Read Hemingway’s novella “The Old Man and the Sea”, feeling quite deep. Perhaps the novel originally only tells the story of a strong and experienced old man and the game of nature, but this story in the author’s pen can make readers associate with a lot. I would like to express my understanding of this work from the following aspects:
First, poor environment
This is an old man who makes his living as a fisherman. According to him, his boat had no luck. This time it was his 85th day without a fish, compared with his record of 87 days without a fish. So that makes him a poor man. The description of the old man’s appearance and residence can let people see the old man’s poverty, such poverty has been engraved in his bones. Must be a long time of poor fish, leading to a long time of family poverty. The old man seemed to be left to fate, who let him have a bad luck boat. He could not escape poverty and had become accustomed to it. So when the boy who had been his apprentice bought things for him to take care of him, he thanked him sincerely. “He is too simple to wonder how humble he is. But he knows that he has reached a level of humility, and that it is not humiliating, that it does no harm to his real pride.” Because they have been unable to hide such a state, so also calmly accept. But also learn to entertain yourself in such situations, such as hand-cast routines, such as the record 87 days. In short, poverty does not make old people miserable or feel inferior. His fishing is indeed to feed himself, but he still won’t give up if he can’t feed himself. It seems to be a way of his life. A name like DiMazio, as he calls it, represents a life that is serialized with baseball. If you lose baseball, DiMazio is no longer DiMazio. Such a poor environment makes the background of the hero very pure. It seems that there is only him and the sea in front of him in this story.
Two, self game
The old man was full of tenderness and respect for the big fish. It was based on his affection for the sea, which he had feared and depended on since he was a child. When he was faced with such a brave and huge creature, he would also regard it as his brother who lived by the sea. Though such an old fisherman was coarse in appearance and rough in behavior, his heart was kind and pure. For this reason, his fishing was less like a hoarse, grinning hunt and more like art — a noble, combative art. He is playing with the sea, playing with the big fish, but also playing with himself. This is reflected in many aspects of the book.
Because familiar, so over time there is a feeling. The old man felt sorry for the weak birds that were searching the sea but had little to eat, so when a frigate bird caught food, the old man would say, “It’s got something, it’s not just looking.” Then, while chasing the big fish, he recalled “the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in a fish” — a male marlin that followed a female caught by the old man and the boy and refused to leave. This undoubtedly lulled the old man’s emotions subconsciously, allowing him to add his previous “confession” to the game with the fish now. So, on this basis, it is such a big and beautiful fish, and the old man’s enjoyment. Of course, he still has some contradictions in this process, “I did disloyal and unjust things, he had no choice but to make a choice”, “maybe I should not be a fisherman”…… But as an old fisherman, he woke up at once: “Fish, I love you very much and respect you. But before the day is over, I’m going to kill you.”
When the big fish took the bait, the old man seemed to be full of fighting spirit. But this fighting spirit is also wobbly, which can also be seen in his own game. From the moment he realized that it was a very big fish, “The old man has seen many big fish. He had seen a lot of fish over a thousand pounds in his life, and he had caught two of them, but they were not dry bellies. Now he was alone, out of sight of land, in company with the biggest fish he had never seen or heard of; And his left hand was resolutely frozen there like a curled eagle’s claw.” There are several factors that frustrate his morale. But the fish was not in danger. He could only end in “escape” or “capture,” so the old man’s fear was not aroused, but his confidence in victory was only slightly shaken. Even though he was not a religious man, he said he would be very grateful to God if he could catch the fish. So catching this big fish was a deliberate gift from God for him at this time. In other words, he wasn’t that confident about catching the big fish.
But then his feelings changed. “It’s not fair, but I’m going to show him what a man can do and how much endurance he can endure.” “Now it’s my time to prove it.” “He’s proven it a thousand times, but it’s nothing. Now he had to prove it again. Every time is new, and he does it without thinking about the many times it has gone before.” He seemed to have given his marching orders, and then he had to build up his courage, how to inflate himself enough to be confident that he could accomplish such a challenge. This brings us to “DiMazio”.
