Code Hero In The Great Gatsby And The Old Man

Upon hearing the word “hero”, what does one visualize? Perhaps a courageous, noble, and humble protagonist. Would one think the same of the name Jesus Christ? In The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea, modernist authors Fitzgerald and Hemingway utilize Christian allusions and references to Hemingway’s “Code Hero” skillfully to illuminate a possibly misinterpreted ideal of a hero or savior.
Among the many definitions of a hero, Hemingway’s is a rather profound take on the usually glamorized figure. Using the character Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway crafts the supposed epitome of his code hero, as Santiago is described as “salao, which is the worst form of unlucky”(1). In a short description, the code hero typical lives a life of consistent misfortune as
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald develops his main character, Gatsby, into a man with a troubled past that is morphing into his present, topped with the struggle of winning back his old lover, Daisy. While both Gatsby and Santiago seem to play a similar role in their stories, neither appears to truly be the definition of a Christ-like savior or hero. Although their characters’ circumstances may not relate directly with such figures, both authors manage to make numerous Christian allusions, allowing a reader to infer that these characters should be compared roughly to Jesus Christ in the bible. A prominent instance of such allusions is in The Old Man and the Sea, in which Santiago falls asleep “face down….with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up”(Hemingway 122). This particular scene refers to Jesus’ crucifixion, in which He was nailed to a cross with His head hanging down, His arms out straight and palms forced outward by nails. On the other hand (no pun intended), Fitzgerald