THE SPIRIT OF MAN AS EXPLORED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA Beverly Grove In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway has found the spirit of man to be indomitable inasmuch as it is in tune with the universe as exemplified by nature. He uses conflict, contrast, comparison, imagery, and personification in a nature setting, to create a penetrating and philosophical study of man's universal problems. Here we have an old man who, in the wisdom of his years, resolves his problems to the best of his ability by staying with them, perhaps even triumphing by being able to admit defeat. Defeated yet triumphant, he is able to survive because he is in complete harmony with the basic life forces. The main conflict, the plot implies, is between the old man and the sea; but is it? The man and the sea are so much one that the man, then, must be in conflict with himself. It is an inner conflict between his pride in the strength of his youth and the actuality of himself as he is now. When he was young no man could beat him in contests of strength. The lions have come to mean his youth and strength to him and it is indicative that although "...he loved them as he loves the boy," he never dreams of the boy, only of the symbols of his pride of youth and strength and of the places in which he spent them. In spite of his evident humility and his acceptance of his changed physical condition, his pride, and his confidence born of pride, insist that knowledge will take the place of youthful strength. He admits this pride when he tells himself, "You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food...You killed him for pride..." Pride will help replace luck which has deserted him. "It is better to be lucky but I would rather be exact, then when luck comes you are ready." His exactness consists of using the current co-incidentally with the speed of his rowing to keep the bait at the correct depth and straight up and down. But his pride in his knowledge betrays him when it takes him out where the big ones are, and the big one which luck and exactness bring to him is too big! The immensity of the fish, and thus of the task, gives Hemingway the opportunity to explore, to test, and to resolve man's inner resources and philosophy. The most obvious thought which 28 emerges from this main conflict is the fact that the battle between man and himself must always be fought alone. "..I wish I had the boy. To help me and to see this. No one should be alone in their old age,' he thought. 'But it is unavoidable...you haven't got the boy,' he thought. 'You have only yourself and you had better work...'" Hemingway uses the contrast of the days and the nights to point up the length of the struggle and the strength of the man ebbing and being replenished. The delicacy of the birds is contrasted with the strength of the ocean to build drama. The glow of Havana against the contrasting blackness guides him home. The nobility of the fish is contrasted with the baseness of the sharks and even the types of sharks are contrasted with each other. Age is contrasted with youth, experience with luck. Perhaps the major contrast comes in the final hours of his battle when Santiago begins to contrast dream with reality. "Why are the lions (of his dreams) the main thing that are left?" he asks. "At one time when he was feeling so badly toward the end, he had thought perhaps it was a dream." And later, "..with his mouth shut and his tail straight up and down we sail like brothers'...and he thought, 'is he bringing me in or am I bringing him in?'... 'let him bring me in if it pleases him. I am better than him through trickery and he meant me no harm.'" Finally, his dream of achievement is contrasted with the reality of his achievement. He has brought in the skeleton of what he set out to find (as man generally does). "I shouldn't have gone out so far, fish neither for you nor for me. I'm sorry fish." The comparisons used to illustrate Santiago's harmony with nature are both subtle and obvious. One of the less obvious is contained in Hemingway's description of Santiago. "His shirt had been patched so many times that it was like the sail and the patches were faded by the sun." a very subtle allusion to the fact that Santiago, like the sail and his shirt, had been beaten and shaped, molded and colored by nature. More obvious is the comparison between the old man and the youthful fishermen with their motorboats. The young men, using the power of their motors, fight the sea and thus call it el Mar in the masculine form to exemplify it as a place, a contestant, an enemy! Santiago uses a sailboat which utilizes the energy of nature; and, in his understanding gives the sea the feminine appellation of La Mar. The sea to him is a woman who can give or withhold favors and whose erratic actions can be forgiven as the inconsistencies of a woman who is affected by the moon. The comparison which stands out most prominently is the Christ-like aspect of the man Santiago. He had come to be "bored" by food, man's symbol for life; he took no lunch with him but only water; and he was kept strong by the natural elements of the sea, which was his spiritual life. 29