Time magazine correspondent while on his boat fishing off the coast of Cuba. When asked about the use of symbolism in his work, and particularly in the most recently published Old Man and the Sea, he explained: No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in ... That kind of symbol sticks out like raisins in raisin bread. Raisin bread is all right, but plain bread is better. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea, a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things. The hardest thing is to make something really true and sometimes truer than true. See also Abductive reasoning Case-based reasoning Casuistry Concision For sale: baby shoes, never worn Gonzo journalism I know it when I see it Purposeful omission Show, don't tell References Sources Narratology American literature Ernest Hemingway Literary theory