《老人与海》中圣地亚哥的性格分析.doc

毕 业 论 文 题 目：老人与海中圣地亚哥的性格分析学 院：外国语学院专 业：英语班 级：专接本12-1班姓 名：李翠超学 号：20120306004指导教师：赵双玉 2014年5月28日A Graduation Thesis for the B.A. DegreeCharacter Analysis of Santiago in The Old Man and The Sea ByLi CuichaoSupervisor:Prof. Zhao ShuangyuResearch Direction:LiteratureSpecialty:English Language & LiteratureClass:1201Register Number:20120306004Faculty:School of Foreign LanguagesShijiazhuang UniversityMay 28, 2014郑 重 声 明本人的毕业论文是在导师指导下独立撰写完成的，学位论文没有剽窃、抄袭，造假等违反学术道德、学术规范和侵权行为。若有上述情况，本人愿意独立承担由此产生的法律责任和法律后果，特此郑重声明。学位论文作者（签名）：2014年5月28日AcknowledgmentsI wish to express my profound indebtedness to Professor Zhao Shuangyu, my supervisor, for her warm-hearted encouragement and invaluable advice. In the last three months, she has given me indispensable help in many ways, from the language polishing to the argument expounding, and from the first outline of the thesis to its final completion. Without her insightful comments, patient guidance and meticulous scholarship, my thesis would not have appeared in the present form.My heartfelt thanks also go to all my teachers of the School of Foreign Languages at Shijiazhuang University for their informative and inspiring courses and lectures，from which I have obtained a lot of knowledge and creative ideas that are conducive to the completion of my work.And finally, I would express my sincere thanks to my classmates, namely Li Weiying, Zhang Kuo, Dong Lulu who generously lend me their hands during the course of writing this thesis.摘 要 老人与海是海明威创作风格和创作思想达到成熟和颠峰时期的代表作,这篇文章帮助海明威赢得了普利策奖和诺贝尔奖。圣地亚哥是这篇小说的主角。海明威在这篇小说中把圣地亚哥塑造成了一个“硬汉”的形象。这种“硬汉”精神影响了一代又一代人，激励他们在未来的路上无论遇到什么困难都顽强拼搏、努力奋斗。然而，老人虽然很伟大，但也不是一个完美之人。本篇论文主要就圣地亚哥的性格进行了分析。他的性格曾被许多评论家和学者从不同的方面研究过，在借鉴了以往研究的基础上，这篇文章主要从两方面来探讨他的性格。一方面，他有很多值得我们学习的积极品质。他具有坚强的意志、善良慈祥的内心、理智的头脑。另一方面，他也有不太完美的地方。例如，他非常孤单，朋友极少。另外，他还是一个有性别歧视和明显攻击性的人。老人与海一书中精心刻画的圣地亚哥这一形象正是海明威本人性格特征的真实再现，海明威的性格特点就了圣地亚哥的这些特点。所以，本文最后又从海明威对圣地亚哥性格映射的角度上做出了讨论。 关键词：性格； 优良品质； 消极品质； 映射Abstract The Old Man and The Sea is Hemingways masterpiece which represents his mature writing style and excellent composing thoughts in the peak period of creation. This novel helps him won the Pulitzer Price and Nobel Price. And Santiago is the main role in The Old Man and The Sea. Hemingway creates him as a powerful man,which has influenced hundreds of and thousands of generations of people and inspired them to work hard and fight with the life no matter what happened.However, although great as the old man is, he is a not very perfect man.This thesis mainly makes an analysis on the character of Santiago, which has been studied by many critics and scholars.Based on those studies, this article will discuss his character from two aspects.On one hand,he has many positive qualities which deserve us to learn.He is strong-willed,kind-hearted and rational. On the other hand,he also has many aspects that are not very well.For example, he is very lonely,which means he has few friends.Besides,he is also a person that has sexism and overt aggression. It is Hemingways character that makes Santiagos character.So this passage finally discusses the projection of Hemingways character over Santiago. Key words: character; positive qualities; negative qualities; projectionContentsI. Introduction.1II. The writing background and Iceberg theory.1 2.1 Writing background.2 2.2 Iceberg theory.2III. Character analysis of Santiago.2 3.1 Positive qualities of Santiagocharacter.3 3.1.1 Strong will.3 3.2.2 Kind heart.4 3.3.3 Rational mind.5 3.2 Negative qualities of Santiagocharacter.6 3.2.1 Loneliness.6 3.2.2 Sexism.7 3.2.3 Overt aggression.8 IV. The projection of Hemingweis character on Santiago.10 V. Conclusion.12I. IntroductionErnest Miller Hemingway ,who was one of the most famous American writers in the twentieth century and belonged to the Lost Generation. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21,1899. Influenced by his parents,he ardently loved music,hunting,fishing,boxing and bullfighting, which are very challenging activities. He has took part in two World Wars and Spanish Civil War. