英语专业---本科毕业论文

.xx大学xx学院本 科 毕 业 论 文Heroism in Earnest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea 学院外国语学院专业英语年级学号姓名指导教师成绩OutlineThesis: The Old Man and the Sea is highly commended an old fishermans heroism through the description of his unfortunate fate and optimist and brave spirit to battle with the natural world, difficulties and adversities.Brief IntroductionA. Introduction of the Author Earnest HemingwayB. The Generalization of the NovelC. Brief Introduction of Heroism and Its Embodiment.Four Plots Expressing Heroism in the NovelA. Struggling with Alone LifeB. Fishing Big Marlin at SeaC. Battling with Ferocious SharksD. Having New Dream.Important Reasons on Heroism Based on the NovelA. Extraordinary CharacterB. Enduring StaminaC. Great BraveD. Usual Mood.ConclusionHeroism in Earnest Hemingways The Old Man and the SeaEarnest Hemingway (1899-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a prosperous suburb of Chicago in 1899, the first son and second child of a prominent family. His father, a physician, was an enthusiastic hunter and fisherman. His mother was an opera singer, voice teacher, and feminist.Earnest Hemingway is one of most outstanding America novelists and short story writers in the 20th century. He took part in World War I and World War . “These wars made him serious wound both in his body and mind. He felt disappointed with the world and fates of men”. (Cohen 10) Then, he began to write his own experiences and feelings about the world. So he is regarded as a productive writer, with 6 novels: In Our Time (1925), The Torrents of Spring (1926), The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and the Sea (1952); and more than 50 short stories, such as Men without Women (1927), The Winner Take Nothing (1933), The Fifth Column and First Forty-Mine Stories (1938); and many poems published in his lifetime. His works have been translated into 41 languages. His reputation was firmly established with the publication of The Sun Also Rises, a novel of the “lost generation” (Joseph 13). In 1952 he published The Old Man and the Sea that was a novella for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.Hemingway published his last novel The Old Man and the Sea in 1952. “He once lived in Cuba and he often went to deep water to catch fish”. “He was an experienced fisherman” (詹志 20). So in The Old Man and the Sea, the old man of the title, named Santiago, was a hero described so minutely and vividly. The novel is not very long in length, and it is not very complicated in plots either.Santiago is an old fisherman who is the leading character of this novel. He is poor, lonely and unlucky. In his daily life, the only one person who cares for him and helps him is a young boy. He lives on fish, so he has to go out for fishing alone at sea sometimes. But his luck is very bad. He goes out for eighty-four days, but he does not catch any fish. After forty days without a fish, the boy has to leave him for another luckier boat at his parents orders. The old man is a strange-minded person with a strange temper. He never loses his heart, courage, determination and endurance in the face of marlin. Unfortunately, he and the only capture are surrounded by many fierce sharks. By the time he has reached his native harbor, there is nothing left of it except the skeleton and the bony head. The old man loses the battle with the sharks and his prize fish, but he wins a victory for himself because he knows that he fought well and he has the courage to try it again.Hemingways novels are an essential depiction of the hero and heroism. According to Hemingways code, the type of hero should have strong will to face defeat or victory without complaining or others help; the type of hero should have pride to know that one has done ones best, with the courage to act truly according to ones own nature; and the type of hero should be able to endure pain, even loss- if the loss can not be avoided. The main society can not understand and accept them, so the heroes are lonely. Although they have no friends, they still insist on keeping their own thoughts and living in a way as they want. The Old Man and the Sea is no exception.In The Old Man and the Sea, the hero is Santiago, an old fisherman. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. “But man is not made for defeat”. (Earnest Hemingway 78) This is the belief of the old mans life. So is Hemingway. Though he is in fact defeated, he wins the success in his dignity of dealing with the failure. At the same time, he is optimistic. Hemingways hero, Santiago, who is a guide to all human beings. He represents the spirit of the time. Hemingways son, Gegory, once said that “the heroes in Hemingways writings were Hemingway himself or they were the best elements in the body of Hemingway” (qtd. in Philip 231). In the novel, the old man brings to full circle Hemingways use of the mythical hero, for Santiago is again a hero with a different face. “He is a modern adaptation of the saint” (陈峰 18).There are four plots expressing heroism in the novel.Struggling with life alone is the first plot. The old man, Santiago, is an old, poor and pathetic fisherman fishing alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream.“The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. And his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old.” (Earnest Hemingway 2)From this depiction, a vivid Santiago is given to readers. His face and neck are wrinkled for many years in the sun. His hands are scarred from his battles with many fish while he is fishing. He is frail and gaunt. This is his long-year fishing life.“Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated” (Earnest Hemingway 2). He straightens up all along and holds up the dignity. In his life, he makes unremitting to do well in everything. When he is a young man, he beats the Negro, a fine man and a great athlete in the hand game through a day and a night. For a long time after that everyone has called him the champion. As he is old, he does not give up his pursuit. He sailed alone into the humanness ocean which is far from the bank.Although the old man has no family members, relatives, even many good friends, he is not really lonely in spirit. He has the boy. The old man is seen with the boy at the beginning and the end. For the rest of the time he is alone with the sea and the creatures. The boy, in return, is the protector as well as pupil providing refreshment, companionship and hope. Without him, however, Santiago will be aching lonely. In the truth, the boy is the old mans mind good company.Santiago fights in his lonely old age against the loss of his strength, his poverty and the loss of his luck. Hemingway makers clear the theme by what the old man says, “man is not made for defeat” and “a man can be destroyed but not defeated” (Earnest Hemingway 78). “What the hero does is to face adversity with dignity and grace. Wisdom, experience and an indestructible spirit make Santiago, the old fisherman, a real man” (何木英 杜平 208). Fishing a big marlin at sea is the second plot. In the beginning of the novel, Santiago has gone eighty-four days without catching a single fish. He will soon break his own record of eighty-seven days. He is really in bad luck. It is not for that he does not catch any fish, but for he has continued to fish at sea for eighty-four days. Though he used to be a very skillful and successful fisherman, now he is a loser. This time he has two roads: one is to give up fishing and the other is to keep on trying. He has to choose one from them. Under such situation people usually think that he should choose giving up fishing because of his bad luck. But which one did he choose actually? Santiago refuses to be discouraged. To him the first fruitless eighty-four days means nothing, and his hope and confidence have never gone. In his mind he never abandons the chance of success. If he can not go out into the sea, his life will become meaningless. Full of hope and confidence, he firmly believes in what he is doing now and what he will do, so he chooses the latter and decides to go fishing and to go far out into the sea. So Santiago is a brave, confident and optimistic man in his unequal life. When he faces the failure, he remains his usual mood. He struggles against defeat bravely and never gives up.When it comes to the eighty-fifth day, the old man goes out to sea again. Far out at sea, the old man has his baits out with great skill and precision. He hopefully waits for his big fish. He thinks he should fish well in the eight-fifth day. He wants to prove himself as a fisherman by fishing and challenging in nature. Having experienced all kinds of difficulties and hardships, he catches a large marlin what he has never dreamed. At that time it seems that he will soon be the conqueror of the sea.The big fish is bigger than his skiff and weighs one thousand and five hundred pounds. He takes the bait, but he chooses to stay one hundred fathoms deep down in the sea, towing the skiff forward with great calm and power. The old man is connected with the large fish through his fishing line. He can not pull the line, because the fish is very big and strong that the fishing line will break. He holds the line with great care for two days and nights. It is a bitter ordeal of his endurance and strength. For several time, the line almost breaks. During the long struggle with the marlin, he is injured badly. While controlling the fishing line, the old man thinks aloud and talks to the sea to show his inner world. In the meanwhile, he misses the boy very much, who is the only person he has little relation to. In spite of all these sufferings, the old man is full of hope and determination. “I will stay with you until I am dead”, he says to the big fish. He says to himself “I will kill him in all his greatness and his glory” (Earnest Hemingway 80). He takes his sufferings and waits for the most exciting moment to come to kill the fish. Battling with ferocious sharks is the third plot. Unluckily, when the old man returns, some groups of ferocious sharks come on his way home. And “He had gone out too far before” (Earnest Hemingway 89). At this time, Santiago is very tired but he still decides to use his last strength to fight against the sharks. The fierce sharks come to eat the marlins meat group by group. He has to do his best to fight with them bravely.First of all, a ferocious shark comes to attack his marlin. The old man kills it courageously. Because the shark is attacked by its head, which has settled and dispersed in the mile deep sea. But it is not the end of the battle; it is a beginning of another serious battle. Attracted by the sharks blood, many other sharks come one after another. Full of determination, the old man fights against many ferocious sharks although he knows that he has little hope of winning clearly. But he has never thought of giving up.“The old man was full of resolution but he had little hope. I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him.” (Earnest Hemingway 76)“But man is not made for defeat, he said. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (Earnest Hemingway 79)“Fight them, he said. I will fight them until I die”. (Earnest Hemingway 93)Heroically, Santiago fights with some sharks again and again. At last, he loses everything what can be used such as a knife and a harpoon. Moreover, he loses his hard-earned marlin. After these days struggling, the old man will return his home with nothing but a fish skeleton.According to Hemingway, a hero like Santiago should have pride in his actions. Spirit of Santiago reflects Hemingways philosophy in the life. That is: when faced with the bad, serious or miserable fate, man should not be discouraged, and he should be brave and confident to struggle with it.In the last plot, the old man has a new dream, which also occurs as the beginning of the work, “He began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come clown onto it in the early dark and then the other lions cameand he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy” (Earnest Hemingway 14).At the end of the work, the old man and the young boy prepares to have another fishing trip in the sea, and the old man dreams lions again. “The old man was dreaming about the lions” (Earnest Hemingway 105).Lions are powerful and energetic leaders of the animals in the earth. They are the symbol of struggle and success. Just as Santiago, he also loves the struggle in his own life, such as the struggle on the sea and the struggle in hand game. It is by no means that Santiago dreams of the lions twice accidentally. He only dreams lions in his dreams. In the meantime, he does his best to pursue success. He does not admit his failure just like Hemingway does.After losing the huge marlin, the old man starts his way home, with the skeleton of the fish. But he is not disappointed. He is still full of hope because he thinks that his skiff is good. Some villagers are very surprised by the size of the big fishs skeleton. They show great respect for him. Because they know what great courage and endurance are needed for an old man to catch such a fish without any help. The young boy decides to go back to the old mans boat to fish together with him. The old man will go to the sea fishing again.Generally, it is agreed in the critical world that Hemingways novel are profound into the heroism. They are essentially description of the hero, the man who by force of some extraordinary quality sets the standard. The old man and the sea is no exception. The hero is Santiago. He faces the terrible situation with grace under pressure, because he has an extraordinary character.On the one hand, the old mans appearance shows that he is a usual man. He loves his fishing occupation very much. Though he is old and has many scars, he never gives up the fishing. His blue eyes remain cheerful and undefeated after suffering.On the other hand, Santiago is brave, confident, cheerful and optimistic. There is nothing could defeat him in his life. In this novel, Santiagos inner world is very abundant. He is not only a strong man physically, but also a strong man in the mind. He has his own thoughts and views about things and life.Thirdly, when Santiago begins to sail, he resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen. “My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world.” (Earnest Hemingway 21) It shows the great pride and determination of the old man.Whats more, Santiago is a strange man. In the work, he says that he is a strange old man and he has many tricks for fishing.In the work, it is clear to see the old mans extraordinary characters, which differs from ordinary people.What about the stamina of the old fisherman? After two days and two nights bitter confrontation with the big marlin, the old man has used up nearly all of his strength in controlling. The big fish also comes to the end of his endurance. Instead of staying deep down in the sea, moving forward steadily, it comes to the surface to make its final struggle to escape. This is the moment the old man has been waiting for. He summons up all his courage and strength to fight it. During the long struggle, the old man is cut below his eyes by the heavy cord. The pain causes by the heavy line goes across Santiagos back. His left hand has a bad cramp. What a pity! At the same time, he has to endure cold and hunger and he can not sleep.The big fish circles again and again. The old man is too tired and dizzy for several times. He keeps telling himself to hold on and hold on. At last, with Santiagos enduring stamina, he kills the big fish with his harpoon to take the last strength. How enduring the stamina is! The one thousand and five hundred pounds fish is tied alongside his boat, the old man starts his way home. Though the struggle between them begins with Santiago on the disadvantageous side, he finally wins the battle.The huge marlin stands for a good creature of the nature, in contrast to the ferocious sharks standing for the evil side of the natural world. They symbolize the destructive force of the society and world. Because of the great brave, the old man is symbolized a hero of the society in that time. When Santiago is fighting with the marlin, the sea is calm and he feels good with the nature. But the sharks come and destroy the harmonization. The old man hates them very much because they are sly thieves and the deadly creatures of the deep. In contrast to his regret over killing the giant marlin, the old man delights in stabbing each shark. By protecting the dead body of marlin, Santiago can protect his own dignity and honor, for it proves his worth and vale as a professional fisherman. Even if it is a lost battle, he will not give up. He meets every challenge with firm determination. Now he is willing to die in order to battle the feeding sharks. Knowing that the danger is in front of him, he does not retreat. Instead, he accepts it with courage and endurance. It is this decision to act, to fight, and to never give up that enables Santiago to be a hero. Knowing that the struggle ends in defeat, he continues to strive.While the first shark arrives, Santiagos resolve is mentioned twice in a paragraph of the novel. The first “was full of resolution but he had little hope”. The other “He hit without hope but with resolution” (Earnest Hemingway 82). He braves