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دانلود کتاب پیرمرد و دریا به زبان اصلی
Hemingvay - Ernest ارنست همينگوي به سال 1898 در اوك پارك ايليونوي به جهان آمد. در پس آثار او انضباط كامل نثري نهفته است كه نويسندگان نوگراي ساكن پاريس ، در سالهاي پس از جنگ جهاني اول، طالب آن بودند. همينگوي بسيار زود از سوي نوگرايان ياد شده ، گرترود استاين ، فورد مادوكس فورد، شروود اندرسن و عزرا پاوند ، به عنوان يار جديد پذيرفته شد. همينگوي صراحت بيان تحسين انگيز خود را از شروود اندرسن ، روشني نثر خود را از گزارش نويسي براي روزنامه ها و انضباط هنري خويش را از گروترود استاين ، بانوي نويسنده و روشنفكر امريكايي كسب كرد. كسب موجز و مضمون خشن و ظاهرا محدود همينگوي در اروپا تحسين يك گروه و دشمني درك ناپذير گروهي ديگر را برانگيخت. اما امريكاييان، كه ميراث ادبي آنان از تمثيل و نماد انباشته است، نكته هاي دقيق و دست آورد او را بهتر شناختند. حاصل اين شناخت چاپ دو كتاب انتقادي بود به نام ارنست همينگوي (1952) و همينگوي : نويسنده و هنرمند (1952) . با انتشار اين دو اثر بود كه همينگوي با توجه به شيوه هنري و ميراث ادبي درخور اهميتي كه پي افكنده بود در نظر خوانندگان جدي و غيرمبتدي جايي والا يافت . كتاب ديگري كه با عنوان دوران نوآوري ارنست همينگوي (1954) درباره او انتشار يافت و حاوي اطلاعات مفصلي در خصوص سالهاي كودكي همينگوي بود، برخي از علل نگاه سرخورده و جبري او را به زندگي نشان مي داد. نويسنده اين كتاب اشاره مي كند كه همينگوي از رياكاري زادگاهش دلزده بود؛ زيرا كليساها ، خيابان هاي وسيع سه رديفه و خانه هاي چوبي سفيد آن به ميخانه هاي كثيف و شلوغ و خيابان هاي جنايت زده سيسرو منتهي مي شد . او به خلاف ظاهر، همان اندازه ايدئاليست بود حساس نيز بود ، و در آن سن و سال، براي ورود به دنياي بيرحمي و خشونت آمادگي نداشت . همينگوي بعدها، در دوران جواني ، پيوسته با انديشه بي گناهي و فساد، دو جهاني كه امريكاي خشن او را در برمي گرفت ، دست به گريبان بود . همينگوي ، پس از پايان تحصيلات دبيرستان در شهر كانزاس، با دنبال كردن آمبولانس هاي ويژه تصادف به كار خبرنگاري مشغول شد . در هجده سالگي ، با آغاز جنگ جهاني اول ، به فوسالتاي ايتاليا رفت و در آنجا به كار در آمبولانس پرداخت و به دنبال انفجارتوپي 227 زخم برداشت و همزمان با اين انفجار پايش نيز از گلوله مسلسلي آسيب ديد . همينگوي در 1919 با تني معلول و روحي زخم خورده به امريكا بازگشت و ابتدا در شيكاگو و سپس در تورانتو در دفتر روزنامه اي به كار پرداخت . در 1922 بار ديگر با عنوان خبرنگار خارجي به اروپا سفر كرد . در اين دوران بيشتر اوقاتش در پاريس مي گذشت اما از جنگ تركيه و يونان و نيز كنفرانس لوزان گزارش تهيه مي كرد . در اين زمان به سائقه جواني اشعار بدبينانه و كفرآميزي سرود و به چاپ سپرد. آثار نخستين او سه داستان و ده شعر (پاريس ، 1923) و در زمان ما (پاريس ، 1924) تسلط او را در نثر موجز، منضبط و دقيق و نيز «گفتگوي پوشيده » نشان داد. داستان «نيك » و زن سرخپوست نمونه اي از داستانهاي اين كتاب است . نيك همراه با پدر پزشكش به جنگل هاي ميشيگان دعوت مي شود . پدرش درون كلبه اي با يك چاقوي جيبي به عمل سزارين دست مي زند . به رغم اين ابتكار ، روشن مي شود كه شوهر زن سرخپوست از آنجا كه نتوانسته رنج همسر خود را تحمل كند ، بي صدا گلوي خود را دريده است . در زمان ما تصويرهايدقيقي از زندگي در غرب ميانه امريكاست و در عين حال سرخوردگي هاي همينگوي را نشان مي دهد . انتشار رمان خورشيد همچنان طلوع مي كند (نيويورك ، 1926) براي «نسل سرگشته» تبعيديان پاريس شهرت به دنبال داشت . چاپ اين اثر، كه مرگ عشق را تصوير مي كند، بسياري را به خواندن رمان علاقمند مي كرد . نوشتن به سبك همينگوي رسم روز شد و نويسندگان و حتي دانش آموزان دبيرستانهاي امريكا به شيوه همينگوي شروع به نوشتن كردند . مجموعه داستان مردان بدون زنان ، كه دو سال پس از خورشيد همچنان طلوع مي كند منتشر شد، برخي از بهترين داستان هاي كوتاه همينگوي را در بردارد . سال بعد وداع با اسلحه (نيويورك 1929) انتشار يافت . اين رمان كه بر اساس تجربه هاي همينگوي در جبهه ايتاليا به سال 1918 فراهم آمده ، داستان رمانتيك و زيبا درباره عشق و جنگ است . وداع با اسلحه مشهورترين رمن جنگ جهاني اول است و همينگوي ديگر هيچ گاه ننوانست رماني در حد آن بيافريند . به گمان برخي منتقدان خورشيد همچنان طلوع مي كند ، مردان بدون زنان و وداع با اسلحه بهترين آثار همينگوي به شمارمي آيند . درونمايه اين آثار : ترس از مرگ ، شهامت و ضرورت روگرداني از عيش و نوش به قصد حفظ انسان در برابر ترس است . پس از اين زمان بود كه در شخصيت همينگوي نشانه هاي تغيير ديده شد، تغييري كه بر آثار او نيز تاثير گذارد ، همينگوي در اين زمان نامه هاي خود را با امضاي «پاپا همينگوي » پايان مي داد و وقت خود را به ماهيگيري در سواحل فلوريدا يا شكار جانوران در اوتا مي گذراند . در همين زمان ازدواج اول و سپس دوم او با شكست روبه رو شد و رابطه اش را با دوستان ، يعني اسكات فيتزجرالد و جان دوس پاسوس ، گسست و صرفا به كار نوشتن پرداخت . همينگوي با آغاز جنگ داخلي اسپانيا به عنوان خبرنگار به آنجا رفت . مادريد براي او «كارناوال خيانت و فساد» بود . با اين همه ، از رفتار جمهوريخواهان و سياست كمونيست ها انتقاد نكرد . او در طول اين جنگ همه جا حضور داشت . پس از پيروزي فرانكو و ملي گرايان در 1939 رمان ناقوس براي كه مي زند (نيويورك ، 1940) را نوشت . در اين رمان يك امريكايي به كارهاي قهرماني دست مي زند و آنارشيستها و كمونيست ها به سبب شكست جمهوري خواهان مورد سرزنش قرار مي گيرند. در جاي جاي اين كتاب قطعه هاي كوتاه بسيار زيبايي ديده مي شود. همينگوي به شكار ، ماهيگيري ، بوكس ، گاوبازي و قايقراني بسيار علاقه مند بود و به همين سبب برخي او را قهرمان جسم ناميده اند و ، به عكس ، برخي به او لقب «ترسو» داده اند. همينگوي در بسياري از آثارش علاقه خود را به گاوبازي نشان داده اما حداقل از كتاب مرگ در بعد از ظهر (1932)برمي آيد كه چيزي در باره اين «ورزش » نمي دانسته است . انتشار رمان پيرمرد و دريا (نيويورك ،1952) براي همينگوي تحسين بسيار به همراه داشت . اين كتاب آخرين تلاش همينگوي براي خلق يك شاهكار هنري بود . پيرمرد و دريا از همان درونمايه موبي ديك ، رمان مشهور هرمان ملويل ، در مقياس كوچكتر مايه گرفته است . اين داستان كه در آن پيرمردي كوبايي با يك نيزه ماهي بزرگ به نبرد برمي خيزد ، در حقيقت ، داستان كشمكش همينگوي با كهنسالي و بيماري ذهني است . او بعدها در كلينيك مايو به درمان خود پرداخت اما سرانجام به جاي توسل به پزشكان براي درمان حالت افسردگي ، ترجيح داد به زندگي خود پايان دهد . داشتن ونداشتن (1937) ، در ميان درختان آن سوي رود(1950) و تپه هاي سبز افريقا (1935) از ديگر آثار اوست . همينگوي نويسنده اي تواناست . رئاليسم سطح آثار او از چنان استحكامي برخوردار است كه يكي از واقعيت هاي آثار او را از نظر پنهان داشته ، واقعيتي كه نشان مي دهد او همچون ديگر نويسندگان امريكا ، كوپر ، هوتورن ، ملويل و جيمز پرسشهايي فلسفي درباره زندگي مطرح مي كند . شايد به همين سبب است كه گاهي برخي از آدم هاي آثار او «پرداخت ناشده » به نظر مي رسند . جيك و برت، ستوان هنري و كاترين ، جردن و ماريا به راستي«به زندگي پا نمي گذارند» . آثار او تفاوتي را نشان مي دهد كه ميان رمان در امريكا و رمان در ديگر كشورهاي جهان وجود دارد . تاثرات و تمايلات رمن نويس امريكايي متفاوت است و سبب اين تفاوت شرايط خشونت باري است كه برجامعه امريكا حاكم است و در تاريخچه جهان غرب سرشتي منحصر به فرد است . هر چند رمنهاي خورشيد همچنان طلوع مي كند و وداع با اسلحه بهترين آثار او شناخته شده اند اما به يقين مي توان ادعا كرد كه اوج هنر همينگوي داستان كوتاه اوست . انتشار مجموعه داستانهاي در زمان ما و مردان بدون زنان برنده سهمي ندارد (1933) هر كدام حادثه اي در جهان داستان نويسي بودند. همينگوي با اين داستانها سبكي نو پي افكند، سبكي كه در آنها گفتگوها در نهايت ايجاز بيان مي شوند، از واژه ها و جمله هاي اديبانه و مطنطن خبري نيست ، جمله ها آنچنان شفافند كه موضوع داستان به روشني از خلال آنها ديده مي شود و در مجموع فضاي داستان از چنان گيرايي و توسعي برخوردارست كه هيچ گاه از يادها نمي رود . همينگوي در 1952 جايزه نوبل پوليتزر و در 1954 جايزه نوبل براي ادبيات را از ان خود كرد ، اما حتي اين جوايز نيز نتوانستند سستي آثار بعدي او را بپوشانند و هنگامي كه در 1961 دست به خودكشي زد سي سالي از خلق بهترين آثارش گذشته بود . شرح مكمل : ارنست ميلر همينگوي در 21 ژوئيه سال 1898 در اوك پارك از توابع ايلي نويز به دنيا آمد او دومين فرزند دكتر كلارنس همينگوي بود. پدر و مادرش با هم توافق اخلاقي نداشتند و ارنست از اين حيث دچار زحمت و اشكال بود، مادر به فرزند خود توصيه مي كرد كه سرود مذهبي ياد بگيرد، اما پدرش چوب و تور ماهيگيري بدو مي داد كه تمرين ماهيگيري نمايد. ده ساله بود كه پدرش او را با تفنگ آشنا ساخت. موقعي كه به دبستان رفت احساس كرد كه براي ادبيات مستعد است و در همان موقع شروع به نوشتن مقالات ادبي و داستان در روزنامه اي كه خود شاگردان اداره مي كردند نمود. وي تحصيلات متوسطه خود را در مدرسه عالي اوك پارك به انجام رسانيد. وقتي در سال 1717 آمريكا وارد جنگ شد همينگوي با سري پر شور خود را سرباز داوطلب معرفي نمود. بعدها نيز رانندگي آمبولانس صليب سرخ را به عهده گرفت و به جبهه جنگ ايتاليا رهسپار گرديد. يك روز كه در جنگ با آمبولانس خود به كنك مجروحين مي شتافت جراحت برداشت، جراحتش وخيم و خطرناك بود و در اثر آن به وي مدال جنگي ايتاليا دادند. جنگ پايان پذيرفت و كشتارهاي ملل متمدن متوقف گرديد. همينگوي نيز به شيكاگو بازگشت و با نويسندگان بزرگي مانند شرود آندرسن و دوستان و همكارانش آشنا گرديد و در همين اوان بود كه با دختر جوان روزنامه نويسي به نام هدلي ريچاردسون ازدواج كرد. در سپتامبر 1921 زن و شوهر جوان به صورت دو خبرنگار عازم ميدان جنگ يونان و تركيه شدند و همين كه اين جنگ به نفع ترك ها پايان يافت همينگوي از آنجا به پاريس رفت و در آنجا اولين كتاب خود را به نام «سه داستان و ده شعر» منتشر ساخت. در 1927 هدلي همسرش پيوند و علاقه خود را پاره ساخت و همينگوي در اين باره گفته بود هركس در زنان بزرگواري و وفا بجويد احمق است. عليرغم اين بي وفايي به زودي او با زن ديگري به نام پولين پيمان زناشويي بست و يكسال بعد پدر همينگوي خودكشي كرد. آثار و نوشته هاي همينگوي با آنكه به حد اعلي شهرت مي رسيد با پيروزي مالي توأم نبود ولي وقتي كه كتاب بيوگرافي نويسندگان آمريكايي مقيم پاريس را انتشار داد، درهاي موفقيت به رويش گشوده گشت و به دنبال اين كتاب مردان بي زن را انتشار داد. همينگوي شكارچي بسيار ماهري بود و اغلب براي شكار حيوانات خطرناك به سرزمين آفريقا سفر مي كرد و تأثيراتي را كه در اين شكارها پيدا كرده در كتابي به نام «تپه هاي سبز آفريقا» منعكس نموده است. در سال 1940 دومين زنش با او قطع علاقه كرد و شش سال بعد پس از آغاز جنگ داخلي اسپانيا همينگوي با عده اي از روشنفكران آمريكا بر آن شدند كه با جمهوري طلبان اسپاني همراهي نمايند و در همان سال بود كه شاهكار جاويدان او به نام زنگ ها براي كه به صدا در مي آيند؟ انتشار يافت قهرمان اين داستان عجيب مردي به نام رابرت يا بهتر بگوييم خود همينگوي بود. همينگوي در اواخر سال 1940 مارتا لوژن را كه يك خانم رمان نويس بود به عنوان سومين همسر خود پذيرفت. آن دو نفر پس از ازدواج به چين و باكو و آلمان سفر كردند. ماري دولش نام چهارمين زن يا آخرين زن او بود كه براي روزنامه ها مقاله مي نوشت. در سال 1954 جايزه ادبي نوبل به خاطر پيرمرد و دريا به وي تعلق گرفت و سيل شادباش به رويش جاري شد. همينگوي در دوم ماه مه 1961 با گلوله تفنگ شكاري به زندگي خود خاتمه داد و بدين ترتيب ماجراي مرگ پدرش بعد از بيست وسه سال تجديد گرديد. آدمكش ها، وداع با اسلحه، سيلاب هاي بهاري، خورشيد نيز مي دمد، مرگ در بعدازظهر، برف هاي كليمانجارو، براي كه زنگ ها به صدا در مي آيند؟، آنطرف رودخانه در ميان درختان، پيرمرد و دريا، داشتن و نداشتن، در زمان ما، برنده چيزي نمي برد، زندگي خوش كوتاه فرانسيس مكومبر، ستون پنجم، كلبه سرخ پوستان و مردم در جنگ.