“Di Mazio” Faith Imagery: Who is Di Mazio? He was a famous American baseball player, born in San Francisco to a fisherman’s family. The old man supported and admired the baseball player, and because DiMazio was born into a family of fishermen, he often connected with the sea, fishing and his own life. “General Di Mazio is back on his feet,” it says. The old man looked forward to Di Mazio, and Di Mazio as his idol, when he encountered such a big challenge, the old man thought of this “idol”. “He asked himself: Do you believe that General DiMazio would stay with a fish as long as I have with this fish? I think so, and longer. He’s young and strong, and his old man was a fisherman.” In his heart, “DiMazio” is more like a faith, a faith of fearlessness and confidence.
Besides, to keep his courage together, he recalled wrestling with a big black man in a Casablanca pub. “The man was the strongest man on the dock.” “The old man let out all his strength and pushed the Negro’s hand down and down until it fell on the table. It started on Sunday morning and didn’t finish until Monday morning. ‘ “Everybody called him champion for a long time after that.” In the arm wrestling competition, the old man also with great perseverance and endurance against a strong opponent, similar to the current situation. But in the end he still won, he was called “champion”, no doubt this memory encouraged him, let him have a stronger yearning for “champion”.
At last — “he thought; At least at this point in the matter, I am coming to know what to do.” This is a search after the dust settled. In the face of big fish have doubts, and in the memory to find courage to regain confidence, and finally clear direction in reality. This inner game, the old man defeated the heart of those escape, cowering thoughts.
Of course, there are many aspects to this internal game. After the shark encounter, the old man’s inner emotional change is also very obvious. But unlike the previous hunt for the big fish, the big fish is a grand goal, uphill, though laborious but with courage everything is possible. The shark, on the other hand, is a tough fight, need to constantly defend, in a passive situation, so the emotional development direction is different. “Too good for too long,” he thought. This sentence appeared twice, you can see that the old man for the shark suddenly appeared to hold helpless. “Now I wish it had been a dream, that I had never caught this fish, but that it had been in a newspaper over a man in bed.” When the shark will bite the fish mutilated, he would rather give up such a hard to get a trophy. But then he says, “But man is not made to be defeated. A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.” When he saw how big the fish was, the old man began to pray to God. And when the real encounter shark, why did the old man not pray instead? It can be seen that he is not a devout believer who will abandon everything to external forces. He is a warrior who only believes in himself and makes unremitting efforts for his own dignity.
Three, loneliness, fighting, life
In this work, we can feel the vitality of the old man, just like an old lion, may be slow and tired, but still dignified. However, if we take a little care, we can also find that this vitality is somewhat strong outside and dry inside, which is full of “loneliness”. When the old man went out to sea, he had a number of problems, first an injury to his right hand, then a cramp in his left hand, including not having more weapons when he ran into a shark behind him, etc. There were times when he thought, “I wish the boy was here.” And when he touches a bird, he thinks, “Now I have a friend.” And “he could not remember the first time he had spoken aloud when he was alone.” It may have been after the boy had left that he spoke his mind so that his boat would not be empty.
At first, the old man held a sincere pursuit for the big fish. It was just like his temporary dream, which was so far away and beautiful that he dared not ask for it. So he prayed to God. Then, summon up the courage, try to prove themselves. After catching the big fish, some happiness is unreal. Until, that is, the shark. The first fight is like a battle between warriors; The two sharks that came the second time were cunning and contemptuous carrion eaters and killers; And the next few times, the shark, like a robber. Such a result, naturally, is very discomfited. Does this look like our lives? Strive for, seemingly achieved happiness, but suddenly fate cut a knife. Of course, we all ended up in a mess.
“He knows he’s finally defeated now, and there’s no going back.” “Now he’s out of it… Once defeated, it’s easy.” Failure is a common occurrence. In the long fine life, we step on a failure to come. However, we face the next dream, will be desperate to fight. Like the old man, 87 days of nothing, there will be 85 days of empty hands. But, the fight doesn’t stop.
