终极修订：浅析《老人与海 》中具有美国人性格的硬汉精神

四川外语学院成都学院Chengd u Institute Sichuan International Studies University 本科毕业论文题目（中文）浅析《老人与海》中美国人性格的硬汉形象（外文）On the Tough Image with American Characters Feature in The Old Man and the Sea系别英语经济贸易系专业英语年级2008级学生姓名王翔指导教师曾真结稿日期2012年4月29日四川外语学院成都学院教务处制二O一二年四月二十九日填in The Old Man and the SeaAbstractErnest Hemingway is regarded as the spiritual monument of American, and his pen is known as “tough guy” .In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway created an image of preserving, valiant, emulative, optimistic, self-confident. Although he finally failed on his arena, and suffered irreversible fate in his life, he is also the strong in spirit, an image of Code Hero .When you look at the humiliated history of American, the formation of the People of the United States, the rise of Modern American, which had gone through a good deal of misery and experienced successively a vicissitudes of life. However, American finally won the American Revolution,maintained the federal unified, raised in the World War I, pulled through the Great Depression, and become the one of the two superpowers after the World War II. Actually ,it is the tough guy spirit that inspires Americans go forward in the course of overcoming difficulty, in other words, the tough guy spirit is the national spirit of American .They are always optimistic, self-confident, unswerving, resilient, valiant and never give up. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway tries his best to enunciate the image of hero in his heart through Santiago.This paper aims to analysis tough guy spirit which is possessed of the People of American character and the spirit of tough guy, reveal the personality of the heroic character. And this paper will explore the image of the old man and the realistic meaning of tough guy spirit, and advocate the spirit of never giving up.Key words :tough guy; image; spirit ; character; realistic meaningin The Old Man and the SeaOutlineThesis Statement: Tough guy image in The Old Man and the Sea had a great influence on many young men, inspired many people strive torealize their dreams, and we could learn much from the toughguy spirit, and naturally this spirit inspired many Americanyoung people to overcome the difficulties and realized theirdreams when they were in the trouble. Therefore, we need toanalysis this spirit and the image of tough guy.I. IntroductionA. BackgroundB. PurposeII. The Tough Guy Image on SantiagoA. The Symbol Meaning of SantiagoB. The Characteristics of SantiagoC. The Firm Conviction of SantiagoD. The Miserable Fate of SantiagoIV. The Realistic MeaningV. ConclusionOn the T ough Guy Image with American Characters Feature inThe Old Man and the SeaI.IntroductionA.BackgroundRegarded as a giant both in American literature and the world literature, Earnest Miller Hemingway was born in a well-to-do family in Oak Park, Illinois near Chicago, on July 21st, 1899.Hemingway‟s life is filled with kinds of adventures, and from his rich and colorful life experiences，his life seems like an unusual book which many other people in the world admire and envy.Hemingway's fiction usually focuses on people living essential, dangerous lives, soldiers, fishermen, athletes, bullfighters, who meet the pain and difficulty of their existence with stoic courage.From his works and life experiences, Hemingway is indeed a perfectionist. Many of the heroes that he created in novels are represented his code man spirit---perfectionism, especially in The Old Man and the Sea. The old man named Santiago represented Hemingway‟s perfectionism characteristic more vividly than other code man in his works.B.PurposeThe novel The Old Man and the Sea is his best-known novel, it is also his representative work, the novel won the Nobel prize in 1954.The work reveals the spirit of the man, people‟s wisdom, firmness, and persistency.As Santiago in the old man and the sea, Ernest Hemingway makes serious thinking about the topic of human destiny. In front of fate, he was neither compromise nor to try to evade, but accepted bravely and calmly. As for Hemingway, Santiago is anew type of character; a man can be destroyed but not defeated. Hemingway seems to see the way of solving his own contradictions in this character, also see his own life experience. Therefore, when he started to shape the character, almost poured out his own feelings and experiences of life. Novel reach the height is also the Hemingway himself can reach the height. And Santiago “the old man in the face and experience is different from himself, but he is much closer to him than whomever on ethos ,and even some people called Hemingway capsule of Ernest Hemingway”.