HAND CRAMPING

On pg 62 he refers to his hand cramping as humiliating and he compares it to others injuries and also on pg 71 he talks about his hands again saying his left hand has always been a traitor and he did not trust it.... does his hand represent something deeper than just a hand... idk but hope to find out

My friends and I discussed this in class today! One of them did research on religious symbols and found one relating to the right and left hand. I don't know if she mentioned it in the forum somewhere, but she found that the right represented reason and the left represented love so we reasoned that when the Old Man's left hand was cramped and useless that love betrayed him in some way. I was just found some more things in the bible pertaining to hands and I found this verse: Proverbs 3:16 "Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor." I was thinking that this could relate to the quote you mentioned from the book, that his left hand did not do what he wanted and that he didn't trust. So I made the conclusion that he tried to use his riches and honor accomplish something, or even his writing, but it didn't work out for him.

In summary, i think his hands could have a religious allusion along with a literal one.