همینگوی از نظر زهرا خانلری(فرهنگ ادبیات جهان. خوارزمی):
همینگوی، ارنست میلر Hemingway, Ernest Miller داستاننویس امریکایی (1899-1961) همینگوی از پدری طبیب و مادری موسیقیدان و نقاش در اوک پارک Oak-Park در حومه شیکاگو زاده شد. از کودکی همراه پدر برای مداوای بومیها سفر میکرد و تعطیلات را در املاک بسیار وسیع خانوادگی نزدیک جنگلی در کنار دریاچه میشیگان میگذراند. همانجا بود که حساسیت فراوانی به رنگ و بو و آب و هوا یافت؛ همانجا بود که داستانهای سربازان را میشنید و تخیلاتش از افسانههای مرزی غنی میگشت؛ همانجا بود که در جوانی با پدر به شکار و ماهیگیری میپرداخت و گاه از این ورزشهای تفننی و بیرحمانه احساس شرم میکرد؛ همانجا بود که نظرهای واقعبینانه به عالم هستی به دست آورد و در شکار و ماهیگیری مهارت یافت و همه عمر برای این دو ورزش عهد جوانی شیفتگی خاص نشان داد. خودکشی پدر در روح ارنست جوان تأثیر عمیقی برجا گذارد و این نکته هنگام مرگ ناگهانی خود نویسنده بر مردم فاش شد. مرگ همینگوی که ظاهراً تصادفی و موقع پاک کردن تفنگ شکاری رخ داد، با ناباوری مردم روبرو گشت. همینگوی در هیجده سالگی دواطلبانه در جنگ جهانی اول شرکت کرد، به جبهه ایتالیا رفت و در واحد بهداشت مأمور حمل ونقل زخمیهای جنگ شد. به سختی مجروح گشت، در حدود یک سال در بیمارستان به سر برد و از طرف دولت ایتالیا به دریافت مدال نقره جنگی نایل آمد. پس از این واقعه شور و حرارت زندگی و شوق مبارزه در او پدیدار گشت و از جنگ که به گفته خود او سلاخی بینام ونشان وهرج و مرج بدون هیچگونه عظمت و زیبایی بود، نفرت یافت و به این نکته پی برد که رنج از شرایط اصلی زندگی است و شادیهای ظاهر همیشه به درد عمیق درون بستگی دارد، پس با تجربه دردناک و خشونتآمیزی که از جنگ به دست آورده بود، به شیکاگو بازگشت و به عالم مطبوعات وارد شد ودر روزنامه کانزاس سیتی استار Kansas City Star به کار پرداخت و با عنوان وابسته و خبرنگار این روزنامه به اروپا فرستاده شد و در جنگ اسپانیا به نفع جمهوریخواهان شرکت کرد. پس از آن چندی در پاریس اقامت گزید و به محیط نویسندگان امریکایی مانند "پاوند" و "کارلوس ویلیامز" و "گرترود اشتاین" رفت و آمد یافت، در 1923 اشعاری در مجله پوئتری Poetry منتشر کرد. پس از آن اولین داستانهای کوتاهش را که در روزنامهها به چاپ میرسید، در دو مجموعه فراهم آورد که یکی با عنوان "در زمانه ما" In Our Time و دیگری به نام "ده داستان" Ten Stories در 1924 انتشار یافت، اما شهرت همینگوی پس از انتشار رمان "خورشید همچنان میدمد" The Sun also Rises (1926) آغاز شد که پریشانی مردان و زنان بعد از جنگ و روی آوردن آنان به الکل و زندگی بیبند و بار و هیجانها و تأثرات ناهنجار را نشان میدهد. قصههایی از وقایع خشونتبار و بیرحمانه در این اثر با خاطرات نوجوانی در میشیگان و خاطرات زمان جنگ به هم میپیوندد و تضاد میان لذت زیستن و رنج پیوند خورده به زندگی را در نثر طبیعی و بیپیرایه بیان میکند. داستان تحت تأثیر "هکلبری فین" Huckleberry Finn شاهکار مارک تواین قرار گرفته و همینگوی از آن آموخته است که وقایع باید آنچنانکه مشاهده میشود، بیان گردد و عکسالعملهای درونی باید به صورت احساسی واقعی ظاهر گردد، نه آنچنانکه انسان میل دارد احساس کند، یا گمان میکند که احساس کرده است، یا دیگران فرض میکنند که انسان باید چنان و چنین احساسی داشته باشد و خلاصه بیان نویسنده باید با صداقتی مطلق نسبت به خویشتن و نسبت به اعمالی که میبیند، همراه باشد. این شیوه است که از درون سبک نوشته را پدید میآورد و نوشته نیز به نوبه خود معیار و اصلی را برعهده میگیرد. این اندیشه و اصل در رمان خورشید همچنان میدمد ظاهر میشود که در آن زنی مردی را رها میکند تا مقام و اهمیت او را در گاوبازی به خطر نیندازد، موضوعی که در بسیاری از قصههای همینگوی نمودار میگردد مانند قصه "مردان بیزن" Men Without Women (1927) که یکی از زیباترین مجموعه قصههای همینگوی به شمار میآید. همینگوی در بازگشت به امریکا در فلوریدا اقامت کرد که بهشت ماهیگیران متفنن بود. در این شهر خاطرات زندگی خود را از ایتالیا در کتاب "وداع با اسلحه" A Forwell to Arms (1929) منتشر کرد که در عین حال رمانی عاشقانه و جنگی است با سادگی و صداقتی فراوان که یکی از زیباترین و افتخارآمیزترین آثار همینگوی به شمار میآید و داستان مردی است که از جنگی بیهوده سرخوردگی یافته و تا اعماق روحش زخم برداشته است. همینگوی در این اولین دوره نویسندگی مسائلی را که در فنون رماننویسی برایش مطرح بود، حل کرد. از این دوره پرثمر سه سال گذشت تا رمان "مرگ در بعد از ظهر" Death in the Afternoon (1932) انتشار یافت که وضع تازهای را در آثار همینگوی نشان میدهد. در این اثر همینگوی به صورت اول شخص مفرد سخن میگوید. مبارزه میان انسان وگاو در نظر همینگوی تصویری از زندگی بشر را پیش چشم میگذارد. هریک از دو طرف مبارزه در پی مرگ دیگری است، تنها چیزی که آنها را از یکدیگر مشخص میسازد و تفوق انسان را به اثبات میرساند، آن است که گاو کورکورانه میجنگد، در حالی حتی یک حرکت را برخلاف قانون نقض ناکردنی انجام نمیدهد. در این کار هم اصلی حکمفرماست که آزادانه پذیرفته شده و خشونت بیرحمانه گاوبازی را به نمایشی از ظرافت و شهامت تبدیل میکند که خود سبک خاص گاوباز است. وی از این وضع نتیجه میگیرد که برای نویسنده نیز سبکی وجود دارد که صورت قانون پیدا میکند و وی در آن نباید حرکتی بیفایده انجام دهد تا مانند گاوباز زخمی بشود. همینگوی سبک شخصی و خاصی را دنبال کرد که بعدها به طور گستردهای مورد تقلید نویسندگان امریکایی و انگلیسی قرار گرفت، اما نمیتوان گفت که این سبک در همه کتابهای همینگوی به کار رفته است، چنانکه "تپههای سبز آفریقا" Green Hills of Africa، که از اقامت او برای شکار حیوانات در آفریقا الهام گرفته و نیاز درون نویسنده را به مجاورت با طبیعت و ذوق ماجراجویی و لذت مغلوب کردن را نشان میدهد، در سبک روزنامهنگاری و خبرگزاری است که این شیوه جدید نیز مورد تقلید قرار گرفت، اما هیچیک از تقلیدکنندگان نتوانستند با آن برابری کنند، در نتیجه سبک همینگوی برای خود نهتنها ارزشی قانونی دارد، بلکه نوعی دفاع شخصی است در برابر هیجانها و ضربههای ناشی از زندگی، زیرا وی در سبک خویش میان تضاد لذت بردن از زندگی و رنج بردن که از آن جدا نیست، به تعادل شخصی دست مییابد. این موضوع را نیز نباید نادیده گرفت که همینگوی دوره افسردگی و ملالی را احساس کرده که زندگی امریکایی پس از بحران 1929 به آن دچار گشته و او را به شرکت فعالانه در جنگ کشانده و سخنگوی گروهی ساخته که به نسل فداشده معروف گشته است. مدح گاوباز به طور ضمنی انتقاد جامعهای را در بردارد که وی آن را درحال انحطاط کامل یافته است و قانون را یگانه ارزش معنوی به هنگامی میداند که همه ارزشهای دیگر از میان رفته است. "داشتن و نداشتن" To Have and Have Not (1937) شامل سه داستان است که کتابی بسیار متوسط و عادی خوانده شده است، گویی همینگوی به این نکته پی برده بود که وضع زمان وحال روحی مردم چیزهای دیگری جز گاوبازی و شکارهای افریقایی را طالب است. این ادراک را در کتاب اخیر همچنین در "ستون پنجم" The Fifth Column (1938) میبینیم که او پیرو اندیشهای که در عصر وی جریان داشت، مسأله تمایل سیاسی را مطرح کرده، اما قهرمانانش در وجود خودشان زندانی گشته و با یکدیگر ارتباطی حاصل نکردهاند و این تجربهای بود که موفقیت کامل نیافت. پس این عزلت روحی را در رمان دیگرش به نام "زنگها برای که به صدا درمیآید؟" For whom the Bell Tolls? (1940) کنار گذارد، رمانی که از جنگهای داخلی اسپانیا مایه گرفته بود. بعد از این کتاب همینگوی سالها سکوت کرد و هنگامی که در 1950 رمان "عبور از رودخانه و جنگل" Across the River and into the Trees منتشر شد که از آثار دیگرش اقبال کمتری یافت، چنان به نظر رسید که همینگوی قوس نزول را در نویسندگی میپیماید، اما سال بعد قصه "مرد پیر و دریا" یا "پیرمرد و دریا" The old Man and the sea با استقبال چشمگیری که از آن شد، این نظر را از میان برد و با شیوه استعاری و نثر واقعاً ستودنی نشان داد که وی هنوز از قدرت نویسندگی برخوردار و بر سبک خویش همچنان مسلط است و دنیای درونش با وجود حد و مرز معین همه نکتههای چیرهدستانه هنرمند امروزی را نمودار میسازد و نهتنها او را نماینده نویسندگان امریکایی، بلکه نماینده عصر حاضر معرفی میکند. مرد پیر و دریا حماسهای منثور است که در آن همه مسائل مورد علاقه نویسنده تجسم مییابد. کتاب، داستان مبارزه پیرمرد ماهیگیری است تنها، در قایق خویش با ماهیای عظیم در پهنه دریا. پیرمرد سرانجام ماهی را از پای درمیآورد ولی کوسهها مجال نمیدهند... در داستان صفا و شکوه آسمان و دریا، به درازا کشیدن پیکار، چیرهدستی در مبارزه، شهامت، عناد، روش پس از ترک جدال، شفقت بر حریف، دلاوری شخصی، تمایل به بازگشت به خانه و مردن در محیط خانوادگی، رؤیاهای آرامشبخش و افتخارآمیز، آخرین خواب زندگی، همه انعکاس یافته است، به شیوهای که میان طبیعت و انسان و وضع بشری آشتی کامل برقرار میکند. در این اثر نیز مانند آثار دیگر همینگوی، زندگی و اثر پیوستگی نزدیک دارند. مرد پیر و دریا در 1953 به دریافت جایزه پولیتزر Pulitzer نایل آمد.
