Those Hands Of His

I think the way his hand cramped up symbolize how hard he writes. The old man was in an arm wrestling match and won but stopped because he said that hand is for fishing (writing). Hemingway has done a tremendous amount of ware to his hands over the years. So much that his hand went into "rigor mortis". I also think that by him holding on to this one fish so long is an idea that he does not want to lose, but the bird or his hand cramping is the distractions in his life.