The Old Man and the Sea Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.

DiMaggio and the Bone Spur

We know, we know – what in the world is a bone spur? In short, it’s a painful injury DiMaggio had in his heel right around the time The Old Man and the Sea takes place. DiMaggio ended up being completely successful despite his handicap – kind of like the old man. DiMaggio becomes a symbol for withstanding pain, for endurance throughout suffering, to achieve the impossible and lots of other grand notions the old man emulates.

The Lions

Hemingway just about sums it up when the old man asks: "Why are the lions the main thing that is left?" What a fantastic question. The old man, we are told, "no longer" dreams about people – just the places, and namely the lions. You can go a few directions with this. First, the lions are a memory from his youth. Much of his struggle with the fish is about proving that he’s still there. The old man has a statement to make: he’s still around, and he’s still rocking the boat. In other words, his past, including the lions, isn’t just a distant memory.

The other question is, why lions? Why not geese or alligators? To start off, lions are strong creatures, predators, hunters, just as the old man hunts the marlin. They’re also the head honchos. Even though they’re at the top, they have to go out every day, hunt, and prove that they’re, well, still the head honchos.

Where are we getting this from? Take a look at paragraphs 76 and 77 on day three (right before the memory of arm wrestling). The old man says he needs to prove that he is a strange man. "Strange" doesn’t mean weird here, rather unique, different. It is the old man’s strangeness that enables him to be alone on the sea doing battle with a marlin for three days, just as he calls the marlin "strange" for not being tired. But back to the proving part. The old man has to prove, in a sense, his strength, his prowess, his abilities. And he talks about having to prove it rather elegantly for a paragraph. The very next paragraph is about the lions. See the connection?

The Old Man and the Sea Themes Little Words, Big Ideas

PerseveranceThe old man’s battle with the fish is not only a battle of strength, but a battle of wills. The old man makes up for his old age with incredible endurance, willing to withstand hunger, physic...

SufferingIn The Old Man and the Sea, the ability to withstand physical pain is one of Santiago’s defining characteristics. Suffering is a necessary step in his battle with the fish. It adds intensity...

Strength and SkillOne interesting question in The Old Man and the Sea is whether physical strength is as important as skill and experience. The old man may, admittedly, not be as strong as in his youth, but he makes...

PrideIn The Old Man and the Sea, pride and humility are not mutually exclusive qualities. The old man is declaratively characterized as humble, yet he "suffers no loss of pride" in being so. Later, howe...

Memory and the PastMemory is a dominant theme in The Old Man and the Sea. Because of his age, the old man can recall a strength and prowess of his youth. We at first wonder if such elements have faded from his charac...

DefeatIs the old man defeated? This is a persistent question by the end of the story. The Old Man and the Sea asks its readers to define defeat, to struggle with what it really means to be beaten. Intere...

IsolationThe old man is a character isolated from people – and in fact from the world of humans entirely – in his time on the sea. This isolation defines who he is, and emphasizes the unique nat...

Man and the Natural WorldThe old man is unique in his relationship to and understanding of the natural world. He talks about the sea as though it were a woman, the birds as friends, the sharks as personal enemies. He exami...

HungerThe old man is almost superhuman in his eating patterns. He never professes hunger, despite eating very little or not at all. For him, eating is not about pleasure, but is instead a painful act tha...

Respect and ReputationAlthough he does not recognize it himself, what makes the stakes of the battle with the marlin so high is the notion of respect. The old man derives respect from others with displays of strength an...

LuckThe Old Man and the Sea begins with a declaration that the old man is unlucky. He agrees with such an assessment, but by the end of the story the reader is left wondering what it really means to be...

FriendshipIn The Old Man and the Sea, friendship is always based on mutual respect. The old man’s relationship with the boy is characterized as "love," and Manolin expresses deep admiration for the old...

The Old Man and the Sea Quotes

Find the perfect quote to float your boat. Shmoop breaks down key quotations from The Old Man and the Sea.

Perseverance QuotesI could just drift, he thought, and sleep and put a bight of line around my toe to wake me. But today is eighty-five days and I should fish the day well. Just then, watching his lines, he saw one...

Suffering QuotesAll my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But...

Strength and Skill QuotesThe old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks....

Pride Quotes"Thank you," the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride. (1.36)

Memory and the Past Quotes"How old was I when you first took me in a boat?" "Five and you nearly were killed when I brought the fish in too green and he nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?" "I can remember t...

Defeat QuotesHe was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days wi...

