Hemingway’s Writing Style and Techniques in The Old Man and the Sea1.doc

浅析老人与海中海明威的写作风格与技巧Hemingways Writing Style and Techniques in The Old Man and the SeaContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. Literature review.2III. Background of Hemingway.3.Hemingways Writing style and techniques in The Old Man and the Sea.4 1. The language use.4 2. The Iceberg Theory.6 3. Symbolism used in The Old Man and the Sea.7 4. The masculinity in The Old Man and the Sea.8 5. The techniques used in The Old Man and the Sea.9V. The Influence of Hemingways Writing Style.10VI. Conclusion.10References.11Hemingways Writing Style and Techniques in The Old Man and the SeaAbstract: Earnest Hemingway is a world-famous American novelist and short story writer. His name is often associated with war and courage, with love and violence, with beauty and death, In his life time, he publishes a lot of short stories and novels, and among them the best one may be The Old Man and the Sea, which makes him win the highest prize a writer can receive-The Nobel prize of Literature. The language in this novel is particular from his other writings. It is simple and natural on the surface, but actually deliberate and artificial. The dialogue is combined with the realism and the artistry together. Occasionally, the author uses some skills in his writing, such as metaphor, personification, symbols, and of course, his iceberg theory. Hemingways style is related to his experience as a journalist, his learning from many famous writers. The Old Man and the Sea is full of facts, most of which comes from Hemingways own experience. So the way to use facts is a very important writing technique in this novel. In the forepart of the novel, they are used to show the quality of Santiagos life, simply and naturally. While in the latter part of the novel, they are used from inside Santiagos own consciousness. Key words: facts; simplicity; artificial; iceberg theory摘要：海明威是一位闻名于世界的美国小说家。他的名字常常与战争，勇敢，爱情，暴力，美丽及死亡相联系，并以其独特的写作风格区别于他人。一生中，他发表了大量的短篇故事及小说，其中最著名的一部便是老人与海。这部作品使他赢得了文学界的最高奖项诺贝尔文学奖。这骗小说的语言运用非常独特，表面上简单，自然，实则对语言进行了蓄意的艺术处理，对白也集实与艺术为一体。偶尔，作者也在其写作中运用诸如暗喻，拟人，象征，冰山原理等写作技巧。海明威的这种艺术风格大概源于他曾经作为一名记者的经历，当然也有向其它名家的学习。作品中充满了事实，大部分源自作者自身的经历，这也是其写作技巧的一大亮点所在。小说的前半部分，作者用了大量的事实来描述老人的生活状况，简单而自然。后半部分便用来描述主人公自身的思想状态了。关键词：事实；简单；艺术；冰川理论I. Introduction The Old Man and the Sea is finished at the end of Hemingways writing career. Because of its vivid characterization, its unique writing style and full of techniques, it becomes one of the excellent books among all the authors writings. This great success earns its author the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953, and later the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. It is a short novel about Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who has gone for 84 days without catch. Therefore, the boy, who used to sail with him, is forced to leave him and catch in another ship. The old man insists on fishing alone and at last, he hooks an eighteen-foot giant marlin, the largest he has never seen. The fish is very powerful and disobedient. It tows the old man and his boat out to sea for 48 hours, with the old man bearing the whole weight of the fish through the line on his back. The old man, with little food and sleep, has to endure much pain and fights against his treacherous hand cramp. To his great excitement, on his third day at sea, he succeeds in drawing the weakened marlin to the surface and harpoons it. On his way home, he lashes marlin alongside his boat because it is too big to be pulled into the boat. But, unfortunately, the sharks attack them for four times. The old man fights to kill the sharks with as much might and many weapons as he can summon, but only to find a giant skeleton of his marlin left after his desperate defense. At last, Santiago, having lost what he fought for, reaches the shore and struggles to his shack. He falls into sound sleep, dreaming of Africa, and the lions again. His struggle wins him much respect.Hemingway introduced a new subject into literature, and his writing style influenced a group of American writers. Symbolism is always an eternal and controversial topic in The Old Man and the Sea. From reading this book, we can get a better understanding of Ernest Hemingways masterpiece. II. Literature ReviewThe huge success of The Old Man and the Sea, published in 1952, is another great success in Hemingways writing style. The novel won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and later earned the Nobel Prize for Hemingway in 1954. It would be the last novel published in his lifetime.Although the novella helps to regenerate Hemingways writing career, it has met different opinions from critics. While some critics have praised The Old Man and the Sea as a new classic that takes its place among