老人与海英文读书报告

The Analysis of Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
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Outline
1.Introduction
2.The Background
3.The Symbolism in the book
3.1 The Old Man—“the unyielding character”
3.2 The Boy— the Supplement for the Old Man
3.3 The Sea —Hemingway’s Survival Environment
4. Hemingway’s Philosophy of Life Reflected by the symbols in The Old Man and the Sea
4.1 Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Society Reflected through the Symbol of the Sea
4.2Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Enemy Reflec ted through the Symbol of Shark
5. My Conclusion
The Analysis of Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
Abstract:
The Old Man and the Sea is a song of praise about human spirit. Hemingway intends to tell us his philosophy of life: although life is a lonely battle, it is a struggle that man should fight on with courage and endurance; and the “meaning” of life is not to be found in “success” or “failure”, but rather in the struggle itself. The Old Man and the Sea, praised by a famous writer as “the most excellent simple article in this generation”, is a masterpiece of the unyielding man—Hemingway. But with regard to the symbolism, the sea, the Shark and the Marlin have special symbolical meanings. Here the article will analyze its symbolism thoroughly through some aspects such as the leading character，the living environment and Hemingway’s philosophy of life reflected by the symbols, to get a better understanding of its value.
Key Words:
The symbolic factors; iceberg theory; the living environment; Ernest Hemingway
1. Introduction:
Ernest Hemingway was born on July21, in 1898, at Oak Park, Illinois. He is famous both in American literature and the world literature, In his childhood, influenced by his father, Hemingway was interested in music, pictures, hunting, fishing and especially the love of fishing extremely affected all his life and he drew much writing inspiration from his fishing experiences.
Taking adventures also plays a vital role in his life and for that he experienced the two world wars. As a r epresentative of the “Lost Generation”, Hemingway p ublished the books such as The Sun Also Rises, the book deals with the living attitude of the post-war generation, at the time it is believed that “God is dead”, they thought life was nothing and meaningle ss. In this case, Hemingway became the spokesperson of the Lost Generation.
The Old Man and The Sea was published in 1952. The novel was regarded as Hemingway’s best novel. The praises are not only from the reviewers but also from a board spectrum of the mass, from ordinary readers to fellow men of letters. The publishing of this work showed that Hemingway could still achieve his peak, whether or not the reviewers and critics or the public could appreciate the true value of his works.
2. The Background
The Old Man and the Sea is about an o ld man’s life. Hemingway’s life was active and adventurous, but it was full of pains, though. The First and the Second World Wars had affected Hemingway a lot, he had once joined the army and had been injured in Italy, and he suffered a lot. He was disappointed with the world and pessimistic about the fate of the man. In his early days’ novel, The Sun also rises depicts the war, describing the bewilderment of the European and American young people, then he was looked down upon by someone around him and some writers[1]. “You are all the generation that has been at a loss.” So, seeking way out and the understanding of life is the theme that Hemingway wanted to explore. He was unyielding, so he created the “the character of unyielding man”. From all Hemingway’s works, we can find that when Hemingway chose personage, he especially liked to choose beggar, hunter, solider and so on, they could protect their dignity by resisting with the world which is full of hostility, they maintain a graceful demeanour under great force, but on target. The characters of the protagonist are different from that of the early days’ novel. For example, the leading character Jordan in For whom the Bell Tolls is a hero who devotes himself to the career he incites the evil force, which reflects the cherished desire for opposing the fascism war of the people, which is full of wide social meaning and the time’s breathe. All leading characters in his novels show: he was an unyielding man, and has the desire to be the best, all these can be improved by a strong mind.
The distinctive writing style of Hemingway is his iceberg theory and symbolism. The novel is like an iceberg, the one-eighth reveals above the water, the other seven-eighths hide deeply in the water, which needs the reader himself to understand. In other words, one has to
keep a close eye on Hemingway’s words and reading between the lines because of his highly symbolic language.
3. The Symbolism in the book
3.1 The Old Man— the unyielding character
The Old Man and the Sea is about an old fisherman Santiago who fights with nature. Not catching a fish for eighty-four days, he still keeps on trying without being despaired. He goes far out into the sea and catches a huge marlin after three days’ patient sailing. On his way home sharks come and attack, Santiago tries his best to fight but fails to prevent the marlin from being eaten. In the end he returns with nothing but the skeleton of the fish. Many people hold the view that the novel is about the life of Hemingway himself. Poor and unlucky, but he is not easily defeated, though.
