《老人与海》象征主义探究
Abstract
The Old Man and the Sea, praised by a famous writer as “the most excellent simple article in this generation”, is a masterpiece o f the unyielding man —Hemingway. But with regard to the symbolism, it has been talked differently, and was equivocal in the explanation by Hemingway himself. The Protagonist, the living environment, the sea, the Shark, the Marlin are not themselves
but have significant symbolical meaning. Here the author will analyze its symbolism thoroughly through some aspects such as the leading character，the living environment and Hemingway’s philosophy of li
fe reflected by the symbols, with a view to help the reader get a better understanding of Ernest Hemingway's masterpiece．
Key Words
Ernest Hemingway; the symbolic factors; iceberg theory; the living environment；philosophy of life
摘要
被威谦、福克纳誉为“这代人最优秀的一个单篇”的《老人与海》是硬汉子海明威的力作，而对于《老人与海》的象征主义，评论界各执已见，海明威本人的解释也模棱两可。而小说中主人翁桑提亚哥和生存环境、大海、鲨鱼、小孩等角实际上并非角本身，表面上简单的角及故事情节有着深刻的象征意义，所以笔者希望从文章的主人公、其生存环境等各个方面对其象征主义进行剖析、总结和归纳《老人与海》的象征手法以及海明威的人生观在各象征因素中的体现，以期能帮助读者更好地理解这部作品。
关键词
海明威；象征因素；冰山原理; 生存环境; 人生观
Introduction
Regarded as a giant both in American literature and the world literature, Ernest Hemingway was born on July21, 1898, at Oak Park, Illinois. In the childhood, influenced by his father, Hemingway was interested in music, pictures, hunting, fishing and the like.
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. As a noticeable representative of the “Lost Generation”, Hemingway published the books of this sort, The Sun Also Rises at the age of 26. Because the book chiefly deals with the living attitude of the post-war generation, especially the lives of those wounded soldiers and the loneliness and disillusionment of the modern people whose ideal was shattered at the time when “God is dead”, they thought life was nothing and meaningless. In this case, Hemingway became the spokesperson for the The Lost Generation.
Actually the parable of a man’s struggle against the nature, The Old Man and The Sea was published in 1952. Acknowledged as his best works, the novel reinvigorated Hemingway’s literary reputation after the violent attacks，he received from Across the River and Into the Tress. The positive reaction that followed the novel included praise not only from the reviewers but also from a board spectrum of the mass, from ordinary readers to fellow men of letters. The publishing of this work showed that Hemingw
ay had shown he could still achieve a major triumph, whether or not the reviewers and critics or the public could appreciate the true value of his achievement. The Old Man and the Sea wa s awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and Hemingway’s famous iceberg technique, which is a simple but highly suggestive style, was vividly embodied in the work, thus he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his “mastery of the art of modern narration”.
I. Introduction to the Background
The old Man and the Sea is a fable of an old man’s life which was told by Hemingway.
Hemingway is a famous American writer of modern times. He is also an international literary celebrity in the world. His father is a prominent doctor, and also a dab at fishing and hunting. The influence of his father made him full of love with fishing and hunting. His life was active and adventurous, but it was full of pains. The First and the Second World Wars had affected Hemingway a lot, he had once joined the army and had injured in Italy, and he suffered much that was brought about by the war deeply. He was disappointed with the world and pessimistic about the fate of the man. In his early days’ novel, The Sun also rises depicts the war, descr ibing the bewilderment of the European and American young people, then he was look down upon by someone around him and some writers. “Y ou are all the gene
reaction to a book or an articleration that has been at a loss.” So, seeking way out and seeking the understanding of life is the theme that Hemingway wanted to explore. He was an unyielding man, so he portrayed the distinctive individual character of “the character of unyielding man”. From all the works of Hemingway’s, we can find that when Hemingway chose personage, he especially liked to choose beggar, hunter, solider and so on, they could protect their dignity by resisting with the world which is full of hostility, they maintain a graceful demeanour under great force, but on target. The characters of the protagonist are different from that of the early days’ novel. For example, the leading character Jordan in For whom the Bell Tolls is a hero who devotes himself to the career he incites the evil force, which reflects the cherished desire for opposing the fascism war of the people, which is full of wide social meaning and the time’s breathe. All the characters of the protagonists in his novel show his inward world---he was an unyielding man, and has the desire to be the best one in the world, all these can be improved by the protagonists that are suffering but strong-minded
As a mouthpiece of “the lost generation”, Hemingway suffered cold shoulder and attack almost ten years in the commentary field. 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 Hemingway’s unyielding character. Hemingway grew in the time th
at 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 Hemingway’s 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. So, the distinctive writing style of Hemingway is his iceberg theory and symbolism.
Ⅱ.The Symbolism in the Works
A. The Definition of Symbolism
Symbolism is an artistic movement in the late 19th century that tried to express abstract or mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images. In literature, it is a writing style of using something to stand for something else by reasoning of relationship, association, accident resemblance, or a visible sign of something invisible.
As a master in literature, Hemingway uses very simple words and sentences to write some magnum opus, which is his iceberg technique that he uses in his work. He believed as a good writer, he didn’t need to reveal the action or characters clearly, obscurity can give us the aesthetic sense. So the words and sentences in his work are symbolic and suggestive. That is to say, one
needs keep a close eye to read his works and read between the lines deliberately.
In my opinion, the arbitrariness of Hemingway about the symbolical factors fully manifest that he is unwilling to accept the laurel of “symbolist”. When we study Hemingway, we must start it from The Old Man and the Sea, which promotes his creative writing to the summit of honor. When we study The Old Man and the Sea, we have to research its symbolical factors.
