EcologicalInterpretationofOldManandtheSea.doc

Ecological Interpretation of Old Man and the SeaAbstract Ecocriticism offers a new angle to reevaluate the classics. The article will reanalyze Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea from an ecological perspective, so as to gain a view of Hemingways ecological consciousness and suggest a new way to understand Hemingway who concerns more about the interconnection and equality between man and nature.I. IntroductionWith the rise of ecocriticism in the 1960s, which offers a new perspective to reevaluate man and the nature relationship in literary works, the natural world in Hemingway writings has gradually received eco-critics attention. In the introduction to Hemingway and the Natural world, Robert E. Fleming points out that “Few authors in history have been so closely identified with the natural world as Ernest Hemingway.”11 Then what is ecocriticism?In contrast with other 'political' forms of criticism, there has been actually no dispute about the moral and philosophical aims of ecocriticism. What is more, its scale has broadened quickly from nature writing, Romantic poetry, and canonical literature to take in film, TV, theatre, animal stories, architectures, scientific narratives and an extraordinary range of literary texts. Meanwhile, ecocriticism has borrowed methodologies and theoretically-informed methods freely from other fields of literary, social and scientific study.In latest study, in an article that extends ecocriticism to Shakespearean studies, Estok claims that ecocriticism is more than “simply the study of Nature or natural things in literature; rather, it is any theory that is committed to effecting change by analyzing the functionthematic, artistic, social, historical, ideological, theoretical, or otherwiseof the natural environment, or aspects of it, represented in documents (literary or other) that contribute to material practices in material worlds” (“Shakespeare and Ecocriticism” 16-17). This echoes the functional approach of the cultural ecology branch of ecocriticism, which analyzes the analogies between ecosystems and imaginative texts and posits that such texts potentially have an ecological (regenerative, revitalizing) function in the cultural system (Zapf, "Literary Ecology").After introducing the definition of ecocriticism, I will introduce The Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a fierce fighting between an old, poor fisherman and a large marlin. The novel begins with the description of the fisherman, who is named Santiago, has gone out fishing for 84 days without catching a fish. He is so unfortunate that his young apprentice, Manolin, has not been allowed by his parents to fish with the old man and he has been to follow a more successful fishermen. Whereas, Manolin keeps caring about the old man, so he visits Santiago's hut each night, hauling back his fishing gear, sending him food and discussing American baseball and his favorite player Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.Thus on the eighty-fifth day, Santiago goes out alone, taking his skiff far onto the Gulf. He sets his lines and, by noon of the first day, a big fish that he is sure is a marlin takes his bait. Santiago only found the marlin is swimming around his boat. Two days and two nights pass in this manner, during which the old man bears the tension of the line with his body. Yet, he is wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, for he often refers to him as a brother. He also determines that no one has the right to take the fish, for the marlin is dignified.On the third day of the fighting, the fish begins to circle the skiff, indicating his tiredness to the old man. Santiago, now completely worn out, uses all his strength he has left in him to pull the fish onto its side and stab the marlin with a harpoon, ending the long battle between the old man and the tenacious fish. Santiago straps the marlin to the side of his skiff and heads home, considering about the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed.While Santiago continues his journey back to the shore, a group of sharks are attracted to the trail of blood left by the marlin in the water. At first, Santiago kills a great shark with his harpoon. In this process, he loses that weapon in the process. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks; in total, five sharks are slain and many others are driven away. But the sharks keep coming, and by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail and its head. Finally reaching the shore before dawn on the next day, Santiago struggles on the way to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on his shoulder. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep sleep.A group of fishermen gather the next day around the boat where the fish's skeleton is still attached. One of the fishermen measures it to be 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. Tourists at the nearby café mistakenly take it for a shark. Manolin, worried during the old man's endeavor, cries upon finding him safe asleep. The boy brings him newspapers and coffee. When the old man wakes, they promise to fish together once again. Upon his return to sleep, Santiago dreams of his youthof lions on an African beach.The Old Man and the Sea was finished in Hemingways old age. The novel was published in 1951 and won the Pulitzer Prize in the next year. What is more, it won Nobel Prize in 1954. As Hemingways representative works, The Old Man and the Sea is always interpreted from existentialistic, feministic, or symbolic aspects, etc. Yet the article will analyze it from an eco-critical angle by elaborating the relationship between Santiago and other nature creations, thus proving the writers eco-consciousness of indispensable and inter-connectedness and equality between man and nature and further throwing new light on Hemingway study.II. Analyzing the ecological thought of Hemingway in the way of Santiagos living situationSantiago says that “A man can be destroyed but not defeated” 11. This presents his bravery and courage. However, this persistent man lives in a simple life. Firstly, he has a simple skiff. He is an old and experienced fisherman who stays in a little skiff in the gulf alone. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. Secondly, his house shows his simple life. The old man leaned the mast with its wrapped sail against the wall and the boy put the box and the other gear beside it. The mast was nearly as long as the one room of the shack. 117 The shack was made of the tough bud shields of the royal palm which are called guano and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal. On the brown walls of the flattened, overlapping leaves of the sturdy fibered guano there was a picture in color of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and another of the Virgin of Cobre. These were relics of his wife. Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it and it was on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt. 133-34 Thirdly, his clothing shows his simplicity. They were strange shoulders, still powerful although very old, and the neck was still strong too and the creases did not show so much when the old man was asleep and his head fallen forward. His shirt had been patched so many times that it was like the sail and the parches were faded to many different shades by the sun. The old mans head was very old though and with his eyes closed there was no life in his face. The newspaper lay across his knees and the weight of his arm held it there in the evening breeze. He was barefooted. 137 Finally, his food is also simple and convenient. Black beans and rice and fried bananas, and some stew consist of his dinner. And knives and forks and spoons were in his pocket with a paper napkin wrapped around each set. Using condensed milk to cook coffer can also show his simple life. The old man drank his coffee slowly. It was all he would have all day and he knew that he should take it. For a long time now eating had bored him and he never carried a lunch. He had a bottle of water in the bow of the skiff and that was all he needed for the day. 146As we all know, in the middle of 1950s, after the World War II, America became prosperous. Some Americans began to chase the luxuries and began to waste money and food. That is, they begin to enjoy materialized life. However, Hemingway described another role for us, that is, Santiago. Santiago lives in a nearly primitive life and he does not complain about his poor life even he has not caught any fish for 84 days. Hemingways implicit meaning is obvious in the way of ecocriticism. Hemingway advises us to live with nature harmoniously instead of getting too much from nature. What is more, Hemingway opposes luxurious life. We own abundance nature resources but the quantities are limited. In history, people were proud of living in a luxurious life without regarding the protection of history. Now we have deep understanding of the catastrophes caused by breaking the environment. What Hemingway has described and advised is quite precise and valuable for us. III. Analyzing the ecological thought of Hemingway from Santiagos respect for the animalsSantiagos love for the sea and animals and his struggle with the marlin suggests that there is a true equality between human beings and other forms of life. Santiagos constant words, “my brother, my only friends,” represent a prophetic call for equality in the interaction between human beings and nature. Setting the novel on the coast of Havana, Cuba, Hemingway repeatedly demonstrate his ecological outlook through Santiago, a very old fisherman who lives remote from the civilized city and serves as a hermit in the fishing village. Santiagos abode and his fondness for the sea creatures shows that he sees himself as a member of the biosphere, neither nobler nor less humble than other forms of life. As I mentioned before, Santiago lives in a shack which is made by bud-shields of the royal palm which are called guano. Santiagos life is like Thoreaus simple life in nature. Physically he has been involved with nature closely. Santiago communicates with animals intuitively, which, to some extent, reveals the ecological thought that all creations are part of the intricate web of life. Seeing the turtles swimming near his boat, Santiago shows his kind feelings. In the book, The Old Man and the Sea, the hero, Santiago shows respect for the nature and he also shows respect for the thought of the animals. In his opinion, the sea is female for it is beautiful and mild. She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for 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 had things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, 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. 148The praise Santiago gives to the sea shows his deep and correct understanding of the nature. It not only reveals his correct recognition of the wild world, but also respects his love for the whole world. Hemingway uses this role to encourage us to protect and love the whole world. In the monologue that is described below, Santiago expands his scope of his identification. He claims fraternity with stars on several occasions and justifies his need to sleep by considering the moon and the sun and the ocean. In other words he extends himself into the cosmic realm: Im clear enough in the head, he thought. Too clear. I am as clear as the stars that are my brothers. Still I must sleep. The sleep and the moon and the sun sleep and even the ocean sleeps sometimes on certain days when there is no current and a flat clam. 171 This border identification underscores the unity of human life with nature. Another example of his identification with nature is his view and sense of the sea. Hemingway says that Santiago can “feel the morning coming”. 111 This simple sentence certainly tells us much about Santiago. We know he is no stranger to the sea. But to feel the morning coming in the darkness of the open sea calls for closeness with nature that most of us do not have. How about his attitude towards to the sea animals? In Hemingways writing, he used turtles, little fishes and other typical sea animals to express his attitudes. In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do except for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. 148 And his attitude to the turtles: “The turtles saw them, approached them from the front, then shut their eyes so they were completely carapace and ate them filaments and all. The old man loved to see the turtles eat them and he loved to walk on them on the beach after a storm and hear them pop when he stepped on them with the horny soles of his feet. He loved green turtles and hawk-bills with their elegance and speed and their great value and he had a friendly contempt for the huge, stupid loggerheads, yellow in their armor-plating, strange in their love-making, and happily eating the Portuguese men-of-war with their eyes shut. He had no mysticism about turtles although he had gone in turtle boats for many years. He was sorry for them all, even the great trunk backs that were as long as the skiff and weighed a ton. ” 155Though turtles are frightening to many people; the old man still shows mercy and respect for them. Through detailed description of turtles, we can feel the love clearly. Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs. He ate the white eggs to give himself strength. He ate them all through May to be stron