درباره سبک خاص همینگوی گفتگوی بسیار شده است. سبکی که او را از پیشینیان و معاصران ممتاز میسازد، به سبب سادگی اعجابآور و مستقیم و کوبنده، کلمههای محاورهای، جملههای کوتاه و بدون وابسته، نشانهگذاری فراوان، نقل که تقریباً همیشه در زمان ماضی استمراری بیان میشود، مکالمههای بدون تصنع و بدون رعایت صنایع لفظی، شرح حوادث چنانکه واقع شده و کوچکترین نکتهای از واقعیت ازچشم دور نمانده است. همینگوی از نویسندگان نادری است که در زمان حیات به افتخار و شهرتی افسانهای دست یافت و در 1954 به دریافت جایزه ادبی نوبل نایل آمد و از نفوذ عظیمی درنویسندگان پس از خود برخوردار گشت.
نقدی از «ماریو بارگاس یوسا» بر «پیرمرد و دریا» نوشتهی ارنست همینگوی
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ترجمه: سعید کمالیدهقان؛ سینما و ادبیات، شمارهی تابستان ۱۳۸۶
«پیرمرد و دریا» داستان سادهای دارد: پس از گذشت هشتاد و چهار روز جان کندن بیحاصل، ماهیگیر پیر موفق میشود بعد از دو روز و نیم تلاش بیوقفه ماهی بزرگی صید کند. ماهی را به کرجی اش میبندد، اما روز بعد در نبردی که چیزی کم از یک جنگ درست و حسابی ندارد، آن را از دست میدهد و ماهی خود طعمهی آرواره های گرسنه و حریص کوسه ماهیهای دریای کاراییب میشود. مردی با حریف کینه توزی درگیر شده و در پایان چه برنده باشد و چه بازنده، احساس منزلت و بزرگی بیشتری میکند و به آدم بهتری تبدیل میشود. این یکی از موتیفهای کلاسیک داستانهای همینگوی است. اما این موتیف در هیچ یک از رمانها و داستانهای او که قبل از این نوشته شده به کاملی این داستان که در سال ۱۹۵۱ در کوبا نوشته شده نیست، داستانی که طرحی ساده و ساختاری بیعیب و نقص دارد و مفهوم و مضمونش قدرت آن را دارد که با بهترین رمانهای او رقابت کند. همینگوی برای نوشتن این داستان جایزهی پولیتزر سال ۱۹۵۳ و نوبل سال ۱۹۵۴ را از آن خود کرده است.
«پیرمرد و دریا» ظاهر ساده و فریبندهای دارد، مثل تمثیلهایی از انجیل یا افسانههای آرتور که در ورای سادگیاشان میتوان مفاهیم پیچیده و عمیق اخلاقی یا واقعیتهای تاریخی و ظرافتهای روانشناختی پیدا کرد. این رمان با توجه به دید همینگوی نه تنها داستانی زیبا و جذاب دارد، شرح حالی از وضعیت انسان و تا حدی راه نجاتی است برای نویسنده داستان.
کتاب بعد یکی از بزرگترین شکستهای ادبی همینگوی نوشته شده، یعنی پس از کتاب «سرتاسر رودخانه و در میان درختان» که رمانیاست سرشار از کلیشهها و بازیهای زبانی و به نظر میرسد انگار یک نویسنده متوسط آن را از روی رمان «خورشید همچنان میدمد» کپی کرده باشد، نه تنها منتقدان آمریکایی بلکه منتقدان سایر کشورهای جهان هم این کتاب را به شدت نقد کرده اند و حتی تعدادی از آنها مثل «ادموند ویلسون» آن را نقطه چاره ناپذیر سقوط ادبی همینگوی میدانستند. البته اخطار جدی بود چون همینگوی وارد مرحلهای از زندگیاش شده بود که نتیجه و خلاقیتاش کمرنگ تر شده و بیماری و الکل او را فلج کرده بود و انرژی کمتری برای زندگی داشت. «پیرمرد و دریا» واپسین بانگ نویسندهای بزرگ در سراشیبی ادبی بود و همینگوی به واسطه نوشتن این رمان خوب به جای آن که با مرور زمان به نویسنده بزرگی تبدیل شود، همانطور که فاکنر این را پیش بینی کرده بود، یکمرتبه نویسندهی بزرگی شد و «پیرمرد و دریا» بر خلاف کوتاهی و اختصارش به بهترین کتاب او تبدیل شد. بسیاری از آثار همینگوی که در زمان انتشارشان گمان میرفت کتابی جاویدان باشند، با مرور زمان تازگی و گیراییاشان را از دست دادهاند و به آثاری تبدیل شدهاند که تاریخ مصرف دارند؛ یا داستان با فلسفه اصلی خود نمیخواند یا حتی داستان گاهی ماهیت مصنوعی پیدا کرده است، مثل «زنگها برای که به صدا در میآیند» و حتی رمان فوق العاده «خورشید همچنان میدمد». ولی داستان «پیرمرد و دریا» مانند چندی از داستان های دیگر همینگوی از بند زمان رهایی یافته و زخمی هم بر نداشته و هنوز که هنوز است جذابیتی تازه دارد و نمادگرایی نیرومند آن بعنوان اسطورهای مدرن به حساب میآید.
نمیتوان اودیسهی سانتیگو، پیرمرد تنهای داستان و نبردش را با ماهی غولپیکر و کوسه ماهیهای بیرحم خلیج ساحل کوبا خواند و یاد تصویر نبردی نیفتاد که خود همینگوی با دشمنانی دارد که درون خود او میزیند و با آنها دست و پنجه نرم میکند. دشمنانی که ابتدا به ذهن و بعد به بدنش حمله میکنند، همانهایی که در سال ۱۹۶۱ همینگوی ناتوانی که حافظه و روحش را از دست داده را مجبور میکنند، با اسلحهای که بسیار دوست دارد و با آن جان حیوانات بسیاری را گرفته، این بار به سراغ خودش برود و خودکشی کند.
آن چیزی که داستان ماهیگیر کوبایی را در آن ناحیه گرمسیر عجیب و شگفت انگیز جلوه میدهد و باعث میشود خواننده تلاش سانتیگو را برای نبرد با دشمنی که میخواهد شکستنش بدهد، چیزی جهانی و ماندنی بداند این است که زندگی پیکاری است همیشگی و با شجاع بودن در نبرد و شکوهی که ماهیگیر در داستان دارد، خواننده احساس میکند از نظر روحی ارتقا یافته و دلیلی برای بودن در دنیا پیدا کرده، هر چند که ممکن است در نبرد شکست بخورد. این همان دلیلیاست که وقتی سانتیگو خسته و کوفته با دستان خونین به دهکدهی کوچکی که آن جا زندگی میکند برمیگردد، استخوانهای بیخاصیت ماهی بزرگ را که کوسه ماهیها آن را خوردهاند با خود حمل کند و به نظرمان میرسد که این فرد بر خلاف تجربه بیحاصل اخیرش، از نظر روحی وضع بهتری پیدا کرده و نسبت به قبل جلو افتاده و هم از نظر روحی و هم جسمی تواناییهای محدود یک انسان فانی را ارتقا داده است.
داستان همینگوی غم انگیز است اما بدبینانه نیست. برعکس، همینگوی نشان میدهد که همیشه و در همه حال حتی در رنج و محنت هم امیدی وجود دارد؛ رفتار انسان میتواند شکست را به پیروزی تبدیل کند و به زندگیاش معنا ببخشد. سانتیگو وقتی از ماهیگیری بر میگردد بیشتر از گذشته لایق احترام و ارزش است و همین موضوع است که مانولین کودک را به گریه میاندازد: ستایشی که برای این پیرمرد مصمم قائل است حتی بیشتر از ستایشیاست که برای معلم ماهیگریاش قائل است. «آدمی نابود میشود اما هیچ گاه شکست نمیخورد» این همان جمله معروفیاست که از زبان سانتیگو در میان اقیانوس در میآید؛ این جمله شعار و رمز زندگی ارنست همینگوی است. تمام شخصیتهای داستانهای همینگوی؛ از گاوباز و شکارچی و قاچاقچی گرفته تا ماجراجویان دیگرش دارای مهمترین مشخصه قهرمانهای همینگوی هستند: شجاعت.
سانتگوی کتاب «پیرمرد و دریا» هم از همین آدمهای شجاع است. مرد فروتنیاست؛ در کلبهی درب و داغانی زندگی میکند و تختواباش را روزنامهها تشکیل میدهند و توی دهکده اسم و رسمی دارد. آدم تنهاییاست؛ سالها پیش همسرش را از دست داده و تنها خاطرهای که برایش باقی مانده؛ یاد شیرهاییاست که هنگام پیاده رویهای شبانه روی عرشه کشتی بخار در سواحل آفریقا؛ وقتی هنوز آنجا کار میکرده؛ دیده است و یاد بازیکنان بیسبال آمریکایی مثل جو دایمگیو و یاد مانولین، پسر بچهای که زمانی با او میرفته ماهیگیری و حالا به اصرار پدر و مادرش مجبور است پیش ماهیگیر دیگری کار کند. ماهیگیری برای سانتیگو آن مفهومی را ندارد که برای همینگوی و خیلی از شخصیتهای دیگرش دارد، یعنی فقط یک ورزش یا تفریح یا راهی برای بردن جایزه و مقابله با یک نبرد درست و حسابی نیست؛ بلکه نیازیاست حیاتی، کاری که با تلاش و مشقت بسیار برای این انجام میدهد که شکمش را سیرکند. نبرد سانتیگو با نیزهماهی او را تبدیل میکند به آدمی شگفت انگیز که به سادگی و با فروتنی تمام مثل قهرمانها رفتار میکند و بیآنکه لاف بزند یا که مغرور شود؛ تنها به سادگی مسئولیتش را انجام میدهد.
