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История литературы / 39. Earnest Hemingway.The Old Man and the Sea

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"The Old Man and the Sea" was published in 1952, after the bleakest ten years in Hemingway`s literary career. Santiago`s story was originally conceived as a part of a larger work "The Sea Book", but when Hemingway received positive reviews of the Santiago`s story, he decided to allow it to be published independently. And it was a real success. Many readers believed it to be Hemingway`s best work, others complained of artificiality in the characterization. But despite of this "The Old Man and the Sea" was awarded in America, and it also played a significant role in Hemingway`s selection for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. The protagonist of the novella is an old fisherman Santiago living in Cuba. We meet him at the very beginning of the book: "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish." So from the very beginning we can feel the mood of the novella - the mood of constant struggle and constant opposition of man and nature. "Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated." Undefeated is the main word here, as Santiago is not going to surrender and even after this long chain of misfortunes, he still goes fishing day by day. And he won`t be satisfied by some small fish, he wants to catch a big marlin, a noble fish, to which he wants to prove his own nobility, his right to be called a fisherman and his dignity. He wants to submit the sea. The sea is one of the main characters of the book and we can see it already from the title. Santiago loved the sea:"He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought." Santiago lives alone, though he does not feel alone, as he has the sea by his side. His only friend and companion is boy Manolin, whom Santiago taught to fish. He used to go to the sea with the old man until his parents objected until Santiago`s bad luck. But still the boy took care of the old fisherman, brought him food and helped to pull his boat and other staff. He is fascinated by Santiago`s skill and undefeated spirit. Hemingway believes that a real hero should face adversities with dignity and grace and should work continually, just as the old man do. "Man is not made for defeat.... A man can be destroyed but not defeated". That is the old man`s motto. And he continues working day by day, and does not give up the idea of catching a great fish, with honor and dignity, without complaints. Santiago does not pay any attention to what others say, he believes that "humility was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride". And he has pride in his actions, that presses him to travel dangerously far out into the sea, "beyond all people in the world", to catch the marlin. Santiago is obsessed with proving his worthiness to those around him. He had to prove himself to the boy: "the thousand times he had proved it mean nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it" (66). And he had to prove himself to the marlin: "I'll kill him....in all his greatness and glory. Although it is unjust. But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures" (66). Though he loved this fish and considered it to be his brother, he still kills it for pride, and his blood was stirred by the battle with such a noble and worthy antagonist. But Santiago had to pay for this pride and his marlin was attacked and eaten by sharks. But still the old man is satisfied by his spiritual success, he proved that he can and he is eager to live further and to fish again and again, nothing changed in his life. And he again sees lions in his dream, as a symbol of his undefeated spirit. The style of the work is very particular. The narration seems to be rather simple, abrupt sentences, short phrases, but this simplicity and concreteness of descriptions provides a rich opportunity for symbolic interpretations. Hemingway renders his themes through sensory details and through symbols embedded in the natural world. Hemingway showed that sometimes the most powerful effect comes from restraint and understatement. He believes that the strongest effect comes with an economy of means ( the pause, careful use of adjectives, simple sentences, limited vocabulary).