Symbolism Of Baseball In The Old Man And The Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a novel of a man finding peace with himself.
The Old Man and the Sea is of an old man who finds a fish out in the sea, and chases it out into the deepest pits of the ocean away from the mainland. The fish is "peace," which is what the old man is trying to find. The ocean is the "passage" that the old man is trying to take, and the boat is the "vessel" on how he is going to find it. The sharks that he encounters after he catches "peace" slowly eat away at it, as he kills off each fish one by one. The sharks are eating at "peace" that the fisherman has finally found. References to the fish being the "peace" are given throughout the novel, and the things the fisherman does to try to "catch" it. The fisherman is trying …show more content…
Hemingway mentions baseball in the novel, which is an aspect that can match the reader to the Cuban fisherman, by using an old American past-time. The old man and the boy in the novel have met Joe DiMaggio, center fielder for the New York Yankees, who is one of the favorite players during his time. DiMaggio liked to fish, just as the boy and the old man did for a living. DiMaggio was a living icon to them, and the old man consistently thought about him. The boy and the old man went through the same fiction everyday, by getting the supplies they used to have and food that the old man and boy used to eat. The net that they used to fish with had been given away a long time ago, and the boy goes down to a little shop to get some food. In the story, the old man has terrible luck but has faith in himself and who he supports, which is obvious while reading the news. He wanted the New York Yankees to win, but they lost. The boy explains this to him, but the old man persists that Joe DiMaggio makes or breaks the team, whether the other players are good or not. This is a symbol that this man has been in hardships, but will not give up no matter what is thrown at him. In the …show more content…
But there is only you." That phrase is telling the reader another aspect of finding peace with oneself. Another aspect to find self peace is to learn humility, which the old man has found in himself and has acknowledged as no damage to his pride. The fisherman never gave up to catch another big fish, and everyday he believed that he would find a big fish. Everyday, he believed, was a new day. Even though his luck had run out, he still whole-heartedly believed that he would catch something great. He has clearly fished for many years, because the old man saw a bird high in the air and knew that the bird had found prey of some sort. The old man gave respect to all living animals, even the fish that he had hooked early in the story. The fisherman has many tricks that he has used, which helped him catch the mighty fish he had attempted to catch for some time. One of such tricks was to place the oars in the water to create more traction and slow the fish. Another was to let the seaweed collect on the line, which helped slow the fish down. He has had enough time on the water to know which was he was