\u003e Characteristics of the characters The Old Man and the Sea
Characteristics of the hero Old Man Santiago
The protagonist of Ernest Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea". According to the author, this is a fictional character, but many critics believe that this character has a real prototype - a certain Gregorio Fuentes, who for a long time worked as a captain on the writer's yacht.
Santiago is an experienced Cuban fisherman living in a village by the sea. The man is already very old, "thin and haggard." His head has deep wrinkles, and from prolonged exposure to the sun, the old man's cheeks and neck are covered with brown spots of "harmless skin cancer."
The hero's hands are cut with deep scars from the rope, which repeatedly wounded them at the moment when he pulled a large fish out of the sea. Despite this, the old man still has mighty shoulders and the same unbending will, and his eyes are still young and "like the sea" in their color. These are the eyes of a person who never gives up.
We know very little about Santiago's biography. It is only known that in his youth he sailed on a sailboat cabin boy to the shores of Africa. At that time, the man was very strong physically, as evidenced by an episode from his memories, in which he measures strength with a mighty black man and defeats him.
Once Santiago had a wife who now no longer even dreams of a man, just as other women no longer dream of him, as well as great events, fish, storms or fights. Now the hero sees in his dream only Africa with its white shores.
The old fisherman is very poor. He doesn't even have a bowl of rice with fish for lunch, so he, together with his friend, the boy Manolin, invents it, as well as the nonexistent fishing net, which the man had to sell for a long time. Santiago's shirt is covered in patches, and the man has to sleep on a bed covered only with old newspapers.
In the sea, the hero shows unprecedented endurance, fortitude and fortitude. Having caught a large fish, he holds it on the hook for several days in a row, practically without rest, until it finally comes up and the old man manages to kill it with a harpoon. Then he also fearlessly and desperately fights sharks trying to take away his prey.
Despite the fact that the whole life of the old man consists in catching and killing fish, he has great respect for it and all other inhabitants of the sea. While on a hike on his boat, a man feels unity with nature: he talks to fish and birds as if he were alive, admires them, loves and regrets them.
The story brought fame to the American writer Ernest Hemingway. The author himself called this work his best prose. For the first time, the world read a story about an old man and the sea in a short essay “On blue water. The Gulf Stream Letter ”, which was published in the magazine“ Esquire ”.
Hemingway was in love with the sea, knew how to fish, and from early childhood he already knew about all the plants and animals that inhabit the Midwest. But most of all, the writer loved aquatic creatures. They say that it was he who was able to catch the largest "winged" fish in the Atlantic.
The story is based on a real case. A fisherman from Cuba fished unsuccessfully for a long time near the coast of Havana, but he was still lucky to catch a huge fish. It so happened that sharks attacked the fish - and the fisherman pulled only its skeleton ashore. In this simple episode from his fishing life, the writer saw the philosophical depth. He embellished the real history with artistic details, symbols, and as a result, an instructive story-parable "The Old Man and the Sea" was published. In his letter to the publisher, Hemingway wrote that "The Old Man and the Sea" is a prose that he worked on all his life, which was conceived as light, simple and concise, but at the same time it should convey all changes in reality. The writer believed that this was the best prose he was capable of then.
In 1952 the work "The Old Man and the Sea" was published in the periodical "Life". Literary critics and readers were interested to know who became the prototype of the old man Santiago. The writer himself did not give an unambiguous answer, so many assumed that the prototype was an acquaintance of the author, an old fisherman from Cuba, Gregorio Fuentos. This Cuban resembled the protagonist in his description. But it is more likely that the image of Santiago is collective and consists of different features of the people with whom the writer communicated in the fishing village of Kokhimare.
The main character in the story - a boat drifting in the sea - appeared for a reason. The writer spied on this image during one of his travels by sea. Eyewitnesses claimed that Hemingway became interested in a small boat that stubbornly pursued a large fish. When the captain of the ship, at the request of the writer, swam to the boat, the fisherman was cursing. He was angry that the travelers would frighten off his fish. Besides the old man, there was a boy in the boat. So, most likely, the main images of the story arose - an old man, a boy, a boat, a fish and the sea. In order not to frighten off the big fish, the ship sailed away, but Ernest Hemingway continued to follow the fishing process from afar, seeing in this something more than fishing.
The history of the creation of the story "The Old Man and the Sea" proves that the writer made a lot of efforts so that the world saw a brilliant parable about an unusual old man who was walking towards his dream. The writer, like his protagonist, also caught the "fish of his dreams", creating an amazing story. In it, Ernest Hemingway showed himself to be a philosopher who perceives life as it is - complex, but beautiful.
