Editing The Old Man and the Sea (section)

===Themes===
====Classical====
{{multiple image
 | total_width = 420
 | image1 = Rembrandt - Sankt Jakobus der Ältere.jpg
 | alt1 = Painting of a bearded man in brown robes praying next to a brown wall.
 | image2 = Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - St Jacobus in Budapest.jpg
 | alt2 = Painting of a haloed warrior on a white horse carrying a flag and killing a man, while an angel looks on from a cloud.
 | footer = Different depictions of [[James the Great|St. James]], Santiago's namesake.<br />''Left'': James, the [[Pilgrim]] Saint, painted by [[Rembrandt]] in 1661.<br />''Right'': The warrior [[James Matamoros]], painted by [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo|Tiepolo]] in 1749–50.
}}
The novella contains significant [[Christian symbolism]]. The name "Santiago" is Spanish for [[James the Great|St. James]], the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostle]] who had previously, according to the [[New Testament]], been a fisherman, and who posthumously became the [[patron saint]] of [[Spain]] with his shrine at [[Santiago de Compostela]].{{sfn|Oliver|1999|p=246}} In a letter to a Father Brown in 1954, Hemingway wrote "You know about Santiago and you know that the name is no accident"; the academic [[H. R. Stoneback]] argues that this means ''The Old Man and the Sea'' has deep connections to [[Camino de Santiago|the pilgrimage to Santiago]], which is also heavily drawn upon in ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]''. Stoneback draws an explicit link between the events of the novella and the [[miraculous catch of fish]] in the [[Gospel of Luke]]—both involve fishermen experiencing bad luck, going out into the deep sea, and taking a great catch; he also connects repeated allusions to [[star]]s in Hemingway's text to [[Santiago de Compostela#Legends|the traditional Latin etymology]] of "Compostela"—''campus stellae'' ({{literally|field of stars}}).{{sfn|Stoneback|2014|pp=170–173}} Stoneback argues that Hemingway emphasises "the humility and gentleness, the poverty, resolution and endurance of St. James the pilgrim" while de-emphasising the warrior [[James Matamoros]]; this choice "reconstruct[s] the paradigm of sainthood".{{sfn|Stoneback|2014|pp=173, 176}}

One of Santiago's credos is that "a man can be destroyed but not defeated", a theme which is present in most of Hemingway's protagonists and stories, from Jake Barnes in ''The Sun Also Rises'' to Robert Jordan in ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', and Richard Cantwell in ''Across the River''; it is also a primary theme in ''To Have and Have Not''.{{sfnm|Oliver|1999|p=247|Meyers|1985|2p=489}} Backman views Santiago as the climactic "matador" of Hemingway's works, who manages to seek a type of natural violence quite unlike the "violent ritualized" [[bullfight]]ing or "uneasily insistent" killing found in previous novels.{{sfn|Backman|1962|pp=142–143}} Joseph Waldmeir similarly finds ''The Old Man and the Sea'' to contain a better synthesis of Hemingway's views on mortality than works such as ''[[Death in the Afternoon]]'' (1932).{{sfn|Waldmeir|1962|pp=145–149}}

Many critics have drawn parallels not only between Santiago and St. James, but between Santiago and [[Jesus]] himself, especially with regard to Christ's [[Passion of Jesus|Passion]] and [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]]. Melvin Backman outlines several, beginning with the Santiago's wish to "rest gently ... against the wood and think of nothing"; Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays also cite the preceding scene, in which Santiago is cut and bleeds from near the eye, as a [[stigmata|stigmatic]] evocation of the wounds inflicted by the [[crown of thorns]].{{sfnm|Backman|1962|1p=142|2a1=Sylvester|2a2=Grimes|2a3=Hays|2y=2018|2p=69}} An often-cited passage occurs when Santiago spots two sharks:{{sfnm|Backman|1962|1p=143|Oliver|1999|2pp=57, 247|Waldmeir|1962|3p=144}}

