"A person is not born to be defeated. You can eliminate him, but you can't defeat him." - The Old Man and the Sea

Personal heroism refers to everyone Individuals are eager to be recognized by others for their abilities and to be noticed.

Hemingway was born in the United States in 1899. Throughout his life, Hemingway had a strong personality, was brave and aggressive, and had a strong tendency of personal heroism. In the European battlefield, pick up the gun and enter the battlefield. In the African jungle, you have to catch ferocious beasts and challenge the masters in the boxing ring. Likewise, his fictional works are filled with war, sports, battles, love, and travel. What best embodies the author's character is his award-winning work "The Old Man and the Sea", which embodies a kind of self-confidence and courage to challenge fate, and shows a strong fighting spirit. This work caused great repercussions at the time and even became the content of church sermons.

In fact, there is not much of the so-called "personal heroism" in Hemingway's works, but more of the emotion of disillusionment. Hemingway's other masterpieces such as "The Sun Also Rises" and "A Farewell to Arms" , "The Complete Collection of Short Stories", "The Garden of Eden", "A Movable Feast", etc., it can be said that they have almost nothing to do with "personal heroism".

Can you please reconsider the topic of your thesis? If we analyze "The Old Man and the Sea", the following references

Outstanding performances:

First, the work praises human vitality. look! The roaring sea and sky, the raging sharks, but they can't do anything to an old man who is entering his twilight years! While the old man was fighting despair and hunger, he was always silently thinking in his heart: People are not born to be defeated. This is a reflection of the resilience and strength of human life!

The second is the work’s exploration of the ultimate meaning of life. Think about it, the old man fought against hunger, cold, and darkness. Could it be that he was fighting for an empty fish bone? The old man could have cut off the fishing line and returned easily, but he didn't! He is competing and competing with a powerful dilemma! I would rather die than admit defeat. The old man completed the demonstration of human life power in his contest with the sea and its attached organisms. Here it is said: The success of life lies in the brilliance of life itself, not in the result of death--I am alive and fighting!

Third, the work reinterprets the concept of "career success". Material victory can be a successful career in a secular sense, but it does not necessarily mean a successful life. If you treat life as a career, then a successful life should first of all be the improvement of personality strength. Although Xiang Yu was a loser, he was recognized as a hero; Liu Bang conquered the world, but he was still regarded as the "Sishui scoundrel" by the people of the world. The tragedy of Farewell My Concubine is human beings' affirmation of the meaning of their own lives.

Fourth, the works reflect the American spirit and Western values. Adventure and personal heroism have always been admired by old Americans. The old man in Santiago's small fishing boat carried the same spirit of the "Mayflower" that year, that is: I can fail, but you can't destroy me, and I am always trying to find a breakthrough. Therefore: the national character of the work brings out the world charm of the work.

Fifth, the works show a new way of dialogue between man and nature. The dialogue between the "old man" and the "sea" is a dialogue between weakness and strength, loneliness and noise, victory and defeat. It is different from the dialogue between Robinson and the island: it has some support for life. Shark is the proud son of the sea, and man is the spiritual leader of the land. How will people scream when they are exposed to turbulent waves and live in a foreign land?

Sixth, the work is the product of the author’s personification. Such honest and frank writing should certainly be praised. As we all know, Hemingway loved adventures throughout his life and loved to challenge the limits of his vitality in nature. He believed that life without power would be worse than death. He hates human beings' desire for materialism, power, and love, so he often avoids the people around him and goes to incredible places to hunt, participate in wars, and have sex. Because of this, he was as lonely mentally as the old man who fought with sharks at sea. However, while he was still alive, it was not until he was pecked into an empty fish bone by the evil opinions of the world that he issued a warning to the world with a double-barreled shotgun. . . . .

Limitations

This is a novel, but it can also be seen as a fable. Here Hemingway sang a hymn to the tenacious fighting spirit of mankind. And the novel ends on an optimistic note. The little boy will accompany the old man to sea again, which heralds new battles and new hopes.

