海明威作品选读----
《丧钟为谁而鸣》读后感
文新091-1
200990502109 满宇航
读《丧钟为谁而鸣》---丧钟为每个人而鸣
最初迷上海明威的原因很简单，读他的原版书，不用上气不接下气地翻辞典查生词，我是个超懒的学生，旷课时间远远超过上课时间，上课时看闲篇的时间远远超过听讲的时间。海明威用词极简，造句极简，他的文字却有简单的力量、有闷骚的深情。正合我意。 花了近一个月的时间看完了海明威的《丧钟为谁而鸣》，海明威是一个我比较喜欢的作家，很早就看过他的《老人与海》，非常佩服他对人物心理的刻画，尤其对人物矛盾心理表
达的淋漓尽致。
这个书名源自约翰·多恩的诗。书中的第一页上有这样的诗句：
“没有人是孤岛，或完全的自我；
每个人都是大地的一部分，海洋的一片；
如果泥土被大海冲走，欧罗巴总能留住；
如同一个海岬，如同他们的朋友，
任何人的死亡都消磨着我，
因为我如此关注众生；
因此别让人去问丧钟为谁而鸣，
它正是为你敲响。”
《丧钟为谁而鸣》是一部以战争为题材的小说，但作者并没有描写战争的宏大场面，而是从一个非常小的角度，讲述一个爆破手在敌后组织当地游击队执行一个在大战开始前的炸桥任务。中间穿插着主人公罗伯特和玛利亚短暂的爱情故事。
故事发生在反法西斯战争的初期，一个十分艰难的时期，法西斯的实力非常强，虽然大家革命的热情积极高涨，但处处处于劣势，前景还不太明了，在比拉尔回忆巴勃罗进行造反暴动的残忍情景，反映了革命初期一些草根革命家的盲目错误思想，对革命的曲解，造成了一些无辜的杀戮，体现了一些草根革命者思想局限性。老向导安塞尔莫每杀一个人都要为他祷告，从他的思想中体现了宗教的根深蒂固和一个人性最朴实的对生命的珍爱，即使对敌人，生命也是值得尊重的。“聋子”和比拉尔代表了毫无畏惧的忠实革命者，他们置一切于不顾，不管遇到什么困难，都对革命抱有十足的信心，并为之付出一切。玛利亚与罗伯特美丽的爱情在残酷的战争中穿插着，形成鲜明的对比。
19xx年的西班牙，共和军与代表法西斯势力的国民军展开了殊死搏斗。美国大学教师罗伯特毅然奔赴西班牙加入国际纵队，投入到反法西斯战争中。共和军高尔滋将军准备向国民军发起一次大规模的进攻，但进攻之前，必须炸掉一座位于国民军占领区峡谷中的铁桥。罗伯特接受了炸桥的任务，与助手安赛尔去寻找当地的游击队。长期艰苦的山区生活，已使游击队长巴伯鲁产生了动摇情绪，但“司令”的头衔和美丽的玛丽亚使他留了下来。罗伯特来后，巴伯鲁发现玛丽亚爱上了这个美国人，很想拆散他们，无奈他的女人比拉却像母亲一样关怀着他们，巴伯鲁只能把怨气发泄在罗伯特身上，而罗伯特却也不予计较。为了找到更多的马以备撤退之用，比拉带着罗伯特找到另一个游击小分队，队长埃尔答应帮罗伯特找马。后来，埃尔带人送马过来时不幸被敌人发现。激战后，埃尔和他的战士们壮烈牺牲，马也被敌机炸死。
五月天的雪夜里，玛丽亚告诉罗伯特，她的父母由于反对国民军的法西斯行径而惨遭杀害，她也曾被两个国民军士兵强奸。罗伯特将她紧紧搂在怀里，发誓要加倍爱她！玛丽亚要求罗伯特教他射击，这样如果罗伯特受伤了，也不会被俘，她可以先打死罗伯特，然后再打死自己。罗伯特答应了。巴伯鲁看见玛丽亚与罗伯特在一起，不禁怒火中烧，出于嫉恨烧毁了起爆器，又带着马逃跑了。但在罗伯特带着小分队重新设法搞到马，正准备炸桥的时候，巴伯鲁又回来要求参加战斗了。
在小分队的掩护下，罗伯特和安赛尔装上了炸药。敌人的坦克上了桥，安赛尔拉响了炸药但却没来得及撤出，坦克燃着火从桥上栽了下去。罗伯特忍着心中伤痛与小分队会合，巴伯鲁带大家撤退，但敌人却已架起机枪严阵以待。
罗伯特奋力掩护队员突围，自己却不幸中了枪。玛丽亚惊叫着向他扑来，但罗伯特让比
拉将她拖走了。看着小分队安全离开后，罗伯特坚持着等待向追来的敌人射出愤怒的子弹?