In 1951, Hemingway finished the story "The Old Man and the Sea", which has become a masterpiece of world literature. "In The Old Man and the Sea," Hemingway noted, "I tried to create a real old man, a real boy, a real sea, real fish and real sharks."
The main problem of this work, as well as the conflict, are connected with the main character - Santiago, who has not had a catch for a long time, and who has already been called a "loser". What is a person ready to go for the sake of his goal, and what reserves are opened thanks to dreams and inspiration?
So, Santiago goes to the open sea to prove to everyone, and first of all to himself, that he is capable of doing the work to which he devoted his whole life. The sea plays a specific role in the story, it is a metaphor for our world, in which a lonely person suffers and fights, trying to fulfill his destiny. Also, the sea is a symbol of disaster, a person in it is between life and death.
At first, the old man catches small fish, after a while he felt that something huge had pecked, pulling the boat forward. It was a huge swordfish that Santiago could not handle alone. For many hours the fisherman fights with the fish: his hands are covered in blood, and the wayward catch pulls him further and further, and then he turns to God. Although until this moment Santiago did not consider himself a believer, he naively and sincerely prays to heaven for the death of the fish. But if he knew how much trouble this request would bring him. The old man kills the sea creature with a harpoon, and behind it is a trail of blood, on which sharks swim. With such opponents, the old man is not ready to fight and cannot do anything.
Ultimately, the old man returns to his home bay, exhausted, but not broken. He returned with the remains of a huge fish (a spine and a giant tail), and the next morning the fishermen will look at them in amazement.
This is not just a story, Hemingway wanted to create a philosophical parable, and, of course, there are no details in it that do not make sense. For example, a sail is a symbol of fortune, with the energy of the air, which speaks of its impermanence. The old man himself is a symbol of wisdom. Having made Santiago an old man, Hemingway already knowingly told us that all his actions in the story are righteous and correct. And the name Santiago (sant-saint), (yago-ego), translates as "holy man." In a dream, an old man dreams of Africa, lions. Lions symbolize happiness and strength. Santiago is happy and hardened in the battle for existence that has kept people in shape for centuries.
According to another interpretation, the main character is the personification of the strong spirit of the boy - the loyal friend of Santiago. They are always together, the young fisherman learned a lot from the patron and does not want to give up on him, despite any persuasion from the elders who have lost faith in the old man's abilities. If we take into account that a person who goes into the sea hardly eats, manages an ascetically small amount of benefits and amenities, communicates with almost no one and speaks only with a partner, then one might think that he is completely immaterial. He is the protagonist of the metaphor of life, fishing, which he went to alone, just like any of us sets off on the path of life alone. A real fisherman of his age could not, almost without eating even on land, repeat such a voyage, but Santiago is a human spirit, he, according to Hemingway, is capable of anything. It is he who pushes the weak-willed body to the feat of activity. Most likely, the spiritual essence of a boy is depicted, in whom no one still believes, since he has not caught a single large fish. However, he shows willpower (in the form of Santiago) and embarks on a desperate adventure, sailing too far from the coast. As a result, sharks gnawed even the skeleton of a rich catch, but the young hunter gained respect in the village. Everyone around him appreciated his perseverance and dedication.
Speaking of symbols, we must not forget what Hemingway himself said about them: “Obviously, there are symbols, since critics only do what they find. Sorry, but I hate talking about them and I hate to be asked about them. Writing books and stories without any explanation is difficult enough. Besides, it means taking bread from the experts ... Read what I write and do not look for anything but your own pleasure. And if you need anything else - find it, it will be your contribution to what you read. "
Indeed, it would look ridiculous if Ernest himself began to decipher these symbols, or, even worse, if he wrote, starting from them. He composed a story about real life, such a story can be transferred to any historical era, to any person who achieves what he wants. And since in life often everything is not just that, and after years, we find symbols in our own life, then in a work of art they are even more so.
The main character's image is simple. This is an old man who lives in a Cuban village near Havana. All his life he earns money from his fishing skill. The main thing is that he is happy, he does not need wealth, Santiago has enough of the sea and his favorite business. Probably this is how a "holy man" looks in Hemingway's eyes. The one who found himself and understands that it is not money that makes you happy, but self-realization.