همینگوی برای نوشتن این داستان از تجربیات شخصیاش استفاده کرده: علاقه وصف ناپذیرش به ماهیگیری و آشنایی با دهکده و ماهیگیران کوجیمار، کارخانه، بار پریکوو، لاترزا، که پاتقیاست برای نوشیدن و گپ زدن. کتاب تحت نفوذ علاقه و آشنایی نویسنده با منطقه ساحلی و مردان و زنان جزیزه کوباست و «پیرمرد و دریا» وامدار آنهاست.
رمان دو نقطه مهم و اساسی دارد که ماجرای سانتیگو را تغییر میدهد، یکی رویارویی با ماهی و دیگری مواجهشدن با کوسه ماهیها، که داستان را به سمت اندیشههای داروینی پیش میبرد، یعنی انسانی برای بقایش مجبور است موجودی را بکشد و وقتی منزلتش در خطر است از تمام شجاعتاش بهره میگیرد تا مقاومت کند. همین شجاعت است که باعث میشود سانتیگو در نبردی با ماهی نه فقط برای امرار و معاشاش تلاش کند بلکه در آزمایشی قرار بگیرد تا میزان منزلت و مقامش آشکار شود. خود ماهیگیر هم به جنیه متافیزیکی و اخلاقی کاری که میکند آگاه است و میگوید:«نشانش میدهم که انسان چه کارها که نمیتواند بکند و چه چیزها که نمیتواند تحمل کند.» با این دید داستان تنها ماجرای ماهیگیری نیست که به دنبال صیدش است؛ بلکه ماجرای بشریت است و در اودیسهای قرار می گیرد که نه کسی ناظر آن است و نه قرار است آخرش به او جایزهای بدهند، جایی که ایمان هر فرد نقش تعیین کنندهای دارد.
برای رسیدن به این برداشت کلی با یک سری احساسات و هیجانها مواجهیم؛ نکاتی که کم کم افق دید ما را نسبت به داستان روشن و روشنتر میکند و دید کاملی به ما ارائه میدهد. نویسنده برای انتقال این برداشت از مهارت خاصی استفاده میکند و آن را در نوشتن داستنش پیاده کرده است. دانای کلی که داستان را روایت میکند و کم کم ما را در جریان جزئیات داستان قرار میدهد و با آن که خود پشت تک تک جملات داستان پنهان شده؛ داستان پیرمردی را روایت میکند که ماهی غول پیکری را به قایقاش بسته و مضطرب منتظر است تا آن را شکار کند. راوی در نهایت شما را به زیرکی به جزئیات داستان واقف میکند و این را مدیون زبان سادهای است که به نظر میرسد همان زبان ماهیگیر پیر و ساده باشد و جزئیات را از سانتیگو گرفته تا موجودات زیر اقیانوس تعریف میکند. نویسنده با مهارت کامل تلاش و نبرد سانتیگو و رویارویی او را با نیروی بیرحمی که پیرمرد دریانورد و ماهر را شکست میدهد؛ توصیف میکند.
جزئیات تکنیکی داستان به ما این امکان را میدهد تا واقعیتهای داستان را بهتر بشناسیم و به نکاتی از داستان که بیشتر سمبلیک و اسطورهای هستند پیببریم؛ همان نکاتی که زندگی سانتیگو را به ما نشان میدهد؛ آن شیرها؛ آن بازیهای بیسبال و کرانهی شگفت انگیز دیمگیو. با وجودی که پیرمرد زندگی ساده و معمولیای دارد؛ چیزهای بزرگی بدست میآورد. سانتیگو که ویران شده و بیسواد است؛ نمادیاست از انسان در بهترین وضعی که قرار دارد؛ تصمیم میگیرد که بر خودش مسلط شود و با خدایان و اسطورههای مختلف نبرد کند.
مدت زمان کمی پس از آن که این کتاب به چاپ رسید؛ فاکنر گفت که همینگوی «خدا را کشف کرده.» این عبارت درست است، هر چند که نمیشود آن را اثبات کرد. اما فاکنر همچنین گفت که محور اصلی داستان همینگوی «احساسات» است؛ و این همان نکته اصلیای است که او اشاره کرده. در این داستان شگفت انگیز، احساساتگرایی با نبودن خود؛ خودنمایی میکنند. سانتیگو مثل اسپارتانها در قایق خود در میان اقیانوس نشسته است. و نکته اصلی داستان که در تک تک عبارات آن نهفته است و در آنها نفوذ کرده این است که وقتی سانتیگو پیر خسته و کوفته است و غم و غصه دارد و در سراشیبی قرار دارد؛ دیرک قایقش را به دست میگیرد و در دهکده خوابیده پیش میرود. آن چیزی که خواننده در این لحظه حس میکند را نمیتوان به این سادگیها تشریح کرد، و این همان رازی است که کتابهای بزرگ و بهیاددماندنی همراه خود دارند؛ شاید این راز «شفقت»؛ «دلسوزی» یا «انسانیت» باشد اما هر چه که هست به احساسات بشر مربوط میشود.
پیرمرد و دریا
نویسنده: ارنست همینگوی
مترجم: نجف دریابندری
ناشر: انتشارات خوارزمی
محل انتشارات: تهران
نوبت چاپ: سوم
نخستین چاپ: 1363
آخرین چاپ: 1385
تعداد جلد: 1
شمارگان: 5500
تعداد صفحات: 222
The Old Man and the Sea
زبان اصلی: انگلیسی
کتابخانهٔ ملی ایران: 19154-84 م
شابک: ISBN 964 - 487 - 072 - 7
پیرمرد و دریا (به انگلیسی: The old man and the sea) نام رمان کوتاهی است از ارنست همینگوی، نویسنده سرشناس امریکایی. این رمان در سال ۱۹۵۱ در کوبا نوشته شد و در ۱۹۵۲ به چاپ رسید. «پیرمرد و دریا» واپسین اثر مهم داستانی همینگوی بود که در دوره زندگیاش به چاپ رسید. این داستان، که یکی از مشهورترین آثار اوست، شرح تلاشهای یک ماهیگیر پیر کوبایی است که در دل دریاهای دور برای بدام انداختن یک نیزهماهی بسیار بزرگ با آن وارد مبارزهٔ مرگ و زندگی میگردد. نوشتن این کتاب یکی از دلایل عمده اهدای جایزه ادبی نوبل سال ۱۹۵۴ به ارنست همینگوی بودهاست.
پیرمرد و دریا یک «رمان کوتاه» است چرا که این رمان به فصلها و یا قسمتهای جدا تقسیم نشدهاست و علاوه بر این فقط اندکی از یک داستان کوتاه بلندتر است. «پیرمرد و دریا» برای اولین بار در تمامیت خود، شامل ۲۶٬۵۰۰ واژه، در شماره یکم سپتامبر ۱۹۵۲ مجله لایف (Life) منتشر شد و باعث گردید که ظرف فقط ۲ روز بیش از ۵ میلیون نسخه از این مجله به فروش برود. نقدهایی که درباره این داستان نوشته شد همگی بدون استثنا و بطور اغراقآمیزی مثبت بودند. هرچند بعدها تعداد کمی نقد مخالف نیز نوشته شد که نویسندگانشان زیاد با «پیرمرد و دریا» میانه خوبی نداشتند و به آن خرده میگرفتند. در یکی از چاپهای اولیه، نام کتاب در روی جلد اشتباهاً «پیرمردها و دریا» به چاپ رسیده بود.
الکسی لئونوف در خاطراتش نقل کرده که پیرمرد و دریا یکی از کتابهای مورد علاقه یوری گاگارین بوده است. وی این موضوع را در سفرش به کوبا به خود ارنست همینگوی هم گفته بوده است.[۱]
فهرست مندرجات [مخفی شود]
۱ الهام از واقعیت
۲ خلاصه داستان
۳ نمادگرایی و شخصیت
۴ پانویس
۵ منبع
۶ پیوندهای بیرونی
[ویرایش] الهام از واقعیت
گرگوریو فونتسپس از سال ۱۹۴۰ زمانی که ارنست همینگوی بهمراه همسر سومش مارتا گلهورن (Martha Gellhorn) در کوبا زندگی میکرد، قایقرانی و ماهیگیری تفریحات اصلی او بحساب میآمدند. زندگینامهنویسانی که در مورد زندگی و آثار همینگوی مقاله و کتاب نوشتهاند همگی همداستاناند شخصیت «پیرمرد» در داستان «پیرمرد و دریا» دست کم در برخی از موارد برگرفته از شخصیت واقعی یک ماهیگیر کوبایی بنام گرگوریو فوئنتس (Gregorio Fuentes) بودهاست. همینگوی در سالهای ۱۹۳۰ گرگوریو را برای نگهداری و محافظت از قایق خود، «پیلار»، استخدام کرده بود و بعدها وقتی در کوبا اقامت گزید بین او و آن پیرمرد ماهیگیر پیوندهای دوستی محکمی ریشه گرفت. فوئنتس برای مدت تقریباً ۳۰ سال، حتی وقتی که همینگوی در کوبا زندگی نمیکرد، ناخدایی «پیلار» را به عهده داشت. فوئنتس در سال ۲۰۰۲ در اثر ابتلا به سرطان در سن ۱۰۴ سالگی درگذشت. وی پیش از مرگ، «پیلار» را به دولت کوبا هدیه نمود. با توجه به بیسوادی فوئنتس، او هرگز نتوانست پیرمرد و دریا را بخواند.
[ویرایش] خلاصه داستان
خطر لوثشدن: هشدار! آنچه در زیر میآید ممکن است قضیه یا پایان ماجرا را لو دهد!
«پیر مرد و دریا» داستان مبارزه حماسی ماهیگیری پیر و با تجربهاست با یک نیزه ماهی غول پیکر برای بدام انداختن آن. صیدی که میتواند بزرگتری صید تمام عمر او باشد.
وقتی داستان آغاز میگردد سانتیاگو Santiago، پیرمرد ماهیگیر، ۸۴ روز است که حتی یک ماهی هم صید نکردهاست. او آنقدر بد شانس بودهاست که پدر و مادر شاگرد او، مانولین Manolin، او را از همراهی با پیرمرد منع کرده و به او گفتهاند بهتر است با ماهیگیرهای خوش شانس تر به دریا برود. مانولین اما به پیر مرد علاقه مند است و در تمام مدتی که پیرمرد دست خالی از دریا برگشتهاست هر شب به کلبه او سر زده ، وسائل ماهیگیری اش را ضبط و ربط کرده، برایش غذا برده و با او در باره مسابقات بیس بال آمریکا به گفتگو نشستهاست. یک شب بالاخره پیرمرد به مانولین میگوید که مطمئن است که دوران بدشانسیهای او به پایان رسیدهاست و بهمین دلیل خیال دارد روز بعد قایقش را بردارد و برای صید ماهی تا دل آبهای دور خلیج برود.
فردای آنشب در روز هشتاد و پنجم سانتیاگو به تنهایی قایقش را به آب میاندازد و راهی دریا میشود. وقتی از ساحل بسیار دور میشود طعمه خود را به دل آبهای عمیق خلیج میسپارد. ظهر روز بعد یک ماهی بزرگ، که پیرمرد مطمئن است یک نیزه ماهی است، طعمه را میبلعد. سانتیاگو قادر به گرفتن و بالا کشیدن آن ماهی عظیم الجثه نیست و متوجه میشود که در عوض ماهی دارد قایق را میکشد و با خود میبرد. دو روز و دو شب بهمین صورت میگذرد و پیرمرد با جثه نحیف خود فشار سیم ماهیگیری که توسط ماهی کشیده میشود را تحمل میکند. سانتیاگو در اثر کشمکش و تقلا زخمی شدهاست و درد میکشد اما با اینحال ماهی را برادر خطاب میکند و تلاش و کوششهای او ارج میگذارد و آنرا را ستایش میکند.