Isolation QuotesHe was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days wi...

Man and the Natural World QuotesEverything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. (1.3)

Hunger QuotesThere was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had sold it. But they went through this fiction every day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too. (1.59)

Respect and Reputation QuotesNo one would steal from the old man but it was better to take the sail and the heavy lines home as the dew was bad for them and, though he was quite sure no local people would steal from him, the o...

Luck QuotesHe was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days wi...

Friendship Quotes"Santiago," the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. "I could go with you again. We’ve made some money." (1.4)

The old man, or SantiagoCharacter Analysis

The Old Man’s Struggle

Yes, we know, everyone’s wondering why the old man spends three days with a fishing line stretched tight across his back, bleeding from three places and eating raw, unsalted and nauseating fish bait. It’s a good question. The easy answer is that the old man hasn’t caught a fish in eighty-four days and he’s pretty much going to starve to death if he doesn’t catch something soon. But we don’t really see starvation as much of a threat. The old man doesn’t eat much anyway, and Manolin’s got his back. So there are far, far bigger things at stake here.

But, you say, what could possibly be bigger than the basic human need to eat? Plenty. Let’s start with pride, or the need to prove oneself. The old man used to be El Campeon – the "Shaft" of the fishing community. And now he’s just an old man that young guys laugh at. That’s not a chip on your shoulder – that’s an entire bag of Doritos you’re carrying up there. The old man has to prove that he’s still got what it takes.

The Old Man’s Name

Let’s start here. We only hear the name ‘Santiago’ four times; three from the boy, and one really interesting occurrence when the old man is recalling his epic arm wrestling match. That the boy calls him ‘Santiago’ makes sense – "hey old man" isn’t exactly a name for your mentor and fishing guru, is it? But the other time we hear his name is from the narrator, and it’s only once. We are told of the time in Casablanca when the old man "was not an old man […] but was Santiago El Campeon." Hmm, we think. It looks like the old man has come to be defined by his age. And it looks like in his battle with the marlin, he’s trying to be The Champion again, instead of the old man. But he never loses his name; he’s still "the old man" by the end of the text. So did he fail? Or can he be "the old man" and El Campeon at the same time?

The Old Man and Hunger

The old man is never really hungry. He doesn’t eat, and tells the boy he is used to fishing and competing in otherwise physically exhausting tasks without a morsel. Amazing. It makes the old man almost superhuman. Or, you could say, it makes him like an ascetic, a person that denies himself indulgences generally for religious reasons. Where’s the religion part, you ask? What a great essay topic!

Moving on. The old man does at times eat – just not for the reasons that normal people do. He

takes no pleasure in the act, and repeatedly forces himself into it for the sole purpose of gaining strength. The old man is single-minded in this goal. It gets more interesting when you compare him to the marlin, who is trapped by his own hunger (that’s how fish get caught, right?). The marlin got screwed for eating the bait; but the old man ends up eating the same fish he used for bait – just like the marlin. It’s almost as if the two are being compared…

The old man, or Santiago Timeline

MotifsMotifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

In order to suggest the profundity of the old man’s sacrifice and the glory that derives from it, Hemingway purposefully likens Santiago to Christ, who, according to Christian theology, gave his life for the greater glory of humankind. Crucifixion imagery is the most noticeable way in which Hemingway creates the symbolic parallel between Santiago and Christ. When Santiago’s palms are first cut by his fishing line, the reader cannot help but think of Christ suffering his stigmata. Later, when the sharks arrive, Hemingway portrays the old man as a crucified martyr, saying that he makes a noise similar to that of a man having nails driven through his hands. Furthermore, the image of the old man struggling up the hill with his mast across his shoulders recalls Christ’s march toward Calvary. Even the position in which Santiago collapses on his bed—face down with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up—brings to mind the image of Christ suffering on the cross. Hemingway employs these images in the final pages of the novella in order to link Santiago to Christ, who exemplified transcendence by turning loss into gain, defeat into triumph, and even death into renewed life.

Life from Death

Death is the unavoidable force in the novella, the one fact that no living creature can escape. But death, Hemingway suggests, is never an end in itself: in death there is always the possibility of the most vigorous life. The reader notes that as Santiago slays the marlin, not only is the old man reinvigorated by the battle, but the fish also comes alive “with his death in him.” Life, the possibility of renewal, necessarily follows on the heels of death.

