tands in awe of Pepe's heroism, but finds it doubtful that many, if any, actual human beings would behave in such a way. This difference has to do not only with the mythical heroism of Pepe, but also with Steinbeck's choice not to let the reader see much of the workings of the psyche of Pepe; the boy-man becomes heroic, but remains something of a cipher. Hemingway, on the other hand, shines a bright light on Santiago's psyche, so that the reader feels that he knows the old man well.
Pepe is a boy who is on the verge of manhood, but he is not going to enter manhood unless he flees his mother's protective and disparaging presence. The reader does not learn much of the psychology of Pepe, about what he feels about life beyond the fact that he wants to see himself as a man. His father has died, but Steinbeck tells us little of the father or of Pepe's relationship with him. Pepe's connection to his father seems to consist of symbols--the father's clothes, and, espec
...