评《老人与海》中海明写作风格和手法(3)
作者：佚名； 更新时间：2014-12-10
re his achievement or his far-reaching influence…his last masterpiece, The Old Man and The Sea, he remained a solitary both in achievement and style…16
And Hemingway’s influence as a stylist was “neatly expressed in the praise of the Noble Prize Committee about ‘his powerful style-forming mastery of the art’ of writing modern fiction.”17
Apart from the language style, which The Old Man and the Sea is famous for, the writing techniques in this novel are also worth paying close attention to. A very important one of them is the way to use facts. The main events of the story seem to be based on a real incident, which is described by Hemingway in an article about fishing in the Gulf Stream in Esquire for April 1936. So the novel of full facts, such as the habit of fish, the technique of catching marlin, the weather, the sea, and so on. But the power of the novel lies in the way to use these facts.
Firstly the facts are selected. “Hemingway’s old man, boy, sea, fish, and sharks are not so much built up in our minds, detail by detail, facts by facts, as drive into our mind by the force and the sympathy with which the author himself shares in their imaginary existence.”18 Like any realist, he relies on selection. When the giant marlin finally surfaces, his tail “was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water.”19 Sargasso weed is bleached and yellow by day; Tuna are silver when they jump out if the water, but blue-backed and gold-sides when swimming. Hemingway never described them with excessively, but choose some effective ones. He uses them with a sense of how colors shift and change in their relationship. Without selection, there can be no intensity, and compression.
Secondly, the facts are used as a device to make the fictional word accepted. The novel is not simply a manual for us to study the technique to catch a fish or how to survive in a boat. The author tries to implicate people’s imagination in what is happening by appealing to our love of practical knowledge. This shows “the facts are fundamentally a device, a technique of reassuring our sense of everyday values.”20 So they can help to make us accept more readily what the author has invented and made more dramatic than in everyday life. Still take the use of color as example:
The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray-blue hills behind it. The water was a dark blue now, so dark that it was almost purple. As he looked down into it he saw the red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and the strange light the sun made now.21
These facts show readers the process of fishing, which mostly comes from the author’s own experience. From these facts, which are vivid, precise and terse, readers can learn a lot about how to catch a fish and can also feel as if they themselves were catching a fish. Then they will have the sense that what the author describes is real and believable. Therefore, as Kenneth Graham has said, many facts in the novel about fishing and about the sea have a double function: they satisfy people’s sense of the real word. And this is what underlies Hemingway’s famous statement that his intention was always to convey to the reader “the way it was.”22
All in all, Hemingway’s language in The Old Man and the Sea is simple and natural on the surface, but actually deliberate and artificial. “The language is rarely emotional. Rather, it controls emotions: it holds them in.”23 The forming of this distinct style is related to Hemingway’s own experience. And the influence of this style is not only within America but also all over the world. The facts in the novel are selected and used as a device to make the fictional world accepted. Unlike other novelists who add allegorical meanings to their facts, Hemingway uses the facts simply and naturally, without any emotion. In the latter part of the novel, instead of being narrated by the author, the facts are used from inside Santiago’s own consciousness, and form part of a whole scheme of the novel. Besides what have been mentioned above, other techniques in The Old Man and the Sea, such as realism, monologue, the creation of suspense and so on, are also very successful. All these show Hemingway’s superb artistic attainments as a Nobel Prize winner.
Notes:
1. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p41
2. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p304
3. Mary A. Campbell, “Study Guide” in The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p126
4. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p8
5. Ibid, p83
6. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p42
7. Ibid, p45
8. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p20
9. Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, (New York, 1932), p138
10. Times, 13 December 1954.
11. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p2
12. Ibid, p1
13. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p295
14. A.E.Hotchner, Papa Hemingway, (New York: Random House, 1966), p1
15. Roger Asselineau, ed, “Hemingway’s English Reputation” in The Literary Reputation of Hemingway in Europe, (New York: New York University Press, 1965), p15
16. Ibid, p10
17. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p305
18. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p25
19. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p79
20. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p29
21. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p26
22. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p29
23. Peter B. High, “Chapter 11” in An Outline of American Literature, (New York: Long man Inc., 1986), p147
Bibliography:
1. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature. TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987
2. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea. Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991
3. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea. Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998
4. 崔道怡等编.《“冰山”理论：对话与潜对话》工人出版社， 1987.
5. 刁绍华. 《海明威》. 辽宁人民出版社, 1980.
