Santiago talks of DiMaggio, his favorite baseball player, a
lot in the story. He mentions him in the beginning ,calling him “The Great
DiMaggio”, (Hemingway pg.17) and claims that he “makes the difference”
(Hemingway pg.21) when Manolin points out that there are other players besides
DiMaggio on the team and they can play well also. Despite this, Santiago is
completely convinced that DIMaggio is the best out of all of them. It is true
that DiMaggio was a fantastic player, like I said in my previous blog. He was
an extremely successful part of his team. Now, I didn’t really think anything
of this when Santiago first mentioned it. But later on, DiMaggio’s name kept popping
up and Santiago began mentioning him more. He also mentions that DiMaggio had a
very painful injury, a bone spur, and though Santiago claims to have no idea
what that is, he knows that it is something bad. After getting very tired at sea, Santiago
begins to think of baseball and DiMaggio. He says, “I must have confidence and
I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly, even with
the pain of the bone spur in his heel.” (Hemingway pg. 68) and then “Do you
believe the great DIMaggio would stay with a fish as long as I will stay with
this one? He thought. I am sure he would and more sense he is young and strong.
Also his father was a fisherman. But
would the bone spur hurt him to much?” (Hemingway pg.68) Even though Santiago
doesn’t even KNOW DiMaggio personally, he still wants to impress him and be
‘worthy’ of such a great player. One reason why Santiago admires DIMaggio, the
main reason, is because DiMaggio is such a great player despite the fact that
he has an injury. Santiago can relate to him because he is old and has injury’s
and problems he faces every day because he is getting elderly. DiMaggio,
despite the fact that he had a bone spur, was still la great player and still
won games and did his part for the team.
Santaigo believes that because DiMaggio could be great in injury, he can
too, and that is why Santiago thinks of DiMaggio as a role model and why he
thinks of DiMaggio when he is feeling weak or down.
Hemingway,
Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.
The everyday, common man hero of "The Old Man and the Sea" is the OLD MAN, not Joe DiMaggio. Hemmingway intentionally contrasts the aged, arthitic, subsistence fisherman who lives in and overcomes a world of pain against the prima donna DiMaggio who is paid more per season to play a game providing entertainment than the Old Man will earn in his lifetime of fishing. The Old Man can not take a day off from his work without starving. In the previous paragraph, the flesh of Old Man's hand is cut by the fishing line to the bone: "YOUCH!" Meanwhile, DiMaggio can take most of the baseball season off with pay! The current treatment for a bone spur is taking an over-the-counter pain medication such as ibuprofen, naproxen, or acetaminophen. Bone spurs are a minor, and often fictitious (see Donald Trump's draft deferments) ailment.
ReplyDeleteHemmingway is mocking the culture and society which elevates entertainers to heroic status while ignoring and devaluing the truly heroic amongst us, even to the point that the Old Man devalues himself and looks up to his mythic hero: DiMaggio.