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver while during World War II and Spanish Civil War, he served as a correspondent. He was wounded by the war many times and has experienced twelve operations, which withdrew 227 pieces of bullet fragments from his body. Finally he settled in Cube. His works have The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to arms and The Old Man and The Sea. In 1958, he won the Pulitzer Price for The Old Man and The Sea and in 1953, he won the Nobel Price. However, what surprised the world most is his suicide.He committed suicide by shooting himself on the morning July2,1961.The Old Man and The Sea is a very simple story, but it has a far-researching significance to the human. A fisherman of Cube,Santiago, didnt get any fish for about 84 days in the Gulf of Mexico.However, he didnt give up and still went fishing on the 85th day. He regarded 85 as a lucky number and he must catch a fish. Kung Fu people live, Santiago finally got a fish as big as the length of the boat after fighting with the fish for about 3 days and 3 nights. But on the back way home, the fish was attacked by some crucial sharks. Although the old man has tried his best to protect the fish, he failed. At the end, the sharks devoured the marlin,leaving only the head,skeleton and tail. The topic sentence in the book is “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. This word has inspired hundreds of people and became the food for thought.II. The writing background and Iceberg theory2.1 The writing backgroundAfter World War II, the social atmosphere became worse and worse,the values of struggling hard has been gradually dying out,and the evil social influence has spread all over the peaceful period. The Old Man and The Sea was created under this social condition.Before it, Hemingway didnt have any new works for a long time, which makes him extremely misery .So The Old Man and The Sea has reflected all his beliefs,pursuits and thoughts. And it was adapted from a real man story-Gregorio Fuentes.In 1936, Gregorio went far away from the bank of the sea and he caught a very big fish. However, the fish was attacked by sharks when going home because it detained on the sea for too long time. Finally it remained only a piece of fishbone.2.2 Iceberg theoryThe iceberg theory is about that seven eighth of an iceberg under the water while only one eighth above the water. Actually,it is a kind of writing style of Hemingway. It means that the writer only describe a small portion of what he knows, leaving about ninety percents of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing. In The Old Man and The sea, the author used iceberg theory to perfectly build the character of Santiago. The author didnt describe his character directly, but through brief words, distinctive images, rich emotion and deep thoughts. In this way, iceberg theory make people understand Santiago well by themselves. It leaves us a space to imagine what actually Santiagos character it is.III. Character analysis of Santiago This part is the main content of the thesis. Santiagos character, the soul of the novel, is an important clue to prompt the development of the story. From his character, people can find the true intents of the author and grasp the final meaning of The Old Man and The Sea. So next will discuss Santiagos character. It is divided into two aspects-positive and negative qualities.3.1 Positive qualities of SantiagocharacterEach people has both merits and dis-merits including Santiago. As the powerful man in The Old Man and The Sea, Santiago must have many positive qualities which deserve us to learn. His spiration is admirable and have a great impact on us.The author provides a distinctive character to the reader. This part will discuss Santiagos character from the positive aspect, such as his strong will, kind heart and rational mind.3.1.1 Stong WillIn the novel, one of Santiagos most positive qualities is his stong will. Thats his secret of success. The strong will is expressed through many sides, such as his confidence, optimism and braveness.To begin with, Santiagos strong will was shown in his confidence. After 84 days fishing on the sea, he didnt get any fishes and what made things worse was that his only company, Manolin , also left him. He was unlucky in some peoples eyes. But he didnt give up. He had hope and confidence all the way. He believed he must be able to catch fishes with his outstanding abilities. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted badly enough. His confidence makes his strong will.Confidence is the belief that support people to go ahead. Further more, his strong will was shown in his optimism. He could even play jokes with the little boy under the outside pressure. He imagined everything beautiful even when he had nothing. There were no cast net and yesterdays paper, but he went through the fiction every day. He still could talk about the baseball game no matter how bad the situations were. It shows his optimism.Its another behavior of strong will.Last but not least, his strong will was shown in his braveness. He fight with the big marlin for three days and three nights. He tried to catch the marlin again and again. He also met the big sharks and struggled hard with it. Exhausted, painful as he was, he never thought about giving up and losing hope. Even faced with the sharks alone, he is brave. He didnt scare of anything. He insisted on fighting until he arrived home.In this way,he is a great hero.Besides all above,other things can also show his stong will. For example, his images make it. “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.” The eyes are the key points. We couldt feel disappointed , despair and pessimism from his eyes. All of these has showed his strong will. He believed every day was a new day. The people who didnt have hope is silly.“Every day is a new day.It is better to be lucky.But I would rather be exact.Then when luck comes you are ready”Although Santiago was old and unlucky, his heart was young and had strong power. No matter what he experienced, he convinced he can success at last. He still hold the grace under the heavy pressure. Just like the words “Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” These all reflect his strong will.3.1.2 Kind HeartAs an old man,he has experienced a lot, including the poverty life, crucial society and the death of his wife. Facing so many difficulties, he didnt become hostile. He is still kind-hearted, generous, fatherly and caring. He didnt lose love for anyone.For Manolin, Santiago often looked at the little boy with his sun-burned, confident loving eyes. He taught Manolin not only the skills of fishing, but also how to deal with the life. People must learn to endure the unfair of life and how tough life is. Life was hard, but we could challenge the difficulties and grasp the nettle.For his neighbors in Cube, when Santiago didnt get a fish for 84 days, they made fun of him, but he was not angry and didnt say anything bad of them. He had a generous heart which was able to bear anything that people gave him. In other word, he was a person who had no grudge. Meanwhile, Martin, the owner of the little restaurant, had ever provided the old man a lot of food when he was most in need. Santiago never forgot it and always wanted to thank him by giving him the best fishes he could catch. At last, Santiago gave the only remained head of the marlin to Martin, leaving nothing to himself. Therefore, we can conclude from it that Santiago is a very kind-hearted, generous person.For the marlin, Santiago respected it for its beauty, braveness and strength. He regarded marlin as his brother rather than prey. On one side, he wanted to kill it. On another side, he treated marlin as his friend on the ocean. In this way, he held a lovely heart. He thought everything beautiful,even his prey. For the creatures in the sea, Santiago sympathize with the weak. He liked his main friend on the ocean-the flying fish. He felt grieve for the birds, especially the cute dark terns.They were always looking for food, but unfortunately they found nothing. Compared with the sea, the terns were too delicate to survive. Although Santiago didnt like the huge, stupid loggerhead, he was friendly to them. He didnt kill them just because he hate them. To some extent, he even showed kind heart to something that he didnt like.For himself, he also longed for other peoples caring. A man who is always caring about others also wanted to get othersconcern. Therefore, Santiago tried his best to be kind-hearted, generous, fatherly and caring.From these five parts, Santiago has mostly showed his kind-hearted aspects. He was an old man who was full of love and never complained the unfair life. No matter what happened, he faced it with smile and love.3.1.3 Rational mindBesides the strong-will, kind heart, Santiago also showed his personal charm in another aspects. In the process of fishing, he kept rational all the way. No matter how difficult the environment is, he is calm,