6. 傅景川. 《二十世纪美国小说史》. 吉林教育出版社, 1996，信捷职称论文写作发表网
And Hemingway’s influence as a stylist was “neatly expressed in the praise of the Noble Prize Committee about ‘his powerful style-forming mastery of the art’ of writing modern fiction.”17
Apart from the language style, which The Old Man and the Sea is famous for, the writing techniques in this novel are also worth paying close attention to. A very important one of them is the way to use facts. The main events of the story seem to be based on a real incident, which is described by Hemingway in an article about fishing in the Gulf Stream in Esquire for April 1936. So the novel of full facts, such as the habit of fish, the technique of catching marlin, the weather, the sea, and so on. But the power of the novel lies in the way to use these facts.
Firstly the facts are selected. “Hemingway’s old man, boy, sea, fish, and sharks are not so much built up in our minds, detail by detail, facts by facts, as drive into our mind by the force and the sympathy with which the author himself shares in their imaginary existence.”18 Like any realist, he relies on selection. When the giant marlin finally surfaces, his tail “was higher than a big scythe blade and a very pale lavender above the dark blue water.”19 Sargasso weed is bleached and yellow by day; Tuna are silver when they jump out if the water, but blue-backed and gold-sides when swimming. Hemingway never described them with excessively, but choose some effective ones. He uses them with a sense of how colors shift and change in their relationship. Without selection, there can be no intensity, and compression.
Secondly, the facts are used as a device to make the fictional word accepted. The novel is not simply a manual for us to study the technique to catch a fish or how to survive in a boat. The author tries to implicate people’s imagination in what is happening by appealing to our love of practical knowledge. This shows “the facts are fundamentally a device, a technique of reassuring our sense of everyday values.”20 So they can help to make us accept more readily what the author has invented and made more dramatic than in everyday life. Still take the use of color as example:
The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray-blue hills behind it. The water was a dark blue now, so dark that it was almost purple. As he looked down into it he saw the red sifting of the plankton in the dark water and the strange light the sun made now.21
These facts show readers the process of fishing, which mostly comes from the author’s own experience. From these facts, which are vivid, precise and terse, readers can learn a lot about how to catch a fish and can also feel as if they themselves were catching a fish. Then they will have the sense that what the author describes is real and believable. Therefore, as Kenneth Graham has said, many facts in the novel about fishing and about the sea have a double function: they satisfy people’s sense of the real word. And this is what underlies Hemingway’s famous statement that his intention was always to convey to the reader “the way it was.”22
All in all, Hemingway’s language in The Old Man and the Sea is simple and natural on the surface, but actually deliberate and artificial. “The language is rarely emotional. Rather, it controls emotions: it holds them in.”23 The forming of this distinct style is related to Hemingway’s own experience. And the influence of this style is not only within America but also all over the world. The facts in the novel are selected and used as a device to make the fictional world accepted. Unlike other novelists who add allegorical meanings to their facts, Hemingway uses the facts simply and naturally, without any emotion. In the latter part of the novel, instead of being narrated by the author, the facts are used from inside Santiago’s own consciousness, and form part of a whole scheme of the novel. Besides what have been mentioned above, other techniques in The Old Man and the Sea, such as realism, monologue, the creation of suspense and so on, are also very successful. All these show Hemingway’s superb artistic attainments as a Nobel Prize winner.
Notes:
1. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p41
2. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p304
3. Mary A. Campbell, “Study Guide” in The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p126
4. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p8
5. Ibid, p83
6. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p42
7. Ibid, p45
8. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p20
9. Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon, (New York, 1932), p138
10. Times, 13 December 1954.
11. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p2
12. Ibid, p1
13. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p295
14. A.E.Hotchner, Papa Hemingway, (New York: Random House, 1966), p1
15. Roger Asselineau, ed, “Hemingway’s English Reputation” in The Literary Reputation of Hemingway in Europe, (New York: New York University Press, 1965), p15
16. Ibid, p10
17. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature, (TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987), p305
18. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p25
19. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p79
20. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p29
21. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998), p26
22. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea, (Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991), p29
23. Peter B. High, “Chapter 11” in An Outline of American Literature, (New York: Long man Inc., 1986), p147
Bibliography:
1. Chang Yaoxin, “Chapter 14” in A Survey of American Literature. TianJin: Nankai University Press, 1987
2. Kenneth Graham, “commentary” in York Notes: The Old Man and the Sea. Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1991
3. Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea. Beijing: world Publishing Corporation, 1998
4. 崔道怡等编.《“冰山”理论：对话与潜对话》工人出版社， 1987.
5. 刁绍华. 《海明威》. 辽宁人民出版社, 1980.
6. 傅景川. 《二十世纪美国小说史》. 吉林教育出版社, 1996，信捷职称论文写作发表网
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