Shark-liver oil, which he disliked as did all of the fishermen, came from the sea; and he transcended his dislike of it and partook of it for its strength. He proclaimed the brotherhood of all living things. There is a comparison to the "Fisher-of-men." Hemingway personifies the fish; and he has Santiago say, "My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all the people in the world. Now we are joined together..." He had pity and love and brotherhood, and in the end he had to endure alone. When, weary and sore in mind and body, he shouldered the heavy wooden mast and realized the depth of his tiredness; when he looked back and tasted of the bitterness of his accomplishment, started to climb again, fell, and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder, anyone familiar with the Christian story at once perceives the likeness. And finally, finding him returned after three days and three nights as the boy's faith told him the old man would return, Manolo bursts into tears at the sight of the wounded hands, palms upturned. The analogy becomes too prominent to ignore. The imagery, both literal and figurative, predominantly of sense and symbol, lends to the impression of the harmony of this man with the universe as being his source of moral and physical strength; and in the final analysis, it joins with the other points of structure to build, phrase by phrase, the ultimate impression of "oneness with nature," a state of triumph through submission so complete as to be near death. Hemingway develops his theme to a great extent through the nature setting. Perfectly framed and painted with masterly strokes of description, the sea and Santiago upon it represent life and man in relation to it. Man can waste his little strength fighting life, or he can put its natural forces to work for him. Santiago seems to think of nature on three levels. The level immediately above the sea, inhabited by the birds, is a realm which is not too mysterious to the old man. It is half-life, and he can know it and use it the clouds to predict the winds and the weather, and the birds to find the fish. But the realm higher still, inhabited by the moon and the stars, seems to be symbolic to the old man of the higher power which he doesn't understand. The moon and the stars he regards as his brothers also, along with the fish; but, in his wise simplicity, the old man feels lucky that a man does not have to go out every day and try to kill . . . the sun and the moon and the stars but has only to kill the fish." He is wise enough to know that, since he can't get close enough to these celestial beings to love them, he cannot learn the oneness with them which would enable him to use their own strength against them. They would be very difficult to kill. In the greater sense of life, Hemingway seems to be saying, "We kill what we love and we love what we kill." The level below the surface of the sea is representative 30 of life. Each inhabitant of the watery realm is symbolic of the good or the evil, the lone and the loved; and Santiago has grown to know that each thing exists only in relation to the other. It is good or bad as one looks at it, and he loves it or hates it; but he feels a brotherhood for all of it. The old man's strength comes from his knowledge of the sea which in turn comes from his love of the sea. The tricks by which he professes to have bested his brother the fish are not tricks at all, but only the secret he has learned through his closeness with nature don't fight. Let natural forces do much of the work so that puny man's strength will be capable of harnessing life's energy. The storm will blow itself out; the fish will tire itself out until what small energy the man has left is capable of bringing it in. And, in the meantime, he loves the fish; for if he hates it, he will waste energy that can better be utilized in bringing in the meat. There is no hate involved in the killing; each creature of nature feeds on other creatures of nature, and that is as it should be. The sea and its conflicts demand every bit of energy the old man is able to muster up; but what it takes in physical energy, it gives back in psychic energy and in food to keep him strong and in salt to disinfect his "blood mushed hands." This piece of fiction is too complex, just as life is too complex, to say of it, "This and this alone is the lesson to be learned, the moral to be turned, the philosophy expounded;" but it is possible to examine the work for some of the ideas which it expresses through Santiago. The old man has lived for a long time, perhaps he has outlived himself. He has only a few things left: his pride, his wisdom born of experience, and the boy. The boy is Santiago's only real reason for living. He has come to love most things, because he sees the oneness of all things, but only the boy loves Santiago. It is very likely that the desire to get the boy back was the reason his pride was allowed to take him too far out to the haunts of the big fish. It was certainly the thought of the boy which gave him reason to work far beyond his strength. So perhaps love is the secret of living. Santiago's trip into three days of infinity is the vehicle through which the author expounds the philosophy of a lifetime's experience. We find a philosophy of strength and simplicity and dignity. In Santiago's unity with nature through brotherhood with the things of nature we find a "religion" based not on the omission of sin, but on the commission of love. The killed and the Killer are allowed to retain their dignity through mutual understanding. The old man was defeated, yes, but the defeat was of his pride, his pride in his ability to kill the fish aside from the necessity of it. During the closeness and understanding that comes of doing battle with something one loves, he came to feel that while the fish would save him and feed many people, it was too noble to be eaten by people who could not be 31