The main feature of Hemingway's style is truthfulness. He himself said about it this way: “If a writer knows well what he is writing about, he may miss a lot of what he knows, and if he writes truthfully, the reader will feel everything he’s missing just as strongly as if the writer said about this. The greatness of the iceberg's movement is that it rises only one eighth above the surface of the water. " The technique that the author used in the story is known in the literature as the "iceberg principle". It is based on the great role of subtext and symbols. At the same time, the language is demonstratively dry, restrained, not replete with means of artistic expression. The work is brief, with seeming simplicity and unpretentiousness of the plot. In dialogues about everyday little things, the essence of the heroes is revealed, but none of them says a word about her: the reader makes all the discoveries at the level of intellectual intuition.
Thus, Hemingway's style is distinguished by the accuracy and conciseness of language, cold calmness in the descriptions of tragic and extreme situations, the utmost concreteness of artistic details and the most important ability to omit the unnecessary. This style is also called "style through clenched teeth": the meaning goes into details, there is an understatement, the text is stingy and in places rough, the dialogues are extremely natural. The telegraphic letter, which Hemingway mastered while working as a reporter, is expressed in deliberate repetition of words and a kind of punctuation (short sentences). The author omits reasoning, descriptions, landscapes to make speech clearer and more specific.
This story is an example for every person of any age, gender, physical condition, nationality, worldview. The old man did not bring a whole fish and this suggests that a person's victory should not be material, the main thing is victory over oneself, and everyone, with a goal, can accomplish a feat, like old Santiago.
Interesting? Keep it on your wall!Year of publication of the book: 1952
The story "The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway was first published back in 1952 in one of the American periodicals. It was for this work that the writer received the Pulitzer Prize. Many performances and several feature films have been staged based on Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea". The last in 2012 was the film "Shal" produced in Kazakhstan.
The story "The Old Man and the Sea" summary
Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an old man named Santiago has been going to sea every day for more than two months, but he still hasn't managed to catch anything. Because of this, the inhabitants of his village consider the hero unlucky. Just a few days ago, Santiago went to sea in the company of a boy named Manolin. However, now the parents of this very boy forbade their son to communicate with the old man, because they believed that he brings him bad luck. Nevertheless, Manolin is very fond of Santiago, who taught him all the tricks of fishing. The boy even buys large sardines, which would pass for good bait, and brings them to the old fisherman's house.
In the work "The Old Man and the Sea" we can read that Santiago himself lives quite modestly and has even come to terms with his poor life. In the morning of the next day, the old man goes fishing again, which will bring terrible trials. Manolin helps him prepare the boat for sailing. With all his heart, the main character believes that this time he will be lucky. While fishing, he enjoys the sea view and plunges into memories. The first fish to take the bait is a small tuna. Santiago was delighted, expecting larger fish to swim near the tuna.
In the work "The Old Man and the Sea", a summary tells that soon the old man's fishing rod begins to stretch to the side. Pulling on the line, Santiago realizes that a huge fish has pecked on his bait. He tries to pull her out, but to no avail. The hero regrets that Manolin is not with him now, who could help him get the fish. Meanwhile, evening comes, and Santiago's hands are already covered with scars from the line. He pulls on the rod and places a bag under it so that he can rest a little.
In Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" we can read that throughout the night the fish continues to pull the old man's boat as far as possible from the village. Despite severe fatigue, Santiago does not stop thinking about what luck overtook him in the form of a large fish. The hero realizes that he will try to get her to the last. In the morning, the exhausted old man was forced to eat the only tuna. The tug of the line made Santiago's left arm feel violent. Suddenly, the same fish appears above the water. It was purple in color and had a huge, sword-sharp nose. The old man is surprised because he has never met such a large fish. Now he certainly doesn't want to lose her.
In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, a summary tells that another day passes, and the main character is still fighting with the fish. Distracted from hunger and loneliness, he begins to remember his childhood and adolescence, and even talks to himself. Alternately changing hands, he continues to hold the line so as not to miss the exhausted fish. At night, the old man manages to drive a harpoon into the side of the prey. He ties her to the boat and heads home.
Meanwhile, a shark swam up to the smell of blood. Santiago gets rid of her with a harpoon. However, having plunged to the bottom, the shark took the weapon with it. In addition, she managed to bite off a large piece of fish. After that, there were several more sharks, which Santiago tried to scare off with a knife and a huge club. All of them took turns biting the fish, so the old man soon noticed that only a huge head of prey and its ridge were tied to the boat.
Ernest Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an exhausted Santiago enters the bay and goes home. In the morning Manolin comes to him. The boy notices the wounded hands of the protagonist and tries to think about how to help the old man. He brings him coffee and tells him that he wants to continue fishing together so that Santiago doesn't feel lonely. On the same morning, all the inhabitants of the village examine the old man's huge catch. Even tourists gathered around the fish, trying to figure out what exactly Santiago caught. The old man continues to sleep soundly and sees in his dream huge lions walking along the coast of Africa.
