老人与海的象征意义

An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea1An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the SeaIntroductionThe author of The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway was a physician, and his mother Grace HallHemingway was a musician. Both were well-educated and well-respected in the conservative community of Oak Park. The family owned a summer home called Windermere on Walloon Lake, near Petoskey, Michigan, which they visited during the summers. There Hemingway learned to hunt, fish, and camp in the woods and lakes of Northern Michigan. His early experiences with nature instilled a lasting passion for outdoor adventure, living in remote or isolated areas, hunting and fishing. His variety of interest, especially the love of fishing extremely affected all his life and he drew much writing inspiration from his fishing experience. Taking adventures also plays a vital role in his life and for the reason that he experienced the two world wars. Hemingway attended World War I as an ambulance driver of Red Cross. He received the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery because of his prominent performance in the battlefield. He was sent to Europe for a long time. He joined World War and Spanish Civil War as a journalist. All these rich experiences brought much material to his writing.He worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist. During his high school time he attended The Kansas City Star as a reporter, where he learned that the truth was often beneath the story. Although he worked at the newspaper for only six months, he established his writing style that short sentences and short first paragraphs were used and positive but not negative attitude was presented in his reports. After published many famous works, he developed his own writing style. Since 1940 he did not issue any works for ten years. As a mouthpiece of “the lost generation”, Hemingway suffered cold shoulder and attack almost ten years in the commentary An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea2field. In order to save the desperate situation, Hemingway wrote a work that he firmly believes to be the best works in his life, which was called The Old Man and the Sea, which is the inheritance and development of Hemingways unyielding character. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature because of his mastery of the art of modern narration. Hemingways writing style is that meaning is established through dialogue, through action, and silences and few themes or comments are described explicitly. The Iceberg Theory of Hemingway advocated that the hard facts and the main structure floating above the sea were written and all others were omitted.In the early 1950s, the Cuban people movement for national independence and liberation gradually reached its peak. Hemingway was living in Cuba at that time and was inspired by heroic Cuban people unyielding and indomitable spirit of tenacious struggle. What he saw and heard constantly in Cuba stimulated his creative inspiration and passion.1 A brief introduction to The Old Man and the SeaThe Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingways most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeala relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Written in 1952, this hugely successfully novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a huge part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.Santiago was an impoverished fisherman. All possessions he owned were his shabby suits and the shack he lived at. And the shack only contained a table, a chair, a bed and an oven. Much worse thing was that Santiago had been without catching a fish for 84 days. In first 40 days he was accompanied by a little boy, Mandolin. But the boy was forced to leave him on account of his parents thinking of the worst luck of the old mans skiff. Though be forced to leave him, the boy often helped Santiago take fishing gear from the shore to his shack and admired him for his fishing skills. An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea3However, in Terrace Santiago was always derided by local villagers. Santiago was full of wrinkles in the back of neck and brown blotches in his cheeks, but his eyes were incredibly cheerful and undefeated. Sometimes the old man would discuss the baseball with the boy and talk of DiMaggio, the greatest baseball player in his mind.After woke up in the morning, Santiago left his shack and went Mandolins home. He woke up the little boy and then they had a coffee in a restaurant. The boy assisted the old man with taking fishing gear and Santiago set out. By observing the bird to catch fishes and schools of small fishes he successfully got a ten-pound albacore tuna. Later a huge marlin commenced striking his bait and after a turn she ate his bait. From that moment on the marlin dragged his skiff for one day. During the course his forehead was injured.As sunrise came, Santiago entered the second day of the journey. There were some fishes that took his baits when the huge marlin was drawing his skiff. But he cut off the line immediately and made it fasten to the reserve coils. At last there were six reserve coils prepared for the gigantic marlin. Through many monologues and thinking of DiMaggio or his own experiences he endured all agonies successfully.The sun rose for the third time and the old man was pleased to see that the fish began to circle. He felt faint and managed to keep his mind clear. The marlin was stabbed by his harpoon eventually and Santiago made it fasten to the skiff. The fresh blood of the marlin drew attention of sharks. These hateful sharks attacked his game five times. The old man battled against sharks with all tools and force. The hero sailed into the harbor with an immense skeleton of his catch. He furled the sail and shouldered the mast alone. 