The Old Man and the Sea 英文简介
The Old Man and the Sea, is a story of friendship between a young boy and an aging fisherman tormented by hunger and weeks of ill luck. Santiago, a once strong, proud man is coming to terms with his failing abilities and age.
After many weeks of returning home to his small village, day after day with nothing in his boat, Santiago is forced to accept the other villager's small charities. He resolves to sail far out to sea in search of a catch that will redeem his self-confidence. Early the next morning, he descends to his fishing skiff, and rows out, into the dark sea, saying good-bye to his friend, the small boy, and the safety of the beach, perhaps for the last time.
Later that day his luck turns and he hooks the giant marlin. The battle begins, not just with the fish, but with himself as well; the battle for his life, his regained youth and the return of his peer's respect. For two days and two nights his adversary pulls him further out to sea. Memories of his youth fill his vision, memories of battles fought and of scars healed. For hours at a time the physical game, he convinces himself, is only winnable if he can triumph mentally.
Unable to loosen or even adjust his grip, for fear that his foe would sense his failing strength, Santiago is forced into a motionless prison, escape from which, is in the hands of his greatest adversary ever.
体会：
This story happened in 1940th near a Gulf Stream in Cuba. The main character Santiago is an old man, who fishes alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and lives a small village. He is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. The second character Manolin is a young boy whom Santiago teaches to fish. The litter boy is his loyal friend. Language is great simplicity and power. The theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. It is a song of praise of heroism.
The Author, Ernest Miller Hemingway is a famous writer in the literary world. ‘’The old man and the sea’’ was written in 1952, and it is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works .It won the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. The author wants to told readers ,you will be supposed to like this old person same mind lofty aspiration, and will even better pursue even better, the bigger goal, don’t easy give up your goal in your life.
In life, some losses are unavoidable, we should treat the optimistic attitude , can't worry about petty gain or loss . Finally, the novel sees with a teenager that old fisherman has 18 feet of big long Malin's fish totally in the tolerance , the ones that have described this fish are enormous again, prove that old fisherman's difficulty overcome is big, than ordinary. Old fisherman's spirit that makes great efforts to struggle fearless of danger and difficulty that the novel has been extolled, we should be like him too, can' t be satisfied with the current situation , should be positive upwards, it should be unremitting to do anything, it must not give up halfway to meeting difficulty should meet the difficulty. Only in this way, we could obtain greater success and victory .
The novel shows a view about struggle of life, even in the face of nature can’t be conquered, but still can be moral victory. Perhaps the result of a failure, but I n the struggle of process, the reader can see how a person become an indomitable spirit of man. I like the main character Santiago and the classic saying ‘’But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated’’, because this is Santiago’s faith of life, and the human will not fail also, the enterprise spirit of a carols. It is encouraging me to face up to life with smiles no matter what happens. It's a simple story, but offers the reader much to think about without lapsing into the didactic. I am strongly recommend that book.
Hemingway concentrated on the most important points of building characters. The old man’s name is Santiago but he seldom uses it. He just calls him “the old man”. The boy’s name is even not given. He is likely to consider names are just symbols which cannot emphasise individual traits. The frame of each character is built on the basis of carefully chosen materials, epitomes of traits and extraordinary mastery of the skill of narration and description. It’s concise and successful though the work is sophisticated and demanding. We can learn and enjoy a lot from it.