The story "The Old Man and the Sea" on the site Top books
Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" is still read as popular as it was decades ago. Thanks to this, the story got into ours, as well as in. And given the consistently high interest in the work and work of Hemingway, we will see this work amongst more than once.
Ernest Hemingway is the most truthful American writer of the 20th century. Having once seen the grief, pain and horror of war, the writer vowed to be "truer than the truth itself" for the rest of his life. In "The Old Man and the Sea" the analysis is conditioned by the inner philosophical meaning of the work. Therefore, when studying Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" in grade 9 in literature lessons, it is necessary to get acquainted with the author's biography, his life and creative position. Our article includes all the necessary information on the analysis of the work, topics, problems and history of the creation of the story.
Brief analysis
History of creation - created on the basis of a story that the author learned from fishermen in Cuba and described in an essay in the 30s.
Year of writing - the work was completed in February 1951.
Theme - a dream and a victory of man, a struggle with himself at the limit of human capabilities, a test of the spirit, a fight with nature itself.
Composition - three-part composition with a ring frame.
Genre - a story-parable.
Direction - realism.
History of creation
The idea of \u200b\u200bthe work came from the writer in the 30s. In 1936, his essay On Blue Water was published in Esquire magazine. Gulf Stream letter ”. It describes the approximate plot of the legendary story: an elderly fisherman goes to sea and for several days without sleep or food “fights” with a huge fish, but the sharks eat the old man's prey. Fishermen find him in a semi-mad state, and sharks circle around the boat.
It was this story, once heard by the author from Cuban fishermen, became the basis of the story "The Old Man and the Sea". Many years later, in 1951, the writer finishes his large-scale work, realizing that this is the most important work in his life. The work was written in the Bahamas and was published in 1952. This is Hemingway's last work published during his lifetime.
Since childhood, Hemingway, like his father, was fond of fishing, he is a professional in this field, he knew all the life and life of fishermen to the smallest details, including omens, superstitions and legends. Such valuable material could not be reflected in the work of the author, it became a confession, a legend, a textbook of the life philosophy of an ordinary person who lives by the fruits of his labor.
In dialogues with criticism, the author avoided commenting on the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work. His credo: to truthfully show "a real fisherman, a real boy, real fish and real sharks." This is exactly what the author said in an interview, making it clear: his desire is realism, avoiding any other interpretation of the meaning of the text. In 1953, Hemingway received recognition once again, receiving the Nobel Prize for his work.
Theme
Theme of the work - a test of the strength of human willpower, character, faith, as well as the theme of dreams and spiritual victory. The theme of loneliness and human destiny is also touched upon by the author.
Main thought the work is to show a person in the struggle with nature itself, its creatures and elements, as well as the struggle of a person with his weaknesses. A huge layer of the author's philosophy is traced in the story clearly and clearly: a person was born for something specific, having mastered this, he will always be happy and calm. Everything in nature has a soul, and people should respect and appreciate this - the earth is eternal, they are not.
Hemingway is surprisingly wise in showing a man's achievement of his dreams, and what follows. A huge marlin is the most important trophy in the life of old man Santiago, it is proof that this man has won in a battle with nature, with the creation of the sea element. Only what is given with difficulty, makes you go through difficult trials, problems - brings happiness and satisfaction to the protagonist. A dream of sweat and blood is the biggest reward for Santiago. Despite the fact that the sharks ate the marlin, nobody cancels the moral and physical victory over the circumstances. A personal celebration of an elderly fisherman and recognition in the society of “colleagues” is the best that could have happened in his life.
Composition
Conventionally, the composition of the story can be divided into three parts: an old man and a boy, an old man at sea, the return of the main character home.
All compositional elements are formed on the image of Santiago. Ring frame composition consists in the departure of the old man to the sea and his return. The peculiarity of the work is that it is full of the main character's internal monologues and even dialogues with himself.
Hidden biblical motives can be traced in the speeches of the old man, his position in life, in the boy's name - Manolin (short for Emmanuel), in the image of the giant fish itself. She is the embodiment of the dream of an old man who humbly, patiently meets all trials, does not complain, does not swear, but only prays quietly. His philosophy of life and the spiritual side of existence is a kind of personal religion, very reminiscent of Christianity.
Genre
In literary criticism, it is customary to designate the genre "The Old Man and the Sea" as story-parable... It is the deep spiritual meaning that makes the work exceptional, going beyond the framework of the traditional story. The author himself admitted that he could write a huge novel with many storylines, but preferred a more modest volume in order to create something unique.
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