در روز سوم ماهی از کشیدن قایق دست بر میدارد و شروع میکند به چرخیدن بدور آن. پیرمرد متوجه میشود که ماهی خسته شدهاست و با اینکه خود نیز رمقی در بدن ندارد هرطور شده ماهی را بکنار قایق میکشاند و با فرو کردن نیزهای در بدنش آنرا میکشد و به مبارزه طولانی خود با آن ماهی سرسخت و سمج پایان میبخشد. سانتیاگو ماهی را به کنار قایق خود میبندد و پارو زنان بهطرف ساحل حرکت میکند و به این میاندیشد که در بازار چنین ماهی بزرگی را از او به چه مبلغی خواهند خرید و ماهی با این جثه بزرگش شکم چند نفر گرسته را سیر خواهد کرد. پیرمرد اما پیش خود بر این عقیده است که هیچکس لیاقت آنرا ندارد که این ماهی با وقار و بزرگ منش را بخورد.
وقتی سانتیاگو در راه بازگشت به ساحل است کوسهها که از بوی خون پی به وجود نیزه ماهی بردهاند برای خوردنش به آن حمله میبرند. پیرمرد چندتا از این کوسهها را از پای در میآورد ولی در نهایت شب که فرا میرسد کوسهها تمام ماهی را میخورند و فقط اسکلتی از او باقی میگذارند. سانتیاگو بخاطر قربانی کردن ماهی خود را سرزنش میکند. روز بعد پیش از طلوع آفتاب پیرمرد به ساحل میرسد و با خستگی دگل قایقش را بدوش میکشد و راهی کلبهاش میگردد. وقتی به کلبه میرسد خود را روی تختخواب میاندازد و به خوابی عمیق فرو میرود.
عدهای از ماهیگیران بیخبر از ماجراهای پیرمرد برای تماشا به دور قایق او و اسکلت نیزهماهی جمع میشوند و گردشگرانی که در کافهای در همان حوالی نشستهاند اسکلت را به اشتباه اسکلت یک کوسهماهی میپندارند. شاگرد پیرمرد، مانولین، که نگران او بودهاست با خوشحالی او را صحیح و سالم در کلبهاش مییابد و برایش روزنامه و قهوه میآورد. وقتی پیرمرد بیدار میشود، آن دو دوست به یکدیگر قول میدهند که بار دیگر به اتفاق برای ماهیگیری به دریا خواهند رفت. پیر مرد از فرط خستگی دوباره به خواب میرود و خواب شیرهای سواحل آفریقا را میبیند.
پایان خطر لوثشدن
[ویرایش] نمادگرایی و شخصیت
درونمایه داستان «پیرمرد و دریا» را میتوان به روشهای گوناگون تعبیر و تفسیر نمود. خود همینگوی در این مورد گفتهاست:
شما هیچ کتاب خوبی را پیدا نمیکنید که نویسندهٔ آن از پیش و با تصمیم قبلی نماد و یا نمادهایی در آن وارد نموده باشد... من کوشش کردم در داستانم یک پیر مرد واقعی، یک پسربچه واقعی، یک دریای واقعی، یک ماهی واقعی و یک کوسهماهی واقعی خلق نمایم. و تمام اینها آنقدر خوب و حقیقی از کار در آمدند که حالا هریک میتوانند به معنی چیزهای مختلفی باشند. [۲]
سبک داستان، سادگی آن و واقعی و قابل باور بودن ماجراهای آن این امکان را بوجود میآورند که داستان را بتوان به روشهای گوناگون تعبیر و تفسیر نمود. چند نمونه از این تفاسیر بدین شرحاند:
سانتیاگو بهعنوان نماد یک قهرمان شکستخورده
سانتیاگو شخصیت اصلی داستان «پیرمرد و دریا» میتواند نماد یک قهرمان شکست خورده باشد. او نمونهای است از شجاعت، قدرت و استقامت نژاد انسان. او مثل تمام انسانها با سرنوشت (ماهی) و زندگی که هم دوستداشتنی است و هم مورد نفرت (دریا) به مبارزه برمیخیزد. چیزی که در واقعیت امر باعث شکست سانتیاگو میشود غرور اوست. سانتیاگو نمادی است برای نوع انسان. همینگوی در چندین جا او را با عیسی مسیح مقایسه کردهاست. سانتیاگو «دکل قایقش را روی شانههایش گذاشت و به طرف بالای جاده به راه افتاد... او قبل از آنکه به کلبهاش برسد پنج بار بر زمین نشست». و این شباهت زیادی دارد به حالتهای عیسی مسیح وقتی صلیب بر دوش به سمت مصلوبشدن گام برمیداشت. جلوتر در داستان میخوانیم که وقتی سانتیاگو خوابید «صورتش رو به پائین بود...بازوانش به دو طرف دراز شده و کف دستانش رو به بالا بودند». حالتی که کاملاً به قرارگرفتن مسیح بر روی صلیب شباهت دارد. پیرمرد در تمام طول داستان در آرزوی داشتن نمک، این ادویه و چاشنی اصلی غذای نوع انسان،است. او درست به مانند حواریون عیسی مسیح ماهیگیر است.
نیزهماهی نماد مذهب است. ماهی از همان روزهای اول پیدایش مسیحیت، نماد این دین بودهاست. دریا نشانه زندگی است چرا که زندگی از آنجا آغاز شدهاست و بقای بشریت بسته به وجود آنست. س انتیاگو یک قهرمان است ولی یک قهرمان شکست خورده. او بر حریف که او آنرا برادر خود میخواند چیره میگردد اما پیروز از میدان بیرون نمیآید چرا که به هدف خود (فروش ماهی) نمیرسد. پیرمرد هرچند در پایان داستان زنده میماند اما بخشی از شخصیت او قهرمانانه جان سپردهاست.
سانتیاگو بهعنوان نماد یک قهرمان شکست ناپذیر
پیرمرد در طول ۸۴ روزی که موفق به صید ماهی نمیشود شکم خود را با اندک غذایی که کافهچی محل از روی دلسوزی به او میدهد سیر میکند. او گرسنگی و تحقیر را تحمل میکند ولی هرگز امید خود را برای صید یک ماهی بزرگ از دست نمیدهد. او به انتظار روز موعود مینشیند. ذات صیدکردن برای او مهمتر از سیرکردن شکم گرسنه خویش است. و آن ماهی بزرگ بالاخره روزی واقعاً از راه میرسد. پیرمرد برای اثبات مهارت و قدرت خویش در ماهیگیری گرسنگی خود را نادیده میگیرد. ولی وقتی ماهی را صید میکند، قسمتش نیست که بتواند آنرا برای خویش نگهدارد. شانسی که در پیدا کردن و صید آن ماهی غولپیکر داشتهاست در مقابل یک ضرر مادی (خوردهشدن ماهی توسط کوسهها) قرار میگیرد. ماهی میتوانست پاداشی باشد برای آن همه تلاش، مبارزه و تحمل درد. اما وقتی سانتیاگو توجه خود را از شور و حال بهدامانداختن ماهی منحرف کرده و به طمع و منافع مادی (فروش ماهی در بازار) متمرکز میکند، شانس و اقبال از وی روی بر میگردانند. چرا که دریا طمعکاری را پاداش نمیدهد. اما پیرمرد هرچه باشد بازی را نباختهاست. یکی از پیامهایی که مکرراً در کارهای همینگوی به چشم میخورد را میتوان در نقل قول زیر خلاصه کرد:
یک انسان واقعی ممکن است نابود شود ولی هرگز شکست نخواهد خورد.
سانتیاگو به دلیل طمع خویش مجازات میگردد ولی هیچ چیز نخواهد توانست درخشش پیروزی او بر نیزه ماهی عظیم الجثه را زایل نماید.
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
[1] General significance
One of the great innovators of the twentieth-century form, Ernest Hemingway continues to be among the most widely read, frequently taught, and carefully studied American prose writers. Although not as prolific in either the short story or the novel as some of his contemporaries, no other American writer of fiction in the 20th century ―except perhaps William Faulkner―has won as great measure of distinction as a literary artist or exerted as much influence on other writers as has Hemingway. His subject matter, attitudes, narrative techniques, and style have been reflected in the works of many other authors.
Hemingway’s concentrated yet seemingly effortless style―his spare, laconic, yet intense prose―became a hallmark of innovation. The Nobel Prize committee seemed to reflect this view when they cited in 1954 "his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of modern narration […]." Although it echoed Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Sherwood Anderson, Ivan Turgenev, and Ezra Pound, it struck twentieth-century readers as original and genuine, which was exactly the effect Hemingway sought. Like other modernist writers, he assumed that his art lay in the way he said what he said. Style, form, and meaning were parts of an inseparable whole.
Once Hemingway had begun to command a wider following than any of those who had had an immediate influence on him, he became an extraordinary influence himself. First in English, and then gradually in other languages, the hard spare prose made itself felt. It functioned chiefly as a purifying agent, acting against embellishment, padding, all forms of superficial artfulness, and any surface or self-conscious sign of thinking on the part of the author.
But Hemingway's new style also meant a moral style: a set of attitudes, a new way of looking at the world. He developed a fragmentary code that might serve as a substitute for a vanishing morality. The components of the Hemingway code emphasize a special kind of conduct: life at the edge, grace under pressure, men and women up against the wall, desperate situations rendered through fables of violence and defeat. The test for his characters most often is gestures of resistance, clenched styles of survival, and the ability to face defeat without panic. Emotion is held at arm’s length; in Hemingway’s prose only the bare happenings are recorded, and emphasis is obtained by understatement and spare dialogue.
His earliest stories foreshadow his mature technique and also his concern for values in a corrupt and indifferent world. As the leading spokesman for the “Lost Generation,” Hemingway expressed the feelings of a war-wounded people, a war-weary generation, disillusioned by the loss of faith and hope, and so thoroughly defeated by the collapse of former values that, their atrophied nerves not permitting them to attack their betrayers, they could turn only to a stoic acceptance of primal emotions.
Hemingway and his work became a legend in his own lifetime. One reason for his popularity was that he lived a life in public as one of his own most flamboyant creations. His popular reputation and his influence in fiction were so great that his suicide received the kind of publicity usually reserved for the deaths of great political figures or movie idols. Despite a highly colorful, at times flamboyant, career, Hemingway will be remembered for his books, which must be separated from the forceful, occasionally overriding personality of their author. He always considered himself primarily a writer, and he was deeply serious, dedicated, and hardworking. For many years he was probably the most widely known American writer. His style, his attitudes, and some of his characters became widely recognized throughout the world, and he was possibly the most influential writer of English prose in the first half of the 20th century. He influenced writers of many genres and many nations, to whom his example has been both a blessing and a challenge. In 1934, in a letter to Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the following:
I think it is obvious that my respect for your artistic life is absolutely unqualified, that save for a few of the dead or dying old men you are the only man writing fiction in America that I look up to very much. There are pieces and paragraphs of your work that I read over and over―in fact I stopped myself doing it for a year and a half because I was afraid that your particular rhythms were going to creep in on mine by process of infiltration.
In Death in the Afternoon (1932), a study of the art of bullfighting, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from you.” Violent death, often the subject matter of his fiction, shaped Hemingway’s life. It also triggered his exit―with a blast from a shotgun he held in his mouth.
There is something fictionally appropriate about Ernest Hemingway's swift, wordless, and explosive departure, for seldom, anywhere in his work or life, was the author far from the essential fact of violence, and especially the fact of violent death. Throughout his work the central theme is man in the face of violence, whether in war, bullring, or hospital, whether the violent deaths are of men or fish in the sea or big game or bulls on land.
His techniques, his attitudes, his sensitivity to the spirit of his age and to violence, which played such a role in it, conspired to establish him as one of the greatest modern writers, and the best of his work seems likely to secure for him a permanent and prominent place in the history of American letters.
[2] Life and writing career
Hemingway’s boyhood in
For the rest of his life, Hemingway flirted with destructive forces, both human and natural. As a journalist after the war, he reported battles in the
Following a period of recuperation in northern
His next published work was The Torrents of Spring (1926), a parody of the style of Sherwood Anderson, who had exerted and early influence on him.[2] The Sun Also Rises, published in the same year, consolidated his reputation and set him, at the age of twenty-six, in the limelight he both enjoyed and resented for the rest of his life.
With the publication of The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929), Hemingway’s name was secure for the rest of his life. Yet these early triumphs were followed by a marked decline, for although Hemingway published regularly during the 1930s and continued to have a wide following, none of his book-length efforts measured up to the high standard his work of the 1920s had set. First came two books of nonfiction. Death in the Afternoon (1932) and Green Hills of Africa (1935), which represent the author in escape from the society he had by implication denounced in A Farewell to Arms.[3]
In 1937 Hemingway returned to
The best work that came out of Hemingway's reconversion to the world was For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). The title, referring to a devotion by John Donne, established the general theme of all men's involvement in mankind, as well as the more specific thesis that the loss of liberty anywhere reduces liberty everywhere. As far as sales are concerned, this was the most successful of Hemingway's books. Following it, however, the author lapsed into a silence that lasted for an entire decade.