１Therefore, such a character can be shaped is by no means accidental. Hemingway places all his perception of life on this figure; he is from life, but above life. In a sense,the creation of old man and the sea is Ernest Hemingway on his practice of creative thought. He insists on writing “must be the author‟s own experience, from his knowledge, from his mind, from his heart, from all things in him”.2 He said. Finally, He made it and succeeded.II. Tough Guy Image on SantiagoA. The Symbol Meaning of SantiagoThe novel writes a very simple story which gives an account of the adventure of Santiago, who is down on his luck, and tries to fight against his fate, based on a true story of a Cuba fisherman. After eighty-four days without catching a fish, Santiago, an old Cuban unexpected hooks a giant fish. For two days and two nights fighting with the gigantic fish, the old man holds on while the fish pulls him further and further. Finally he kills the fish and ties it to his skiff. Almost at once, brutal sharks begin to follow the gigantic fish. He struggles against the sharks with the harpoon, the oar, the knife, the short club, and everything he can use on the boat. The sharks eat all but the bones of the fish. Half dead with exhaustion, he brings the skeleton home and makes his way to bed and dreams of his golden time.In the novel, Hemingway creates an immortal artistic figure, Santiago, a representative of Code Hero. Santiago is a poor fisherman who lives alone and has finally lost all will to live. Every day is the same dull, monotonous routine. His wife had died; his only comfort is a boy who is forbidden to fish determination in holding onto a gargantuan fish, Santiago is plunged into the adventure of his life, but will it bring meaning to his days? But it is the spirit of Code Hero to support him fighting and living.The chief point about Santiago is that he behaves perfectly and honorably, with great courage and endurance. While losing to the sharks the giant fish he has caught, he comes with the message that while man may froe old, and be wholly down on his luck, he can still dare to stick to the rules, persist when he is destroyed, and thus by the manner of his losing to win his victory. I also want to point out that the novel not only describes the fight between human and nature and fate but also indicated Hemingway‟s Code Hero getting to its summit. Although the old man in the novel is weak and in the grim fate of pressure, he also shows the spirit of Code Hero.Ernest Hemingway uses the refined language to shape the image of Santiago, a symbolic tough guy spirit. Behind Santiago is a human eternal self-confidence, self-improvement and self-esteem, is a kind of lasting human spirit, he inspires people to challenge difficulty and death. In The Old Man and the Sea, the sea represents the living environment, reliant environment, also represents a arena where human fight with nature. Hemingway shapes a tough guy image, which will never decline. The old man struggles with the sharks embodies the a uthor‟s fighting spirit will not yield. Santiago hopes to catch the big fish, which can make someone associate that he desires to create a miracle.Struggling with destiny and death bravely make Santiago the most perfect image of code hero. In the struggle with nature, he bears huge disaster, but he always keep the dignity of people, which embodies the eternal value and the meaning of life, and he illustrates the death themes of Hemingway's "life for death and eternal, spirit in the death and brilliantly" incisively and vividly. San Diego is the last tragic hero shaped by Hemingway. Poor and unfortunate of fate of Santiago is sorrow, he is a hero of failure, but not defeated.As we all know, fisherman is lived on catching fish, on the vast sea, the lonely ol d man didn‟t catch a fish for 84 days successively, that‟s truly bad luck, but he never lost his confidence. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and unfeated.3Eyes are windows of inner heart, when the eyes are the same color as the sea compared to the doomful torn sails ,which proclaim the old man Santiago never bow the neck to the fate, and reveals that he is always open-minded and optimistic, persisting in the ambition, and never give up until the goal is reached. He determined to go further place to catch big fish on the 85th day, it stands for the single-minded pursuit of dreams, it is also the performance of human want to conquer the cowardice of human self. In the struggle with big marlin, he knows that the opponent has much stronger power than himself, but his performance is: Mine does not matter，I can control．But his pain could drive him mad.4You did not kill the fish on1y to keep alive and to sell for food，he thought．You killed him for pride and because you are afisherman. 