Whereas the marlin’s death hints at a type of physical reanimation, death leads to life in less literal ways at other points in the novella. The book’s crucifixion imagery emphasizes the cyclical connection between life and death, as does Santiago’s battle with the marlin. His success at bringing the marlin in earns him the awed respect of the fishermen who once mocked him, and secures him the companionship of Manolin, the apprentice who will carry on Santiago’s teachings long after the old man has died.

The Lions on the Beach

Santiago dreams his pleasant dream of the lions at play on the beaches of Africa three times. The first time is the night before he departs on his three-day fishing expedition, the second occurs when he sleeps on the boat for a few hours in the middle of his struggle with the marlin, and the

third takes place at the very end of the book. In fact, the sober promise of the triumph and regeneration with which the novella closes is supported by the final image of the lions. Because Santiago associates the lions with his youth, the dream suggests the circular nature of life. Additionally, because Santiago imagines the lions, fierce predators, playing, his dream suggests a harmony between the opposing forces—life and death, love and hate, destruction and regeneration—of nature.

SymbolsSymbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Marlin

Magnificent and glorious, the marlin symbolizes the ideal opponent. In a world in which “everything kills everything else in some way,” Santiago feels genuinely lucky to find himself matched against a creature that brings out the best in him: his strength, courage, love, and respect.

The Shovel-Nosed Sharks

The shovel-nosed sharks are little more than moving appetites that thoughtlessly and gracelessly attack the marlin. As opponents of the old man, they stand in bold contrast to the marlin, which is worthy of Santiago’s effort and strength. They symbolize and embody the destructive laws of the universe and attest to the fact that those laws can be transcended only when equals fight to the death. Because they are base predators, Santiago wins no glory from battling them.

Themes

[edit] Whiteness is beauty

In this book whiteness stands for beauty. This is a standard that the black girls can not meet, especially Pecola, who has darker skin than the rest. Pecola connects beauty with being loved and believes that if she would just have blue eyes all the bad things in her life would be replaced with love and affection. This hopeless desire leads her to madness by the end of the novel.

[edit] Love is only as good as the lover

The Bluest Eye is a novel that contains several relationships, although the relationships never end pleasantly. Morrison sees love as a dynamic force, which can be extremely damaging depending on who is doing the loving. The biggest example of this is the relationship Cholly has with his daughter Pecola. Cholly is the only character in the whole book that can see past Pecola’s seemingly revolting shell enough to touch her. While this sounds like a beautiful thing, in actuality it is the violent rape that serves as the climax of the story. As Claudia points out in the final chapter of this novel, “Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love

wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly” While Cholly definitely loves, the core of his personality forces him to manifest this love in violent ways. Because he is not a good person, his love is extremely tainted. The reader can look at this in one of two ways. It can be seen as a very pessimistic view, claiming that true love can only be achieved if the lover is a good, honest person. However, the reader can also see this as uplifting. Even though love can be distorted, Morrison makes the point that everyone can, in fact, love. Even if an evil person loves in an evil manner, they are still able to love.

[edit] Gender Disparity

The bluest eye is a novel based on the lives of black women and it is written by a black woman. Toni Morrison has described the world wide gender disparity by her characters like Pecola, Frieda, Pauline and the narrator Claudia,who once mentions in the novel that three things have greatly affected her life: being a child, being Black and being a girl. All the women characters are abused by both white women & men, as well as by Black men.

[edit] Motifs

[edit] Dirty/Uncleanliness

Morrison continually places the idea and image of dirt and impurity-both figuratively and literally-in each new setting. In the beginning she introduces an ill Claudia plagued with bronchial and flu-like symptoms, cooped up in an “old, cold, green” house. The Breedloves own appearance and home is poor and ugly. Pecola befriends the prostitutes living above her, who are impure in their own nature. They sleep around, refute religion, are caked with make-up, surrounded themselves with smoke and are overweight. Altogether, the characters live in a dusty, hot town, separate from the upper-class whites. They themselves are dark and not pristine in appearance with their dark skin and nappy hair; Pecola is especially insecure about her differences and imperfections. Morrison uses this repetitive concept to emphasize the severity of their lifestyles and their desperation to keep up appearances.

[edit] Sacrifice

Most of Morrison’s characters are martyrs to some cause or some person. Claudia and Frieda’s mother gave up youth and her own life to stay at home and care for a family. Pecola believes she’s ugly so that others may be beautiful. Her body is sacrificed to Cholly for his self-fulfillment. Claudia and Frieda gave up their bike money and flower seeds to “make magic” for Pecola and her baby. Mrs. Breedlove gave up her family, wealth, and status for Cholly and the trouble he brings economically, physically, and emotionally. Even Maginot Line and China gave up their bodies and social position to have a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. The book’s constant discussion of sacrifice, sin, and an unattainable redemption stresses a larger idea of life’s real purpose and the struggle to make it through something that yields no reward.

