I am going to talk about some stuff while its fresh in my mind. Then I will go into more detail at a later date. First is what happened after the book ended. I believe that after the boy left Santiago died. He lived a good life, accomplished his goal of catching a big fish, and he said goodbye to the boy. He was ready to let go and move on. Plus if Santiago is being compared to Jesus, then Santiago would have died since he carried the mast to his shack. The mast could be the cross and the shack could be the final resting place. Also Santiago's death would be a nice ending. The fish would remain shrouded in a mystery and the legend of the old man and the eighteen foot marlin would grow. A nice conclusion for an epic hero's journey.
Another thing that I realized was some more supporting information for Santiago being an epic hero. I had previously thought that Santiago was only lacking god interference, but then I remembered that he was praying a lot of Hail Marys and Our Fathers (Hemingway 65, 87). If God answered his prayer, which Santiago's hand didn't fail him and he did catch the marlin, then that counts as god interference. The old man can hold his own against the younger epic heroes. Santiago now meets all of my epic hero criteria.
The last thing is all of the Christianity symbolism. I haven't read Mr. Langley's blog post on it yet, but I will expand on this topic later. I didn't catch all of the Christianity stuff when I initially read the book, but now a lot of things are making sense. The fact that Santiago means saint in Spanish is a cool little nod to Christianity. Another thing cool thing is that the old man and the boy fished together for forty days. Many events in the Bible happened in 40 days like the Great flood and Jesus in the desert. Also many symbols throughout the novel can be tied to Jesus: the mast as the cross, succeeding even when everyone thought you would fail, bearing a large burden alone.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
I double checked on the meaning of Santiago. I had mentioned that it was a derivative of santa, which means saint. I found that Santiago means Saint James. That should be helpful as St. James is the Patron Saint of Spain, one of the 1st apostles to follow Jesus, and one of the 1st apostles to be martyred. Check it out further - I think it will be helpful to your analysis.
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