5Language is sonorous and forceful. Struggling with big marlin, it is not only need to against strength, but also need to be convince of his strength of spirit. This strength of spirit is the specific performance of tough guy in order to defense human decency and realize the value of human life. However ,with the development of plot ,Hemingway push the old man to an impasse.Facing the shark could do just as he pleased, human can do nothing, but the old man use the fish spear , shives, thick liquid, grip, crabstick and everything he can use to fight with him, when he is hungry ,he tears off a piece of crude fish and eat it. Hemingway described it like this:He hit it with his blood mushed hands driving a good harpoon with allhis strength．He hit it without hope but with resolution and completemalignancy．He jerked the tiller from the rudder and beat and chopped with it，holdingit in both hands and driving it down again and again.He leaned over the side and pulled lose piece of the meat of the fishwhere the shark had cut him．He chewed it and noted its quality and itsgood taste.6Santiago constantly bear the challenge of unfortunate fate, and it is courage and intrepidity win over the adversity over and over again, facing the Marlin debris was bitten by the sharks constantly, the old man said:“a man is not made for defeated ,a man can be destroyed but can not be defeated”. Through the fighting between the old man and sharks ,we realize that the tough guy in spirit can not be destroyed once again, which is the precondition that we can get better future.B. The Characteristics of SantiagoIt is the old man that go to the sea plenty and unremittingly, catching big marlinand after a series of conflicting with the sharks ,which reveals his characteristics. The story told that the old man didn‟t catch a fish in 84days ago, but he didn‟t be discouraged and burn out. The 85th day, he continued to go to the sea.His hope and his confidence had never gone, and it was fresh and pure just like a gentle breeze rippled. Even in his bad luck season, he also kept this confidence and hope, di dn‟t quit.It is in the unremitting pursuit that the old man finally had an occasionally good luck, he caught a big marlin which is two feet longer than the boat, no catch like it had ever been seen in Havana harbor. But after the surprise and excitement, he was plunged in confusion, he wondered that how he will catch it, that is to say ,how he can kill it. The battle between the big marlin and the old man ended in stalemate for two days and nights, in the process of conquer the big marlin，which is also a process of a conquest of death. In the process of conquest, sometimes his right hand is hooked silk to bleed, and sometimes big fish tow ship walk sea, but old man draw, put still, lack material and left hand pulls a muscle also, he is not disheartened at all either.The big fish dragged the boat and collided desperately, made the old man exhausted. Under such circumstance did he not yield, but to initiative to meet the challenge and tried his best to think of a way to deal with the lethally deadly struggle.His attack goal is double, he was eager to win the game, at the same time, he expected to conquer his cowardice, and in other words, he hoped that he could settle his inner heart issue through outward action. The novel incisively and vividly expressed the old man‟s psychological struggle in a particular way. Fighting with big marlin, he must have energy and vigor. Therefore, when he is thirsty ,he drink some cold water; when he is hungry, he eat some raw fish; when he is exhausted ,he takes a nap; when his hand cramps, he bite his lip and withstand the pain. In the game, the old man win out, “the pain is not a matter.”Finally, he conquered the big marlin, he dies first to living and then.However, when he conquered this death fighting, there is another wave of death fighting in one hour. And this time, his opponents are much stronger. They are sharks .Shakespeare once said:“people can only die once, anyhow, if you die this year, then you wouldn‟t die next year.”The so called manifesto of “the next year youwouldn‟t die”, which is a determination that the old man is eager to cross death and rebirth.Next, Hemingway further strengthens the character of the old man—the Code Hero. When the sharks have eaten half of the Marlin, “it is silly noy t o hope, he thought. Besides I believe it is a sin. Do not think about sin, he thought”.7 “he forked the tiller free from the rudder and beat and chopped with it, holding it down again and again...”8 Finally, he saw one shark came against the head of this fish, and he knew all was over. He swung the tiller across the shark‟s head where the jaws were caught in the heaviness of the fish‟s head which would not tear. He swung it once and twice and again. He felt it go in and knowing it was sharp he drove it in again. The shark let go and rolled away. That was the last shark of the pack that came. There was nothing more for them to eat.Also, in the battle with sharks, the old man feels sympathy for the big marlin.so problem arises and they are interesting problems ,when big marlin attacked by the sharks, which brings great sufferings to the old man.