故事时间跨度只有四天，作者却洋洋洒洒写下几十万字，可见作者对细节刻画的深入。人在遇到问题时，思绪是混乱的，总会零零碎碎去想很多东西，这些思绪是片段的，毫无章法可言，作者却很好的用语言将这种矛盾心理直观的表达出来，让读者能够进入人物角色的心理，去体味人物那时的复杂心理。这种描写手法是高超的，会让你不知不觉跟着书中人物的思绪去发展，犹如置身其中，成为书中的一员。也可以说是主人公罗伯特·乔丹——一个思想复杂的青年知识分子在三天里的心灵轨迹。生与死的问题，爱情与战斗职责的矛盾，道德伦理与严酷现实的矛盾交织在一起。你反对一切杀人的行为，可你既杀过人，而且还要继续杀人。因为要打胜仗就必须多杀敌人。
双方都在屠杀，游击队员绞死长枪党，法西斯分子血洗拥护社会党的村庄。为了自由，尊严和所有人都有工作而不致挨饿的权利，我们对他们也干下了令人发指的暴行，“但那是因为我们缺乏教养，不知道该怎么办，而他们是蓄意地、深思熟虑地干着。”游击队员们射击，投掷手榴弹，炸火车。可是杀掉的人有几个是真正的法西斯分子？那些铁杆儿长枪党们都躲在后方屠杀平民。而在战壕里向我们瞄准的是和我们一样的穷人。联合政府内部也是成分复杂，斗争重重，军队缺少武器装备，指挥不畅。有着种种官僚主义，工作无能。党内的清洗斗争连在国际纵队里也难逃一劫。内部还有第五纵队活动。奥威尔当年志愿参加西班牙内战，身负重伤后回国，还有他的同志因为政见不同要追杀他。
尽管这样，为了所拥护的一切，为了这种感情以及这种必要性，你还是参加战斗，为你接受的教育中所提到的新世界而战斗。然而，有谁能像青年牧师和军人始终保持着忠诚？是我们蜕变了，还是世界并不是我们原先想象的那样？根本没有完美的事业，以前没有，今后也不会有。
我们意识到这一点，但我们并不能心灰意冷，就此投降，还是要接着进攻，继续杀人。因为不这样干战争就要失败。那些行不通的混蛋命令明明会夺去你的命，你也只能去豁出命来坚决执行。是啊，谁也没权夺取别人的生命，可不这样我们自己就要遭到更大的不幸。谁也不想和爱人分别，白白送死，可不这样最终的危险就不会过去。这确实是陈词滥调，但这也是真话。世界上还有什么事情是比战争更坏的呢？战争这个东西到底有没有对错，简单地说有！有压迫才有反抗！有侵略才 有冲突！人们的思想不同，认知不同，信仰不同，价值观不同，这些不同碰撞在一起，一定会引爆出很多问题。有些人学会尊重这种不同，学会尊重自由，学会接受迥异，可仍有太多人要求这个万物并育的世界只围绕自己而转动，贪婪无理地要求和认定别的生命都和自己一样不洁净。残忍是只有人类才具备的特征，是只有人类在不为生存所需的情况下还要去伤害无辜生命的特质。所以战争便无法休止，一再上演。这个时候，完全可以大体来区别黑白与善恶！可转过头复杂点说，在某些时刻我们只能具体情况具体分析具体对待！因为战争总能最大程度地挖掘出人性深处最真的善良和邪恶！但是一个人，我们能在任何时刻都给他定义百分百吗？任何时刻他都是绝对的好人或恶徒吗？可惜不能！
英勇的反法西斯战士在无奈的情况下也必须射杀自己受伤的同伴；为了保护自己族人的首领背信弃义杀掉前来助阵的别族人；那个哨兵虽说是敌方的，可只是一未长大的孩子，会迷信地往山谷里吐唾液想给自己带来好运，枪声响起时也会吓到手足无措；曾经与首领出生入死的部下在一旦看不起首领的懦弱时便会毫不犹豫想干掉他；曾经带领暴民伤害某些无辜人士的首领检讨说如果有机会，他真希望那些人起死回生??这些要从哪些方面的道德观来判断？在某种情况下换成我们自己又会怎么做？前一秒钟是无害的生命，后一秒钟变成了恶魔?? 悲伤，愤怒，仇恨，痛苦，欢乐，眼泪，笑容，过去，未来，生离，死别??短短几天的爱情，却同生共死，拥有永生不灭的记忆??
