In the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Old Man and The Sea, Ernest Hemingway does a beautiful job of tying in Christ imagery with an average man with an average life. This classic novel represents Jesus Christ and the bible in three different ways. Through faith and translations, and in physical ways that Santiago and Christ are very alike.
Jesus Christ and Santiago had very similar beliefs about things and kept faith in what they believed. Both had something to teach with very few followers. People banned themselves from Christ's teachings just as Manolin's parents banned him from Santiago's. "But after forty days without a fish the boys parents had told him that the old man was definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week." (9) The few people that did follow Jesus Christ and Santiago were often stopped because their ideas and beliefs were different from what people were accustomed to.
In this book, there are also many meanings that translate into what the Bible says. Hemingway has hidden many of these in casual sentences, but once thought about, it is clear that this is what he was trying to do. "Ay, he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood." (107) This represents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There is also irony in this quote. Santiago is a very simple man without knowledge if religion. Yet he says things one would think only a preacher or reverend would say. Something that a person normally would not catch without being told., is Santiago's name itself. The name Santiago is Spanish, but translated to English it is Saint James. In Hebrew it means Joshua, and the Greek translation for the name Santiago is Jesus. Again, this shows that Ernest Hemingway planned for this book to have special biblical meaning!.