“If only it is a dream, and I hope that I didn‟t catch the fish.”“When big marlin was bit by sharks, just as he had been suffered”,9which shows people that when the human beings grab something from nature, we must cost so much that we can not offer it, the consequence of price is that we are not only lose something we depend on ,but we are struggling in the pain of failure in spirit. At last, he sailed back into harbor exhaustedly, with a skeleton of his fish and a broken skiff. “She‟s good, he thought. She is sound and not harmed in any way except for the tiller. That is easily replaced”.10 All what the old man sees are good side. He failed, however, “he is not …defeated‟, despite the fact that has been …beaten‟, as he himself admits, by his violation of the sacred code. He pronounces that nothing beat him really and that his only fault was that he …went out too far‟ ”.11 What he brings back is just an incredible skeleton of big marlin, he failed, and he is a complete failure, he has completely broken down, he laid down. However, he never collapsed mentally. Hemingway once said,“a tale truly told can mean many things”, through Santiago‟s personality we can come to realize the venerable tough guy character.C.The Firm Conviction of SantiagoSantiago is the hero of his own life, in other words, he is the older man who won over death and cross over from death. The process of he battled with nature and the beasts of sea time and time again, which is also a process of conquering death, as a result, he went through die first to living and then again and again. The battle between the old man and the sea, is not a general combat of conquer nature, but a natural challenge to the life.The blazes of Philosophy of Life flare in Santiago‟s mind. What is his pursuit self-realization? However, after he failed ,when the death came, as one celebrity once said,“Hemingway‟s hero doesn‟t commit suicide, but they know how to deal with the big trouble when the death comes”,12 just as Santiago said in the text:“a man is not made for defeat.”“you can get rid of it, but it was not defeated him”.In the struggle with the beasts such as sharks, he comprehended the philosophy of life, which is an efficient way of encouragement mechanism, and in the self-encouragement, he continue to keep the faith, and purify the personality.In the text, Hemingway portrays the image of an old fisherman who has gone for 84 days with catching nothing.“The old man was thin and gaunt, with deep wrinkles in the back of hisneck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun bringsfrom its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ranwell down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep creased scarsfrom handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of the scars were fresh.They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.”.13From these detail depiction, we may feel sympathetic toward the old man and think that he is too week to catch the big marlin. But “Everything about him was old except his eye and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful andundefeated.”14Despite his old and week appearance, his eyes are not stuffy but as cheerful as the young men‟s eyes through which we can see his unyielding spirit and firm conviction. Through this contrast can clearly shows Santiago‟s real personality.There is no denying that 84 days is not a short period of time. A man can tolerate failure, but who can‟t tolerate continuous failure. Too much failure will destroy a man even with strong will. But for Santiago, although a poverty-stricken and lonely old man, nothing can defeat his will. He firmly insists that he will not always be unfortunate.He says, “I may not be as strong as I think.”, “But I know many tricks and I have resolutions.”15 The old man is very confident and has the strong believe that he will finally catch a big fish. What gives him such confidence under the difficult and cruel reality? Through the man, the author points out---even though life is very hard and seems hopeless, “But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day.” He has the hope for the future and the unyielding spirit to challenge his fate.D.The miserable fate of SantiagoIt is because of Santiago‟s personality power, which gives rise to his life tragedy. His heroic action is generated in impact of his valuable action, his tragedy is inevitable.Certainly, Santiago‟s tragedy also includes optimism. Through reading the text, you would find that there are six places which has mentioned “if the boy is here”or “I wish I had the boy” in the old man‟s monologue, when he is fighting with the big marlin and he has no other ways to defeat it, when he is helplessness, and when he