One good example of symbolism is the sharks that attack
the fish, strapped to the side of Santiago's skiff. Santiago, fighting them off, knows
that they are not even hungry, but are simply responding to the smell of blood in the
water:
They
were hateful sharks, bad smelling, scavengers as well as, killers and when they were
hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat... they would hit a man in the
water, if they were hungry, even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime
on him.
(Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Google
Books)
Santiago considers the
sharks to be sub-creatures, with no purpose beyond killing and destroying. He has done
an amazing thing, caught an enormous fish, and these sharks care nothing for his
achievement except that it easily feeds their own hunger. In the sharks, Hemingway
symbolizes people who have no ambition or drive to succeed, but wish only to tear down
people who have achieved something. Those who fall under this category live in endless
envy of ambition and creativity, never willing to create or achieve for themselves but
only desiring to destroy any works that are popular, visionary, or creative. The sharks,
in their mindless drive for destruction, showcase this
anti-ambition.
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