B. Major Symbols in The Old Man and the Sea
There 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.
1. The Old Man—the Best Expression to “the unyielding character”
The Old Man and the Sea is a short simple novel that has been hailed as a classic. The story The Old
Man and the Sea is about an old fisherman named Santiago who overcomes the great forces of nature. Not catching a single fish for eighty-four days, the old fisherman still keeps on trying without being despaired. He goes far out into the sea and catches a huge marlin after three day’s patient struggle. On his way home sharks come and attack, Santiago tries his best to fight but fails to prevent the marlin from being eaten. In the end he returns with nothing but the skeleton of the marlin.
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.
The old man--- Santiago is the last tragic hero that Hemingway portrays. Being poor and unlucky, his fate is sad, but he is not a man being easily defeated. Hemingway’s unyielding character is attached to the old man like a demon, which is the symbol of Hemingway’s unyielding character, which is regarded as an embodiment of Hemingway’s iceberg principle. The old man is a geezer who goes fishing lonely. The torment that the life gives makes his neck condensed with deep wrinkles, which make him look thin and haggard, every part of his body looks old, but his eyes are blue like the sea, never depressed. At the beginning of the article, the old man just catches up “misfortune”. In integral eighty- four days, he has not caught a fish. As a fishing man, that is the most unlucky. Even a boy who spends a long time with him also has to leave him on the fortieth day.
The old man’s tragic fate is an x light in art of Hemingway misfortune. Hemingway had once joined in the Second World War and the Spanish War. The society after war is disarrayed and destitute. The fantastic phenomenon of the war and the society brought deep spiritual injury to Hemingway, which can be said that he survived the war after many perils. This is just one of the old man’s aspects of being old. We find that, after For whom the Be ll Tolls, Hemingway did not publish any important article, Across the River and Into the Trees suffered criticism again. Numerous critics even affirmed Hemingway’s intelligence had already exhausted, he had nothing fresh, and such situation is so alike the circumstance of the old man at the beginning.
In order to prove he is a “geezer”, or in order to prove that he is strong-minded, and can finish the task that no one can replace, the old man must catch a big fish, concerning dignity and honor. Hemingwa y stressed that he had once planned to name the article Man’s Dignity. To Hemingway, he must write works that is the best in all his life. Hemingway realizes that he can gain a good fame by the fulfilling of The Old Man and the sea. “I will do my best to w rite better later on, but it will be very difficult …I am special writer, I know how things stand.”①The old man also realizes that “eighty-fifth”is a lucky day, “I can seize a big fish of one thousand
pounds”②. After the old man catches the biggest fish that he has never seen, he has already exhauste
d, his hands are not only deserted, but also full of scars.
In my opinion, the portraying of the old man who is “a loser who can not be defeated” can’t be departed from enquiring into the dual personality of Hemingway. The words and actions reflect Heming way’s outlook on life and his behavior standard. The victory of spirit gives dignity and courage to these losers and their creators. At the same time, he uses a mask to conceal the weakness and fatalism.
The aggravation of the old man’s circumstances is to reveal the “graceful demeanor” when Hemingway is under “pressure”. Under this pressure, the old man’s failure appears to be moving and tragic. At the beginning, the old man puts to sea every day, but he has not caught a fish in succession in eighty-four d ays, this kind of failure is out of luck enough, and the little boy’s departure makes the old man’s circumstances more miserable. But in such situation, the old man reveals the unyielding character perfectly: When his big fish has been eaten by the shark with skeleton surplus rested, he asks himself: “What defeated you?”③“Nothing…it is me who goes too far.”④The old man admits his failure bravely, but he believes his own ability absolutely. He believes even though he fails, he is still brave incomparably, and has not been defeated by the shark in spirit, he does not lose heart, because he believes that “Once he has been defeated, the thing is easy.”
The First World War made Hemingway learns the society again, which affected the works of literature ser iously. In Hemingway’s sight, the world is full of violence and hypocrite, the death is waiting for everybody. This is the symbol of the old man’s sad fate. If we want to live in this society, we must set up a living rule, that is: If we can not win, we can not admit defeat, we can do our best to live under toleration, giving up dispute of emotion, seeking happiness in the open air. This set of living rule made Hemingway portray this typical unyielding man’s unperturbed manner. After sixteen years, Hemingway realized the true essence of the story, he turned this true story into a parable that infiltrates philosophy. Hemingway does not tell the story simply, but reveal his living experience, emotion and thought symbolically.
We can see that the old man shows some traditional moral, we can’t deny that the old man is the best reflecting of the unyielding spirit of Hemingway’s.
2. The Boy— the Best Supplement for the Unyielding Man Character
“The God give me an good old man and a good boy, but nowadays the other writers has already forgotten these things”⑤, when Hemingway talked about the successful factors of this novel, he once quite satisfied to mention the boy and the old man in the same breath. From that we can see the little boy takes a very important part in The Old Man and the Sea
The boy learns fishing from the old man on the boat from five years old, the character features of the boy reveals the old man’s character from another side, though he was little, he is not childish. He not only learns the capability of fishing, but also the spirit of striving to become stronger and the responsibilities of a man. The young and tender shoulder has already been used to steel him, though “he felt drowsy when walking”, he still says “This is nothing, true man will do it.”⑥Rhythmic words suffic iently reveal Hemingway’s unyielding character.
Under the subconsciousness of the old man, the boy is another stage of his life, one can’t dream two of his own, and so he “has not dreamed of the boy”. The boy’s leaving is the dec ision of his parents, the old man is unwilling to let the boy feel embarrassed, so he does not let the boy follow him, he does not let the boy infect with his bad luck, the boy insists coming back for several times,

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