want to share some bad things with somebody ,he think of the boy, when his right hand is hurt, he remind of the boy, when his left hand cramps, he hope that the boy can rub his hand, he remember the boy again. I don‟t think the old man hope there was someone who can help him. “He d ecided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough.”16What he is looking forward to is that someone can witness his experience, his courage and his ability. The old man is eager to be identified, and he pursues of the self-satisfaction.As we can see, even in the process of catching fish, the old man would never relinquish hope, and pin his hope on the boy, he knows the absurdity of hope very well. Although he knows that there is little hope for him to win over after his long fighting with the big Marline, but he knows that he should face the sharks and kill them as a man to protect his prize. The author uses much ink to portray the sharks which aims to describe the old man‟s spirit. The harder the fish and the sharks are to defeat, the taller the old man‟s image is.III. The Realistic MeaningTough guy spirit is very clear in the old man and the sea, the two character ,namely, humble and proud in Santiago has a better balance, as a novel, it is enough to prove that he is special love manhood which can change decayed for magical, and this spirit has an extremely important instructive in today‟s society.First, the tough guy image is shaped by Hemingway in the old man and the sea. Rugged, silent, patience, stoical, and many sufferings of failure never make him give in to fate, in an unassailable position forever. It reflects the masculine beauty of man, and it is an impressive power.Second, legends of Hemingway's life, and the tough guy spirit were created by him, meeting the needs of people in the United States, which has deep historical necessities social necessities.As one of the greatest novelists in 20th century in the United States, Hemingway seems to be a spirit monument of American. As president John. F. Kennedy said in the message of condolence:"almost none of the Americans have a greater impact on American people's feelings and attitudes as Ernest Hemingway."17The legend of Hemingway's life, and the" tough guy spirit "was created by him meets the inner spiritual needs of people in the United States.His tough guy spirit, lead the perplexed people of the United States in World War. Hemingway‟s myth is not only his personal masterpiece, but the representative of national character of United States; he is a product of the times.IV. ConclusionThe Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works and had become one of the true classics of his generation. Santiago, the protagonist of The Old Man and the Sea, actually reflects the author‟s own life attitude.“M an is not made defeated.” “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Those words not only prove his character: endurance, persistence and undefeated spirit, but also express the novel‟s theme. We get a lot of inspirations from the hero--- Santiago, what he said, what he did, inspiring our desire to get achievements and success. Actually the winner takes nothing but the sense of challenging all kinds of limits，or of having shown what a man can do when it is necessary. Winner is undefeated just because he has gone on trying, and never gave up.Winner has great physical potential and courage. Whether he is a soldier , a bullfighter , a hunter , or a fisherman, his physical power is always activated by critical situations and thus creates the most life-like beauty. However this physical power will encounter harm from the greater forces. The real value, according to Hemingway, lies in the fact that the hero can always rise from destruction. Hemingway‟s hero possesses a kind of despairing courage. It is this courag e that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. This is the essence of a code of honor in which all of Hemingway‟s heroes believe.Endnotes1Ernest Hemingway,(Nanjing: Yilin Press,2001),782Ibid.,56Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea(Beijing: People's Literature Press),2 3Ibid.,8445Ibid.,1016Ibid.,1027 Ibid.,128Ibid.,419Ibid.,7910Ibid.,11711Ibid.,12512Ernest Hemingway,(Nanjing: Yilin Press,2001),4313Ibid.,114Ibid.,615 Ibid., 716Ibid., 5917Ernest Hemingway,(Nanjing: Yilin Press,2001),243BibliographyCaiwei Hemingway’s philosophy of life on The Old Man and the Sea. Huazhong Normal University. China Excellent master‟s Thesis bank,2003Edward .H. Strauch. The Old Man and the Sea[J ] . Aligarh Journal of English Studies9 ,1984 , (1) :56～63.Ernest Hemingway[American]．Nanjing: Yilin Press，2001Miles Donald, “The American Novel in the Twentieth-Century”, Newton Abbot, England: Levid and Charles, 1978.Y ang, Daliang A Study of the “Code Hero”in Ernest Hemingway‟s Works董衡巽. 海明威研究[Ｍ]. 北京：中国社会科学出版社, 1998。