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Personification
Explanation and Analysis—As Stiff as Rigor Mortis:
Hemingway describes Santiago's cramped hand with both simile and personification:
“How do you feel, hand?” he asked the cramped hand that was almost as stiff as rigor mortis. “I’ll eat some more for you.” [...] “How does it go, hand? Or is it too early to know?"
While an atypical instance of personification, Santiago talks to his hand specifically as if it was a person in and of itself. Indeed, he uses the second-person perspective when offering to "eat some more for you," acting as if his hand was separate from his body and yet benefited from his actions. Ironically, Santiago treats his personified hand as if it was alive, while Hemingway's simile compares Santiago's hand's stiffness to rigor mortis, which occurs after something has died. The two instances of figurative language exist in tension with one another, connoting both life and death.
For one, this instance of figurative language emphasizes Santiago's age and his isolation. As he explains elsewhere, Santiago didn't use to speak when fishing with Manolin. Moreover, the cramp can be understood as Santiago's body continuing to betray him as he ages. At the same time, nature's benevolence is illustrated through the food that Santiago eats in order to resolve the cramp: the ocean provides the fish that Santiago needs for fuel in order to continue battling the marlin.
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