2 Symbolisms and The Old Man and the SeaSymbolism is an approach writers often employ in their writing. It is an approach that sort of concrete objects are used to express minds or some pretty meaningful theories of writers. There are no necessary relationships between these concrete things and minds or theories that writers intend to express. However, when readers read An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea4these concrete things that portrayed in their works, it will arouse their association and help readers comprehend their minds and theories through their characteristics. Writers often employ something be familiar with people to convey their special meanings according to traditions or customs. For example, the color red means happiness and the dove is a symbol of peace in China. The writing approach of symbolism makes abstract and complicated meanings or theories easier to be understood, extends association of readers and enhances effect of writings.Hemingway grew in the time that symbolism was embodied and expanded from circle of poet into the field of literature. Hemingway himself also thought that the novel should be 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 Hemingways words and reading between the lines because of his highly symbolic language. The theme and the description of The Old Man and the Sea is very simple, because it reveals only one -eighth on the face, the rest seven-eighths are hidden, when reading carefully and learning about the culture and situation at that time, you can understand the real hidden part by the writer. Gao Heshun thinks that Hemingway believed as a good writer, he didnt need to reveal the action or characters clearly; obscurity can give us the aesthetic sense. (Gao Heshun, 2005)The plot of the novel is pretty simple. The novel is mainly portrayed through Santiagos monologues and recollection. There is little description about Santiagos life. Authors could have depicted abundantly the background of the little fishing village and characteristics of each man in novel in other great works, but he did not. Hemingway inclined to portray his work implicitly and describe things objectively. He objected to making comment on the heros feeling or the theme of novel directly. In the novel he only portrayed characters and their actions, which is known as one-eighth iceberg above the sea. The other seven-eighths are omitted and it is that lead all readers to read the work from individual perspective and get a different conclusion related to their conditions of life. Symbolism makes the novel concise but abundant in meaning. The concrete things in the novel can stand for many realistic things. An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea53 An analysis of symbolic meanings in The Old Man and the SeaThere are many symbols in this story, such as the old man, the boy, the sea, the shark, the marlin and etc. This paper only focuses on the important symbols and analyzes the deep meanings of them.3.1 Symbolic meanings of the seaThe sea stands for the world we live in. We live in the world just like a skiff floating in boundless sea. Sometimes she is peaceful and we can live with happiness. Like the old man Santiago, he also had ever caught many titanic fishes. Through his recollection we know he was respected by local villagers for his defeating the strongest black man of the harbor. Sometimes we are teased by the world. Santiago had been without caught a fish for eighty-four days. Clinton wrote that for the bird who rests on his line and for other creatures who share with him such a capricious and violent life, the old man feels friendship and love.(Clinton S.Burhans, JR, 2003) Although he was confident about his own fishing skills and endured the intolerable tiredness, he lost his game in the way home eventually. Also we are disturbed by the unpredictable world. Though the poisonous man-of-war was the most falsest creature in the sea, it was nice food for turtles. “The turtles saw them, approached them from the front, then shut their eyes so they were completely in carapace and ate the filaments and all.”(Ernest Hemingway, 2007) But the hateful sharks would cut the turtles legs and flippers off when the turtles were sleeping on the surface of the sea. And little fishes would be eaten by tunas. All scenes that portrayed in the novel lead readers to relationships among human beings in contemporary world. In this world each people are connected with their interests. The people of upper class take up all kinds of resources of society. In contrast the people of lower class strive for a better life but in vain. The sea is something that Santiago must rely on. He could not live without the sea and the sea is his resource of life. It is also true of us. Though cannot An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea6predict what will happen to us, we also have to struggle in this world.3.2 Symbolic meanings of the marlinThe marlin here represents all wonderful things that human beings have pursued for thousands of years. Though the old man had been without catching a fish for eighty-four days, he still sailed his skiff to sea in eighty-fifth day with confidence. He told himself continuously that today was a lucky day. It is also true of human history. From ancient times to contemporary society, human beings encountered endless catastrophes and were frequently destroyed in the course of development, but we never lost our confidence. With the tenacious will human-beings have made great progresses in all aspects of society. After his skiff were dragged for two and a half days later, Santiago made the huge marlin fasten to his skiff. Unfortunately his game was attacked by sharks five times. With all tools can be used he fought against these hateful sharks. During the process he was injured severely and disturbed by tiredness. Finally, he just got a skeleton as his game when he reached his shack. We can infer that though human-beings have a brilliant future, we would confront a large number of obstacles.Many people believe that the novel is about the life of Hemingway himself. Because some parts of the story do relate to what Hemingway has experienced in his life. Tan Xiaoping holds that the course of fishing is a symbol of the process of creating a great work.