humanity has never ceased in pursuing greater knowledge of the divine. Resulting in part from the inherent beauty of this unanswerable question, the holy longing to know God has served as the foundation for countless cultural movements and works of art. One such work was rooted in this question by its author through perhaps the most outstanding use of allegory found in modern literature. This text, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea,
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At the start of The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago found himself in the midst of this drought of success. Eighty-four days had passed since Santiago’s last catch (Hemingway 13). This drawn-out failure to fulfill his purpose left Santiago wandering in a virtual desert of disillusionment. By keeping faith that his fish would come, however, Santiago found the strength endure in his struggle. Through the perseverance founded in faith Santiago demonstrated amid his time of greatest difficulty, parallels can be drawn from his story in The Old Man and the Sea and the Biblical story of the Israelites in the desert. When Santiago’s story began, his livelihood was at risk after prolonged failure; only faith that his big catch would come motivated him to continue. As described by Santiago, however, this was more than enough incentive. Speaking about his chances for success in the colder months, Santiago said, “‘[this is] the month when the great fish come…Anyone can be a fisherman in May’” (Hemingway 19). Santiago here justified his belief that success was on the horizon despite repeated failure by stating that anyone can fish when conditions are hospitable. Only committed fishermen, he argued, keep
At the start of The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago found himself in the midst of this drought of success. Eighty-four days had passed since Santiago’s last catch (Hemingway 13). This drawn-out failure to fulfill his purpose left Santiago wandering in a virtual desert of disillusionment. By keeping faith that his fish would come, however, Santiago found the strength endure in his struggle. Through the perseverance founded in faith Santiago demonstrated amid his time of greatest difficulty, parallels can be drawn from his story in The Old Man and the Sea and the Biblical story of the Israelites in the desert. When Santiago’s story began, his livelihood was at risk after prolonged failure; only faith that his big catch would come motivated him to continue. As described by Santiago, however, this was more than enough incentive. Speaking about his chances for success in the colder months, Santiago said, “‘[this is] the month when the great fish come…Anyone can be a fisherman in May’” (Hemingway 19). Santiago here justified his belief that success was on the horizon despite repeated failure by stating that anyone can fish when conditions are hospitable. Only committed fishermen, he argued, keep