[edit] Blue Eyes and Vision

Believing a new pair of eyes will change the way she sees things as well as the way she is seen, Pecola’s one deep desire is to have the bluest eyes in the world. The young girl’s innocent wish is marked by her perception of a world where the cruelty and hardships she suffers are a result of her appearance as an ugly black girl with dark eyes. She imagines having blue eyes will earn her respect and possible admiration. This is demonstrated when Pecola is teased by the little boys on the playground—when Maureen approaches staring at them with her light eyes, the boys back down and behave in a more respectable manner. Furthermore, Pecola wishes specifically for new eyes rather than lighter skin because she also hopes to literally view the world in a better way. At home and all around her, Pecola is tortured by the cruelty and dirtiness she constantly witnesses; if she were blessed with new eyes, she would be able to see herself and her world in a new, beautiful way. Pecola’s desire for blue eyes makes a connection between how a person is seen and what he or she sees.

[edit] Whiteness

Throughout the novel, white skin is identified with beauty and purity. There are many recurring implications to the superiority of whites over blacks, specifically in women. The adoration of the Shirley Temple doll given to Claudia, light-skinned Maureen being cuter than the other black girls, and Pauline Breedlove's preference for the little white girl she cares for demonstrate the prevailing dominance of whiteness. As a result, women learn to hate themselves for being black and in turn relay this disgust to their daughters. This is most apparent within the Breedlove family, where Mrs. Breedlove despises the ugliness she sees in her own daughter. Pecola is most affected by this connection of beauty with whiteness, believing that beauty is associated with love and is necessary for affection and respect. Her hopeless desire to be identified as a white girl eventually drives Pecola to insanity.

[edit] Hegemony

Black women of this novel are presented as the victims of the white beauty standards of society and some of them, like Pauline and Geraldine, are greatly effected by cultural hegemony and start loving and adopting the ways of white people. Not only Pauline and Geraldine, but many of the black characters fall prey to this, loving white people more than themselves. We can find a better example of it when Pauline beats Pecola for spilling a pie on the floor of the Fishers' house and when schoolboys tease Pecola and stop it when Maureen, the light skinned girl, goes to rescue her from those boys. Boys tease Pecola for her ugliness due to her blackness, but run away after seeing Maureen, as they don't want to do bad things in front of her.

"Dandelions. Why do people call them weeds? I think they're pretty. Nobody loves the head of a dandelion" (Morrison 35). "They are ugly. They are weeds" (Morrison 38). Pecola, the main character from the novel The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, compares herself to the dandelions: ugly and unwanted. Pecola is raised with no sense of self-esteem or self-value. She is a black girl with nappy hair and dark eyes. She yearns for blue eyes, the mark of beauty in the United States during the 1940s. She lives a life of tumult and ugliness. Pecola portrays happier versions of her

life through the imaginary character, Jane. Pecola is a very static character who changes very little throughout the book.

"Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty" (Morrison 24). The Breedloves live in a shack, a shanty, "a box of peeling gray" (Morrison 25). The house is very boring and doesn't show any signs of a stable, tightly knit family unit. The house contains no cherishable memories, no lost objects, and no life. This is the dark, loveless home that Pecola grows up in. This is the home that helps to make Pecola feel so worthless, so ugly.

"Here is the family. Mother, Father, Dick, and Jane live in the green and white house. They are very happy" (Morrison 29). Pecola has a brother named Sammy. She has a crippled mother whom she must call Mrs. Breedlove and a father named Cholly. Mrs. Breedlove became crippled when she stepped on a rusty nail. When she is younger, she feels a sense of separateness from her own family which probably affects the way she raises her own children. Cholly is abandoned by his mother when he is four days old. He never knows his father. His aunt raises him until she dies when Cholly is fourteen years old. Cholly has never really been around young children. Cholly has no idea that children are supposed to be nurtured and taught about the beautiful characteristics in everyone that make them unique. Pecola's parents never have a loving childhood, and, therefore, don't know how to be loving parents towards their children.