such established American works as William Faulkners short story The bear and Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick, others have attacked the story as “imitation Hemingway” and found fault with the authors departure from the uncompromising realism with which he made his name.Because Hemingway is a writer who always takes lots of facts he experienced as the sources, some critics, not surprisingly, eventually decided that the novella served as a thinly veiled attack upon them. According to this reading, Hemingway is the old master at the end of his career being torn apart bybut ultimately triumphing overcritics on a feeding frenzy. But this reading ultimately reduces The Old Man and the Sea to little more than an act of literary revenge. The more compelling interpretation asserts that the novella is a parable about life itself, in particular mans struggle for triumph in a world that seems designed to destroy him.The Old Man and the Sea is a great success in the world, although there are different opinions towards it, this essay mainly appreciates its simple, natural, unique writing style and skillful techniques. Nobody could ignore this great works. III. Background of Hemingway Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinions in 1899. His father was a doctor and his mother was a music teacher. When he finished his study in middle school, he began his writing career as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. When he was 18 years old, he was sent to Italy to serve as a Red Cross ambulance driver in World War 1, that is why Hemingways writing always related to the war, such as A Farewell to Arms, his greatest novel which Hemingway fictionalized his experience in Italy. In 1921, Hemingway moved to Paris, where he served as a correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star. In Paris, he joined in a group of American and English expatriate writers that included F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Ford Maddox Ford. He learned from these great writers, and finally formed his own unique style. His novels The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms established him as a dominant literary voice of his time. His simple style of writing was revolutionary at that time and was followed by generations of aspiring young writers.After leaving Paris, Hemingway published a lot of short stories and articles, later covered the Spanish Civil War as a journalist. All that he experienced helped him form his unique writing style. In 1940, Hemingway published his best-selling novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. This piece helped him build up the mythic breed of masculinity for which he wished to be known. In the 1930s, Hemingway lived in Key West, Florida, and later in Cuba, the experience of his fishing at the Gulf Stream and the Caribbean provided an essential background for the vivid descriptions of the fishermans craft in The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway once wrote a piece for Esquire. It was about a Cuban fisherman who was dragged out to sea by a great marlin, a game fish that typically weights hundreds of pounds. But sharks destroyed the fishermans catch and when he was found by others, he had been half-delirious. This story seems an obvious seed for the table of Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952. This great success won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, later cinched the Nobel Prize in 1954, and it would be the last novel published in his lifetime. Although Hemingway held an optimistic attitude to the life in The Old Man and the Sea, at the end of his life, he was more and more debilitating in the situation of frequent depression. On the early morning of July 2, 1961, standing beside his beloved gun rack in his home, he died of head wounds resulting from the discharge of his favorite shot-gun, in his own hand. Because of this experience of his life, the unique writing style was formed.IV. Hemingways Writing Style and Techniques in The Old Man and the SeaAmong many great American writers, Hemingway is famous for his objective and terse prose style. Of course The Old Man and the Sea, which is the last novel published in his life, typically reflects his unique writing style. Also Hemingway has used many techniques in this novel, such as realism, the creation of suspense, monologue, etc. This paper aims to discuss the writing style and techniques used in The Old Man and the Sea. 1. The language use:Among all the American writers, Hemingway is famous for his language. With much care and effort and his learning from many famous writers, he created a very influential and immediately recognizable style. In all his works, The Old Man and the Sea is the most typical one to show his unique language