Artistic Features of "The Old Man and the Sea"

1. Perfect care. "The Old Man and the Sea" pays great attention to the perfection of care. The old man lived alone in a simple hut by the sea. At dawn on the 85th day, he carried his tools from here and his children sent him out to sea. At dawn two days later, he drove his boat back to the sea alone. Carrying the tools and entering the small hut, the child was the first to see him. The whole story is like this, forming a sympathizing relationship in terms of time, place, characters and props, with a beginning and an end, creating a complete sense of beauty. This kind of echoing echo from beginning to end is not a simple repetition. It guides people to think: it is dawn every time, the location is still the small shack, the characters are still the old man and the child, and the tools are still those fishing tools. Look It seems that there are no surprising changes, but there are different contents here: the old man was full of energy and full of confidence before going to sea; the children were worried, praying and blessing the old man; the old man's tools were intact; the small hut was not in the old man's mind. Not critical. After returning, the old man was exhausted and faced a complete mental and physical collapse; the children cried for the old man's injury, were happy for the old man's return, and were thankful that they could continue to learn skills from the old man in the future; the old man used them as combat weapons. The fishing tools were incomplete; the small hut now became the place that the old man yearned for. It can be seen that substantial changes have taken place before and after. Using this kind of reference will help you to have a clear idea and help you to have a comprehensive and concentrated grasp of the work, giving you a strong overall sense.

2. Provoking suspense. Hemingway set up two suspenses at the beginning of "The Old Man and the Sea": The old man didn't catch a fish for 84 days in a row, and he planned to continue fishing on the 85th day. He was very unlucky (this is how the child's parents viewed him), so , can he catch a big fish? When the old man felt that his strength might be exhausted, he thought that he had confidence and know-how. He thought that a "weird" old man like him would do everything well. So, what kind of confidence and know-how did he have? Where does his "eccentricity" lie? This is what readers are eager to know. This huge attraction will firmly pull you to find everything you want to know. Finally, after reading the work, you will get a more satisfactory answer: The old man caught a huge fish on the 85th day. , but lost it again in the end; his confidence is to overcome all difficulties and achieve the final victory; his secret is all the favorable ways to deal with fish; his "weirdness" is reflected in his perseverance and invincible stubborn character, and the suspense follows. As the development of the plot disappears, we can also understand the overall spirit of the work, which makes the artistic effect of suspense setting.

3. Clever hints. When showing the image of the old man, the author used an extremely concise line drawing technique to roughly outline the appearance of the old man: "The old man has deep wrinkles on the back of his neck, making him look thin and haggard. There are brown spots on both sides of his face. The pimples are caused by the reflection of the sun on the tropical sea. The pimples spread down both sides of the face, and both hands have deep wrinkles and scars from pulling big fish with the rope. But none of the scars are new, and those scars have become like the corroded places in the fishless desert. "Every part of his body looks old, except those eyes, which are as blue as the sea." , is cheerful and not depressed. "This is the youthful appearance of the old man. Although the book does not describe the happy life of the old man when he was young, we can still imagine that this is hinted at when describing the furnishings in the old man's house "... using the leaves of 'seabirds' with hard fiber. On the brown wall made of flattened overlapping bricks, there is a colorful picture of the Feast of the Sacred Heart and a picture of Our Lady of Cobra, which were gifts from his wife. In the past, a picture of his wife hung on the wall. The color photograph made him feel miserable when he saw it, so he took it off and put it on the corner shelf under one of his clean shirts. "This hinted to us everything about the old man's past: he once had a beautiful person. Beautiful wife, his wife believes in religion, they love each other, so happy and happy, maybe their life is very romantic. But unfortunately his wife left him prematurely. What was the reason? When writing about the old man's daily necessities, the book said: Apart from a bookcase, a dining table, and a chair, there was only an old military blanket left. The old military blanket is a product of the war, which reminds people that during the cruel war years, the old man may have fought and participated in the war when he was young. This may be a souvenir given to him by the war, and his happy life may be due to the war. And was buried. Although the book does not directly describe love or war, we can think of these, which is not to say that it is a hint.