一切的一切，在钟声敲响的时候，都还没有结束，是丧钟还是希望的钟声？它到底在为谁而鸣响不止？ 当枪声安息的时候，这个世界是否会重新焕发生机，人心又是否真的能够像皑皑白雪一般得到清净和清凉，当白雪融化，下面掩盖的究竟还剩下什么？
还是用那首<没有人是孤岛>结尾吧---
任何人的死亡都消磨着我，
因为我如此关注众生；
因此别让人去问丧钟为谁而鸣，
它正是为你敲响。
第二篇：浅析二战对海明威作品的影响
四川外语学院继续教育学院
本科毕业论文
中文题目浅析二战对海明威作品的影响
外文题目On the Influence of the Second
World War on Hemingway’s Works
On the Influence of the Second World War on Hemingway’s Works
Abstract
―The Lost Generation‖ comes into being after the First World War. As one of representatives of ―The Lost Generation‖, Hemingway is famous for his lean and economical writing style in American literary world.
Hemingway experiences three wars in his lifetime, every war has effect on Hemingway‘s creative writing, but the Second World War has significant influence on his creative writing so that makes his works presented different themes and thoughts. His works has been researched by many people, but there are a few people have studied the differences of Hemingway‘s works which are written before the World War Ⅱand after the war. Their researches either related to Hemingway‘s certain work or just make a brief introduction about his works.
To aim at this vacancy, the meaning of this paper is to analyze contractively A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea which are written respectively before the Second World War and after the war, then comes the conclusion that the influence of World War Ⅱ on Hemingway‘s works.
Key words: Second World War; Hemingway; A Farewell to Arms; The Old Man and the Sea; influence
On the Influence of the Second World War on Hemingway’s
Works
Outline
Thesis Statement: Hemingway takes part in three wars in his lifetime, so his
creative writing is influenced by war. And the World
WarⅡ has great impact on his works.
Ⅰ. Introduction: The Second World War has great influence on Hemingway‘s
Works.
Ⅱ. The Second World War
Ⅲ. Introduction of Hemingway
A. Information about the author
B. Main works of Hemingway
C. His writing style
D. His writing feature
E. His art style
Ⅳ. On A Farewell to Arms
A. Main idea of this novel
B. Writing thought of this novel
C. Theme of this novel
D. Writing feature of this novel
Ⅴ. On The Old Man and the Sea
A. Background of this fiction
B. Main idea of this fiction
C. Writing thought of this fiction
D. Theme of this fiction
E. Writing feature of this fiction
F. Art style of this fiction
1. The first style
2. The second style
G. Influence on writing feature
1. Writing feature of A Farewell to Arms
2. Writing feature of The Old Man and the Sea
H. Influence on writing theme
1. Writing theme of A Farewell to Arms
2. Writing theme of The Old Man and the Sea
I. Influence on cognition
1. The cognition to war
2. The cognition to works
Ⅵ. Conclusion: By analyzing these two works, it is clear that the Second World
War had had great impact on Hemingway‘s works.
Notes
Bibliography
On the Influence of the Second World War on Hemingway’s
Works
Ⅰ. Introduction
Ernest Hemingway—representative of ―The Lost Generation‖1, the initiator of Iceberg Theory2, and the winner of the Nobel Prize—was a best-known American novelist and short stories writer who had special experiences in life and unique style in writing. The whole style of his works is that he is versed in narrative art and his language is lean and economical. He takes part in three wars in his lifetime, so his creative writing is influenced by war both on theme and thought, and the Second World War has great impact on creative writing. So the object of this paper is to analyze Hemingway‘s works which are written before the Second World War and after the war, then draw a conclusion that the influence of the Second World War on Hemingway‘s works.
As to his works, have been researched by many people, such as A Brief Introduction to Modern American Literature which is written by Elisabeth B. Booz and published by Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, and History and Anthology of American Literature (volume 2) which is written by Wu Weiren and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Besides them, there are other people like Yang Meijun, Liu Nianci and so on who have researched Hemingway‘s works. But none of them have contrastively analyzed the author‘s works which are written before the Second World War and after the war, their researches either come down to Hemingway‘s certain work or just make a brief introduction about his works. This paper is to analyze his works from thought, theme and other aspects.
This paper is divided into five parts. The first part is an outline of the Second World War, the second part will be the introduction of Hemingway, as
for the third part is analysis of A Farewell to Arms: a work before the Second World War, then comes to the forth part, a contrastive analysis of his post-World War Ⅱwork: The Old Man and the Sea, at last part comes to the conclusion that what influences the Second World War has made on Hemingway‘s works. 2
Ⅱ. The Second World War
In war history, human beings suffers twice world wars, both wars have great effect on politic, economy and culture of world. The Second World War, as a war which involves the most people, leaves unforgettable expression to people.
