Theories on the dream.

On page 25, these particular sentences stood out to me.
"He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about this boy."
This is going to be a long post, so I apologize in advance if it's dry.
I believe that some particular words could be symbolism for something that Ernest Hemingway may have felt during the time he wrote this book.
(The feeling of not caring, really.)

Storms could mean just as it's stated, or perhaps the things that may have caused destruction in his life (His mental illness, near death experiences, ex wife wives, his parents, etc.), because as you most know, storms can be pretty damaging.
Women and his wife means just as it is states. The guy was a womanizer. Also, let's not forget his mom used to dress him up as a little girl and call him Ernestine. Pretty messed up if you ask me.
Great occurrences meaning the same thing as well. Great occurrences in his life. (Either meaning big, or in general, great things that have happened to him, such as having children or more grandchildren.)
Great fish, as we speculated earlier in class, could mean something to write about, and that he secretly doesn't seem to care about his writing or is getting fed up with it. (The guy was bipolar, keep in mind. He has his ups and downs, even with writing I'd believe.)
Fights and contest of strength also mean, to me at least, the same thing as well.

With those said, let's continue on to the fact that he doesn't dream of any of those things anymore because he's starting not to care, and he only dreams of places. I believe the particular dream is set in heaven, to be honest.

With that said, that leads to the end of the quote.
The lions on the beach.
I believe the beach could represent the other side (heaven) and the lions could be symbolism for courage. (Which could be either, A.)Something he has. (The guy took part in D-day and other military actions.) Or/and, B.) Something he needs to kill himself. (Putting a gun to your head takes a lot of guts.))
The lions (More courage.) are on the beach(Heaven.).

When seen that way, More courage is in Heaven.

It could be seen as, he needs more courage to get to Heaven.

Now, one more thing.
He loves the lions just as he loves the boy.
The boy is the only thing keeping him here on this Earth.
Who is this boy?
I'm not sure just yet. (Anyone have an idea?)

Mind you, this is a shot in the dark and we're too soon in the story to tell if this story was even a suicide note. (I think it is so far. A vague one, but a suicide note if anything.)

Feel free to add in anything I missed or anything else.

holy cow that is a lot! all of that stuff actually makes sense too. I myself don't know which of those things would be correct but they all sound very plausible.

Kristine L wrote:
Now, one more thing.
He loves the lions just as he loves the boy.
The boy is the only thing keeping him here on this Earth.
Who is this boy?
I'm not sure just yet. (Anyone have an idea?)

Maybe the boy represents Hemingway's love for writing?

The lion could also represent freedom, for lions are mostly found in the wild. Maybe Hemingway loves the aspect of the freedom he has when he's writing. His joy for writing could be keeping him from leaving Earth.