Hemingway once wrote in Death in the Afternoon: "If an essayist knows what he wants to write, then he can omit what he knows. Readers, as long as the author writes truly, will strongly feel what he has missed, as if the author had written it. The movement of icebergs in the sea is magnificent, because only one-eighth is exposed on the water. " This is his "iceberg" theory.
When talking about The Old Man and the Sea, the author once said: This novel "could have been written as long as more than 1000 pages. It includes everyone in the village and how they make a living, how they are born, how they are educated, how they have children and so on. " But as a result, the novel was condensed into only 50 thousand words by the author. The novel only focuses on the thrilling three days of fishing at sea in San Diego. It is simple enough to use a character and an event to achieve a work. However, the author is still extremely stingy with his pen and ink in the eighth part of Water. For example, the description of San Diego, we only see this place:
There are deep wrinkles on the back of the old man's neck, which makes him look thin and haggard. He has brown papules on both sides of his face, which is a sarcoma caused by the reflection of sunlight from the tropical sea. A pimple has grown on both sides of the face. Because I always pull the big fish with a rope, I have left deep wrinkled scars on my hands, but they are not new. These scars are getting older and older, becoming like corroded places in the desert without fish.
His body looks very old except for his eyes. Those eyes, as blue as the sea, are happy but not depressed.
But only in this place, we can already find the kind of thing that poets feel. Just like a particularly touching oil painting or photography: at the seaside in the twilight, an old man hunched his back and pulled a fishing net. It's quiet around, only the crowded beach with waves and the whispers of seabirds. The wind is still, and you can hear the sound of the sun dripping bit by bit. It happened that the old man looked up at the setting sun. The afterglow of the sunset painted his whole body golden, blending with his long-term weathered copper skin, as if he were born perfect. The shadows in the dark color are deep, and for a long time, "like corrosion in a desert without fish." And those slightly convex and half-narrowed eyes are matchless virginity. "Very happy and not depressed" and "as blue as the sea" are due to simple wishes in my heart. We can feel the imprint of the years, and every scar is full of the richness of the years. Very monotonous and lonely, but also very satisfied and happy. The sea is the home of the elderly.
In The Old Man and the Sea, you can find such imaginative and exciting words everywhere. This is a way to minimize the distance between the author, the object and the reader. British writer Hector? Oh? Bates said that "messy hair" attached to literature was "cut clean" by Hemingway, "Hemingway is a man with an axe", "cut off the redundant words of the whole forest, restored the refreshing appearance of the basic branches, deleted explanations, discussions and even arguments, cut off all colorful metaphors, and made clear the old, sacred and lifeless article stereotype; Until the end, through sparse and thousands of words, my eyes suddenly became clear and I saw something. "
Yes, in Hemingway's works, we can't see the usual complicated and comprehensive description. In San Diego, we don't know what happened to his wife, whether he has children or not, or even his exact age. We only know that he is an old man, an old man who loves The Lion's Dream, and an old man who loves the sea and all the life in it. He is lonely, he is stubborn, he is optimistic and he is simple.
Hemingway was extremely stingy when describing the specific environment and background of San Diego, and mobilized seven-eighths of readers' imagination with one-eighth of his. In the simple and implicit expression, it has achieved profound artistic effects. Let's guess and comprehend Santiago's unique charm from the abstraction and isolation of his ideological quality.
Second, profound psychological analysis.
We know that this is one of Hemingway's best techniques, and it is also the artistic technique that can best express the character. In The Old Man and the Sea, the author made a profound psychological analysis of Santiago by using a lot of modern narrative art, which made us see the inner world of a real hero.
Hemingway's psychological deconstruction is different from some writers who are good at psychological description in the past. For example, we know that Dostoevsky is a master who is good at psychological description. Its technique is called "psychological excavation". Because he is good at exploring the mysteries of the mind. Dostoevsky often takes "dual personality" as the theme, carries out strong illusion imagination and depicts morbid psychology and personality split. Even Subconscious describes the contradictory changes between the inner nature and mental state of characters, and ruthlessly reveals the evil in people's hearts to readers in a keen analysis of human nature, highlighting the inner nature of life and its profound and extraordinary philosophical significance. Another example is Leo? Tolstoy's psychological analysis, he devoted himself to the exploration of human soul and moral problems. Chernyshevski's "split mind" is used in psychological description, that is, starting from understanding and dissecting one's own psychology, putting oneself in the other's shoes to express the psychology of the characters in the works, and expressing the evolution of the characters' ideological character by describing the process of psychological change. In this psychological process itself and its forms and laws, it describes how some feelings and psychology evolve into others, so as to show the diversity and internal relations of psychological flow forms. Hemingway is different. First of all, he directly shows the inner world of the characters with inner monologues. In The Old Man and the Sea, more than half of the space is Santiago's inner monologue. He thought alone in the lonely sea.
