I got “taught” the story by a guy who went out of his way to point out all the overt Christian imagery in the book. Such as the going up the hill, and the injury to his hand, and the cut over his eye, and so on.
But then I met another teacher who said “You know, I’ve studied Hemingway’s work extensively, I know a lot about him personally, and I always thought The Old Man and the Sea was a hoax. It was Hemingway’s joke on Christians. The heavy symbolism is inconsistent with most of his other stuff. I think Hemingway was a good enough writer and a crafty enough guy that he could throw all this Christ imagery into a nice little story about an old fisherman, knowing that all the religious people who read it would go crazy for it.”
Having never read anything else of Hemingway’s, I’m curious to see what all the Hemingway fans on the board think. Simply put: is this a joke?
Why would it be required that Hemingway personally believe in the symbols to use the symbology? The images of Christianity are powerful images and have built in meainings and values, even to non-Christians.
I’ve written many short stories (when I wrote such things) that involved Christians or other religions and I am pretty convinced atheist. I think an author can do that without it being a “hoax”.
Hemingway was not a subtle writer. He didn’t have much use for hidden meanings or secret agendas. He also had little use for those who tried to analize his work. Mary Hemingway in “How It Was” mentions how people trying to read extra meanings into (especially) “The Old Man and the Sea” used to frustrate her husband.
Carlos Baker touches on the same idea (although not specifically “The Old Man and the Sea”) in “Ernest Hemingway - A Life Story”. I seem to remember an even briefer mention of the same idea in A.E. Hotchner’s “Papa Hemingway”.
I also remember an interview with George Plimpton (a good friend of Hemingway’s) shortly after Hemingway’s death where Plimpton was upset with those people who wanted to give Hemingway’s work religious levels that his friend did not put in the work.