The Old Man and the Sea: Joe DiMaggio

In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, the baseball player Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees plays a large role in the mind of Santiago. Although he never actually appears in the flesh, he is in Santiago’s mind almost constantly. Santiago thinks of him as a symbol of raw power, grace, strength, and courage. Because of this, Santiago is willed on to keep fighting the fish. DiMaggio’s courage comes in when Santiago remembers that he had a painful bone spur. However, Santiago does not really know what a bone spur is which is pretty funny. Anyway, Santiago knows this bone spur was bad, but DiMaggio played baseball and fought through the pain regardless. I think Santiago truly wants to live his life like DiMaggio, so he also fights through the enormous pain of the line cutting his hands and body. Also, Santiago refers to DiMaggio as “the great DiMaggio.” This shows that Santiago has the utmost respect for him even if he has never met him. I think it is kind of cool how Hemingway made Santiago have such a strong role model such as a little kid would have. It says a lot about Santiago’s character and how humble he is. It almost seems as if Santiago thinks of DiMaggio at the absolute perfect times during his battle with the marlin. Whenever the marlin makes a strong and forceful run, Santiago needs to counter its strength. To do this, it seems as though he always remembers DiMaggio’s bone spur, and then he gets a second wind of sorts and counteracts the fish. Some people say that Joe DiMaggio was the single best center fielder ever to play for the Yankees, or maybe he was even the best center fielder ever to play the game. I think he is very fitting as a role model for Santiago because he was as great as a baseball player, and I believe Santiago was a fantastic fisherman.