The Old Man and the Sea
During the winter vacation, I read the novel The Old Man and the Sea which was written by Hemingway, a famous American writer. I admired the old fisherman in the novel very much. He made me understand that a person must have the spirit that is never give up. Only to be this can one succeed.
Introduction of Hemingway
Hemingway was born in Chicago, Illinois, America. His father was fond of hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities. His mother loved literature. All of this had a great affect on Hemingway’s life and writing in the future. After graduating from high school, he refused to enter university and worked for Kansas City Star as a reporter and started his writing career. He once took part in World War, Spanish civil war and World War II and these experiences created the main source of inspiration in the future. In 1926, he published The Sun Also Rises. It described the lost generation in United States after World War I. And in 1929, Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms became the best work of “the lost generation” literature. In 1940, Hemingway published the anti-fascist novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" as the background of Spanish Civil War.
Since 1928 he started to settle down in Cuba till 1960. In autumn 1933, Hemingway once arrived in Africa with the hunting brigade Green Hills of Africa that was published in 1935. And The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Francis Ma Kangbo short happy life was compiled his experience in Africa into a series of novels. In 1952, Hemingway announced the novel The Old Man and the Sea and acquired the Nobel literature prize two years after. The reason of getting the prize is: Because he was skilful in the narrative arts, prominently in his latest book The Old Man and the Sea and also because the influence he had on the contemporary style. For this great fame, Hemingway was well-deserved. But since then, his health became worse and worse and even could not write. This was probably the reason that he committed suicide in 1961.
Actually, what makes me most impressed is his attitude to life. Hemingway's work has a strong autobiography style. In fact, he is a member of the lost generation. The war brought his huge wound but he has not depressed. “Tough man” is usually the topic that expresses in the work of Hemingway. When they fought in the outside huge pressure and the bad luck, they are still strong unyielding, go forward courageously, and even face death unflinchingly, though they failed, kept the person's dignity and courage, had the poise of victor. Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea is the most typical representative of tough man. Santiago is Hemingway who advocates the perfect symbol: a strong, generous, kind, loving, even in the life of the gladiator arena failed, the face of irreversible fate, he is still mentally strong, is a tough man.
Today with the society sharply changing and unknown future we facing, we are also members of the lost generation. But we should accept the challenges of destiny. As Santiago said, “a person is not born to be defeated, and you shall wipe them out, but could not beat him”. Yes, we can fail, but we can not give up. Let us live in earnest and brave to face the unknown future.
Introduction of The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea, one of the famous masterpieces in the world, was published in 1952，and then make Hemingway get the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. It is also a successful application of Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory. In the novel, Hemingway created an undefeated hero who had high moral, huge courage, great perseverance and so on. The brief of The Old Man and the Sea often reflects the strong undercurrent of emotion. The positive reaction following the novel contains praise not only from the literature reviewers but also from ordinary readers. Reviewers and critics or the public appreciates the true value of his achievement.
At the most basic level, the very elderly fisherman, Santiago, goes out in his small fishing boat after 84 days without hooking a decent fish. Then, on the 85th day, he goes far out, and hooks a gigantic 18 foot long sword fish. The battle then begins, and the fish drags the small boat and Santiago far out to sea. For two days they battle, and Santiago wins that battle, but then loses the great fish on the way home to the scavenger sharks who find him easy prey when he went to sea and fished alone once, he had angled to a big Malin fish, but he could not draw it on. The fisherman and the big fish socialized for a few days, old fisherman found that the big fish was several times of his own fishing boat, though he knew that it was very difficult to win, he did not give up yet. Because the big Malin fish’s smell of wound attracted lots of sharks for the food again later, but the old man was still unwilling to give up. Finally he stressed the tied encirclement, and took the large fish back to his fishing port. Let other fish men admire it endlessly.