His next novel, Across the River and into the Trees (1950),[5] met with a very poor reception. After For Whom the Bell Tolls, only The Old Man and the Sea (1952) approached the force of Hemingway’s early genius. In 1953 The Old Man won him the Pulitzer Prize. A year later he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Public attention was often attached to Hemingway for extraliterary reasons. Besides being the literary lion of American prose, the king of the hill, he was, after all, hero of three continents, proud boxer, expert hunter, fighter in three wars, man of action. His personal life also attracted a lot of publicity. His first three marriages―to Hadley Richardson, mother of his first son; to Pauline Pfeiffer, mother of his second and third sons; and to Martha Gellhorn, the journalist and novelist[6]―all ended in divorce. His fourth wife was the former Mary Welsh of Minnesota, whom he met in
Widely traveled, Hemingway lived for extended periods in
Following the war and further decoration, he settled more quietly on an elaborate estate called Finca Vigia, at San Francisco de Paula, near
Works posthumously published include A Moveable Feast (1964), a memoir of
[3] General features of Hemingway’s fiction
Perhaps the shortest way to account for Hemingway’s eminence in fiction is to say that he portrayed not only the appearance but also the reality of his time. Above all a literary realist, he was passionately concerned to render accurately what he described: war, hunting, fishing, bullfighting, drinking, lovemaking. His best work is graphic in the best sense of the term: one sees men shot, fish caught, coffee made. He gave what James called “the sense of place” so completely that many of his works have been made into films with a minimum of change; no other American writer has given more realistic depictions of
But his famous dictum that the good artist pictures things as they really are implies more than accurate depiction of things. The great writer, Tolstoy and James and Eliot said, reflects his time―not only the appearances of his time, but also the spiritual meaning of the events he renders. And when one examines Hemingway’s work from about 1920 to 1960, one finds that he told the real story of his time, offered the true diagnosis of a culture, of the modern temper, reflected the tale of the psychic chaos and disorientation of our time.
The best of his work deals with violence: war, murder, mutilation, and suffering. And although most of his work is local and particular (wartime incidents, safaris, fishing trips, etc.), when one regards his work as a whole, apparent lack of pattern assumes sharp contours, the figure in the carpet clearly emerges as a symbolic rendering of human spiritual experience in the twentieth century. Without Eliot’s intellectualism, Hemingway depicted the world of Eliot’s early poetry―”The Waste Land” world―but did not offer the religious consolation of Eliot’s later poetry.
Hemingway’s vision of life was ultimately harsh. This stark and pessimistic vision was leavened by a belief in certain “naturally” good things. In war there is the possibility of love, however brief; in times of personal torment there is the therapy of nature; when all else fails there is a purely human sense of man’s dignity evidenced in the heights of stoic courage and endurance to which he may rise.
è Hemingway’s techniques: style
Hemingway's style could be best described as a style of eloquent repression.[7] His original and unmistakable idiom has been variously described: as a lean, simple, terse, laconic, idiomatic, sparse, "minimalist" prose. There has been much talk of his simple diction, of the spare, pared down sentences, of his clipped dialogue, the simplified syntax, the short, declarative sentences, the overabundance of "ands," the lack of subordination, the trick of repetition, etc. In sum, the main hallmarks of the Hemingway style are the taut sentences, the monosyllabic vocabulary, the stark dialogue, the technique of leaving things out, sharpness, clarity, and the understated emotion. They illustrate the principle that the author was later to state in Death in the Afternoon. Writing of the early days in
I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty, aside from knowing what you really felt, rather than what you were supposed to feel, and had been taught to feel, was to put down what really happened in action: what the actual things were which produced the emotion that you experienced […] the real thing, the sequence of motion and fact which made the emotion. […]
This is a striking equivalent of the better-known theory of the "objective correlative," previously formulated by T. S. Eliot in his Sacred Wood (1920). As such, this is a key to an understanding of Hemingway's method of writing fiction.
Hemingway had, in fact, two distinct ways of presenting his material. The first, and more often imitated, is a flat, understated newspaper style in which he gave realistic description, usually in short, simple sentences. He derived this mode of presentation from his training as a newspaper reporter. In 1917, when he graduated from
The second mode of presentation is impressionistic in viewpoint and rhythmic in sentence structure, often echoing the repetitions and seeming simplicity of Gertrude Stein. Indeed, in Paris Hemingway fell under the spell of Stein's undulating prose, with its consecutive phrases connected by "ands" in an almost Biblical manner, its understatement, and its trick of repeating an image or an idea until it has become imbedded in the reader's mind. Ezra Pound's also proved to be a lasting influence. Indeed, among the modernist shapers of American fiction between the two wars it was Hemingway who most consciously and successfully adopted the spirit and major tenets of Anglo-American―primarily Pound's brand of―Imagism: "To make poetry is to condense" [Dichten = condensare], Don't tell, show. Let the image do the work, etc.
The rhythmic-undulating-cadenced prose, the imagistic-impressionistic style may be seen in stories like “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and in many of the novels, especially A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. By way of example, here is a characteristic passage from Chapter XX of A Farewell to Arms:
We four drove out to San Siro in an open carriage. It was a lovely day and we drove out through the park and out along the tramway and out of town where the road was dusty. There were villas with iron fences and big overgrown gardens and ditches with water flowing and green vegetable gardens with dust on the leaves. We could look across the plain and see farmhouses and the rich green farms with their irrigation ditches and the mountains to the north. There were many carriages going into the race track and the men at the gate let us in without cards because we were in uniform.
What we get in this highly condensed description is a strong photographic surface constructed from a flowing chain of images: a vivid visual flow suggestive of free verse. Save for the last five words of the quoted passage, there is no logical or causal connection between the distinct imagistic entities and information blocks, thus there is no subordination. There is a heavy reliance on the conjunction "and" (used ten times) and the preposition "with." (used five times)[8] The buzzwords obviously are rigorous objectivity and extreme economy. In creating the scene, Hemingway composes like an Imagistic poet.
In addition Hemingway did more than any single writer in English to vitalize the writing of dialogue. No matter which style he was using, his dialogue generally remains constant, giving us nearly as possible the illusion of real speech, often to the point of dullness. The terse dialogue is most often almost bare of comment and full of conversational blind alleys and non sequitors. All his life a good listener, he managed, by stripping speech to the essentials typical of the speaker and by building patterns of mannerisms and responses peculiar to him, to produce the illusion that the people conversing in his work are actually speaking and not, as for instance in the work of Henry James, that he is speaking for them.
The aim of the two dominant modes of presentation is generally compression and an attempt to create a distinct impression or mood. The short simple sentences describing Nick Adams pitching his tent in “
It was Hemingway's style in part that made him the most popular, the most critically acclaimed, and the most imitated author of his time. He defined the essence of his spare, lean style to an interviewer in 1954:
I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn't show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.
This axiom provides an approach to the strategies behind both the exacting manner and the hard-edged matter of his fiction. A Hemingway story’s depths of meaning and feeling are often submerged in words composed in a detached, clipped, journalistic method of description, with little narrative commentary, little context with the dialogue, and little explanation for changes of scene. It often seems at first that not very much has happened during the events of such a story, that something is missing. In order to begin to “get it,” the reader must join in composing the narrative, paying careful attention to each word and phase, noting important repetitions and oppositions, filling in the text’s strategic gaps. This “minimalist” style, with its deceptively simple surface, invites and challenges readers to draw on their knowledge and experience in order to discover what deeper meanings and emotions there might be below. This style also appeared exactly the right approach to convey the emptiness felt by characters wandering aimlessly in a seemingly meaningless world.
As regards influences on his style, besides Hemingway's newspaper training and Gertrude Stein, Mark Twain also comes to mind. Indeed, as Hemingway himself asserted in Green Hills of Africa,
All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is cheating. But it is the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing as good since.
This is a broad overstatement, but Twain's successful attempt to write as an American boy might speak was indeed the beginning of a widespread contemporary style, informal and colloquial, fresh and occasionally poetic, to which Hemingway, after Twain, made the most notable contribution. However, a striking list of parallels between the lives and careers of Hemingway and Stephen Crane may help account for the fact that in Crane, to whom Hemingway has also acknowledged his debt, are also to be found several of the characteristics that mark this general tradition in American prose. At its best Crane's work shows the same intensity as Hemingway's, as well as the same terse and unliterary tone, the same understatements, and several of the features of the dialogue. In the days of Hemingway's apprenticeship, the efforts of Gertrude Stein and Sherwood Anderson to write simply, sparely, concisely and yet repetitively were also instructive.
è Hemingway's philosophy
Accused of lacking ideas, or more often and worse, of having adolescent ideas, Hemingway kept his thoughts for the most part from showing in his fiction, as he believed proper.[9] Such occasional thoughts about the human condition as he permitted himself tended toward the stoical and pragmatic or, as suggested during his later life, the existential. Fundamentally, Hemingway believed that fiction and ideas were antithetical to each other, and the notion, sometimes encountered, that he was antiintellectual stems from that belief. Read War and Peace, he once remarked and see how you will skip the "Big Political Thought passages" that Tolstoy "undoubtedly thought were the best things in the book when he wrote it […] and see how true and lasting and important the people and the action are. […] That is the hardest thing of all to do."
Hemingway was anything but a philosophical novelist. Yet beneath the surface of his work is an integrated philosophy. His advocacy of natural action, his belief in ritual, his mystical attitude to pain, violence, and death, the transcendental dimension latent in his tone and some of his descriptions supply more than convincing evidence.
Yet another feature of his considerable significance as a 20th-century American writer has been the extraordinary way in which his views of life and the world have represented the shifting, evolving attitudes of his contemporaries. In Our Time was an obscure but accurate forecast of the role that violence was to play in the 20th century, and of the breakdown of peace in our time. In A Farewell to Arms the protagonist stood for countless Americans as he proceeded from complicity in a world war to bitterness to escape; in the development of his attitudes
è The thematic range of Hemingway's fiction
The world of Hemingway's fiction was not broad and comprehensive. Since he concentrated on the significance of violence in our age and penetrated to what he found essential and distinctive, his fictional universe was a narrow and limited one that excluded a great deal of experience which would seem normal and representative to his readers. There are no families in Hemingway, no lasting marriages, no everyday lives, few ordinary places; indeed most of the routine facts of average existence are conspicuously absent. His world is ultimately a world at war, either literally, as involved in calculated armed combat, or figuratively, as impregnated with violence―present, expected future, or just past. The perpetually uprooted inhabitants of this world are limited to the urgencies of war; their lives are dictated by emergency, their pleasures seized in a hurry. They are in combat or transit or on leave, never at home; things about them do not grow or develop for long, but break or die off, or are lost or eaten away. Misery is not universal, because there are visions of stamina, courage, and competence; the body when it is not in pain can give great pleasure; and love, though never more than a temporary condition, profoundly exists. It is a fragmentary and special world which, although most of them do not live in it, his readers have found to be valid in some essential, important way.
It is noteworthy that Hemingway seldom attempted a direct representation of life in his native country. He seems to have understood that ordinary middle-class experience was beyond his reach. And he had, like most writers, one story to tell, and he kept telling it skillfully, with just enough variation: It is the story of Nick Adams, Jake Barnes, Frederic Henry―young Americans initiated into the pains of history
è The Hemingway hero
The several protagonists who have been grouped together and called the Hemingway hero―Jake Barnes, Frederic Henry, Robert Jordan, and Richard Cantwell―have their genesis in Nick Adams, who appears only in the short stories. The Hemingway hero, far from being the simple, wooden primitive he is often mistaken for, is in reality and inordinately sensitive figure. For instance, the decision of the wounded Nick Adams that he had made a “separate peace” with the enemy and was not a “patriot” forecasts a long estrangement from organized society for both the author and his typical protagonist.
Much less important in the work as a whole, and making no appearance in the stories although well known outside them, is the Hemingway heroine, who is presented as mistress of the hero, as the British Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms, the Spanish María of For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the Italian Renata of Across the River and into the Trees. An idealized woman, selfless and compliant, she changes nationality as the hero never does, and grows younger as he ages. With each successive appearance she also becomes less of a person and more of a dream.
