Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Abstract

The Old Man and The Sea is based on the simplest of themes possible, which was again an actual incident that Hemingway had heard of. It is Hemingway’s masterpiece a novella, largely responsible for the Noble Prize that was awarded to him in 1954. The theme, therefore, is how a man alone and out of luck may persist and fights and depending upon the manner in which he fights and even at the point of being defeated, he may emerge morally victorious though for all the world he may be physically beaten.