"See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane"" (Morrison 1). Pecola has only two true friends: Claudia and Frieda MacTeer. The sisters become family to Pecola. When her father, Cholly, is put in jail, Pecola goes to live with the MacTeer family. The girls share everything: secrets, desires, and even the same bed.

One Saturday in autumn, as the three bored girls sit on the front porch contemplating on what to do to make the time pass, Pecola suddenly hops up with her eyes wide with terror (Madison 18). She has suddenly begun menstruating with blood all over both her dress and the steps. The girls immediately begin to clean up the mess so that their mother won't find out. In the midst of their cleaning up, a nosy child peeks at them making such a fuss and yells out to Mrs. MacTeer, "Mrs. MacTeer! Mrs. MacTeer! Frieda and Claudia are out her playing nasty! Mrs. MacTeer!" (Morrison 21). Their mother catches all three girls bustling about trying to clean up the mess. In the end, the family has a good laugh at the situation. The MacTeer family is the only family that has been loving towards Pecola, but, unfortunately, she must go back home after Cholly is let out of jail.

"See the cat. It goes meow-meow. Come and play. Come play with Jane. The kitten will not play" (Morrison 62). On one occasion, when Pecola is walking by a school, a spoiled, light skinned boy named Louis Junior is in the playground. His mother doesn't allow him to play with colored children because she wants her son to be as close to whiteness as possible. The boy wants to play with Pecola, but she just wants to go home. He entices her into coming into his house with the promise of newborn kittens.

When they get into the house, the boy throws, not kittens, but a huge black cat with odd, blue-green eyes right into Pecola's face. She tries to escape from the house, but Junior decides that it would be even more fun to hold her captive. The cat comes over to Pecola and gets very acquainted with her. When Junior sees that Pecola is no longer panicking at her predicament, he grabs his mother's beloved cat and begins to swing it. When Pecola tries to grab the cat, Junior lets it go. It flies right into the radiator the moment Geraldine, Junior's mother, walks into the house. Junior immediately blames the incident on Pecola. With no explanation, Geraldine, who has a serene hate for "niggers" angrily states to Pecola, "You nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house" (Morrison 72). Pecola leaves the house with tears in her eyes.

"See mother. Mother is very nice. Mother, will you play with Jane? Mother laughs. Laugh, mother, laugh" (Morrison 86). When Jane was first born, Mrs. Breedlove exclaimed, "A right smart baby she was. But I knowed she was ugly. Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly" (Morrison 98). Mrs. Breedlove disclaims her children around her white supervisors. Like Pecola and many others around 1941, Mrs. Breedlove believes that whites are supreme over blacks. She works for the Fisher family. On one occasion, she compares washing her own children to washing her boss's white kids. She says that she loves drying the little white girl in fluffy white towels and putting her in cuddly night clothes (Morrison 99). Mrs. Breedlove adores brushing the girl's yellow hair, "enjoying the roll and slip of it between her fingers" (99). When discussing the bathing rituals of her own children, she sighs thinking about the cheep zinc tub, grayish towels, and the tangled black puffs of wool to comb (99). Eventually, Mrs. Breedlove becomes negligent toward her own family and spends more time with the Fisher family. After she becomes the "in-home servant" to the white Fisher family, Pecola sees less of her mother, and her father becomes more and more comfortable with Pecola.

"See Father. He is big and strong. Father, will you play with Jane? Father is smiling. Smile, Father, smile" (Morrison 103). Jane is raped by her father. As she is washing the dishes, she uses her toes to scratch her calf. This action reminds Cholly so much of the young Mrs. Breedlove that he has to take her. He rapes her right on the kitchen floor and leaves her there. Pecola is found partially unconscious by her mother. Pecola feels even uglier than before. She decides that she needs her blue eyes more than ever in order to be beautiful.

"See the dog. Bowwow goes the dog. Do you want to play with Jane? See the dog run. Run, dog, run" (Morrison 131). Pecola finally decides to go to a "Reader, Advisor, and Interpreter of Dreams" to alter her eye color. Soaphead Church is a fraud. He actually dislikes people and abhors flesh on flesh contact. He cannot stand the sight of crust, scabs, boogers, earwax, and the like. Soaphead makes money off of people's problems. Pecola comes to Soaphead and tells him that she wants her eyes to become blue. When Soaphead sees Pecola, he sees an "ugly girl asking for beauty" (Morrison 138). There's a dog that Soaphead thinks is absolutely disgusting. The dog is old, mangy, and flee-ridden. Soaphead wants to get rid of the dog, but he cannot do the dirty job on his own. Then innocent, ignorant Pecola comes to him for help. He knows there's no possible way to produce this sort of magic, and tells her that if it's in the Lord's will, her eyes will change color, but it would be nice if they gave him an "offering." He says, "We must make, ah, some offering, that is, some contact with nature. Perhaps some simple creature might be the vehicle through which He will speak. Let us see" (Morrison 139). He tells Pecola to feed the dog

a substance. Pecola unknowingly feeds the dog poison. It runs around choking and stumbling until it falls to the ground, dead.