The Second World War, as the largest scale war in war history of human beings, is an aggressive and anti-aggressive world war which spreads Europe, Asia, Africa and four oceans, it gives more than sixty countries and regions‘ people great disaster, and leaves deep lesson to all people.
It caused by two main reasons .First, after the First World War, Germany‘s economy grew up again, in consideration of not reconciled to Versailles Treaty‘s punishment and restriction, it reinforced power in secret; the Italy also was not satisfied with Britain and France who broke them promises on territory; meanwhile, Japan was full of resentment to the limitation of Washington Treaty, hence a new tussle with Britain and America in Asian and Pacific regions began, being ready to expand and invade China. On the other hand, there were serious differences on how to deal with Germany between England, France, America and others who were the winners of the First World War. Second, in light of ―Great Depression‖ from 1929 to 1933, in order to get rid of crisis, Germany, Japan, Italy warred.
All in all, because of unbalance of politic and economy among countries, the war broke in the autumn of 1939. In order to fight against fascist, China, the United states, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and others formed an alliance to oppose the Axis of Germany, Japan, and Italy, on 15th August,1945,the war ended up with victory of alliances.
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Ⅲ. Introduction of Hemingway
Now that the purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the Second World War on Hemingway‘s works, so it is necessary to introduce the writer.
A. Information about the author
Ernest Hemingway, novelist and short story American writer, was one of the most celebrated and influential authors of the 20th century. His lean, economical style has been widely copied by other writers. And he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his mastery of the art of modern narration.
Ernest Hemingway was born in a middle–class family in Oak Park which located in suburb of Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1899. His father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway was a physician who liked to hunt and fish in his spare time and his mother Grace Hall–Hemingway was a musician. Influenced by his family, he was found of hunting, fishing and boxing, and he also was interested in music and painting from childhood.
In 1917, instead of attending university, he worked as a probation journalist for The Kansas City Star. In obedience to the written requests of this newspaper office: One must use short sentence and vivid language; the first paragraph must be short and must state the matter directly, not the back side. He started to learn how to write news report, how to get the most from the least, how to prune language how to multiply intensities, and how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for telling more than the truth. The experience of journalist during this time and later period played a role in forming Hemingway‘s unique writing style.
He was adept in narration art. Using laconic language, he modeled a set of tough guys who were fearless and dauntless in the face of death, and created his 4
unique style in written style and language in accordance with his Iceberg Theory. During his lifetime he had seven novels, six collections of short stories, and two works of non-fiction published, with a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction autobiographical works published after his death.
Because of diseases, on the early morning of July 2, 1961, he committed suicide with his favorite shot-gun in his home.
B. Main works of Hemingway
After a general survey which made on Hemingway‘s lifetime, it is not difficult to find that his creative writing has the characteristics of thorough continuity and bright periodicity; moreover, his works has the nature of autobiography.
The main works of first period（1920s）
Three Stories and Ten Poems（1923）
In Our Time and The Torrents of Spring（1925）
The Sun Also Rises（1926）
Short stories collection: Man without Woman including The Killers, Fifty Grand, In Another Country, The Undefeated, Big Two–hearted River and others（1927）
A Farewell to Arms（1929）
The main works of second period（in the early middle of 1930s）
Death in the Afternoon（1932）
Green Hills of Africa, Winner Take Nothing（1933）
The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber（1936）
The main works of third period（later period of 1930s）
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River novel: To Have and Have Not（1937）
The Spanish Earth（a record film partly invested by Hemingway）,The Fifty Column （his only long scripture）（1938）
For Whom the Bell Tolls（1940）
The main works of last period（1940s,50s—his death）
Across the River and into the Trees（1950）
The Old Man and the Sea（1952）
The works after death
Islands in the Stream（1970）
Garden of Eden（1986）
A Moveable Feast
In terms of each writer, writing style, writing feature and art style are his mark. So if someone wants to know a writer, he should understand those things firstly. So how about Hemingway‘s writing style, writing feature and art style?
C. His writing style
As far as Hemingway is concerned, on one hand, he carries on the realism of Mark Twain（American humorous writer,1835—1910） and other people, on the other hand ,in Paris, Hemingway—along with Gertrude Stein（American authoress,1874—1946）, Ezra Pound（American poet,1888—1965）,and James Joyce（Irish writer and poet,1882—1941）—accomplishes a revolution in literary style and language. He develops a spare, tight, reportorial prose based on simple sentence structure and he likes to use a restricted vocabulary, precise imagery, and an impersonal, dramatic tone.