He thought: the life of birds is even more bitter than ours, unless it is the eagle heron and those powerful birds. Why is the ocean sometimes so cruel, but birds like Haiyan are so weak and slender? The ocean is kind and beautiful. But she can be cruel sometimes. So suddenly, those birds flying on the sea had to make a subtle and sad cry while looking for water. This kind of bird is naturally weak and has no power to resist the sea.
San Diego feels sad for these delicate birds like a little woman. He felt sorry for the birds, especially the fragile petrel. They are always flying, always in sight, but most people can never find anything.
He thought: one can't be alone when one is old. But this is inevitable. In order to stay healthy, I must remember to eat tuna before it rots. Remember, no matter how much you can eat, you must eat tomorrow morning. Remember, he said to himself.
San Diego reminds me of the old urchin who was imprisoned in the cave of Peach Blossom Island in The Legend of the Condor Heroes, and practiced playing with his left hand and right hand very lonely. San Diego is lonely, that is, we laugh at our loneliness in the mirror and think simply like children. Similar to Nicholas Nikolai Gogol's "tearful smile", we can feel deep loneliness in a relaxed and simple smile.
Secondly, the externalization of the inner world implies the inner world of the characters through their expressions, actions, language and the author's narration. In The Old Man and the Sea, it is especially manifested in the language and actions of Santiago.
"Dolphin", the old man said loudly. "A big dolphin."
"Big, white fish in You Lan," he cried. "It can be good fish food. It may weigh ten pounds!"
San Diego, straightforward and simple, returned to the sea and returned to his own happiness. He is a naive child, the son of the sea.
"They are all very kind," he said. "They play together and have a good time. You love me, and I love you. Like flying fish, they are all our brothers! "
"How old are you?" The old man asked the bird. "Is this your first trip? Have a good rest, bird, he said, bird, please come to my house if you like, "he said." "
The kind and naughty San Diego is full of close love for nature. He is a messenger of love and a child of nature.
"Not bad," he said. "Pain is nothing to a person."
"But a person is not born to be defeated," he said. "You can destroy him as much as possible, but you can't beat him."
Strong and confident Santiago let courage and strength break through the stormy waves and grow into the embodiment of a real man and hero in the fearless belief of the brave.
In Love and Courage, the old man and the sea are so harmonious and wonderful. His childlike innocence, his extensive love and his heroism make Santiago three-dimensional, vivid and full in our hearts. He is an old man, he is old, but we can't read the meaning of aging from his words and deeds and from his heart. As long as the heart is not old, as long as the heart is full of love and courage.
Hemingway used his unique expression to let us read a lot from Santiago. Although Hemingway once said: "There is no symbol, the sea is the sea, the old man is the old man, the child is the child, and the fish is the fish." But I still have to say that I did read something. I read the belief and courage to declare war on the hardships of life, challenge the limits of life, never be discouraged in difficulties, setbacks, failures, pains and disappointments, and fight indomitable with death in exchange for honor and dignity with life. Read the highest realm of human will to survive in the form of literature. Apart from the hardness of his personality, he would rather die than surrender, and vowed to die as before. He read out its profound philosophical and symbolic significance. It is the kind of tough guy's philosophical spirit, the eternal existence beyond time and space, and the overwhelming force of fate! We can see that the author combines the image full of life with vague meaning, the poetry of real life with profound philosophy to create a tough image-Santiago, which embodies the dignity and elegance of human beings under the pressure of fate.
1. Tragic hero: Inheriting the essence of ancient Greek heroes.
In the reader's mind, the hero of ancient Greece should be the perfect combination of healthy human body beauty and free will beauty. They often have extraordinary courage, skill, wisdom and bodybuilding, and are always at the peak of rights, interests, love and honor. They are sons of sunshine, masters of the world, and the most brilliant acme. Of course, although beautiful, this is only a superficial halo. Through this aperture, we can go deep into the spirit of ancient Greek culture, and we will be able to discover two important qualities of ancient Greek heroes.
The first is the tragedy of fate, that is, the conflict between human free will and fate In Plato's Homer thought, which cultivated the whole ancient Greece, he thought that besides God, life was also restricted by another supernatural force, namely fate or "destiny". This conflict between man and fate became the tragic consciousness in ancient Greek literature and culture. In Homer's epic, we can see that Zeus, as the "father of God" and "much cry and little rain", naturally holds the power to manipulate fate. But not only can he not replace fate, but he can't change its trajectory at will. When he tried to save his beloved son Sarpedon, Hera and the gods always opposed him: "Are you going to save him from a tragic death, a mortal, a mortal destined to die?" Compared with "happy" or "happy" gods, mortals are "pitiful" or "pathetic". Mortals are at the mercy of fate from the moment they are born, with the shadow of death. Even the king's life inevitably contains the seeds of sadness. Human nature makes him unable to get rid of the threat of death and must face the end of separation of flesh and blood. Life is short, and it is chilling. In another work, King Oedipus, which is regarded by Aristotle as a tragic model, "fate" is described as a great power, just like a magical shadow, which always sets a trap before the protagonist acts, making him step into the abyss of sin and become a slave of fate.
