《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, please allow me to show my particularly grateful to my tutor, who helped me with the whole process of the thesis. And thanks are also extended to all the authors from whom the citations in this thesis are derived.

Secondly, I am also greatly indebted to supervisor Shi Mengmeng, who gave me wonderful ideas and patient guidance of this thesis. She has always been giving

helpful advice and research insight in and strengthening my thesis. Her patience and hardworking always inspired me so much. I have learned so much from her.

Last but not least, I will show my great thanks to my parents and my best friend, who always give me courage and confidence to let me finish the thesis. I am also grateful to all my fellow classmates and roommates for their help and care when I have difficulties in writing the thesis.

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

ABSTRACT

The Old Man and the Sea is a medium-length novel written by Ernest Hemingway in 1951. It’s one of famous opus of Ernest Hemingway’s. The novel tells us a story about the fisherman who fights against the huge fish in the gulf. The Old Man and the sea laid the foundation of Ernest Hemingway’s literary stature, and play an important role to help Ernest Hemingway to win the Nobel Prize in 1954.

A typical personalities of the characters is a essential feature to a

successful novel. A successful novel must have distinct personalities of the characters. From the novel, we can get many inspire and courage. And thus the main character Santiago becomes a typical and classical hero in the world literature.

The thesis can be divided into four chapters. The first chapter is mainly introduce the background of the the Old Man and the Sea, just like it’s

literary stature. And the second chapter is mainly talk about the background of the author and his achievement of the literary. Chapter Three mainly analyzes the heroism which is embodied by Santiago’s characteristics such like confidence, courage, moral victory and loneliness. Chapter Four focuses on the important influence of Santiago’s heroism on American in history and at present.

Key Words: heroism, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

摘 要

《老人与海》是海明威于19xx年写的一篇中篇小说，是海明威最著名的作品之

一。它讲述了一位渔夫与一条巨大的鱼在海湾中的搏斗。《老人与海》奠定了海明威在世界文学中的地位，对于他19xx年获得诺贝尔文学奖也起了重大作用。 典型的人物形象是一个成功的小说必须具有的一个特征，一个成功的小说必须具有一个鲜明的人物形象，并通过这个形象所具有的特点给读者以启示和哲理。小说主人公—桑提亚哥也成为世界文学史上经典的和代表性的英雄形象。

这篇论文被分为四个部分。第一章主要介绍了《老人与海》的写作背景，就像它的文学地位。第二章主要讲了作者的背景以及他在文学上的成就。第三章通过分析桑提亚哥的品质如自信、勇敢、道德胜利等来分析该作品中的英雄主义。第四章强调桑提亚哥的英雄主义对美国人在历史上和现实中的影响。

关键词：英雄主义，《老人与海》，桑提亚哥

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

CONTENTS

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

Chapter One the Background of The Old Man and the Sea.

1.1 The Literary Stature of the The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old

Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic character of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from lose. Written in 1952, this hugely successfully novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a huge part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Hemingway had initially planned to use Santiago's story, which became The Old Man and the Sea, as part of a random intimacy between mother and son and also the fact of relationships that cover most of the book relate to the Bible, which he referred to as "The Sea Book." (He also referred to the Bible as the "Sea of Knowledge" and other such things.) Positive feedback he

received for On the Blue Water (Esquire, April 1936) led him to rewrite it as an independent work. The book is a novella because it has no chapters or parts and is slightly longer than a short story.

The Old Man and the Sea served to reinvigorate Hemingway's literary reputation and prompted a reexamination of his entire body of work. The novella was initially received with much popularity; and many critics

favorably compared it with such works as William Faulkner's "The Bear" and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

Chapter Two the Background of the Ernest Hemingway

2.1 The Simple Introduction of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest (Miller) Hemingway (1899-1961) ,One of the most famous

American novelist, short-story writer and essayist, whose deceptively simple prose style have influenced wide range of writers. Hemingway was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was unable to attend the award

ceremony in Stockholm, because he was recuperating from injuries sustained in an airplane crash while hunting in Uganda.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois. His mother Grace Hall, whom he never forgave for dressing him as a little girl in his

youth.Hemingway's affair with an American nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, during his hospital recuperation gave basis for the novel A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1929).

2.2 The Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway

The 19th century is the century of greatest change in the European literary circles in that this is the period when a new colloquial writing style was born which was created by Mark Twain, whose use of vernacular speech revolutionized he language of American fiction.

Ernest Hemingway's writing style is very simple yet very powerful. Hemingway expressed little emotion in his writing. He said it would be too easy to do that. Instead, he tried to describe a situation so well that the reader would understand the emotion in it.