The process of the old man’s fishing is just like the human’s whole life. Everyone in the world lives a hard life and has to face the vast and vast sea. The greedy sharks are with sharp teeth and along with himself are just a boat and his soul that support him to live in the world. Facing with the respected but fearsome nature, the human being is so insignificant. However the author has raised such a question: by what the human being should have to live in the work? At the same time, the author answered this question by portraying the way that the old man faces the sea and deals with the sharks along.
“Just then, watching his lines, he saw one of the projecting green sticks dip sharply.” A big fish is hooked. At the first round of contest, the old man suppresses his own desire and waits the fish to eat the hook quietly. The old man’s silent sounds reflect his strong desire from the deep heart. “Eat them, fish. Eat them. Pleased eat them. How fresh they are and...” “Come down,” the old man said aloud. “Make another turn. Just smell them. Aren’t they lovely? Eat them good now and then there is the tuna. Don’t be shy, fish. Eat them.” With patient the old man faces the silent before the battle.
Next is the contest of the strength. The old man “swing with each arm alternately on the cord with all the strength of his arm and the pivoted weight of his body.” But “nothing happened. The fish just moved away slowly and the old man could not raise him in inch.” The fish is so big that can pull away the boat to the wider deep sea. At one side is a very old man, and at the other side is unfathomable sea and unknown injuries, the readers can imagine the picture. Hegel ever said, “The great personality and the degree of firmness can only be measured by those of the opponents.” The old man’s admirable courage is also demonstrated by the opponent—the sea and the sharks.
On the returning voyage the old man suffers greater challenge: the Marlin’s blood draws the sharks group. The author uses much ink to portray the sharks. They were hateful sharks, bad-smelling, scavengers as well as killer, and when they were hungry they would bite at an oar or the rudder of a boat. It was these sharks that would cut the turtle’s legs and flippers off when the turtles were asleep on the surface, and they would hit a man in the water, if they were hungry. These portrays aim to describe the old man’s spirit. The harder the fish and the sharks are to defect, the taller the old man’s image is.
The essence of the old man is weak. “Unless sharks come,” he said out. “If sharks come, God pity him and me.” “I wish it had been a dream now and that I had never hooked the fish and was alone in bed on the newspapers.” But “man is not made defected,” he said, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” “Ay,’ the old man said, ‘Galanos. Come on. galanos.” “Fight them,” he said, “I’ll fight them until I die.” “Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.” The old man challenges the age, and challenges the physical limit. “He felt faint again now bur he held on the great fish all the strain that he could. “O moved him”, he thought. Maybe this time I can get him over. Pull, hands, he thought. Hold up, legs. Last for me, head. Last for me. You never went. This time I will pull him over. These words and behaviors all originate from the old man’s desire to the victory and strength. The old man can talk the baseball with the child happily. And he often dreams of the lions, which can express this point strongly. Lions, in the western world, were considered as a symbol of strength and power.
When the old man was young, his spirit of daring to be the No.1 has been accumulated. The author portrays that the old man played the hand game with a great Negro from Casablanca who was the strongest man on the docks, “they had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table and their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. Each one was trying to force the other’s hand down and down until it rested on the wood.” “He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and...” It’s no doubt that, the age of being full of energy and power has gone and the old man is not stronger than ever before. But from the novel we can see that the old man is so eager to regain the power. He pursues what is called a eternal thing—dignity of the human.
But now I’m really proud of Santiago. He is so brave and persevering. “But a man is not made for defeat” he said “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
Santiago was old just as Hemingway said “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” He thinks every day is a new day. No matter how old he is. He said “It’s better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
Santiago was poor; he had nothing except a little boat and harpoon. But he said “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
Santiago was alone. Mandolin can not go to sea with him because of his parents. He catches fishes alone. He fights with sharks alone. He can talk to nobody except himself. No one will help him. But even though he faced hungry, weary and difficulty alone, he does not give up.
Somebody said Santiago was a failure. Because at last he said he wishes that it had been a dream and the boy cried for him can really approve it.
