The Analysis of Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
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Outline
1.Introduction
2.The Background
3.The Symbolism in the book
3.1 The Old Man—“the unyielding character”
3.2 The Boy— the Supplement for the Old Man
3.3 The Sea —Hemingway’s Survival Environment
4.  Hemingway’s Philosophy of Life Reflected by the symbols in The Old Man and the Sea
4.1 Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Society Reflected through the Symbol of the Sea
4.2Hemingway’s Attitude towards the Enemy Reflected through the Symbol of Shark
5.  My Conclusion
The Analysis of Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea
Abstract:
The Old Man and the Sea is a song of praise about human spirit. Hemingway intends to tell us his philosophy of life: although life is a lonely battle, it is a struggle that man should fight on with courage and endurance; and the “meaning” of life is not to be found in “success” or “failure”, but rather in the struggle itself. The Old Man and the Sea, praised by a famous writer as “the most excellent simple article in this generation”, is a masterpiece of the unyiel
ding man—Hemingway. But with regard to the symbolism, the sea, the Shark and the Marlin have special symbolical meanings. Here the article will analyze its symbolism thoroughly through some aspects such as the leading character，the living environment and Hemingway’s philosophy of life reflected by the symbols, to get a better understanding of its value.
Key Words:
The symbolic factors; iceberg theory; the living environment; Ernest Hemingway
1. Introduction:
Ernest Hemingway was born on July21, in 1898, at Oak Park, Illinois. He is famous both in American literature and the world literature, In his childhood, influenced by his father, Hemingway was interested in music, pictures, hunting, fishing and especially the love of fishing extremely affected all his life and he drew much writing inspiration from his fishing experiences.
Taking adventures also plays a vital role in his life and for that he experienced the two world wars. As a representative of the “Lost Generation”, Hemingway published the books such as The Sun Also Rises, the book deals with the living attitude of the post-war generation, at the time it is believed that “God is dead”, they thought life was nothing and meaningless. In this case, Hemingway became the spokesperson of the Lost Generation.
The Old Man and The Sea was published in 1952. The novel was regarded as Hemingway’s best novel. The praises are not only from the reviewers but also from a board spectrum of the mass, from ordinary readers to fellow men of letters. The publishing of this work showed that Hemingway could still achieve his peak, whether or not the reviewers and critics or the public could appreciate the true value of his works.
2. The Background
The Old Man and the Sea is about an old man’s life. Hemingway’s life was active and adventurous, but it was full of pains, though. The First and the Second World Wars had affected Hemingway a lot, he had once joined the army and had been injured in Italy, and h
e suffered a lot. He was disappointed with the world and pessimistic about the fate of the man.  In his early days’ novel, The Sun also rises depicts the war, describing the bewilderment of the European and American young people, then he was looked down upon by someone around him and some writers[1]. “You are all the generation that has been at a loss.” So, seeking way out and the understanding of life is the theme that Hemingway wanted to explore. He was unyielding, so he created the “the character of unyielding man”. From all Hemingway’s works, we can find that when Hemingway chose personage, he especially liked to choose beggar, hunter, solider and so on, they could protect their dignity by resisting with the world which is full of hostility, they maintain a graceful demeanour under great force, but on target. The characters of the protagonist are different from that of the early days’ novel. For example, the leading character Jordan in For whom the Bell Tolls is a hero who devotes himself to the career he incites the evil force, which reflects the cherished desire for opposing the fascism war of the people, which is full of wide social meaning and the time’s breathe. All leading characters in his novels show: he was an unyielding man, and has the desire to be the best, all these can be improved by a strong mind.
The distinctive writing style of Hemingway is his iceberg theory and symbolism. The novel is like an iceberg, the one-eighth reveals above the water, the other seven-eighths hide deeply in the water, which needs the reader himself to understand. In other words, one has to keep a close eye on Hemingway’s words and reading between the lines because of his highly symbolic language.
3. The Symbolism in the book
3.1 The Old Man— the unyielding character
The Old Man and the Sea is about an old fisherman Santiago who fights with nature. Not catching a fish for eighty-four days, he still keeps on trying without being despaired. He goes far out into the sea and catches a huge marlin after three days’老人与海英文读后感 patient sailing. On his way home sharks come and attack, Santiago tries his best to fight but fails to prevent the marlin from being eaten. In the end he returns with nothing but the skeleton of the fish. Many people hold the view that the novel is about the life of Hemingway himself. Poor and unlucky, but he is not easily defeated, though.
The old man goes fishing lonely, his eyes are blue like the sea, never depressed. At the beginning of the novel, the old man just catches up “misfortune”. In eighty- four days, he has not caught a single fish. As a fishing man, that is unlucky. The boy who spends a long time with him also has to leave. Hemingway had once joined in the Second World War and the Spanish War. The society after war is out of order. The fantastic phenomenon of the war and the society brought deep spiritual injury to Hemingway, which can be said that he survived the war after many perils [2]. We find that, after For whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway did not publish any important article, Across the River and Into the Trees suffered criticism again. Numerous critics even affirmed Hemingway’s intelligence had already exhausted, he had nothing fresh to say, and such situation is so alike the circumstance of the old man at the beginning.