the kerosene lights

The kerosene lights appear only once in the narrative, but they illuminate the most vivid flashback in the book: Santiago's memory of the hand game he fought against the great negro from Cienfuegos in a tavern in Casablanca. The lights are not a mere atmospheric detail; they are the stage lighting for a contest that defined Santiago's identity as "Santiago El Campeon" and established the code of endurance and will that governs his battle with the marlin decades later.

The Setting of the Contest

The match took place in a tavern in Casablanca, a setting that the kerosene lights define with stark, almost primitive clarity. The room was lit by kerosene lamps, and the walls were painted bright blue and were of wood. The lamps threw the shadows of the contestants and the bettors against those walls, and the negro's shadow was huge and moved on the wall as the breeze moved the lamps. The bettors went in and out of the room, sat on high chairs against the wall, and watched. The kerosene lights created a contained, almost theatrical arena where the only thing that mattered was the force of two men's hands and arms, stripped of all other context.

The Duration and the Witnesses

The match began on a Sunday morning and ended on a Monday morning, a full day and night of continuous effort. The kerosene lights burned through that entire duration, marking the passage of time in a space without windows or clocks. The bettors changed referees every four hours after the first eight so that the referees could sleep, but the lights never changed. Blood came out from under the fingernails of both Santiago's and the negro's hands. The odds changed back and forth all night, and the bettors fed the negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him. The kerosene lights witnessed every shift in fortune, every moment of near-defeat and recovery.

The Climax and the Victory

After the rum, the negro tried for a tremendous effort and once had Santiago, who was not an old man then, nearly three inches off balance. But Santiago raised his hand up to dead even again. He was sure then that he had the negro beaten. At daylight, when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head, Santiago unleashed his effort and forced the hand of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood. The kerosene lights, which had been burning all night, were still on when he finished the match before anyone had to go to work. For a long time after that, everyone called him The Champion.

The Aftermath and the Meaning

Santiago had a few more matches after that, but then no more. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough, and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing. He tried a few practice matches with his left hand, but his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do, and he did not trust it. The kerosene lights, in this memory, are not just a source of illumination; they are the light of a past self, a younger man who proved his strength in a public, ritualized contest. That memory returns to Santiago during his struggle with the marlin, when he thinks of the great DiMaggio and the bone spur, and when he tells himself, "I told the boy I was a strange old man. Now is when I must prove it." The kerosene lights are the light of that proof, the light of a championship that still lives in his will.