In this way I think Santiago was a lucky person. Because he still had Mandolin. The boy loved him and pitied him. If Mandolin had no money of his own, he begged or stole to make sure that Santiago had enough to eat and fresh baits for his lines. The old man accepts his kindness with humility that was like a quiet kind of pride.
Here, I want to say something about the relationship between the old man, Santiago and the little boy, Mandolin. In the book, we can see that, the boy was so considerate. Though his patents asked him not to follow the old man to catch fish, he would go to the beech to welcome the old man back every day. He would help the man take the fishing tools. They are just like a father and his son. After they arrived at the old man’s house, the man asked the boy whether he wanted to have some fish with him. In fact, the old man was so poor that he did not have something to eat. But he did not want the boy to know this. He said he was not hungry and he wanted to read newspaper. The boy went out to buy the dinner for the old man with his own money. When I come to this part, I was so deeply moved by them. As a fish man, the old man was so miserable because he did not catch a descent fish for a ling time. But as a common old man, he was so lucky, because the little boy took care of him all the way. This let me believe that, God is fair. When you lost something, you can always gain something somewhere. One can not own all the good things with him.
I think Santiago is a hero and he is not a failure. Because catch fish is a part of his life and it is the memory of his mind and he catch a really big fish back at last. The value of his life is completely reflected in the way he catch fish. He is the real winner in his own world. He goes far out to the sea by himself. He is really very brave. What he has is just a small boat. If the whether changes into bad whether all of a sudden, such as strong wind, heavy rain or something else, he will easily lose his life on that day. But he does not think much about this. After he catches the big Malin fish, he finds that the Malin fish’s smell of wound attracted lots of sharks for the food. At this time, he still keeps calm. He tries all his best to fight with the sharks.
When facing the horrible sharks, the old man will fight with them. But in my daily life, when I face difficulties, I always complain about them. I dare not face them bravely. From now on, I really need to train myself for my bravery for facing difficulties. This also let me think about our education. Right now, the children are the apples of their family. In order to show their love toward their child, family will do all the things for the children. So the children do not have the chance to practice themselves the ability of facing difficulties. But parents can not accompany their children all the time. So when the children go out to enter into society, what should they do? When the children face difficulties, who can help them? In fact, in this society, no one can help you but yourself. In our daily, everyone will meet difficulties. We must learn to be independent. We must be strong enough to face all the difficulties bravely just like the old man.
After reading this book, I realize that I’m not brave enough. I can not stay hopeful when I face laugh and indifferent. And I don’t have enough courage to do what I want to do. I’m so afraid of this world. I’m so afraid of the people’s words who speak it behind my back. I’m so cowardly and that’s the reason I always lose.
Now I know what to do. Don’t mind others. Be myself. I need possess the quality of reason and shay cheerful and undefeated. Be kind and happy. Be strong and optimistic.
The novel eulogized the spirit which the senior fisherman had. And I think we should learn from him in some extent. To begin with, we should never give up when faced with the fear and dangerous. When we make a decision to overcome and try our best to do something, I firmly believe that we will win. Secondly, Life itself is a kind of endless pursuit. It is the road long, difficult and full of ups and downs. But as long as our own tenaciously to a brave heart to meet the challenges of self-confidence, we will always be a real winner! What is more, I think the false beliefs about the weakness of the elderly can be turned around only if society looks much harder at their abilities and their goals. We must begin to see that although they may not have great physical strength, they still have a mind that is capable of many things. There are many jobs that they can hold in the workplace and many things they can do to help society of which we, the younger generation, are not aware. We must realize that they have gone through many experiences that we have not and that they hold a vast amount of knowledge about the world around them. There will come a time when one's age does not determine the value of one's life, but we can change that dream to reality only if we try.
The old once said “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. This sentence is my favorite. I really like it. I also want to be a person like this and I will remember this sentence for my whole life. From now on, I will try my best to be a brave and strong person to face all the difficulties. Never say give up.