D. His writing feature
6
Every writer has his own personality characteristics; and Hemingway‘s works are full of distinctive personality characteristics:
①Building the figure of ―The Lost Generation‖ thus reaches the antiwar purpose. The masters of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and In Our Time, all of them belong to this kind of figure. ②Modeling a lot of tough guy figures who struggle in confusion. The Manuel in The Undefeated, the Jordon in For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea and so on, they face failure, difficulties bravely no matter how hard they are. ③Artistically, based on traditional realism he absorbs some skills of modernism. Complying with Iceberg Theory, he makes a point of conciseness, connotation of works. What‘s more, liking other modernism writers, Hemingway is good at specifying nonobjective feeling. He always puts circumstances, figures and sceneries together. And creates a style in which meaning is established through dialogue, through action, and silences—a fiction in which nothing crucial—or at least very little—is stated explicitly. His creation brought a literature revolution.
E. His art style
Hemingway is fond of presenting the materials he selected in two ways. One is news style, this is affected by his early reporter life and he also adapts prosaic, restrained statement which without personal feeling, and it is full of drama so that implies the satirical feeling.
The second way is that he also uses rhythmic sentence structures such as repetition, parallelism, inverse ratio and so on; they like a music melody, aiming at call a psychology expression.
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Ⅳ. On A Farewell to Arms
During Hemingway‘s lifetime, he creates many works. However this paper will not analyze every work. Here just analyzes two representative works which are written before the World WarⅡ and after the war. First, it is the analysis of A Farewell to Arms which is written before the war.
A. Main idea of this novel
This novel talks about a typical American youth‘s experiences and changes of his characteristics. Volunteering to join Italian army during the First World War, Henry is an unsophisticated American youth, he resents the cruelty, selfishness and falsity of capitalism, and he is also not satisfied with monotony and stiffness of machine culture, but he is interested in chasing primitive interest such as hunt, fish, drink and beauty. Henry falls in love with a Britain nurse when in Italy front, and gradually he finds the true love and meaning of life. He also draws a lesson from individualism‘s resistance and painful failure, this makes him from a person who is indifferent to everything into a person who says goodbye to imperialism war forever. This is a river novel with the characteristics of autobiography and Hemingway‘s stature as a writer was confirmed with the publication of this work in 1929.
B. Writing thought of this novel
Most of Hemingway‘s creative materials come from experiences directly. In his works, you can feel that the surroundings are really in front of you, the figures and their activities are vivid. And when you read his books, you can feel you are experiencing everything by yourself, you will not feel you are just 8
reading a book.
In 1917, he took part in the First World War under the influence of Chauvinism.3 But what he saw and what he heard were brutal slaughter and horrific death, then his illusion was dashed to the ground and his body and mind were ravaged seriously. He resented war but he did not know how to eradicate war. He felt unpleasant and could not see hope. Moreover, the post-war turmoil in western society intensified his spiritual crisis. So he attempted to eliminate agonizing emotion with love, friendship and wanted to raise his spirits with exciting activities.
But this kind of passive and uninhibited behavior not only could not relieve spirit pain, but also got caught up in more deep passive and despairing abyss so that he was unable to extricate himself from his plight. So in this novel the pessimistic attitude to life is characteristic of the hero: Henry.
C. Theme of this novel
Because of war, Hemingway‘s body and mind are destroyed seriously. He thinks over experiences of World War Ⅰ repeatedly, so he has keen, thorough eye for general things, he always pours his own feeling and experiences into his creative writing.
This novel reflects war at first sight, but in fact it is an antiwar novel which with strongly antiwar feeling. First, this novel criticizes the hypocrisy of imperialism dissemination. Second, the war destroys happiness, emotion, ideal and life of human beings. Although you have parted from the battlefield and then jumped into a great river in darkness and then gained renascence and then escaped to Switzerland and then lived a happy life, at last you can not escape from destiny of death, the author thinks that the world kills the most virtuous, most kindly and most brave people. This kind of pessimistic attitude denies the civilization of capitalist class and reveals the cruelty and evil of war. 9
D. Writing feature of this novel
Building the figure of ―The Lost Generation‖ creatively thus reaches the antiwar purpose. The masters of A Farewell to Arms belong to this kind of figure. They are victims of imperialism war, looking back, they feel that they are completely in darkness and looking into the future they feel hopeless and can do nothing but struggle in darkness and confusion.
10
Ⅴ. On The Old and the Sea
Another work: The Old Man and the Sea, this novel is written after the Second World War and because of this novel Hemingway was awarded The Nobel Prize in 1954.
A. Background of this novel
It has said that most materials of the author come from his own experiences. So this novel also comes from a true matter. In 1930, Hemingway referred in a report called Blue Communications that a Cuba old man fished at Caribbean Sea, after a while, he seized a big fish, but the boat was dragged sixty miles away by the fish. The old man was found by other fishermen two days later. The big fish was eaten a lot by sharks, what‘s more there were still a lot of sharks cruised around the boat, the old man cried on the boat because of the big fish. Two years later, in 1952 he finished the mastery: The Old Man and the Sea, basing on the Cuba fishermen‘ life experiences of what he knew and blending his experiences and dream to life.