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

Chapter There Heroism Embodied in The old man and the sea

3.1 confidence and courage

From the beginning of the novel, the author describes the image of the

old man: “The old man was thin, and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of the neck. The brown blotch of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea was his cheeks. He is so poor that he nearly has nothing to eat. When he sails for fishing, he has only a bottle of water with him.

At last, Santiago sails back into harbor exhaustedly, with a skeleton of

his Marlin and a broken skiff. “She is good, he thought. She is sound and not harmed in any way except for the tiller. That is easily replaced” (Hemingway, 1997). Santiago pronounces that nothing beat him really and that his only fault is that he goes out too far. He never loses his confidence and he will go fishing next day without hesitation.

3.2 Failure and Moral Victory

In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is a failure as a fisherman in

some degree. Then he goes far to go fishing. Luckily, he gets a giant Marlin which is even longer than his skiff. However, the giant Marlin is eaten up on his way back home by many fierce sharks although he fights against the

sharks. At last, when he returns home, Santiago almost loses anything except a fish tail and a spine.

Although the Marlin swallows the baits, it is not very easy for Santiago

to catch him. “The fish made a surge that pulled him down on his face and made a cut below his eye. It is this kind of spirit that helps Santiago to be a moral victory in the fighting against the giant Marlin.

From the previous analysis, we can come to the conclusion that maybe

Santiago is a failure in fishing as well as a moral victory in fighting.

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

Chapter Five Conclusion

In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway vividly creates an image of Code Hero. Santiago emerges as a hero who reflects the author’s own life attitude. That is, to fight through the failure is inevitable and to show dignity and grace under pressure. Santiago has strong will, self-confidence and resolution to overcome all kinds of difficulties in his life. Even though he knows that he cannot win the battles, he still tries all his best to fight in order to show his dignity and courage and bravery and skill. He is a failed hero in the battle, though with his fall and failure, he wins our love and respect.

It’s important for us to have a deep understanding about Santiago’s

famous saying, after he killed the first shark: “Man is not made defeated”, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated” (The Old Man and the Sea, Page89). It not only distinctly portrays the old man’s character: his endurance,

persistence and “undefeated” spirit but also expresses the novel’s theme. It is the spirit but also expresses encourages for us to smile in the face of adversity.

We should not only appreciate the Code Hero but also try to be a man like Code Hero. What we learn from the Code Hero can help us conduct ourselves well as “bad luck” is coming, that, to show “grace under pressure” (Elegant Demeanor under Heavy Pressure, Page2). We shall never give up hopes in any difficult conditions, keep daring spirit and never admit defeat in the process of fighting; thirdly, behave heroically in the actual battle; and last, endure the loneliness in the long process of the fighting. If we did that, we can behave like the old man, and no longer be afraid of any difficult things. In our future studying and working, we will overcome difficult problems with the confidence of bounding to win.

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《老人与海》中主人公的性格分析

REFERENCE

Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea. Shanghai: Foreign Literature Press,

1997.

Ji Xiaohui, The Image in Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”. Dandong: Journal of Dandong Textile College, Vol.6 No.2, 1999.

Delberte, W. (1969). Hemingway’s heroes. New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.

Waldhorn, A. (1980). A reader’s guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son

James, R. (1982). Notes on Hemingway’s the old man and the sea. Department of

English University of Nebraska.

Rohrberger，Mary, et al. An Introduction to Literature. New York: Random, 1968. Hemingway, E. (1997). The old man and the sea. Shanghai: Foreign Literature. Hemingway, E. (1929). A farewell to arms. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son.

Hemingway, E. (1940). For whom the bell tolls. New York: Charles Scribner’s Son. Hu Tiesheng, Elegant Demeanor under Heavy Pressure. Shanghai: Foreign

Literature Press, 1994.

曹济民.《试论硬汉子桑地亚哥》 《韶通师专学报》，第18卷第1期,1996: 23-26 杨美俊. 解读《老人与海》[D]. 北京: 京华出版社, 2001

王洪.《海明威的悲剧写作艺术》。山东：齐鲁出版社，1999：92-93

刑嘉锋.《老人与海》中的“硬汉”形象桑提亚哥分析. 江苏无锡: 无锡教育学

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卢小东. 论海明威笔下的硬汉形象[J]. 江西教育学院学报, 1998(5): 45-57 戴安康,《当代外国文学概论》。华中理工大学出版社,1989.

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伍蠡甫主编，《西方文论选》。上海：译文出版社，1979：68-69

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