"Look, look. Here comes a friend. The friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game. Play, Jane, play" (Morrison 152). Pecola finally believes that she has gotten her blue eyes. She looks into the mirror and finds a friend in her reflection. People now see Pecola as a freak. She has gone over the edge. Her yearning for blue eyes has finally made her go crazy. She loses the baby her father eventually impregnates her with. Cholly dies in a workhouse. Mrs. Breedlove still is the faithful servant of her white boss's family. Her brother, Sam, has left town. Pecola is alone; it is now just her and her reflection. Pecola has finally received her blue eyes, but the town looks down on her with pity because the fulfillment of her deepest wish has made her senile.

The Bluest Eye QuotesFind the perfect quote to float your boat. Shmoop breaks down key quotations from The Bluest Eye.

Appearances QuotesFrieda and she had a long conversation about how cu-ute Shirley Temple was. I couldn't join them in their adoration because I hated Shirley. (1.1.35)

Race QuotesThe Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed...

Women and Femininity QuotesTheir conversation is like a gently wicked dance: sound meets sound, curtsies, shimmies, and retires. Another sound enters but is upstaged by another: the two circle each other and stop. (1.1.19)

Jealousy QuotesWe stare at her, wanting her bread, but more than that wanting to poke the arrogance out of her eyes and smash the pride of ownership that curls her chewing mouth. (Prologue)

Society and Class QuotesOutdoors, we knew, was the real terror of life. The threat of being outdoors surfaced frequently in those days. Every possibility of excess was curtailed with it. (1.1.28)

Love QuotesLove, thick and dark as Alaga syrup, eased up into that cracked window. I could smell it – taste it – sweet, musty, with an edge of wintergreen in its base – everywhere in that ho...

Sex QuotesIt never occurred to either of us that the earth itself might have been unyielding. We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola's father had dropped his seeds in hi...

Innocence QuotesIt never occurred to either of us that the earth itself might have been unyielding. We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola's father had dropped his seeds in hi...

Claudia MacTeerCharacter Analysis

Claudia is the primary narrator of the book. An inquisitive, sensitive young girl growing up in Lorain, Ohio, Claudia is the product of a loving family. Her narration is interesting in that it moves back and forth between her reflective, adult stance and a more innocent, childlike one.

Claudia is somewhat of a rebel figure throughout the novel. Unlike Pecola and Frieda, Claudia tries to actively resist popular beauty icons like Shirley Temple. Instead, she identifies with Jewish women and other, less popular childhood stars like Jane Withers. When she receives a white baby doll for Christmas, she completely dismembers it!

Claudia's rebellious nature also comes out in the way she treats Pecola. Rather than tease her as her peers do, Claudia is consistently kind to Pecola throughout the novel, going so far as to say that she loves her and feels genuinely guilty about Pecola's fate.

At the end of the novel, Claudia and Frieda spend the entire summer selling marigold seeds in order to buy themselves a bicycle. Once they learn of Pecola's pregnancy, they sacrifice their seed money as a payment to God, in the hope that he will allow Pecola's baby to survive.

The Scarlet Letter Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory Sometimes, there’s more to Lit than meets the eye.

The Prison Door

The prison door is described as having never known "a youthful era," i.e., innocence (1.2). It’s made of iron and is a little worse for wear, if you catch our drift. Yet, the wild rosebush that grows at the side of the portal is its saving grace. The rosebush represents kindness and forgiveness to the prisoners who must face either a prison sentence or a death sentence (1.2). The iron door seems to represent all that is strict and unrelenting in Puritan society, while the rosebush seems to represent the concept of "grace" or forgiveness. In Christian thought, grace is "unmerited mercy," that is, forgiveness of sins even though forgiveness is undeserved. Since the prison is a place of darkness and sin, the beauty of a wild rose bush growing in such an unexpected place is a symbol of grace. We encounter this prison door and this rosebush in the very first pages of The Scarlet Letter, and both objects seem to tell us that, even in a place of such cold and rigid law, there is hope and there is love.