However, of course we must also recognize the limitations of Hemingway as a bourgeois individualist. He sees neither the way out for society nor the power of the masses. He praises the spirit of personal struggle from a weak footing. Therefore, the heroes he praises can only be failed heroes. The optimism of "The Old Man and the Sea" can only be a glimmer in the vast dark sky, and there is a melancholy and painful tone throughout.

Is the old man the image of a real worker, or is he just a Hemingway-style intellectual with the appearance of a worker, as one commentator said? ——We believe that it is an image of a real worker, although it may be a little idealized. A true writer refuses to use his characters simply as his own mouthpiece. If Santiago was just Hemingway in disguise, this novel would not have such touching power. Santiago's thoughts and feelings did not exceed those of a laborer like him. When he was fighting a life-and-death battle with a big fish in the vast sea, his feeling of regarding the big fish as both an enemy and a brother should be understandable and understandable. The old man described by Hemingway is not a typical example with profound social content, but he is a credible and real image.

But the old man Santiago has the shadow of the writer Hemingway. His son Gregory Hemingway wrote in a memoir: "The protagonist in Hemingway's writings is Hemingway himself, or the best thing about him." This is right. We can see the writer's own shadow in certain characters in many works. However, in "The Old Man and the Sea", we feel that Hemingway is more closely integrated with Santiago mentally and emotionally. He loves him and praises him. He has truly entered the "role". The Old Man in the Sea The feelings and emotions are what he truly experiences. In a sense and from a certain perspective, the old man is the incarnation of Hemingway. However, this does not contradict what we said earlier that the old man is a real artistic image.

In 1926, Hemingway published "The Sun Also Rises". In this novel, he expressed the views of some young American intellectuals on reality after the First World War. of deep despair. As a result, he has attracted attention as a representative of the "lost generation", and some people regard this novel as the manifesto of the "lost generation". Since then, he has been on his life and social exploration. He participated in the Spanish anti-Franco struggle. In his works, he has exposed the darkness of capitalism and expressed his anti-fascist enthusiasm. He sympathized with China's Anti-Japanese War. He is a serious writer with a sense of justice. However, he has never been able to get out of the circle of individualism, and therefore, he has never been able to get rid of the shackles of pessimism. Although the "Lost Generation" as a literary genre collapsed in the 1930s, ideologically speaking, Hemingway in his later years was still a "lost man." On the surface, Hemingway is a great writer who has achieved great success. He has fame, status, and money. He is bold, open-minded and generous. But there was another Hemingway who did not see the real way out for humanity. Moreover, due to several injuries sustained during the war, this took a toll on his health. And as he got older, writing became increasingly difficult. He was depressed, melancholy and sad inside. Struggling and floating in the vast sea of ??people. "The Old Man and the Sea" expresses something deep in his soul. He not only placed his feelings about life on the old man Santiago, but also tried to use the old man's heroic spirit as an example to inspire himself.

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According to his son's recollection, Hemingway was no longer as comfortable writing in his later years as before. "It used to be a gushing well, but now it has to be pumped out. ... He is no longer a poet ..., he has become a craftsman, complaining about his fate, sighing that his plans have become * lingering Ah! His genius returned, and a masterpiece (referring to "The Old Man and the Sea") was born, small in scale, but full of love and insight. "Power and truth." In any case, we can agree that the love for the subject matter and the seamless integration of the author and the object are an important reason why this novel can achieve certain achievements and move people. ——But, in general, he found it more and more difficult to write. So much so that he had to say something like this: "I can't finish that book. I can't do it anymore." "I've been in front of this damn desk all day long...but I can't write.

Can't write at all. You know, I can't do it. "He was always trying to win," his son said. He couldn't stand losing. "If he couldn't write, he didn't want to live anymore," said one of his old friends, Malcolm Cowley. "In 1961, he ended his life with a shotgun bullet. I'm afraid it can't just be explained as the torture of illness. This should also be another manifestation of the heroism of the old man Santiago that he admired. However, we It can also be seen as a death knell for the individual heroes who are struggling and struggling in the vast sea of ??people. After their personal power is exhausted, they can no longer see greater hope.

Hope this helps!