Chapter - 10 

Question - Comment upon the role of the lions in The Old Man And The Sea.

Or
Explain the symbolism implied in the depiction of the lions in the novel The Old Man and the Sea'.

Answer-

Critics after critics have showered eulogies upon the heroic character of Santiago. This strong man struggling to survive amid the hostile pressures despite his several handicaps aroused the admiration of all and sundry. He proves that even a simple man is capable of decency, dignity and even heroism. He goes into the sea determined not to come back without catching a fish. For the last eighty four days he has not been successful but he goes on unfailing, undeterred. In his struggle whenever the old man feels the need to revitalize his energy, to shake of his depressive thoughts and to fill himself with resolution, courage and fortitude once again, his conjures up some dreams, day dreams and visions. "Hemingway'. says Katherine T. Jobes, "depicts in circumstantial detail the elemental tests of endurance........ to which Santiago is subjected and also his courageous response, summoning both physical energy and imaginative vision to counter the forces testing him.' Santiago thinks of Manolin, his young disciple or of Joltin' Joe Di Maggio the legendary New York center fielder whenever he feels that he will not be able to continue with his struggle any more. He has to prove it to Manolin that he is still capable and he wants to be "worthy of the great Di Maggie who does all things perfectly even with the pain of bone spur in his heel." He thinks of these two and feels energy flowing through his exhausted veins once again. Similarly whenever the old man wishes for peace and sleep he recalls his memory of stand-ing one evening on the deck of a square-rigged ship and seeing lions frolicking on the African beaches.

Even before the start of his great struggle against Marlin we see the old man sleeping on the old newspapers and dreaming of African beaches- long, golden and white. In his dreams he smells of Africa and sees the lions playing on the beach. He recalls the day dream when he wishes, on the afternoon of the second day of his struggle, that he could sleep and dream about the lions. When he sleeps that night he "began to dream of the long, yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come down on to it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy" Likewise, at the novel's end he sleeps, dreaming the narrator writes. of the lions.

The lions are the kings of the jungle. They rule over the forest by their courage, their strength, their fierceness and their supposed pride, But in Santiago's dreams the lions do not come as ferocious beings inspiring fear. The lions there are unusually domesticated and are pictured as engaged in non- predatory activities. "They have put aside their majesty and have grown Jo mestic and familiar. It is as if they gave themselves up to the old man, to his love, without the necessity of further trial or guilt or suffering. As the lions come out of the jungle and fill the old man's sleep, their cat-like playfulness, free of threat or challenge suggests a harmony between the old man and the heroic quali- ties which the lions possess and the giant marlin possessed and which the old man has fought to realize in himself. Most simply, perhaps, they suggest und achieve intimacy between the old man and the proud and often fierce heart of nature that for him is the repository of values."    -(Arvin R. Wells)

The lions, in old man's mind, are also the symbols of his youthful energy. He had seen these lions in his youth when all his powers were in their prime. Now, when he has become old he feels the need of dreaming and dreams of these lions. This is nothing else but the old man's desire to live in his youth again-the wish to regain the vitality of young age which has long slipped through his fingers. The memory of those lions jumping upon the beaches with enthusiasm and cal symbolises for the old man the youthful vitality and makes him fight his battle with a revitalized vigour.

Carlos Baker has presented a different interpretation. He has drawn our attention to fundamental psychological laws of Santiago's nature in which the lions have became integrated. The memory of Manolin exhorts the old man to rise, to exert himself, to try harder whereas the remembrance of the lions makes relaxation descent on him. To borrow Carlos Baker's own words. "This is the constant wave like operation of bracing and relaxation. The boy braces, the lions relax as in the systolic-diastolic movement of the human heart." All around ourselves we see the same course followed in nature. Here day is followed by night which relaxes the exhausted creatures and prepares them for exertion once again on the next day. Similarly Manolin's memory puts the old man to work and that of the lions brings back to him the energy lost. during the period of activity.

Some analysts have presented a negative interpretation and said that the presence of the lions only brings forward a few weaknesses in the personality of the old man. Both Santiago and the narrator speak of the old man's strangeness. "1 am a strange old man", Santiago declares to Mandolin at the Terrace and on the second day of his ordeal against the giant fish, he reminds himself that "I told the boy I was a strange old man........ Now is when I must prove it." The reality. however, is that Santiago has feet of clay and indulges in the ordinary wish to he recognised as an individualist who stands out from the crowd. To prove his self- declared strangeness to the world he conducts himself according to an extraordinary set of standards. His identification with the lions is also only a revelation of "his wish for alliance with extraordinary animals", says Brenner. "He does not dream". Brenner goes on to assert. "Of monkeys, turtles, or hares strolling on an African beach. Only the king of heasts will do. That choice conscious or unconscious, betrays a desire to be associated with regal animals. to stand in the ranks of the prestigious lords of the universe, to be regarded as their equal, as one of them. Brenner calls such a desire to identify with lions infantile fantasies and opines that they are the results of protracted adolesence There is little" he says. "that is strange in such common delusions of grandeur. but Santiago failure to find anything amusing or pretentious about his leonme dreaming habit suggests his blindness to the ordinariness of his self-assigned strangeness. Such blindness invites pity or even scorn rather than respect" In one way, however. according to Brenner, the image of lions contributes to the old man's strangeness Santiago has been portrayed as a saintly, benevolent gentleman but at the same time he is guilty of several aggressive acts. His acts of aggression against the sharks are perhaps defensible. He kills them because these antagonists sought to violate his prize. His act of killing Marlin is occupationally defensible and the arm-wrestling with the Negro may also be defended, sublimated as it is in a competitive physical contest. But besides these, there are many other aggressive actions that prove his overtly violent inclinations. The event when he clubs to death the thwart-breaking, boat- banging, blood-spurting green fish may be cited as one such example. The saintly man having violently aggressive tendencies, is as much a contradictory portrayal as are the lions engaged in non-predatory activities. This says Brenner, "seems an appropriate image for Santiago to call on, consciously and unconsciously, if the narrator wishes to establish an alliance of strangeness between the lions and Santiago. For these unaggressive lions of Santiago's memory and dreams are as much a natural anomaly as is a fisherman with a reverentially fraternal feeling toward the natural world he preys on"

In his "The Snows of Kilimanjaro Hemingway used the image of a leopard. In that book he depicted a leopard frozen near the peak of a snow- covered mountai. This image is also open to several interpretations and has been variously explained by Hemingwagian analysts. Most importantly, however, the image of the frozen leopard suggests immortality. The leopard is frozen and cannot perish. Similarly we may suggest that the peaceful hons frolicking upon the sea-shores of Africa stand for more or less the same meaning. This image is frozen in the mind of the old man and stands for an era of calm and poise that can never really perish. All around the old fisherman marlins, sharks etc, are dying but what is immortal in his mind is not death or decay but peace and placidity. The lions playing "like young cats in the dusk". seems to indicate a beatific harmony between the old man and the creatures of the natural world.

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