è The Hemingway code
A slightly less consistent but much more significant figure who appears in the stories as well as in the novels is a man who introduces and exemplifies what is often called the Hemingway code. Much has been said of this code, the values that his characters set for themselves. The best of his heroes value courage, endurance, and personal integrity; they ally themselves rarely with large causes or movements, usually with other people. Such an attitude also seems to suggest the spirit of the times. Hemingway offered no ideas so much as a kind of primitive will to endure, given dignity by an unorthodox version of the Golden Rule.
The code is thus a set of controlling principles having to do with honor, courage, personal integrity and endurance which, in a life of tension and pain are put to the test. The code defines a man as a man and distinguishes him from people who are undisciplined and without a knowledge of the rules of the game. In a highly compromising world these principles enable certain figures in the author’s work to conduct themselves extremely well in losing battles, and to show, in the well-known phrase, grace under pressure. The character who exemplifies the code, sometimes called the code hero, is often confused with the Hemingway hero, but is in reality distinct from him. The distinction is important, because the man with the code often presents the solution to the problem that the hero, in his extreme though muted sensitivity, regularly encounters.[10] Jake Barnes, the Hemingway hero, needs a healthier code to live by. He can learn from Pedro Romero, the code hero, who pays tribute without self-loss, without loss of integrity.
Jack, the compromised but heroic prize fighter of “Fifty Grand,”[11] is a man who illustrates the code, as are Manuel, the bullfighter of “The Undefeated,” and Harry Morgan, the smuggler and protagonist of To Have and Have Not. Better known representatives are Wilson, the professional hunting guide of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” and Romero, the bullfighter in The Sun Also Rises. Best known is old
[4] Representative novels
► The Sun Also Rises (1926)
This novel, which created a “craze,” is one of the central texts for students of the Lost Generation. With this novel―a brilliant portrayal of expatriate society in postwar Paris and Spain―Hemingway's reputation as a writer was established and the novel has become one of the classics of modern American fiction. Reviewers praised the book, and it sold impressively. And it has been for long considered by many critics Hemingway's greatest novel. Its account of international expatriates (a group of rootless and homeless drifters, disaffiliates, spoilers, and mental cripples) living on the edge of despair―eating, talking, drinking, and loving in postwar Paris, and going to Spain for the bullfights―has been taken as a definitive portrayal of the "lost generation" of the 1920s. Superficially the lives of these rootless expatriates seem to be a gay social whirl―a continuous round of parties, dinners, and pleasure trips. Yet it does not take long to sense the desperation that underlies their pleasure-seeking The term, as mentioned before, appeared as an epigraph to the novel, ascribed to Gertrude Stein: "You are a lost generation."
► Jake Barnes → The hero, a journalist, made impotent by a war wound, in love with the beautiful, promiscuous Brett Ashley. A defensive cynicism, drinking, the outdoor life, and friendship help him live with his inner torment.
► Brett Ashley → A cultivated Englishwoman, in love with Jake, but compulsively involved in a series of sterile love affairs.
► Robert Cohn → A novelist and a doggedly persistent, briefly successful suitor of Brett, once a boxer and intellectual at
► Bill Gorton → Jake’s friend, fellow journalist, and confidant, good-natured, tolerant, and humorous.
► Mike Campbell → Brett’s fiancé after her divorce from Lord Ashley, a heavy drinker and an economic and spiritual bankrupt infected with a vengeful anti-Semitism.
► Pedro Romero → A young bullfighter in love with Brett. A brave and honorable matador, he narrowly escapes corruption of the traditions he most values.
► Montoya → Proprietor of the
► Count Mippipopolous → Worldly, wealthy friend and would-be lover of Brett. A veteran of several wars and four revolutions, he believes in nothing but love.
Jake and Robert Cohn represent irreconcilably opposed philosophies. The 34-year-old Cohn, divorced, afflicted with a petulant, hysterical mistress, Frances Clyne, yearns for a happier existence. Inspired by W. H. Hudson’s romance, The Purple Land, he dreams vaguely of starting afresh in
Jake, on the other hand, elects to live with what is. When Cohn urges him to share the trip to
As the second section of the novel opens, others join Jake, Brett, and Cohn in
Planning a reunion with the group in
Soon thereafter Jake must forsake the ease of a world of men without women. At
That night, alone in his room with the light on, Jake lies in bed thinking about Brett, the others, and his own place among them. He concludes that despite the bitterness of his draught, it is worth drinking. Life is worth living if only for its occasional good moments. What one must do is learn to recognize and appreciate them. Universal truths are neither possible nor even necessary. “All I wanted to know,” he tells himself, “was how to live in it.”
A few days later the fiesta bursts into life and rockets noisily and violently for the next week. As the crowds throng into the street, one group dances about Brett, presses her into a bar and enshrines her atop a wine cask. Cohn, like Homer’s Elpenor, falls asleep and is laid among the wine casks in the rear of the shop. Later, the friends watch the bulls chase the mod through the streets and even see one reveler gored to death. The great moments, however, occur in the arena. There, tutored by Jake in the nuances of bullfighting, they marvel at the skill and courage of Pedro Romero, a handsome young torero. Even Cohn, who had expected to be bored, admits his interest in the spectacle. Brett exceeds them all in her ardor. She confesses her desire for Romero to Jake and begs him to help her win him. Jake arranges a meeting and leaves the youth with Brett.
Hours later, seated with Mike and Bill, Jake faces an enraged Cohn. Horrified by his guess about Brett and Romero, which is confirmed by the complaisant Mike Campbell, Cohn calls Jake a pimp and knocks him out. Cohn discovers Brett in Romero’s room, Jake learns later, and proceeds to beat the bullfighter mercilessly. When Brett denounces Cohn, he turns pitiably to Romero and offers to shake hands. Romero smashes Cohn’s face. Cohn apologizes to Jake, and says goodbye, giving up all hope of winning Brett.
On the final day of the fiesta, Romero, his face battered, nevertheless performs magnificently in the arena, his grace and assurance inspiring the crowd to prolonged applause. The judges award him the coveted ear of the dead bull. That evening he and Brett leave
The final, and briefest, section of the novel opens the day after the fiesta. In the anticlimactic stillness of
The two ill-starred lovers ride together in a cab and sit tormentingly near one another. Brett exclaims in despair that she and Jake might have been wonderful for each other. Jake’s rejoinder closes the novel: “Yes. Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
¶ Title. The title of the novel comes from a passage in the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes,[13] which is a prose essay, a personal essay in prose, interrupted here and there with bits of poetry. It consists of the melancholy broodings of a perceptive and open-minded man who has been puzzled by the presence of both joy and sorrow "under the sun" and who has resolved to find out life's meaning if he can. The final note is the expression of skeptical pessimism (of a man who for many decades has sought the meaning of life). All creation is an endless round of futility. Life has no meaning and no purpose.:
One generation passeth away,
And another generation cometh:
But the earth abideth forever.
The sun also ariseth,
And the sun goeth down,
And hasteneth to his place where he arose [...]
The thing that hath been,
Is that which shall be;
And that which is done
Is that which shall be done:
And there is no new thing under the sun. (1:4-5,9)
He has tried hard work, but
What profit hath a man of all his labour
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun;
And, behold, all is vanity and vexation of the spirit. (1:3,14)
He has amassed great wealth: silver, gold, houses, vineyards, forests, and servants. Although this brought temporary satisfaction, his joy evaporated when he began to think that he would have to die and leave all his possessions―eventually to a stranger.
He tried such sensuous pleasures as food, wine, and music. These brought as much contentment as anything he found; but, again, the satisfaction will not last.
Finally, he sought comfort in wisdom, only to discover that, although wisdom is superior to folly, both the wise man and the fool come to the same ending--the grave. Therefore every wisdom is vanity.
There is nothing beyond the grave, no immortality. To be dead, however, is better than to live, because dead men are unaware of the suffering and injustice of this world, "the evil work that is done under the sun" (4:3).
There is a God, but he gives no comfort to the oppressed. He treats the just and the unjust alike; he hands out his blessings and punishments capriciously. He is all-powerful, in control of all things; and he predetermines the recurrence of what is past in an endless cycle.
What, then, should a man do? Recognizing that all things are in God's hands, he should submit and cease "striving after wind." He should confess that he is unable to solve the riddle of the universe or reconcile its incongruities. He should practice moderation, find what physical and emotional pleasures he can in life, and accept what is,
Or ever the silver cord be loosed,
Or the golden bowl be broken,
Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was:
And the spirit return unto God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher;
All is vanity. (12: 6-8)
The fact that nothing really leads anywhere in the novel points to its central theme. The action comes full circle to imitate the sun which, as described in Ecclesiastes, also rises only to hasten to the place where it arose. For these people―the drifters, the aimless expatriates―life is futile, unavailing, and essentially empty. Like the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, Hemingway addressed a generation socially and morally disillusioned, and also like the Preacher, he seems at first glance to urge men to eat, drink, and be merry. Some critics of The Sun Also Rises consider it a defense of hedonism. Others, however, have found a truer, deeper meaning, a meaning clued to Hemingway’s own statement that he did not regard his generation as lost or his novel as a hollow satire of his fellow man.
· The “code.” Stunned but not downed by adversity, Hemingway’s heroes must learn the “code”: to live and, if necessary, to die with courage and with dignity. Those who master the mystique of the code become Hemingway’s elect, the initiated. Some, like Romero for example, are born initiates; they have inherited a tradition that enables them to confront the world bravely. Others, like Robert Cohn and Mike Campbell, fail because they cling, like Cohn, to false ideals, or like Mike, to sheer self-indulgence. Brett, some critics argue, belongs in the same category as Mike; others insist that her final renunciation of Romero lends her a kind of grandeur. Jake Barnes is the “code” hero in the making. His castration―a symbol of the sterility of the age―prevents his achieving fulfillment. But he can and does attain the self-knowledge that enables him to endure the frustration of his life with dignity.
¸ The structure of The Sun Also Rises serves its theme very effectively. “Prose,” Hemingway once wrote, is “architecture, not interior decoration.” And Hemingway builds simply but soundly. Thus the apparent rambling of the early parts of the novel reflects the lack of direction in the characters’ lives. As they discover purpose, the structure tightens and the plot surges ahead vigorously. At the end an aimless pattern follows the chaos of shattered dreams.
¹ Sentence style and language are part of Hemingway’s purpose. The simple sentence and the monosyllabic word help him re-create the “feel” of the experience in all its immediacy. Hemingway’s world is a violent world; to reproduce it poignantly and memorably, he uses staccato rhythms and unadorned language. At its best, his style is superb; at its worst, it parodies itself. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway is very much at his best.
º Imagistic presentation.
Hemingway sought to endow prose with the density of poetry, making each image, each scene, each rendered act highly expressive and serve several purposes. Just two examples from the book. In a
► A Farewell to Arms (1929)
Hemingway’s next novel was similarly successful and equally pessimistic. Based on the sketch and the story that make up Chapter 6 of In Our Time, the novel relates the unhappy adventures of Frederic Henry, an American lieutenant in the Italian ambulance service in World War I. A cleanly and sparely written―and impeccably constructed―novel, it manages as few have done to fuse a war story with a love story by taking them in turn through subtly parallel stages of development. Incorporating a disillusionment with war―if not indeed, by extension, with modern society itself―the book is founded firmly on such moral values as belief in order, discipline, competence and, most of all, love. But it is nonetheless a tragic, desperate novel that portrays humanity as biologically and socially trapped and doomed. It ranks with The Sun Also Rises, in general critical opinion, as his best novel.
The novel’s main characters:
► Frederic Henry → An American lieutenant serving in the Italian ambulance corps during World War I. Uprooted, haunted by life’s emptiness, disheartened by his own cynical escapism, he searches―at first indifferently, then desperately―for a truth to sustain his spirit.
► Catherine Barkley → Frederic’s love, a beautiful English volunteer nurse on duty in
► Rinaldi → An Italian Army surgeon and Frederic’s best friend. Disillusioned, like Frederic, he has settled for the supreme beauty of successful surgery and the lesser joys of liquor and sex.
► Priest → An Italian Army Chaplain, devout, patient and gentle, unmoved by the gibes of his irreverent fellow officers.
► Count Greffi → An aged aristocrat, wise in the ways of a brutal world, but firm in his conviction that love, not cynicism, sustains the human spirit.
► Ettore Moretti → A young Californian enlisted in the Italian Army. Brash, boastful, and a bore, his highest goal is military promotion.