4. Strong contrast. The strength of the old man's character was gradually revealed through a series of conflicts such as going out to sea relentlessly - catching big marlins - fighting sharks. Big marlins and fierce sharks are strong and powerful, and they are invincible generals in the sea. They have no fear and can do whatever they want. However, the old man is old and frail, and when he faces such a powerful opponent alone, the confrontation and conflict are very fierce. Being able to repel all attackers in the end, this kind of power cannot but be admired. This kind of struggle between the weak and the strong can intensify the conflict and more clearly highlight the deep level (strength) of the subject's character.

5. Embody emotions in scenery and blend scenes. Hemingway rarely expresses emotions directly in his works. He often embodies the emotions in the scenery and blends the scenes, pouring all the inner feelings of the old man into the description of the constantly changing scenery.

From an overall perspective: every rise and fall of the sun is in harmony with the changes in the old man's mood, and coincides with the progress of the old man's fishing. At dawn, the fish was about to move, and the old man was waiting with confidence; at noon, the fish began to struggle violently, and the old man was in a very nervous state; in the evening, the fish became a little quieter, and the old man could rest. This kind of depiction leaves no trace, and the emotions change naturally with the scenery. Judging from the specific details, it is touching. For example, "The wind kept blowing and turned slightly to the northeast. He knew that this meant that the wind would not subside. The old man looked ahead, but he could not see the sail, the ship, or the dangers on the ship. There was only flying fish flying out from the bow, and there were clusters of yellow sargassum. "This is a negative description of the scenery. There seemed to be no scene, but in fact there was a scene. How the old man wanted to see all this. He was too lonely, but he saw nothing, so the scene arose out of love.

6. The use of painting and photography techniques. The colors of "The Old Man and the Sea" are mainly dark, which is consistent with its tragic theme. The oil painting presented to us by the author uses the color of the sea - dark black, deep black and dark blue as the background color. It has a sense of deep shadows to highlight the light gathering effect, making the main image bright and eye-catching, creating a three-dimensional sense; At the same time, we chose white clouds and snow peaks with strong contrast to face the sea far away. The colors are bright and eye-catching. We chose a vibrant green coast and light blue hills as the edge of the sea, creating a soft feeling. We chose colors. The colorful beams of light serve as the central color of the sea, and the reflection effect is strong. The whole picture suddenly becomes brighter, and the dark colors turn into intermediate colors, creating a lively and lively feeling. Together with the reflection of the moon, the flight of birds, and the circling of eagles, the whole picture is formed. A refined fishing picture also forms a harmonious unity with the old man's difficult style of fishing. It plays a role in exaggeration and achieves perfect unity, showing the character of the old man who is strong yet soft, and soft yet strong.

In addition, the visual image produced by "The Old Man and the Sea" has a strong sense of picture, which is inseparable from the author's application of some filmic techniques. A close-up shot is used at the beginning of the work to show the sail and the old man's face. The close shot is most fully reflected in the details of the old man dropping fish food: "One fish food was sent down to a depth of forty inches, the second fish food was sent down to a depth of seventy-five inches, and the third and fourth fish food were sent down to a depth of forty inches. They were sent to places one hundred inches and one hundred and twenty-five inches below the sea respectively." The movements of placing fishing lines one by one are so careful and realistic. The long shot shows the whole picture, a picture of navigation and fishing. Internal monologue replaces dialogue in The Old Man and the Sea. Because the old man went to sea alone, he could only talk to himself. Just like the voice-over effect in movies. The editing method of montage is also used appropriately here. It is shown that when the old man is very tired, in order to increase his confidence, he recalls the scene when he was young and won an arm wrestling match with the strongest black dock porter in a tavern. This kind of editing is natural and appropriate, and it has the premise of his existence: this is when his left hand was cramped and his right hand was injured, he thought of the game, which was very consistent with the old man's psychology at this moment, so it is reasonable to have such an association. This makes the story coherent and unified, and also increases the capacity.