(Tan Xiaoping, 2007) According to the condition of the author Hemingway, the marlin also stands for a great work. He published several masterpieces from1920s to 1940s and was known as brave soldier in the World War I. But he did not fulfill anything in all 1940s.These ten years was a period of dark time for Hemingway. A large number of critics and his fans were upset about his condition in literature. In 1950, he issued the work Across The River and into The Trees. The work let all readers down and many critics criticized the novel with sharp tone. All of these made Hemingway feel desperate. But it was unexpected that he published the most famous masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea. From the plot of novel we can take the old mans fishing course as a process to create a great work. The marlins An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea7choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. Santiago thought fishing was a thing that he was born for. Hemingway was a writer and his duty was to create great work in the world. A writer should endure intolerable loneliness and stay somewhere that far away from the world. From details mentioned above we also discover that the marlin has a symbolic meaning of a great work.3.3 Symbolic meanings of the old manAfter read the description of the fights among the old man, the marlin and sharks, all readers would have a vivid image in their mind. The image portrays course of the development of human-beings. The novel is a song of the great spirit of human-beings. Though Santiago was a thin, old man and disturbed by previous injuries in his body, he behaved bravely and strongly as a hero when he met sharks. The old man had strong will consistently during the process of fishing in the sea. Santiago had been without caught a fish for eighty-four days. However, he adhered to setting out for fishing again with his confidence and hope and reached the place that others never went. From the plot above we can see fearlessness of the old man. After the big marlin ate his bait, he persisted in following the marlin for two days and two nights in spite of his bleeding right hand and cramping left hand. With his striking courage and will he made the marlin fast to his boat and killed the marlin finally. The scene also showed his pretty tenacious will. At last, during his way home, when he met sharks he fought against sharks one by one with all force. At last he took the skeleton of the marlin to the harbor. He fell into sleep rapidly and dreamed about lions in Africa. Lions are the symbol of courage and force. He lost his game but he never lost his heart and gave up. When human-beings are moving ahead there are also countless obstacles before them. Sometimes as they pursue the wonderful things such as science and truth, they may be damaged by these obstacles. But these great men never stop their step to move ahead. Anytime they would keep moving. All efforts they made have created the society of prosperity.Santiago also stands for lower class in Cuba. Materials of a great work come An Analysis of Symbolic Meanings in The Old Man and the Sea8from the realistic life and it is true of Hemingway. In 1950 he published the work Across The River and into The Trees and it received sharp notes from critics. But after eight weeks he issued The Old Man and the Sea. Common views think that Hemingway was inspired by the striking spirit of Cuba people struggling for independence. Patricia insist that Santiago is drawn from the class of impoverished Cuban fishermen whom Hemingway had known for two decades.(Patricia Dunlavy Valenti, 2007)While he was living in the downtown of Havana, struggle for independence of Cuba reached its peak. In the novel Santiago is not only an ordinary and old fisherman, but also a representative of lower class in Cuba striving for changing of current status. For his great marlin Santiago should be far out to sea and battled with sharks. Also people of Cuba should fight against all kinds of evil force. The spirit of Cuban people cannot be destroyed just as the fisherman Santiago. We can also take the old man as a symbol of religious spirit. In the novel he said Ay aloud when Santiago saw the second shark. And he felt the nail go through his hands and into the wood. At the end of the novel, “Inside the shack he leaned the mast against the wall. In the dark he found a water bottle and took a drink. Then he lay down on the bed. He pulled the blanket over his shoulders and then over his back and legs and he slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up.” (Ernest Hemingway, 2007) The posture of Santiago just liked Jesus nailing in the cross. After got through hardship, the old man would get the spiritual victory.3.4 Symbolic meanings of the boySantiago did not catch a fish for eighty-four days and still set out for fishing. The only boy followed him was called back by his parents. He went far out to sea and got a huge marlin with great efforts, but encountered a pack of sharks attacking his game. All these portrayals reflect the old mans strong will never to give up, which the author tried to convey us. Meanwhile, there are a great number of signs that show repeatedly his sorrow and agonies. These signs include his sighing at the boy who is not around him and his old