英语文学赏析1-English Novels

Main Terms of English Novels
Character Protagonist Antagonist Climax Conflict Diction Flashback
How tograsp…
1. The five basic elements:
Plot Overview • It is the story of an epic struggle between an old, seasoned fisherman and the greatest catch of his life. For 84 days, Santiago had set out to sea and returned empty-handed. On the 85th of his unlucky streak, Santiago sailed his skiff far beyond the island’s shallow coastal waters and ventured into the Gulf Stream. He expertly hooked a big fish, a marlin, but couldn’t pull it in. instead, the fish began to pull the boat all through the day, through the night, through another day, and through another night. The entire time, Santiago endured constant pain from the fishing line and the cord cut him badly. Although wounded and weary, the old man felt a deep empathy and admiration for the marlin, his brother in suffering, strength and resolve. On the third day the fish tired and was killed by the old man. As Santiago sailed with the fish, the marlin’s blood left a trail in the water and attracted sharks. They devoured the marlin’s precious meat, leaving only skeleton, head and tail. Santiago chastised himself for going “out too far” and for sacrificing his great and worthy opponent. He arrived home before daybreak and slept very deeply. The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathered around the skeleton of the fish. Manolin worried about the old man’s absence and was moved to tear when he found Santiago safe in his bed. The old man returned to sleep and dreamed his usual dream of lions a play on the beaches of Africa.
“This is the prose that I have been working for all my life that should read easily and simply and seem short and yet have all the dimensions of the visible world and the world of man’s spirit.‖ --------Earnest Hemingway
The Old Man and The Sea
• Ernest Hemingway:1899–1961, American novelist and short-story writer, one of the great American writers of the 20th century. The Hemingway hero exercised the Hemingway theme (―grace under pressure‖): He lived in a dark, hopeless environment and knew that he was ultimately doomed however hard he struggled, but his ‖despairing courage‖ enabled him to behave as a true man and fight for his dignity in adversity. •
who what where when how why
2. Style and rhetorical devices Eg: simile or metaphor or personification Symbolization and indication, the theme 3. The way in which the author organize the story, his intention and why he does this 4. The readers’ comments on the novel
Lecture 1 English Novels
Introduction to the English Novels
The three principle elements: Character: core of a story Plot: beginning, rising action, climax and falling action Setting: social setting and natural setting
The author
• Main works:
• The Sun Also Rises (1926), he was recognized as the spokesman of the ―lost generation‖ (so called by Gertrude Stein); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Green Hills of Africa (1935); For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940),etc,. Focusing on people living essential, dangerous lives—soldiers, fishermen, athletes, bullfighters—who meet the pain and difficulty of their existence with stoic courage. His celebrated literary style, influenced by Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, is direct, terse, and often monotonous.