英语短篇小说选读 Ernest Hemingway 海明威

“一个人并不是生来要被打败的， 你尽可以消灭他，可就是打不败 他。” （Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated）
Hemingway's Writing Style
● “Hemingway heroes”: a noble but tragic hero; fighting with the overwhelming force; though he knows that he will be defeated at last, he decides to act like a hero [海明威对命运的看法可联系古希腊悲剧的俄狄浦斯 王(Sophocles, 索福克勒斯), 而他对人物的塑造又 可联系古希腊神话中的西西弗斯(Sisyphus) ]
Ernest Hemingway
Ⅰ. A Brief Introduction
Ⅱ. Life
Ⅲ. Major Works and Writing Style Ⅳ. Theme--A Clean and Well-lighted Place
Born
Ernest Miller Hemingway July 21, 1899 Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
“The Old Man and the Sea”(《老人与海》) 1952 (In 1954, Hemingway got the Nobel Prize)
◆ symbolism Santiago – mankind; sea – nature and environment; marlin – purpose of life; shark – the evil force which control human’s fate ◆ theme: the importance of life lies in the process of searching and resistance
Ⅲ. Major Works and Writing Style
Major Works
“The Sun Also Rises” (《太 阳照样升起》) 1926
(Deep illusion of the whole generation after the WWI; the characters indulged themselves in depraved life to make themselves numb) (title of the novel: from Holy Bible P232)
Influence
• The “Lost Generation” (“迷惘的一代”)
• Tough Guy (硬汉作家)
Ⅱ. LIFE -- BORN in a small town called Oak Park in Illinois near Chicago. -- HAD a happy childhood; a lover of brutal sports, such as boxing and football in middle school --DURING the WWI, he wanted to join the army but was refused because of his poor eyesight. Then Hemingway came to Italy to work as an ambulance driver. He was seriously wounded in the battlefield. The nightmarish war experience changed his life.
Hemingway's Writing Style
● Colloquial style: influence from Mark Twain and his journalist career ◆ Concrete, specific, common-found words ◆ Simple, short, even ungrammatical sentences ◆ Direct, clear and positive style, yet highly connotative ◆ The Nobel Prize Committee praised Hemingway had “powerful style forming mastery of the art”.
“A Farewell to Arms” (《永别了，武器》)1928 (a tragic story about war and love) (Hero and heroine: Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley)
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” (《丧钟为谁而鸣》)1940 (Spanish civil war) (also a story about war and love) (the title of the novel: from John Donne’s sermons)
Spouse(s) Children
Four wives Jack, Patrick, Gregory
• Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century literature, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations.
July 2, 1961 (aged 61) Ketchum, Idaho, U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) Nobel Prize in Literature (1954)
Ⅰ. A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Died Notable award(s)
Theme is… ---Underlying meaning of the story ---A universal truth ---A significant statement made about the society, the human nature or the human condition
For the old man, Nada means hopelessness, aimlessness and meaninglessness of life, which was the exact reason for the old man’s suicide. He tried to kill himself, by which he thought he could make himself get rid of the earthly affairs.
The middle aged waiter was aware of what the old man suffered. He knew the old man’s today was his tomorrow. He knew the importance of a clean and well-lighted place to those who need a refuge to escape from loneliness. However, he had to leave the café at the end of the novel.
Ⅳ. Theme-- A Clean and Well-lighted Place
Theme is the central or dominating idea of a literary work, either implied or stated, regarding universal human behavior or condition. Author reveal themes through action and the thought of the characters as they respond to situation.
A Clean and Well-lighted Place 一个干净明亮的地方
---Hemingway‟s most compact stories. ---talks about loneliness, which Hemingway considered to be the principal tragedy of modern life. ---Nada (Nothingness) was an important theme of this story. Nearly all the characters live in Nada.
Iceberg Theory (冰山原则)
• Iceberg theory originated from a short speech of Hemingway: “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being above water． ”
-- AFTERR the war, he still worked as a reporter. He was sent to Paris and knew Pound, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson and some other famous writers who encouraged him to write.
-- HE also worked as a war reporter in the Spanish Civil War and the WWII.
-- HE is a tough guy with rather masculine manner. In all his life, he loved tough games, such as boxing, hunting, deep-sea fishing, bullfight and so on. He was injured many times. In all the operations, 237 steel fragments were taken out from Hemingway’s body. He also suffered 3 car accidents and 2 air crushes. He was admired as a hero by lots of people and his life style was imitated. -- IN 1961, Hemingway shot himself with gun in his home.
It can be read as a footnote to The Sun Also Rises. In this novel stands the Hemingway hero, an average man of decቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱdedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent, a man of action, and one of few words. And also here is an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-discipline in a dreadful place where one can not have happiness. This work caught the mood of the post-war generation, and brought international fame to young Hemingway.