The old man goes fishing lonely, his eyes are blue like the sea, never depressed. At the beginning of the novel, the old man just catches up “misfortune”. In eighty- four days, he has not caught a single fish. As a fishing man, that is unlucky. The boy who spends a long time with him also has to leave. Hemingway had once joined in the Second World War and the Spanish War. The society after war is out of order. The fantastic phenomenon of the war and the society brought deep spiritual injury to Hemingway, which can be said that he survived the war after many perils [2]. We find that, after For whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway did not publish any important article, Across the River and Into the Trees suffered criticism again. Numerous critics even affirmed Hemingway’s intelligence had already exhausted, he had nothing fresh to say, and such situation is so alike the circumstance of the old man at the beginning.
In order to prove he is a “geezer”, the old man must catch a big fish, concerning dignity and honor. To Hemingway, he must write works that is the best in all his life. The old man thinks that “eighty-fifth” is a lucky day, “I can seize a big fish of one thousand pounds”. After the old man catches the biggest fish that he has never seen, he has already exhausted, his hands are not only deserted, but also full of scars.
In my opinion, the words “a loser who can not be defeated” can’t be departed from enquiring into the dual personality of Hemingway. At the beginning, the old man sail to sea every day, but he has not caught a fish in eighty-four days, this kind of failure is out of luck enough, and the little boy’s departure makes the old man’s circumstances more miserable, but in such situation, the old man reveals the unyielding character perfectly: When his big fish has been eaten by the shark with skeleton surplus rested, he asks himself: “ What defeated you?” “Nothing…it is me who goes too far.” The old man admits his failur e bravely, but he believes his own ability absolutely [3]. He believes even though he fails, he is still brave incomparably, and has not been defeated by the shark in spirit, he does not lose heart, because he believes that “Once he has been defeated, the thing is easy.” Hemingway does not tell the story simply, but reveal his living experience, emotion and thought symbolically.
3.2 The Boy— the Supplement for the Old Man
The little boy plays a very important part in The Old Man and the Sea. The boy learns fishing from the old man from five years old, the features of the boy shows the old man’s character from another side, though he was little, he is not childish. He not only learns the capability of fishing, but also the spirit.
The boy is leaving, the old man is unwilling to let the boy feel embarrassed, so he does not let the boy follow him, he does not let the boy affected by his bad luck, the boy insists coming back for several times, though the reality confirmed the failure of the old man，the old man declined for many times, but which can not hold back the child. He is not afraid of failure and faces the failure bravely, because in the boy’s heart, the old man is a “wonderful fisher” and different from others. He is the power source of the unyielding man who never bows to difficulties. The old man is under the boy’s encouragement, he realizes that: “If the boy is not here, I have been died out already.” The child brings happiness and hope. Hemingway reveals sympathy to the weak man and scorn the rich, so the child makes decision to return to the side of the old man when the old man feels lonely and sad. The return of the boy reveals that he turns a blind eye to the authority of his father and the superstition to the fate. The image of the boy is the elaboration of the writer in making out the line of the story，and the information that the boy reflects is beyond the information that
the writer hopes on the fish，the old man and sea. The boy helps him when the others deserts. “If the boy were here”. The s tory mentions it for nine times, which symbolizes that the child is the strength for the weak man when he fails and is disappointed [4].
To Hemingway, man has the power to struggle for life, no matter what result may be. According to him, human beings are not totally hopeless in the world. Even though he knows that the human struggle is useless in face of the natural forces, he encourages people to strive. In this sense, Hemingway’s philosophy of life is the further and heroic development of the naturalists. In addition, Hemingway’s philosophy of life is also helpful to the people today. When faced with the difficulties and setbacks in life, many people complain about the fate and chance; they feel depressed, losing hope towards life. This is not the right attitude towards life. Hemingway tells us that a man should face and overcome the difficulties in life with decency, dignity, and heroism. This is Hemingway’s ideal of manhood, and Santiago is the perfect representative of Hemingway Code Hero. So we should learn from Santiago. When we suffer from the setbacks in life, we should fight against them to the end despite the pain, and display great grace and courage during the battle. This is just the right attitude we should have towards life.
3.3 The Sea —Heming way’s Survival Environment.
The sea is the symbol that stands for the world and society where man lives. The sea is boundless, full of various marlins and sharks. And the sea is cruel, just like the real world where Hemingway lives. It is the substance world that the old man depends on, it is all content of his living, the sea prepares the mystical big fish, it supplies a place to reveal the old man’s courage, the sea means a lot. The old man always takes the sea as a woman, but it often swallows some stron g birds. So in the old man’s opinion, the sea is cruel, and he reveals resentful manner to the cruel sea and sympathy with the weak birds. Connecting the reality of American at that time, we can see the democratic power was suffered oppression cruelly, all the Americans were covered by the atmosphere of worrying and being nervous, but as sharp eyes, the writer wants to expose the recreancy of the people at that time.