style. Its language is simple and natural, and has the effect of directness, clarity and freshness. This is because Hemingway always manages to choose words “concrete, specific, more commonly found, more Anglo-Saxon, casual and conversational.” He seldom uses adjective and abstract nouns, and avoids complicated syntax. Hemingways strength lies in his short sentences and very specific details. His short sentences are powerfully loaded with the tension, which he sees in life. Where he does not use a simple and short sentence, he connects the various parts of the sentence in a straightforward and sequential way, often linked by “and”. In his task of creating real people, Hemingway uses dialogue as an effective device. It is presented in a form “as close to the dramatic as possible, with a minimum of explanatory comment.” Here is an example chosen from The Old Man and the Sea:“What do you have to eat?” the boy asked.“No, I will eat at home. Do you want me to make the fire? ”“No, I will make it later on. Or I may eat the rice cold.”Here we can see that such words as “he said” have almost been omitted and the speeches are very colloquial. Thus dialogue comes to the reader as if he were listening. Besides, the author has made the simple speech connotative. This is a normal use in his writing, which could do a better expression without any particular description. The readers emotion is what the author is feeling. Although Hemingways style is simple and natural on the surface, its never as natural as it seems to be. If we can understand Hemingway better, we could see that his style in fact is deliberate and artifical. Take its dialogue in The Old Man and the Sea for example. In The Old Man and the Sea, the language style is very peculiar from Hemingways other writings. This is because this novel is an English version of Spanish that Santiago and Mandolin would speak in real life. “Since we are meant to realize that Santiago and Mandolin could not possibly speak like this, since English is not his tongue anyway, we are more likely to accept other artificialities of the dialogue. Using the device of pretended translation, which would be bound to stilt in any case, Hemingway can poetize the dialogue as he wishes.” The speakers are distanced from readers to a certain degree. Ever if their language is a kind of epic dignity, it does not lose its convincingness. Lets look at another dialogue:“You are my alarm clock ”, the boy said.“Age is my alarm clock”, the old man said. ”Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day? ”“I dont know”, the boy said. “All I know is that young boys sleep late and hard.”“I can remember it”, the old man said, “I will waken you in time.”There is a slightly strange exchange in the speech. Its simplicity is highly suggestive and connotative, but it also reflects the strong undercurrent of emotion. Indeed, the more closely the readers read the novel, the less rough they understand the characters appear in the novel. In his novel, he never describes directly his despair, fear, or grief and despiser, but makes the economical speech connotative. The satire in his work is also expressed in this way. Distinguished from American traditional writing skills, the author reposes his ideas in the simple words, and this corresponds with the Iceberg Theory. Why Hemingway has formed such a writing style? The reason is related to his own experiences. When he was 17 years old, he left school and went to the Kansas City Star. At that time, Kansas City Star was one of the best newspapers in America. There he served as a journalist. This work would not do harm to a young writer, and he had to learn to use simple sentences, which is very useful to him. As a journalist, he was asked to “speak” with many facts. His descriptions of details are full of factuality and are as precise as news reports. 2. The iceberg theory The Iceberg Theory is a writing theory stated by Hemingway. He once describes this theory like this, “If a writer of the prose knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.” In his novel, we could find this description easily. Here is a passage selected from The Old Man and the Sea,“Just then the stern line came taut under his foot, where he had kept the loop of the line, and he dropped his oars and felt the weight of the small tunas shivering pull as he held the line firm and commenced to haul it in. The shivering increased as he pulled in and he could see the blue back of the fish in the water and the gold of his sides before he swung him over the side and into the boat. He lay in the stern in the sun, compact and bullet shaped, his big, unintelligent eyes staring as he thumped his life out against the planking of the boat with the quick shivering strokes of his neat, fast-moving tail. The old man hit him on the head for