Tough Guy’s Fragile Mentality – Effects of Life Experiences on Ernest Hemingway and His The Old Man and the Sea 心理的坚强与脆弱——论海明威人生经历对其自身及其作品《老人与海》的影响

1、 山东财经大学本科毕业论文(设计)题目： 心理的坚强与脆弱 论海明威人生经历对其自身 及其作品老人与海的影响 学 院 外国语学院 专 业 英语 班 级 英语0902 学 号 2009110113 姓 名 指导教师 山东财经大学教务处制二一三年五月山东财经大学学士学位论文原创性声明本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是本人在导师的指导下进行研究工作所取得的成果。除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的研究成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。本声明的法律结果由本人承担。学位论文作者签名： 年 月 日山东财经大学关于论文使

2、用授权的说明本人完全了解山东财经大学有关保留、使用学士学位论文的规定，即：学校有权保留、送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查阅，学校可以公布论文的全部或部分内容，可以采用影印或其他复制手段保存论文。指导教师签名： 论文作者签名： 年 月 日 年 月 日tough guys fragile mentality effects of life experiences on ernest hemingway and his the old man and the sea by zhu binunder the supervision ofhan huixiasubmitted in partial ful

3、fillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor of artsschool of foreign studiesshandong university of finance and economicsmay 2013acknowledgmentsit would not be possible for me to complete the thesis without the generous help of many. first and foremost, i would like to take this opportuni

4、ty to convey my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor miss han huixia, under whose supervision i have obtained valuable ideas and precious suggestions. she is very intelligent on thesis instruction and also shows her great patience to me during my writing. i also want to thank all the

5、teachers in the school of foreign studies of shandong university of finance and economics for their beneficial courses i have attended during my college life. besides, i owe my deep thanks to my writing teacher findlay nicol who encouraged me when i needed it, and to my first english teacher mrs. su

6、e hang, without whom i would never find english so interesting and useful. z. b.abstracttough guys fragile mentality effects of the life experience on ernest hemingway and his the old man and the seazhu binernest miller hemingway, whose works are highly praised by the readers at that time, is one of

7、 the greatest writers in the history of literature. experiencing in world war i, hemingway, whose writing style is himself as it were, wrote a series of images of tough guys in his works, such as santiago in the old man and the sea, robert jordan in for whom the bell tolls, and the matadors in death

8、 in the afternoon. in the thesis, chapter one aims to study hemingways living background of creating the old man and the sea, including experience of world war i and the lost generation. chapter two will analyze how the effects of the background reflect on the characters behavior, thinking, and spea

9、king in the novel from the view of symbolism. and in chapter three, it analyzes the extreme different status of his writing career and his life. at last, a conclusion is drawn about the inevitability of hemingways final tragic end.key words: ernest miller hemingway; the old man and the sea; world wa

10、r i; the lost generation; santiago; hemingways death 摘要心理的坚强与脆弱论海明威人生经历对其自身及作品老人与海的影响朱 彬欧内斯特米勒尔海明威，是人类历史上一位伟大的文学家，他的许多作品都受到了人们的广泛欢迎。曾经参加过一战的海明威，文风如其人，塑造了一系列的硬汉形象，如老人与海中的老渔夫圣地亚哥，丧钟为谁而鸣中的罗伯特乔丹，以及死在午后中的斗牛士们。本文则主要通过对老人与海作品创作的时代背景的研究，从象征主义角度来对应分析在小说中的人物语言、心理和行动的体现，进而说明海明威最后的悲惨命运的必然性。关键词：老人与海；第一次世界大战；迷失的一

11、代；圣地亚哥；海明威之死；海明威contentsacknowledgmentsiiabstract.iiiabstract in chineseivintroduction1chapter one life experience of ernest hemingway.3i. experience of world war i3ii. the lost generation4chapter two characters analyzing according to hemingways experience.7i. santiago7ii. the nameless boy10iii. the

12、 shark and difficulties it symbolized11chapter three extreme differences between hemingways life and writing career13i. summits of hemingways literary works 13ii. hemingways inevitable end of his life13conclusion.16works cited.17introductionernest miller hemingway (18991961), who lived at the turn o

13、f the 19th and 20th century, is one of the most distinguished as well as the most widely read representative novelists of “the lost generation” in american literature. he was born on july 21, 1899, in oak park, illinois and died in ketchum, idaho in 1961. he lived in a small family with his parents.