This tragic fate has also become the source of "tragic consciousness" in the whole West. In later works such as Shakespeare's Macbeth, we see that "life is like an idiotic dream, full of noise and commotion, but meaningless." Mo Bosang's works tell us that "we know nothing, can't guess anything and can't imagine anything." Naturally, this thought also influenced the writer Hemingway from the bone. There is a strong sense of death in his works. I think it is a wasteland without water and life. It doesn't obey any laws. It cruelly shattered everyone's efforts and struggles. It killed "the kindest and bravest person in the world" and threatened "the ants on the fuel rod"-human beings are like a sea of fire.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, an old man, is gripped by the palm of fate. We have seen such an image in China's contemporary poet Chang Yao's work Inland Heights: "The lonely inland heights are empty, and Evergrande/makes all possible feelings disappear from the beginning and lose their elasticity. /Always small. /Lonely inland. /Silent fire obsidian. /Silent collapse. " The old man dissolved into a symbol in the vast and magnificent sea. All his struggles and struggles have become a joke of fate. On the way, I can only stay on the road all the time, "but the loneliness of my soul is getting heavier and heavier/who will share the golden twilight with me and then retreat into the moonlight gem together?" On the road, there is endless loneliness and loneliness of talking to oneself. A drop in the ocean, as small as "a challenging traveler walking in the sand table of God". Being an ant in God's eyes, doing everything in the sand table, is just a ridiculous walk. Failure is a doomed tragedy.
We silently laughed at the fate of mankind in The Fate of the Old Man. At the same time, however, another emotion is slowly winding around our hearts, which is the second aspect of the essence of ancient Greek heroes: heroism. This heroic spirit is the spirit of seeing the meaning of survival in the hardships of life and the value of life in the cruelty of war. This spirit is to use limited life to resist infinite hardships, so that life can show its own value to the maximum in its short life, and make it shine with courage, wisdom and enterprising spirit in the hottest land of struggle. Because people will die after all, they should be honed in the battle of life and death, showing their determination not to give up fighting and self-test even in the coldest conditions. The elite among mortals should not shy away from the challenges of life. On the contrary, they have the responsibility to raise their love for life to the pursuit of life value in the practice of going through fire and water.
In Homer's Epic, Homer planned to live proudly and die vigorously for his heroes. Timid, it is such a principled life that reduces the performance of personality. In King Oedipus, the central figure, King Oedipus, was teased by fate, but he did not passively obey the evil fate, but struggled hard, dared to face the reality and punished himself. Under the influence of this spirit, Hemingway was inspired by the blood of American ancestors who dared to take risks and refused to fail. He doesn't admit the reality of failure, and he doesn't pity his own pain. In a desperate world, he showed what a person must look like: he walked confidently and calmly, leaving a meaningful smile to the world. From the philosophical point of view, this self-improvement consciousness of actively entering the WTO is Hemingway's promotion of a human action spirit; From the aesthetic point of view, it is Hemingway's tragic beauty to human beings, and it is a sublimity to know what he can't do.
San Diego sailed to the vast sea. Facing the unknown fate, his choice is acceptance and satisfaction, full of adventurous spirit, and he is willing to become a giant of action. Although his opponent's strength is immeasurable and failure is inevitable, he will never be discouraged. Santiago took the popular adage "No risk, no gain" to the extreme. He is so calm, brave and determined. When the ship sailed back to Xiaogang with nothing, he asked himself, "What defeated you?" The answer is simple and confident-"Nothing," he said in a high voice. "I went too far." Fighting to the last San Diego, winning with one's own spirit and using one's own actions proved the fighting spirit of great human beings in the face of inevitable failure.
Santiago is a tragic hero. He has courage in his tragic view, flying bravely and being pessimistic at the same time. Become the perfect reproduction of the essence of ancient Greek heroes.
