Lacan defines this last order as “…emotionally powerful experiences such as death and sexuality.  It is…[the] most inaccessible of realms, available to consciousness only in extremely brief and fleeting moments of joy and terror….”(Booker 35).
Hemingway sets the stage by characterizing Santiago as an old man who “has attained humility” (13) ostensibly through his position as an unlucky and destitute fisherman.  The old man discovers himself being emasculated by his patronizing and ridiculing peers (11), who subjugate him as a broken down old man.  The only friendship he has is with a young boy, Manolin.  Because Santiago is seen as unfit, the boy, whom he fathered into the life of fishing (12), is taken from him. Although old age (and eventually death) is the great equalizer among the sexes, a father’s son can be viewed as an extension of his own masculinity.