B. Main idea of this novel
This novel relates an old fisherman fishes on the sea. Santiago, a Cuba fisherman, is adept in fishing, but he is out of luck recently and catches no fish in eighty–four days. It is amazed that he does not lose his heart and still sails out on the eighty–five day, finally, he catches a marlin which longer than his boat. But on the way of back, a large number of sharks come and begin to eat the fish, and then Santiago fights with sharks strenuously. After tough fight, the old man beat back sharks, but the marlin is eaten off just leaves bone when he back 11
fishing harbor.
C. Writing thought of this novel
For many years, Hemingway condemns war as purposeless slaughter and hates war very much. His attitude changes and mind improves when he took part in the Spanish Civil War（1936—1939） There he found that opposition to Fascism was a cause worth fighting for. He found a great unity of spirit among his Republican comrades. He saw a significant reason for violence and death outside the bullring. The novel restates his view of love found and lost and describes the indomitable spirit of the common people. He becomes optimistic, and from his view of point, there are many setbacks, and much failure on the way of life, but one must keep his dignity and demeanor before failure.
D. Theme of this novel
The language author uses and the figure author portrays are all bright and concrete. But themes are implicative. If you read his works, you may feel you have understood everything, but when you read carefully, you will find the profound moral.
For example, The Old Man and the Sea just like describes the fishing process of an old man, and the plot is very simple, but the concentrated moral causes various speculations and explanations. Someone thinks that it is praise to loneliness and misery; someone says it indicates living difficulties of labor, and the others treat it as an echo of existentialism literary.
But in fact, Hemingway describes the old man fighting with sea and sharks are to express his own comprehension and acknowledgement to life and even to the development of the whole human society. Philosophically 12
Hemingway desires to present the power of physical body and spirit when people are faced with misfortune and violence and the courage and manner people keep when they are confronted with failure.
The author has the opinion that life permeates with misfortune and disaster, no matter what you do, life just has one result that is catastrophe. Like Santiago, in spite of how to fight or how brave he is, in the end, he also does not get rid of misfortune. But just keeping this kind of spirit and manner, people can demonstrate the value of life and dignity of integrity in the tragedy which people still keep fighting and making effort even though they know they will fail at any rate.
E. Writing feature of this novel
Modeling a lot of tough guy figures who struggle in confusion. The Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, he faces failure, difficulties bravely no matter how hard they are. It also implicates the optimistic attitude to the world‘s competition of Hemingway.
F. Art style of this novel
1. The first style
The first style is laconic and implicative just like news report. Hemingway says in his another works called Death in the Afternoon that If a writer of prose knows enough of 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 ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above 13
water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.
Like The Old Man and the Sea, the author can firstly introduce everyone of this fishing area, how they make living, their birth, their educational backgrounds and even the process of how they rear their children, but he omits all the unnecessary stories and characters. Instead of working at it with special care and using interminable sentences, he uses sententious language to present the life scene, what we can see is the old fisherman chases big fish in two days and two nights, and fights with sharks in one day and one night, finally he comes back with fish bone.
For example, at the beginning of this novel describes like that:
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy‘s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.4
From this simple introduction, we can know the character, place, time and matter of this story. It lays foundation for the development of whole novel
2. The second style
Using rhythmic sentence structures is the second style such as repetition, parallelism, inverse ratio. For example, ―He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dust and he loved them as he loved 14
the boy.‖5
By analyzing these two books, it is clear that the Second World War has effect on Hemingway‘s writing feature, writing theme and the author‘s cognition.
G. Influence on writing feature
1. Writing feature of A Farewell to Arms
In A Farewell to Arms, the author models the figure of ―The Lost Generation‖. The hero Henry resents war, and he feels upset and has no knowledge of his future; moreover, the unrest of post-war society in western countries intensifies his spiritual crisis. He attempts to eliminate his unpleasant feeling with love, friendship and Eros:
―He should have fine girls. I will give you the addresses of places in
Naples. Beautiful young girls—accompanied by their mothers. Ha! Ha! Ha!‖ The captain spread his hand open, the thumb up and fingers outspread as when you make shadow pictures. There was a shadow from his hand on the wall. He spoke again in pidgin Italian. ―You go away like this,‖ he pointed to the thumb, ―and come back like this,‖ he touched the little finger. Every one laughed.6
I turned her so I could see her face when I kissed her and I saw that
her eyes were shut. I kissed both her shut eyes. I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right if she was. I did not care what I was getting into. This was better than going every evening to the house for officers where the girls climbed all over you and put your cap on backward as a sign of affection between their trips upstairs with brother officers. I knew I did not love Catherine Barkly nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you 15
were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was all right with me.7
From their dialogs, we can know that the surroundings make them were indifferent to everything, what they are interested in are drink, love and play. Henry falls in love with Catherine also just a lie; he pretends to love Catherine just in order to kill his time, but Catherine‘s sincerity and enthusiasm give Henry shock and make him afraid.