{{blockquote|text="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.}}

This passage was characterised by Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays as "a clear reference to a [[crucifixion]]"; taking place, like Christ's death, at three o'clock on a Friday afternoon, it acts as the climax of the religious parallels.{{sfn|Sylvester|Grimes|Hays|2018|p=104}} Brenner finds the Christian allusions deeply problematic, commenting that the "facile linking of Santiago's name with Christ's" was unnecessary and disrespectful towards the New Testament.{{sfn|Brenner|1991|pp=37–38}} Dismissing both Brenner's conclusion and any approach which defines Santiago as a Christ-figure as overly simplistic, Stoneback argues that the figure of Santiago ultimately embodied Hemingway's ideals, and was intended to be esteemed as such.{{sfn|Stoneback|2014|pp=176–177}}

====Modern====
Brenner's 1991 critique characterises Santiago as a supremely flawed individual: unintelligent, arrogant, [[paternalist]], and [[anti-environmentalist]]. He criticises the fisherman's inability to ignore economic considerations as he loots the sea of its treasures.{{sfn|Brenner|1991|pp=54–66}} He further commented that Santiago, portrayed as blatantly sexist and hostile towards all things female, was in fact [[Feminization (sociology)|feminized]] by his [[latent homosexual|secret desire]] for Manolin, who was himself alternately traumatised and manipulated by Santiago's aggression and duplicity.{{sfn|Brenner|1991|pp=80–96}} Brenner's analysis has been strongly criticised: Stoneback terms it a "jejune litany of ... shock-schlock critical fast-food [and] tired old questions", while Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays notes that "much of the book reeks of rabid exaggeration and misreading".{{sfnm|Stoneback|2014|1pp=167–168|2a1=Sylvester|2a2=Grimes|2a3=Hays|2y=2018|2p=xxvi}} In answer to Glen Love's similar [[ecologist]] critiques, they write that both Brenner and Love dismiss economic realities and ask the uneducated Santiago to consider problems that few outside biology cared about in 1950.{{sfn|Sylvester|Grimes|Hays|2018|p=xxvi}}

Susan Beegel, analysing ''The Old Man and the Sea'' from an [[ecofeminist]] perspective,{{sfn|Sylvester|Grimes|Hays|2018|p=49}} rejects Brenner's view of Santiago's sexism; instead, she writes that Santiago is in effect wedded to and at the service of the female sea.{{sfn|Beegel|1985|pp=141–142, 146}} Beegel nevertheless characterises Santiago as viewing the feminine sea as tumultuous, cruel, and chaotic, and thus in need of being overcome by male power.{{sfn|Beegel|1985|pp=141–146}} Sylvester, Grimes, and Hays disagree, viewing Santiago's approach as wholly respectful.{{sfn|Sylvester|Grimes|Hays|2018|p=49}} Jeffrey Herlihy comments that Santiago's Spanish heritage must be considered to be a major, and yet invisible, aspect of the novel. Even though Santiago is firmly embedded in Cuban culture, he dreams about Spain every night, and Herlily believes that this [[Human migration|migrant]] background acts "as a concealed foundation to the novella."<ref name="Cuba in Hemingway">{{Cite journal | author=Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey | title=Cuba in Hemingway | journal=The Hemingway Review | volume=36 | year=2017 | issue=2 | pages=8–41 | doi=10.1353/hem.2017.0001 | s2cid=149158145 | url=https://www.academia.edu/33255402 | access-date=January 6, 2020 | archive-date=August 17, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817062422/https://www.academia.edu/33255402/Cuba_in_Hemingway | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Herlihy |first=Jeffrey |title=In Paris or Paname: Hemingway's Expatriate Nationalism |year=2011 |url=https://www.academia.edu/982945 |location=New York |publisher=Rodopi |page=117 |isbn=978-9042034099 |access-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-date=August 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190817062441/https://www.academia.edu/982945/In_Paris_or_Paname_Hemingways_Expatriate_Nationalism_Preview_ |url-status=live }}</ref>