Pearl, Hester’s Daughter

Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is a symbol of all that Hester gave up when she committed adultery and gave up her place in Puritan society. Pearl is a "pearl of great price," a reference to Jesus’ proverb in the Gospel of Matthew: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Matthew 13:45-46. Hester has gone through hell and high water as a result of giving birth to a child. She lives in perpetual punishment because of Pearl, and that is why she loves Pearl so much. The name “Pearl” makes us think of precious jewels, and there is indeed something very regal about Pearl – we know that she becomes a great and wealthy heiress. The name “Pearl” also reminds us of the fact that pearls come from oysters, and oysters are hard to pry open at times. Pearl definitely is not an easy nut to crack – she mysterious and full of mischief.

The Scarlet Letter

The symbolism behind the scarlet letter A changes throughout this novel. Though initially this letter A symbolizes the sin of adultery, Hester Prynne alters its meaning through her hard work and charity. Some people begin to suggest that the A stands for "able," since Hester is such a capable woman. Others begin to recognize that the scarlet letter has begun to achieve holiness, righteousness. It has "the effect of the cross on a nun’s bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen among thieves, it would have kept her safe" (13.5). Many years later, when Hester returns and voluntarily takes up the scarlet letter again, it has become, for her and others, a symbol of grace.

Hester sews this letter herself while in prison, and the result is breathtaking:

On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter ‘A.’ It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony. (2.10)

By embroidering the “A” so finely and ornately, Hester takes control of her own punishment. She owns it. Though the letter causes Hester to live a lonely life of banishment and ostracization, it seems almost immediately to become a symbol for something far nobler than “adultery.” The letter showcases her talent and artistry – skills that allow her to make a living as a single parent in Puritan Boston. As such, it represents her strength and independence. Such qualities set her apart from every other woman around her. Wearing the letter cuts her off from society, but it also frees her in many ways. She is able to observe the cold and strict ways of Puritan society from the perspective of an outsider.

The Red Mark on Dimmesdale’s Chest

The red mark on Dimmesdale’s chest in the shape of the letter A is the physical manifestation of the minister’s guilt. We are never given an exact description of this mark or its origins, but Dimmesdale tells Hester it is from God. Although he refuses to confess and be punished, his sin ultimately marks his body more permanently than Hester’s scarlet letter made from thread does.

The Meteor

We learn that things like meteors-in-the-shape-of-an-A and exploding stars are common occurrences in early America, and that Puritan communities and community leaders would interpret these celestial explosions to be messages from God, typically warning them about bad things ahead or commenting on issues affecting the community. The meteor in The Scarlet Letter exposes both a communal and an individual reaction. The Massachusetts Bay Colony community interprets the meteor-in-the-shape-of-an-A to be a message from God commemorating the life of the recently deceased Governor and proclaiming him to be an angel (“A” for “angel”). Dimmesdale, on the other hand, sees this meteor as symbol of his own sin, as though God were trying to expose his secret to the entire world. He thinks solely about what the meteor means to him and him alone. To us, this crazy occurrence suggests that there’s more than one way to interpret anything. How did you feel when you read about the meteor-in-the-shape-of-an-A? What do you think it signifies?

The Black Man

The Black Man is a euphemism for Satan in this book. Hester considers the scarlet letter A to be the Black Man’s mark, and Pearl wonders aloud if the Black Man left his brand on Dimmesdale’s heart. Our narrator loves to compare Chillingworth to Satan as well. By invoking Satan, our narrator raises the question of whether humans are innately good or evil. A favorite pastime of the Black Man is to hang out in the woods and lure the locals to come hang out with him and sign their names in his book (with their own blood). Mistress Hibbons knows the Black Man well, apparently.

The Forest and the Wilderness

The forest and wilderness are seen as the home or dwelling place of evil by the townspeople. It’s the unknown. Such a wilderness is compared to the moral wilderness in which Hester has been lost for years: "She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest" (18.2). The forest contrasts sharply with the town, or "civilization," the former representing a place where passion and emotion reign, and the latter, a place where law and religion prevail. Interestingly, Hester lives on the edge of town, on the border between wilderness and civilization. She straddles both worlds.