2. Writing feature of The Old Man and the Sea
In The Old Man and the Sea, modeling a tough guy figure who struggles in confusion, it implicates the optimistic attitude to the world‘s competition of Hemingway. At the beginning of the story, the author draws the outline of Santiago‘s appearance cursorily:
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back
of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the
sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his face and
his hands had the deep-creased scars from handing heavy fish on
the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as
erosions in a fishless desert.
Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the
same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.8
This paragraph not only shows the man‘s appearance characteristics, career feature but also presents the psychosis and character of this old man.
The novel says the sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.9 But the aged man never gives way to 16
misfortune and never imputes all faults and wrongs on others after several failure. His hope and his confidence had never gone. But now they were freshening as when the breeze rises.10 On the eighty-five day, he cheers up and sails out alone. Although he is out of luck, but he thinks that I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. 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.11
Another example:
―What do you have to eat?‖ the boy asked.
―A pot of yellow rice with fish. Do you want some?‖
―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.‖
―May I take the cast net?‖
―Of course.‖
There was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had
sold it. But they went through this fiction every day. There was no
pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.12
Under author‘s pen, the old man is a person who is self-confident, brave, strong-willed and never yielding. Although life is not as good as one‘s will, he is unwilling to surrender to these tough and limit surroundings and situations.
H. Influence on writing theme
1. Writing theme of A Farewell to Arms
The vicissitudes of life and love in A Farewell to Arms and the plot are very clear. The story shows tragedy destiny of young generation and antiwar 17
theme. The following Henry‘s inner soliloquy can prove that they are victims of war, and as for them, war means nothing but destroys lives, families and goals of human. He has strongly antiwar feeling:
I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.13
The inner soliloquy presents the antiwar feeling of Henry. When the nurse says Henry‘s jaundice is serious and it is because of drinking, to our surprise, Henry answers this is better than go front, he just wants to escape from war. When he escaped to Switzerland with Catherine, he means to enjoy provisional, peaceful and happy life with his lover, but the death of Catherine proves again that reality is so cruel that his only life ideal is broken up by war. In the end of story, in the rain, Henry walks back to hotel alone, he dose not know where he belongs, and he just knows that he has said good-bye to war, but the future is uncertain. This is also real reflection of post-war young generation.
2. Writing theme of The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea tells us that someone should dare to challenge to fate, failure and death. One can not lose dignity of as human even though face failure and death. Maybe one will fail again and again, but his spirit will never be defeated. As the novel says man is not made for defeat, a man can be destroyed but not defeated.14 When the old man fished that marline, he knows that is a big fish through the fish‘s reaction. But he is not afraid of it. We can 18
know from his words:
―Fish,‖ he said softly, aloud, ―I‘ll stay with you until I am dead.‖15
―Fish,‖ he said, ―I love you and respect you very much. But I will
kill you dead before this day ends.‖16
―He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must
never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run.‖17
―I‘ll kill him though,‖ he said. ―In all his greatness and his glory.‖
―Although it is unjust, he thought. But I will show him what a man
can do and what a man can endures.‖18
From his words, it is clear that the old man is a staunch person when he met difficulty, keeping encouraging himself and believing himself. Here the tough guy‘s characteristics expresses thoroughly.
In order to strengthen his physical power during battles with fish, he eats raw fish, drinks sea water and presses the fishing string with his whole body; meanwhile, the following memory reinforces his spirit power:
As the sun set he remembered, to give himself more confidence, the
time in the tavern at Casablanca when he had played the hand game with the great negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks.19
The odds would change back and forth all night and they fed the
negro rum and lighted cigarettes for him. Then the negro, after the rum, would try for a tremendous effort and once he had the old man, who was not an old man then but was Santiago EI Campeon, nearly three inches off balance. But the old man had raised his hand up to dead even again. He was sure then that he had the negro, who was a fine man and a great athlete, beaten. And at daylight when the bettors were asking that it be called a draw and the referee was shaking his head, he had unleashed his effort and forced the head of the negro down and down until it rested on the wood. The match had started on a Sunday morning and ended on a Monday morning.20
19
After that he believes firmly he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough.21 At the same time, he dreams lion many times during fights with fish. Why does he always dream lion? It is because that the lion is symbol of power, pursuit of the strong. What all the old man did manifests the old man is an indomitable and strong man. After two days and two nights bravely fight, he surrenders the big fish, at this moment, the old man is the real strong not only on activity but also on spirit.