14、 his father, who was passionate for hunting and fishing, is a rector for much of his life. and so is his mother, hemingway was passionate for literature. during hemingways education and writing life, her father was the most important guide, for he helped build his brave and tough spirit. that is the

15、 reason why hemingway was so anxious to join in the army to the war. and that experience gave great contribution to his writing career.his growing environment built him a man who was passionate for adventure and fight, never willing to give up before any difficult situation. this spirit goes to his

16、works. all his works main roles are well-known as tough guys. and so is hemingway himself.the sun also rises, a farewell to arms, for whom the bell tolls, and the old man and the sea are his magnum opus. the old man and the sea brought him the pulitzer prize in 1953 and the nobel prize in 1954.“in m

17、odern world, never a reader that has read hemingway, does not know about the old man and the sea” (31), said phillips yang, a critic of america, who pointed out the important status of hemingway and his work the old man and the sea in modern literature with just several words.indeed the old man and

18、the sea has become one of hemingways biggest masterpieces in his readers hearts. “once i hold up this book, it feels like i have found the thing i have been chasing for my whole life” (james 17). many scholars have studied this masterpiece in its symbolism, hemingways “tough guy” image, or its relat

19、ionship with his war experience. in this article his living background is to be analyzed before presenting the reason for this novels coming out and its impact. and then the conclusion about his death is stated. this thesis studies the relationship between hemingways writings high summit and his lif

20、es lowest end, his suicide by analyzing his life experience and his masterpiece the old man and the sea. in addition to introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters. the first chapter briefly introduces life experiences of hemingway, including the experience of world war i and

21、the lost generation. the second chapter analyses the main characters in his the old man and the sea, to explain their symbolic meaning in hemingways life. the third chapter discusses the inherent connection between hemingways death and his literary achievement and reveals the reason why he committed

22、 suicide.chapter one life experience of ernest hemingwayernest hemingway is a great giant of modern literature. among twentieth-century american novel writers, his work is often compared to that of his contemporaries such as william faulkner and f. scott fitzgerald. combined with his outstanding sho

23、rt stories, hemingways four major novels the sun also rises (1926), a farewell to arms (1929), for whom the bell tolls (1940), and the old man and the sea (1952) comprise a great contribution to modern fiction that is far greater than others such as fitzgerald and faulkner. his great achievement sta

24、rted with his early young time.hemingway was born in a doctors family in july 21, 1899, chicago illinois. he had a literature-loving mother and a hunting-loving father, both of whom had great influence on his following life. he held great passions for literature under his mother, and he liked outdoo

25、r activities and adventure because of his father. we could believe that a job combined with literature and adventure would be his ideal one. so after six months work in a local newspaper, he joined the army as a journalist when world war i broke out to fulfill his teenage dream.i. world war iat the

26、very beginning of world war i, hemingway took active part in applying for army, but failed because of his eye problem. he managed to join in the red cross to serve others.hemingway got wounded twice during the war time, one of which made him have to operate for 12 times to get out the shrapnel from

27、his body, and there were still some of them left. his spine, brain, liver and kidney all had been wounded seriously. he was honored the cross medal, the silver medal by the italian government. accompanying with these honors was the demonic war memory that never faded away and wounds.those adventurou

28、s and legendary experiences led him to thinking about mans fate. it brought him not only terrible memories and endless pain, but also strengthened his character of a real tough guy. when he was still young, he loved adventures and challenges. the war enhanced that passion. and then he drew a conclus

29、ion: that is the unique hemingway-style tough guy who can be defeated but never destroyed. santiago in the old man and the sea was the best representative. a lot of his famous works were written upon these war experiences, such as the sun also rises, a farewell to arms, for whom the bell tolls, and

30、the old man and the sea. what they had in common was that all of them carried on hemingways strong personality and undefeated will as a “tough guy”.at the same time, wars negative impact also influences hemingway in his life, which played a very important role in his final fate in an undetected way.

31、 whatever the aim is, and however publicized, a war is always cruel, terrible, and inhuman. “military acts of any country, are ultimately for its own national and economic profits” (tang). war is one of the necessary means to achieve national profits. even though the war is waged on the pretext of d

32、efense or peace, their true aim is for their own good at the cost of innumerable innocent peoples lives and homes.the shock between ideal and reality on his mind hurt himself. he was never afraid of death and he was willing to fight for others good. during the war, he once planned to drive a launch

33、to sink the enemys submarine in a suicide way. but after his desperate fight, he found him deceived by the government.anyone experienced this dark thing had shadows in his heart. for hemingway, these appeared obviously when he returned from war field.ii. the lost generationliterature of “the lost ge

34、neration” is tightly connected with the name of ernest hemingway. it is a middle school literature between the realistic one and the modernist one which appeared in america after world war i. it has no common program or fixed organizations. but most writers of them has the same experience. themselve