Second, the hero in life: Hemingway's portrayal
Hemingway's life is full of legends. He was a very strong person when he was young, and he was crazy about his favorite sports, such as boxing and football. In this early confrontation, he was keen to be the first in everything. If he fails, he will give up the sport. For example, he gave up playing football in the last year of Oak Park High School, just because he didn't become the leader of the champion team that year; One of the reasons why he didn't go to college is that he wants to play football more. 1918 in may, Hemingway joined the American red cross field service team as a reporter and went to the front line in Italy. Unexpectedly, he was seriously injured when driving an ambulance across the line of fire. Doctors in the field hospital took out 237 shrapnel from his body. Hemingway was carrying these shrapnel, carrying an Italian soldier who was more seriously injured, and struggled to the ambulance station before he fainted. These scars won Hemingway the Silver Cross Military Medal awarded by the Italian government. However, the cruelty and horror of the war left indelible scars in his heart, which made his works deeply express this spiritual confusion and became the representative writer of the "lost generation". 1In July, 936, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, Hemingway resolutely devoted himself to the life-and-death struggle between democracy and dictatorship, and wrote the immortal work "For Whom the Bell Tolls". After that, Hemingway was submerged for a long time, and many people thought that he had lost his creative energy. However, in 1952, Hemingway wrote an immortal novella The Old Man and the Sea, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. From 65438 to 0958, Hemingway's health went from bad to worse, and he struggled with chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes for nearly three years. Finally, determined to get rid of the pain and suffering on his sickbed, he ended his life with his beloved double-barreled shotgun in July 196 1. Hemingway's life is like a novel or a warm summer. He is the best portrayal of "being born again and dying peacefully". "If you want to live, you have to live bravely", and if you want to live wonderfully, you have to die. "It is better to be passionate, ambitious and happy in the fire than to wait until your hopes are dashed and you die with a groan."
Santiago is a tough guy in Hemingway's later work The Old Man and the Sea. We can see many authors in Santiago. Hemingway once said: "I decided to write everything I experienced into the novel ... it was a good and rigorous exercise." Although we didn't see what the author experienced in San Diego, we felt the spirit of life and death. Santiago, like Hemingway, is a great man. He wants to live and never give up. He is willing to challenge his destiny with his own spirit. Although the old man finally failed, he proudly faced death and completed a symphony of life. Although Hemingway committed suicide, it may be a negative self-destruction. However, if we compare Hemingway's "tough guy" spirit of never giving up and despising death, we can see that his suicide is a solution of "preferring death to surrender" and "mutually assured destruction with illness". He has surpassed his own life and become the deceased at the peak of glory and happiness. Santiago and Hemingway became strong people and heroes of life in this brave face and test.
Third, the last hero: the last real spiritual aristocrat
Entering modernism, under Nietzsche's slogans such as "God is dead", "Hit the idol" and "Re-evaluate all values", the writer no longer sticks to the traditional rational principle and does not believe in the humanitarian ideal, but thinks about the future of the world and mankind from the standpoint of life ontology. Pay more attention to people, pursue people's desire for life, self-digestion, depression, uneasy nothingness, threats and fears. Describe the ugly side of human nature, such as depravity, deformity, metamorphosis, plague, etc. And expose and tear the mediocrity and evil of self. There are no traces of heroes in modernist literature, and heroes are fragmented, leaving only helplessness and sadness after "anti-hero".
Santiago became a lonely left-behind, the last hero. His moral courage and persistent will to fight to the end for a certain ideal and belief have been dissolved into an anti-hero, an anti-hero who is Nuo Nuo-minded, has no definite view on life issues, and lacks lofty life goals and willpower to maintain a certain belief. In Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor becomes a big beetle who loses himself and struggles in despair. In Joyce's Ulysses, Bloom becomes a funny version of Odysseus. In the face of his wife's affair, he just swallowed the bitter fruit and compromised. If you don't resist the fierce attack, you will only run away. I have to swallow the ridicule and insult of others, and I can only satisfy my abnormal psychology with yellow photos in the drawer and peeping at women's underwear. Become synonymous with vulgar incompetence. In Heller's Catch-22, Jocelyn used a "malicious means" to get out of trouble, that is, playing a role that others asked you to play and then acting according to the requirements of the role. "I probably prefer to live like a plant, and I don't have to make up my mind about important things." His escape is only for survival, and he will not fight indomitable to change the situation. These anti-heroes all suffer from a disease-personality rickets. The hero became a sad joke.
Santiago became the last hero. His personal charm and lofty tragic beauty became the pinnacle of our hero and the last spiritual aristocrat left behind.
Hemingway, like Prometheus, remolded a life form with reference to life in Life. He explored the infinite potential of his heroic spirit and once again tried to sublimate human heroism in the form of literature. His San Diego is idealized as a character, a personality, a will, a belief, a demeanor, a sense of beauty, a life form, and becomes the real place of human heroes.
Spring morning, running water, drizzle and willow did not exist because of the poet's existence, but they infected the poet's heart and shed some beautiful songs from his pen. These humanized warmth and vitality make the poet's feelings reach his mission. Because of his understanding, his feelings are more intense, like summer dusk and lush locust trees. The poet undertook this task more consciously. This is the reason why stars and springs exist, and it is also the goal that stars and springs want to achieve.