『Reading』 Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" - The victorious loser, the failed hero

Everyone is very familiar with Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea". It tells the story of a dying old fisherman, Santiago, who failed to catch a fish for dozens of days. He was ridiculed and sympathized by the people around him, but he Never admitting defeat, he still went fishing every day and persisted without hesitation, finally catching a big fish on the 85th day.

This big fish was eighteen feet long and weighed fifteen hundred pounds. It was so big that the old man’s small fishing boat couldn’t carry it. The appearance of this fish proved the old man's strength and brought him excitement, happiness and satisfaction. However, the whole process was full of hardships, and the result was even more lamentable and regrettable.

For three days, every bit of victory the old man achieved came at a heavy price, until he finally suffered an irreparable defeat. After reading it, I couldn't calm down for a long time. Today, I want to talk about this world-famous classic.

——Except for those eyes, everything about him is old. But the sea-blue pupils were happy, as if they had never been defeated.

"The Old Man and the Sea" only has one hundred pages, and the plot is very simple and clear. There are no tortuous structural arrangements. In the process of the old man dealing with the marlin and fighting the shark, there are many elements. There are many descriptions of the old man's psychological activities, language and movements, as well as the old man's understanding and judgment of wind, waves, currents, weather, etc., all of which show us the vivid character of Santiago.

From the old man's more than 80 days of hard work to nothing, to the appearance of the marlin, to the return empty-handed after giving all his efforts, the old man's image of a tough guy has come to life before us. We all know that Santiago in Hemingway's novel is by no means a loser in the ordinary sense. He is confident, tenacious, courageous, and unyielding. "It would be foolish not to give up any hope, he thought. And I believe that it is even a sin." Therefore, although he faces almost all challenges that he cannot resist, However, he still fights tenaciously with perseverance and wisdom beyond ordinary people, step by step towards success, and at the same time, he is getting closer and closer to failure.

However, "a man can be eliminated, but cannot be defeated." No matter how difficult the environment was, the old man defended the "dignity of the human soul" and showed what his patience has achieved. Extraordinary degree. So, here he is a victorious loser and a failed hero.

The Gulf of Mexico, the sea in "The Old Man and the Sea", is always described by the author as a woman in the book. Because it flows quietly and slowly from beginning to end, with no waves or whirlpools, it is still calm even when the old man is fighting with the shark. It always stared at the "tough guy"-like old man calmly and calmly, without making any move. It's like gentle companionship, more like silent support.

However, although it looks like a woman, it has a gentle appearance, but it has infinite and powerful power, including the giant marlin that everyone has never heard of, and the ferocious and greedy shark. It is so unfathomable, full of hope, temptation, and endless challenges and tribulations. At this moment, you seem confused, unable to see its emotional color, let alone which side it favors.

Therefore, this vast and unknowable sea area is the sea in the true sense, implying the world in which people live. Here it does not influence anyone or anything, it just allows everything to develop naturally according to personality with a calm vision and warm embrace.

This big fish plays a very important role in the work. Its appearance gives people hope and comfort. It is a rich reward after hard work. It is a goal that encourages us to continue to strive for. It is a beautiful ideal that is difficult to achieve but is irresistibly tempting.

In the story, although the old man captured the big marlin and dealt with it for three days, the old man seemed to have always regarded it as a friend. From the beginning, what the old man said to himself, as well as his mood and tone when "speaking" to the marlin, all brought him closer and closer to the fish. Especially when he fought with all his strength against the sharks that came one after another, the big marlin had really become his friend. It's a bit tragic and heroic of "sharing joys and sorrows, facing adversity".

At that time, in a sense, the old man protected not only the fruits of his own labor, but also the big marlins he met on the vast sea that were as perseverant, tenacious and brave as him. This "friend", his "brother". It's powerful and beautiful.

It is obvious that sharks represent a destructive force in the story. After the old man went through a long ordeal, he tied the victory firmly to the gang of the boat and returned with a full load. Who could have thought that they would be attacked by sharks again and again? However, the reality is indeed so cruel.

In the end, although the old man defeated them in turn, his fish could not withstand the attacks of their bloody mouths. When the old man returned home, the 1,500-pound horse All that was left of Lin Yu was a huge skeleton.

Although sharks are hateful, they are something we cannot get rid of in our lives. They are the fetters that prevent us from approaching our beautiful ideals. They are a collection of various destructive forces that require us to persevere in order to achieve our goals. Fight it to the end. Just like old man Santiago, give it your all.

The lion appears several times in the story, and there is not much mention in it. But just from the sentence at the end of the story, "The old man was dreaming about the lion", we can feel this intention. importance.

The fishing life of the lion and the old man are far apart. Like the baseball game that the old man mentioned again and again on the sea, they are both spiritual nourishment for the old man. It does not have the tenderness and passion of the sea, nor the greed and ferocity of sharks, but it has its own unique confidence and majesty, which sets off the old man's extraordinary spiritual world.

And it is precisely because of this spiritual wealth that the old man has the spirit of not being discouraged in the face of frustration, not yielding in the face of evil, and not giving up in the face of hardships. All of these should be examples for us to follow.

"The Old Man and the Sea" is a novella written by the American writer Hemingway in Cuba in 1951. In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel; in 1954, he won the Pulitzer Prize for this novel World Nobel Prize for Literature. The author Hemingway is also known as the "tough guy" in the American literary world because of the "tough guy" image that frequently appears in his works.

At the same time, to a certain extent, Hemingway is the most popular among Chinese readers among all Nobel Prize winners in literature in the past 100 years, and "The Old Man and the Sea" is even more well-known to the majority of Chinese people. .

I like this great work very much, and I would like to pay tribute to the writer Hemingway with this article.