When he on the way of returning to port, only to meet attack of sharks, the old man uses all tools which he can use such as harpoon, oar with the knife and club. A fierce fight begins, but the marline is eaten off in the end just leaves a pair of skeleton. Although the old man fails on activity, he is real winner of dream guarder, a real winner on spirit.
I. Influence on cognition
1. The cognition to war
Before the World WarⅡ, Hemingway has participated in the World WarⅠ as a driver and wounded in the war, what he saw is death and terror, this is a big shock to him, and his all hopes are dashed. He becomes a pessimist. He suspects everything and also resents everything, thinking that life is filled with darkness and the war can do nothing but destroys the finest emotion, dream and happy life of people.
While he joins the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War as a reporter, he changes his attitude to war, he sees the justice of anti-fascist and even sees the common people‘ power. It more or less criticizes his initial individualism.
2. The cognition to works
20
Elisabeth B· Booz once said that many of his stories dealt with war or injury, and nearly all of them examined the nature of courage. By living through the impersonal violence of the war, by suffering the violent accident of his wound, he felt that he had been cut from the security of his own past life. He wrote about men and women who were isolated from tradition, frightened, sometimes ridiculous, trying to find their own way. He gave no literary explanations, and no conventional ?happy endings‘ to his stories.22
While the later of 1930s, experiencing the justice anti-fascist war, Hemingway presents power of unity in his works. Just keeping this kind of spirit and manner, people can demonstrate the value of life and dignity of integrity in the tragedy which people still keep fighting and making effort even though they know they will fail at any rate. The life attitudes of leading roles become more optimistic. Facing difficulties, even if failed, they still show grace under pressure.
21
Ⅵ. Conclusion
Hemingway experiences two world wars and because of their different natures, his works have the characteristics of periodicity so that present different writing features, writing themes and writing thoughts. As a representative of ―The Lost Generation‖ before World War Ⅱ,Hemingway uses his pen to look for spiritual home for his contemporaries as well as himself: every time the sun also rises, everything returns to a new starting point and all things of life, no matter for individual or for whole society, are vain fight.
Under his pen, the thoughts and themes of all works are of pessimism attitude to life; meanwhile, the figures he builds are those people who are hurt by war and lose the meaning, direction of life. All the figures have antiwar feeling. And this kind of theme and thought deepen in A Farwell to Arms.
While after Second World War, he sees the justice of this war and power of unity, so in his later period works, whether writing feature, writing theme or writing thought are changed greatly. The figures are not pessimistic and despairing any more, but the figures of tough guy who never give way to destiny and always keep optimistic attitude to life. In spite of being in adversity, they can still live doggedly under the pressure. They also will encounter failure, but they believe firmly that they must keep grace in the present of failure, at least they are winners on spirit. This is a true picture of live: There is no doubt that you will be defeated, but the most important thing is that you still keep manner when you destroyed. As the saying in The Old Man and the Sea goes that man is not made for defeat, a man can be destroyed but not defeated.23
So from above conclusion, it is clear that the Second World War has great impact on Hemingway‘s works whether on thought, theme or on figure. 22
Notes
1 The "Lost Generation" is a term used to characterize a general feeling of disillusionment of American literary notables who lived in Europe, most notably Paris, after the First World War. Figures identified with the "Lost Generation" included authors and artists such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, Waldo Peirce, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Erich Maria Remarque and Cole Porter.
2 The concept of the iceberg theory is sometimes referred to as the theory Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, of omission. 3
bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. By extension it has come to include an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group.
4 Liping, Zhu, ed, The Old Man and the Sea ﹙Beijing: Chinese Book Press, 2005﹚, 1.
5
6 Ibid, 34. Ernest Hemingway, ed, A Farewell to Arms （Beijing: World Publishing Corporation,2004）, 8.
7
8 Ibid, 30-31. Liping, Zhu, ed, The Old Man and the Sea （Beijing: Chinese Book Press, 2005）, 2.
9 Ibid, 1.
Ibid, 7.
Ibid, 10-11
Ernest Hemingway, ed, A Farewell to Arms （Beijing: World Publishing Ibid, 33. 10111213
Corporation,2004）, 184-185.
14 Liping, Zhu, ed, The Old Man and the Sea （Beijing: Chinese Book Press, 2005）, 127.
23
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22 Ibid, 60. Ibid, 62. Ibid, 74. Ibid, 78. Ibid, 82. Ibid, 83. Ibid, 84. Elisabeth B Booz, ed, A Brief Introduction to Modern American Literature （Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1982）, 28-29.
23 Starr, 127.
24
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Hemingway, Ernest, ed. A Farewell to Arms. Beijing: World Publishing
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