“Then there is the other secret. There isn't any symbolysm [sic]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.”

Sure felt like that reading it too. I feel like many Hemingway fans love him so much they read into it a lot more than is there, where laymen might come in and see just the bones and never more, really. That’s where I land: It’s a perfectly serviceable construction and not much else, imo.