35、s or their relatives mostly had been to the war and came back with strong anti-war sentiments.having witnessed the hypocritical western civilization, they lost their dreams and faith. they could not find their way out this confusion. they thought war was for justice and for most peoples good. but wh

36、en they met the truth, that war was for some peoples private benefits at the price of innocent peoples lives, they found that their meaning of life and value, was opposite to the common society. they were fooled. they believed they were sacrificing for all the others but to find out that was for som

37、e interest groups and a few people. they got confused between their ideal and the reality because they did not know which was really right and meaningful.their works are always describing peoples miserable experience of suffering the war physically and mentally. they try to break the traditional rul

38、es and achieve the innovation by using modernism expression such as symbolism and stream of consciousness. according to all of these, a female american writer, stein appraised these young writers including hemingway as “the lost generation”.in a moveable feast, which was published after both hemingw

39、ay and stein were dead and after a literary feud that lasted much of their life, hemingway reveals that the phrase was actually originated by the garage owner who serviced steins car. when a young mechanic failed to repair the car in a way satisfactory to stein, the garage owner shouted at the boy,

40、“you are all a gnration perdue.” stein, in telling hemingway the story, added, “that is what you are. thats what you all are . all of you young people who served in the war. you are a lost generation.” (stein 26) hemingway appreciates it so much that he uses it as one of the autographs of his first

41、novel the sun also rises, whose success does a lot of help for the “lost generation” to spread like wildfire.a lot of young men like faulkner, passos, and hemingway, joined in the war with wishes of hope, democracy and freedom. that was what they thought the war was for. but when they had witnessed

42、the massacre in the war and all the killing and hurting, they felt they had been deceived. they did not believe the “democracy”, “honor”, or “sacrifice” any longer because they found the war in fact was for the small groups benefits. they gave up their traditional value and belief. the things they u

43、sed to chase were just a lie. they were used by the upper class to fulfill personal interests. they felt lost because they were aimless. they were generally known as “the lost generation”. personally for hemingway himself, he is living aimlessly because what he used to believe is proved a lie. the s

44、ame thing goes with santiago in this novel. for a good fisher, having not caught anything for 84 days was a terrible nightmare. santiago was quite depressed. he once almost gave up. santiago used to be very famous for his great experience on the sea. that is like hemingways well-known medal of honor

45、 he got rewarding his brave actions. they both are successful in the past, and meet difficulties now. hemingway himself is lost and can not figure himself out. so he gives his wishes in his novel.chapter twocharacters analyzing according to hemingways experiencesin this chapter, it mainly examines e

46、rnest hemingways masterpiece the old man and the sea through comparing the characterization of this novel with its symbolism. the novel seemingly told a tough guy story, but in fact it reflected hemingways own mentality and similar experience. the only difference lies at the end in that santiago fin

47、ally made it but hemingway himself somehow failed.i.santiago the major role in this novel, santiago, who failed to catch any fish for 84 days, is usually seen as hemingway himself. he is in the same state as hemingway. having lost hope for life, he does not know what to do and how to live his life i

48、f he still catches no fish. that is what the lost generation did.he was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the gulf stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. in the first forty days a boy had been with him. but after forty days without a fish the boys parents had told

49、 him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. (hemingway 9)the sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defea

50、t. (hemingway 9)this described a wretched appearance. for a fisherman, fish is his bread and butter, and the main job of his life. santiago failed. he could not catch fish. that means he failed the aim of his life, too. and this was exactly the place where hemingway thought himself was. young writer

51、s of the lost generation were all in the similar situation. they went into the battle with ideals of democracy and freedom, and they sacrificed themselves for cheating slogans. they wrote novels to release their emotions of disappointment and disillusionment. here hemingway revealed himself by santi

52、ago. being tortured by endless physical pain and lost in mentality means quite a challenge for a tough guy who never gives up, the same important as fishing nothing for such a long time for a fisherman. on the other hand, hemingways tough guy spirit and strong will also showed on santiago.the old ma

53、n 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. the blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fis

54、h on the cords. but none of these scars were fresh. they were as old as erosions in a fishless desert. everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. (hemingway 13)the old man was “thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back o

55、f his neck”, and “the blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords”. these described how poor santiago was, and how hard his life was. “deep-creased scars” also meant lot. it is like some of hemingways wounds and scars he

56、 gets during the war which reminds him of the terrible days. maybe it also hurts as hemingways does.and when santiago was fighting this big marlin, he acted as a “tough guy”. that is how hemingway did in the war and his whole life, and he gave it to santiago in the novel.just then the fish gave a sudden lurch that pulled the old man down onto the bow and would have pulled him overboard if he had not braced himself and given some line. the bird had flown up when the line jerked and the old man had not even seen him go. he felt the line carefully w