英文小说阅读与分析— How to Enjoy a Fiction

• Hemingway's story tells of the day that Santiago takes his skiff (boat) out much farther into the sea than usual, thinking if he goes into deeper waters he will catch a fish. Santiago ventures far into the Gulf Stream. He prepares his lines and drops them. At noon, a big fish, which Santiago knows to be a Marlin because he's a very knowledgeable and experienced fisherman, takes the bait at 100 fathoms. The old man expertly hooks the fish, but cannot pull it in. Instead, the fish begins to pull the boat. The old man, Santiago is unable to simply tie the line fast to the boat because the fish might break the line, so he holds the fish fast by himself. The strain of holding the large fish bends the old man's shoulders and back but he holds on to the line, trying to control the large Marlin fish.
The Analysis of Fiction
— How to Enjoy a Fiction? 英文小说阅读与分析
1.Plot—a sequence of interrelated actions or events
• A plan or groundwork( 基础，基本成分，基本原理) for a story, based on conflicting human motivations, with the actions resulting from believable and realistic human response.
II Factor 3 Setting — place and objects
• 2.1 Setting: The stage against which the story unfolds we call the setting. It includes the physical locale that frames the action, the time of day or year, the climatic conditions and the historical period during which the action takes place.
• The king died, and then the queen died. • The king died,and then the queen died of
grief.
5 stages of plot
• 1. Exposition • 2. Complication • 3. Crisis • 4. Falling action • 5. Resolution
• 2.2.2. Manufactured: made things always reflect the people who made them. eg, a building or a room, the decorations…
2.3 The language used in description of setting
2.2 Types of setting
• 2.2.1. Natural: nature herself is seen as a force that shapes action and therefore directs and redirects(使再回到，使折回；使改方向) lives. eg, wood, lake, high mountain, open road, ocean…
• Santiago is convinced one day he will begin to catch fish again and that he is just going through an unlucky time but his luck will change. Manolin takes the old man food and baitfish to help him to keep fishing.
来自百度文库
Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the
Sea - 1952 - Short Synopsis
• The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an epic struggle between an old man and a big fish. Santiago is the very old Cuban fisherman whose been unable to catch a fish for eighty four days. Santiago has an apprentice called Manolin. Manolin adores the old man but his parents tell him he must stop fishing with Santiago because he is not catching any fish or making any money.
• As he struggles, the old man feels a deep empathy and admiration for the marlin. He admires the courage and determination of the fish to escape. On the third day the fish tires and Santiago, exhausted, having had no sleep for three nights and in deep pain because of the strength he has had to show to control the fish somehow manages to pull the Marlin close enough to his boat for him to thrust a harpoon in its body. He kills the fish. It's the largest fish Santiago has ever seen. He lashes it to the craft, raises the small mast, and man and fish sail for home together.
• My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel ---- it is above all, to make you see.
• Santiago holds onto the fish for two days and two nights. It swims steadily northwest until at last it tires and swims east with the current. Santiago endures constant pain from the fishing line. The line is cutting into his hands, his back is strained and bent and his shoulders are exhausted with the struggle with the fish.. Whenever the fish lunges, leaps, or makes a dash for freedom, the line pulls through Santiago's hands and cuts them badly.
• Conrad became an officer on British ships and spent two decades on various ships. Conrad was inspired to write "Heart of Darkness" after voyaging to Congo in 1890. In 1894, Conrad published his first novel and in 1896 he married Jessie George, an on-again off-again girlfriend. Conrad had few friends in adulthood, mainly fellow authors such as Stephen Crane and Henry James. Conrad died of a heart attack in 1924.
• Blood pours from the wounded Marlin's body and leaves a trail of blood in the water. Sharks, attracted by the blood inevitably appear. The old man fights the sharks off as best he can. He kills a few but this attracts more sharks. When darkness falls it is impossible for Santiago to fight off the sharks anymore. They devour the Marlin, leaving only the skeleton of the fish, its head, and its tail.
--- J Conrad
• Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Kiev Province, now the Ukraine, to Apollo Korzeniowski and Eva Bobrowska. His father was a political activist and he and his family were exiled after he was suspected of involvement with revolutionary activities. Conrad had no friends as a child and rarely associated with boys or girls. His mother had always been a sickly person and died of tuberculosis in 1865. Conrad's father sent him to live with his uncle and pursue his education in France. Conrad's father died in 1869, also of tuberculosis.