When living alone at the sea, the old man saw the sun arising and setting, being a couple with the fish and bird, talking with the wind and the sea, he becomes one part of the sea. “The sea is kind and very beautiful.” At last, it gives a big fish to the old man. But th e sea is also cruel. The old man’s loneness and happiness, fight and failur e are connected with the sea[5]. The relationship between the old man and the sea is not only relying on the sea, but also fighting with the sea. He not only gains living conditions, living technique, but also gains friends and opponent. The sea is his living and battle field, it also will be his last destination, and it has a very important relation with Hemingway. Hemingway is a writer who only describes the man, and he has no works known as taking the woman as a leading role, as one comment has said: The woman he wrote was not real, because his mother’s chaste, arrogant and willful character affected Hemingway. This reality made Hemingway restless and suffered, and then the concentration of spirit became a good medicine that cures his inner heart. So the “kind and beautiful sea” became ideal portrait of his inner heart.
In the novel, Santiago battles nobly to earn the treasure, and then fights against sharks to save the treasure. The struggle defines him as a real hero. Though he loses the marlin in the end, he has won the sea battle and honored himself.
The sea is just like the society. Like the sea too, the society contains many hidden treasures. A true man must have sufficient will and courage to find the treasures and fight the predators. The heroic man will regard the struggle not as a burden, but as a challenge that prove his courage, and he should fight it on to the end even in the price of his life. I think the fight with the marlin is in fact the fight between the writer and the troubles in the society at that time.
4. Hemingway’s Philosophy of Life
4.1 Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Society Reflected through the Symbol of the Sea
Sea stands for the world all men live. Men should fight for the treasures and against dangers Hemingway think Santiago gets nothing within 84 days, is laughed by all the people, considered as a loser, but he still insists on going fishing without complaining to the sea and
reminds the old time when he attained a lot from the sea. The author explains to us that we should not hate the world we are in although it is cruel sometime. What is more, he does not agree with those people who give up or just wait for the miracles happen to improve their lives. Man must know what they want and try his best to fight and protect it as what the author did in his life. Hemingway is thought by society that he has run out of his intelligence in literary, but he did not lose his hope and continue with his career[6]. Finally The Old Man and the Sea comes up. Hemingway never gives up searching for his treasures in the world and finding it in the end because he knows the world, it is just like the sea with full of dream and nightmare, he knows the world is fair just like the sea. Both Santiago and Hemingway show to us that world is cruel but worth fighting for. The world is beautiful whenever it offers you treasures or dangers. Do not lose hope and complain to the world but win your honor with your fight.
4.2Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Enemy Reflected through the Symbol of Shark
Shark is the dark force in the novel, the shark that comes first and alone is different from the other sharks which eat up the old man’s marlin together. I think this shark stands for the first reporter who announces Hemingway fail to succeed any more. In the novel, the old man fights with this shark fairly. This shark is described as a warrior by Hemingway, he is huge, powerful and beautiful. It is he who drives the old man’s emotion to protect his marlin. And the first shark even dies as a warrior. Hemingway put a lot of focus to describe his death to show he is special. The first shark wins the old man’s respect even they are enemies a nd one of them must fail in the price of his life. We can see that Hemingway respect the first one who dare to hold a battle with him because he know it need a lot of courage. Shark is the dark force in the novel, but Hemingway put Some study shows the shark stand for the literary reporters in Hemingway’s time, I do agree.
To the opposite, the other sharks are the true evil force and ignored by the old man. They are thieves with no courage to fight along. Comparing with the first shark, they are small, ugly and cold-blood. The old man looks down upon these sharks. As for Hemingway himself, the shark symbolizes the reporters who come up to talk about his failure. Hemingway hates these who have no thought but just follow other’s opinion to show their
intelligence. They want nothing but money just like the shark want meat to survive. They are not worth fighting and only can be ignored.
5. My Conclusion
The Old Man and the Sea is given high comment by both readers and critics just because of the artful and successful use of symbolism. The title is a symbol that the old man stands for the human beings and the sea symbolizes nature. Symbolism is a noted writing characteristic in The Old Man and the Sea. The old man, the sea, the marlin, the lions and so on and so forth, to a large degree has deep symbolic meanings respectively. I want to say that the book is like a complex building built with unaccountable symbols. One can get different kinds of understanding in accordance with a variety of points of views. And one also attains different kinds of symbols from several respects. In addition, by using symbolism Hemingway succeeded in reaching his goal of conveying the main theme of the story-courage is a way leading to success. In short, a man can be destroyed but not be defeated. Just as Hemingway once spoke highly of his artistic achievement in the great work that The Old Man and the Sea is the only best work during his lifelong literary creation.
Bibliography
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[5] Vernon, Alex. Soldiers once and still: Ernest Hemingway [M].Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2004.
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