We associate Nature with kindness and love from the very beginning of this story, for our narrator tells us that the wild rosebush reminds all that “the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him” (1.2). As much as we want to root for Nature in this book, it isn’t always a place of comfort and peace. When Hester and Dimmesdale meet in the woods, the brook and the trees seem to listen, talk, and to have secrets of their own. After a few hours in the woods with Hester,

Dimmesdale becomes incredibly mischievous and unrestrained. The woods seem to affect people in interesting ways. The creepy Chillingworth harvests his medicine and remedies from the woods and from the seashore – remedies that help keep Dimmesdale alive and, therefore, tortured.The brook that Pearl plays with while her mom and Dimmesdale chitchat is a particularly important brook. It babbles and talks, taking on an almost humanlike quality:

All these giant trees and boulders of granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this small brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales out of the heart of the old forest whence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface of the pool. Continually, indeed, as it stole onward the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintances and events of somber hue. (16.23)

Like Pearl, this brook seems to be almost childlike and yet full of all of the deepest, darkest secrets. It seems to know everything, and it doesn’t seem to be a cheery, gushing brook out of a fairy tale. There’s something distinctly sad about this streamlet. Pearl tries to cheer the brook up, but it won’t be cheered. Her mom tells her that she could understand what the brook was saying if she had suffered something in her life. Pearl thinks the brook is too boring and gloomy to be a plaything, so she finds other things to occupy her while her mom chitchats with Dimmesdale.

However, when Hester calls Pearl over to her in order that she might embrace her dad (Dimmesdale), Pearl hesitates at the edge of the brook, and it forms a kind of divide between her world and that of her mothers. Pearl will not cross this divide until her mother fastens the scarlet letter once more to her chest. It’s as though the scarlet letter binds Pearl to her mother in a way that little else in the world does. She doesn’t seem to know her mother without it. The scarlet letter is a part of both of their identities and is a significant part of their relationship. Why do you think Pearl makes her mother put the scarlet letter back on again? Why is it significant that this babbling, melancholy brook provides Pearl with a perfect, almost flawless mirror reflection at the moment her mother summons her across it?

The Custom House

You may have fallen asleep or skipped the little introductory appetizer to The Scarlet Letter known as “The Custom House.” We don’t really blame you. The language seems particularly thorny, and it’s hard to make out why exactly this introduction is so important. In it the narrator tells us the story of how he came across the scarlet letter and of how he came to write the story down. Our narrator is the chief executive officer of the Salem Custom House (sometime during the mid-1800s). His account is a mixture of fact and fiction and loosely follows the story of how Hawthorne himself came to write The Scarlet Letter.

A Custom House is a governmental building situated near a port or a wharf. All sailors, sea captains, merchants, and sea traders are required to report directly to the Custom House upon laying anchor in Salem. These tradesmen must pay taxes on their imported goods. Things aren’t so hopping in this particular Custom House – business has slowed down and the building itself is falling apart. The narrator describes a statue of the American eagle that hovers over the Custom

House entrance:

Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this unhappy fowl, she appears, by the fierceness of her beak and eye, and the general truculency of her attitude, to threaten mischief to the inoffensive community. […] But she has no great tenderness, even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later—oftener soon than late—is apt to fling off her nestlings, with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a ranking wound from her barbed arrows. (Custom House.3)

Woowee, that’s one cold bird. We all know the eagle is one of the most famous and beloved symbols of America and of the freedom that America represents. Here, however, we get the image of a very unwelcoming and unfeeling symbol – one that doesn’t care whether you survive or not. This eagle, a statue though it may be, suggests that something might not be right with the Custom House or with the government to which Custom House reports. Upon reading The Scarlet Letter, we begin to think this eagle might be a descendent of the strict Puritans that spurn Hester Prynne so harshly.

The narrator goes on to tell us that his ancestors were involved in both the Salem Witch Trials (check out Shmoop History on the Witch Trials and The Crucible) as well as in the persecution of Quakers. Needless to say, the narrator feels mighty guilty and mighty weirded out by the fact that he is related to so many hateful and cold people. He also seems to hear their voices in his head, mocking his dream of becoming a writer (“Why, the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!” [Custom House.9]).

One day, while exploring the abandoned and slightly creepy second floor of the Custom House, our speaker comes across a scarlet letter A and an account of its history written by a former chief executive officer of the Custom House. Our narrator, inspired to write his own version of this incredible story, can’t seem to tap into his creative juices in the stifling workplace environment. As luck would have it, he gets laid off! He finds himself scorned and rejected by an organization he has so long worked for, and, therefore, he feels a connection to Hester Prynne. Through his account, we see a more modern account of house laws and government can be stifling and cruel.