► Helen Ferguson → Catherine’s friend, a dour Scottish nurse, much concerned about the morality of Frederic’s liaison with Catherine.
► Bonello, Piani, Aymo → Enlisted Italians under Frederic’s command, all socialists, all without illusions about the war they are trapped in, and all ready to spring themselves from the trap at the first opportunity.
Awaiting an Alpine thaw that will permit an offensive against the Austrians, a company of Italian troops in the
A few days after his return to his post, Frederic meets Catherine Barkley, whom he at first regards merely as a beautiful and available woman. When, at their second meeting, she sharply rejects his advances, then a moment later accepts his embrace and speaks prophetically of their future love, he decides that she is “probably a little crazy”―perhaps out of remorse for the war death of her fiancé. Frederic’s interest remains detached, yet he feels “lonely and hollow” when he is away from Catherine.
Less than a week after their first meeting, Frederic is ordered to the front. During a mortar attack, he and his ambulance drivers crouch in a shallow dugout munching cheese and macaroni. A shell explodes nearby, killing one of the men and seriously wounding Henry in the head and legs. En route to the field hospital in an ambulance, the soldier in the stretcher above Frederic begins to hemorrhage, the blood dripping steadily down on him. When the ambulance arrives at the hospital, the soldier is dead.
Before he is shipped to the general hospital in
The next morning a trio of windy, ineffectual doctors consult about Frederic’s leg and agree that he must wait six months before his mutilated knee can be operated on. When Frederic protests, another doctor, Valentini, decides to operate the next morning. Like Rinaldi, Valentini is brisk, witty, and efficient. He needs no consultation. As Rinaldi says, "I don't think; I operate."
During the long summer of his successful convalescence, Frederic and Catherine are lovers. He wants to marry her, but she sees no need: “We are married privately,” she says, and adds, “It would mean everything to me if I had any religion. But I haven’t any religion.” In contrast to the purity of their relationship is the tainted materialism of the world symbolized in Ettore, who wants glory and recognition as a hero, and the crooked horse races, rigged for profit but devoid of any excitement.
Before Frederic returns to the front, Catherine tells him she is pregnant. Momentarily disturbed, he soon agrees that he, too, wants the child. Knowing the depth of her love as well as her fears about death, he is awed by her courage when she assures him during their last meeting that all will go well with her while he is away.
Frederic returns to the front, in time for the disastrous retreat from Caporetto. He finds Rinaldi despondent because he has too few patients for surgery. Only when he is at work does Rinaldi’s life take on meaning. Otherwise there is only sex and with it the dread of venereal disease. The priest, too, is depressed by the interminable war, his hope for peace growing dim. Soon, however, there is no time for talk, for the Germans break through the Italian lines and force a general retreat. Columns of peasants join the troops along the jammed, muddy highways. When Frederic’s truck gets stuck, he orders two sergeants to cut brush to support the wheels. When they ignore him and walk off as deserters, he shoots and wounds one of them, and Bonello, his sergeant, finishes off the other man. Afoot, Frederic and his three loyal noncoms try to avoid encounters with the Germans. Ironically, they are fired upon by Italians, and Aymo is killed. Bonello leaves, determined to save his life by surrendering.
Alone on the road with Piani, Frederic encounters throngs of Italians joyously deserting to return home. At a bridge across the river Tagliamento, he is arrested by Italian battle police assigned to capture and shoot deserting officers. As he awaits questioning, Frederic suddenly ducks away and plunges into the river. In the line of fire, he swims to safety, throws away his uniform, and rides to freedom beneath the canvas-covered guns on a gun train. “You were out of it now,” Frederic thinks. “You had no more obligation.” He has made his farewell to arms and a “separate peace.”
In
Their few days at Stresa are happy. One evening Frederic plays billiards with Count Greffi and listens to the aged philosopher distinguish between wisdom and cynicism. Like Catherine, Greffi lacks orthodox faith, but he believes firmly in life and in living it as well and as honestly as possible. The same evening Frederic is warned by the hotelkeeper of his imminent arrest as a deserter. A boat is provided for Frederic and Catherine and in the rain and wind they row across Lake Maggiore to
Their winter is idyllic. But with the spring rain, the time arrives for Catherine’s delivery and they leave for
When he returns to Catherine, she knows she is dying. Denying that she is afraid, she admits only that she hates death. Then she dies. Frederic pushes the nurses out of the room. He wants his farewell to be private. But the parting seems senseless, like saying goodbye to a statue. Frederic leaves and walks back to his hotel in the rain.
“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them,” the author says in comment after Catherine dies in childbirth. “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills.” Catherine is one of “the very good and the very gentle and the very brave” who are killed “impartially”; Henry, on the other hand, is broken at the end of the novel (and becomes strong only in a later appearance as the Hemingway protagonist under a different name).
For many readers, A Farewell to Arms is Hemingway’s most appealing and affecting novel. The courage of Frederic and Catherine and the tragic consequences of their love, the atmosphere of the Italian war front and the powerful scenes of the debacle at Caporetto―these remain etched in memory long after other details have slipped away. Some critics have objected that Catherine is too idealized, too romantically compliant, too sentimentally a “code” heroine. As a result, they believe, Frederic’s development proceeds with a slick, movie-script glibness different from the rough-edged force of The Sun Also Rises. For other critics, the emotional force of the novel as a whole transcends its several weaknesses.
Like most of Hemingway’s novels, A Farewell to Arms is about love and death and the kind of courage one needs to experience them. In the beginning, Frederic lacks commitment of any kind. He cannot find in love of man, woman, or God any compelling reason for existence. Until he meets Catherine, he drifts with the moment. Afterward he moves inevitably toward an understanding of the fullness as well as the emptiness of life. He learns about the hollowness of abstractions: medals do not prove valor; a wedding need not signify a true marriage. He learns from Catherine―and from Rinaldi and Greffi as well―the potential force of the individual spirit. And he learns, above all, that those who undertake a “separate peace” win no lasting victory. By deserting the army to be with Catherine, Frederic symbolically bids farewell to military arms. Ironically, when she dies, he must bid yet another farewell―to the arms of his love.
The novel is rich in symbols. For example, the rain that opens and closes the book symbolizes death as well as life. What Frederic learns, then, is that a “code” hero must accept the truth that all stories end in death. That truth understood, life has moments of beauty and significance well worth the living.
►For Whom the
The longest of Hemingway's works, the novel deals with three days in the life of Robert Jordan, an American fighting as a volunteer guerrilla in the Spanish civil war. It is his assignment to blow up a strategic bridge located near
[] The short stories
Despite the fact that Hemingway published no important work in the shorter form after the 1930s, it is as a writer of short stories that some critics have primarily esteemed him. By that time three collections, In Our Time (1925), Men Without Women (1927), and Winner Take Nothing (1932)―which were compiled and published with his one play in 1938 as The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories―had established him as one of the most widely admired of short-story writers. Some of these stories have become American classics. His influence on the form in
Hemingway's stories are remarkable for their objectivity and economy, occasionally for their complexity, and frequently for their subtlety. Many of them, though admired for the cleanness and freshness of the prose and the vigor and swiftness of the action, were long poorly understood. Sometimes the difficulty arose from a failure to discern their focus: "The Killers" and "Indian Camp," for notable instances, are not primarily about gangsters and Indians, but about the effect of certain highly unpleasant experiences, involving gangsters and Indians, on the central figure of Nick Adams. Further, the failure to consider Nick as a consistent, developed characters has sometimes caused difficulty; without remembering that he was badly wounded in World War I, for example, the reader can scarcely understand what is going on beneath the curiously tense surface of "
Hemingway's stories are of a piece with his novels in that most of the truly distinctive features of his longer works of fiction appear in them. The several protagonists who have been grouped together and called the Hemingway hero―Jake Barnes, Frederic Henry, Robert Jordan, and Richard Cantwell―have their genesis in Nick Adams, who appears only in the stories.
Geographically and according to subject matter, Hemingway’s short story material may be roughly divided into three groups: À stories set in
Seven of the fifteen stories in In Our Time and several more in Hemingway’s two other story collections, Men Without Women and Winner Take Nothing, are episodes in the life of a character named Nick Adams, who to a considerable extent appears to be an autobiographical hero.[14] Nick has a doctor-father; some of his earlier experiences take place in northern
► “Indian Camp” Ü Set in the upper peninsula of Michigan, the story begins with a brief nighttime journey that Nick Adams and his father, a physician, make by rowboat to the title destination: Nick, still a small boy, accompanies his father to the Indian reservation across the lake from their summer cabin, where a young woman has been in labor two days. Her husband, who has cut his foot badly with an ax, has had to lie in the bunk above her and listen to her screams. After carefully explaining the situation to Nick and encouraging him to watch, his father performs a successful Caesarean operation with a jackknife―and without anesthetic―and sews up the incision with fishing gut. Before beginning, the doctor explains to Nick that the woman’s “screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important.” The child is successfully born and the mother’s life is saved. Proud of his performance, he then remembers the husband. “’Ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs,’ the doctor said. ‘I must say he took it all pretty quietly.’” Pulling the blanket back, he discovers that the Indian has slit his throat from ear to ear with a razor. The screams turn out to be significant after all. Dr. Adams tries to keep his son from seeing this self-inflicted butchery, but Nick gets a good look at the body before his father sends him out of the shanty (“Nick, standing in the door of the kitchen, had a good view of the upper bunk when his father, the lamp in one hand, tipped the Indian’s head back”). Witnessing pain and the simultaneous violence of birth and death, the boy has learned something about the severe nature of existence. Yet the ending of the story implies that, since he is only a child, he remains more or less impervious to the experience. He is more curious than horrified. On the way home he asks his father whether it is always so difficult to have a baby, why the husband killed himself (“He couldn’t stand things, I guess,” is the reply), whether dying is hard. The story closes with Nick and his father heading homeward, “In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.”[15]
The haunting quality of the story, with its detached, subtle prose and enigmatic resistance to easy interpretation, demonstrates one of Hemingway’s greatest gifts: the expert ability to pull readers into the story’s world and force them to make meaning out of it, while concurrently force them to face certain harsh and treacherous truths. The carnage that Nick witnesses―with its evocative connections to deep uncertainties about how we come to live, to give birth, and to die―may shock and disturb us nearly as much as we think it should the boy. By directing the focus to Nick’s naïve, unformed response, the story compels one to consider the impact of the events on him, and on oneself. The reader joins the character in a process of initiation and in the loss of a certain innocence. On the other hand, the reader may also be wondering about the perspective that is largely left out: the Native American father, mother, and child, who have suffered a much more immediate and vicious loss.
► “The Killers” Ü Nick is in a lunchroom talking to the waiter, George, when two men dressed in tight overcoats and derby hats enter. After tying up Nick and the Negro cook in the kitchen, they announce that they have come to kill a boxer named Ole Andreson, who usually comes to the lunchroom for his evening meal. The gangsters finally leave when Andreson does not appear, and Nick goes to Andreson’s rooming house to warn him. Andreson tells Nick that he “got it wrong” and there is nothing that can be done about it. “Couldn’t you get out of town?” Nick asks. “No,” Andreson replies. “I’m through with all that running around.” Nick goes back to the lunchroom and tells George that he is going to leave town because he cannot bear to think about Andreson waiting in his room, knowing he is going to be killed. George can only reply, “You better not think about it.”
► “
Symbolically, he does all this in a countryside that has been ravaged by fire and is only slowly recovering its natural form; even the grasshoppers are seared and changed, as Nick himself has been by the war. The trout fishing is a step toward the old prewar life, but even this has its perils. Nick, like the countryside, must go slowly and not yet fish in the swamp, where casting is difficult.
Some critics have seen the physical and psychological “escape” of the protagonist as an unstated response to wounds from the war; others have seen it as a retreat from unnamed family tensions. Whatever one’s interpretation of the cause of Nick’s damaged psychological condition and his need for the “separate peace” of a solitary fishing trip, it pays to keep in mind something that Hemingway once said: “The position of the survivor of a great calamity is seldom admirable.”[16]
The other stories of In Our Time likewise carry the unmistakable signature of Hemingway's newly found voice and focus on the density of poetic detail. He succeeded in making each rendered act, image and scene serve several purposes and carry multiple meanings. Both the metaphoric titles of these early stories―"Cat in the Rain," in which a questing wife comes to resemble a forlorn and bedraggled cat; "The End of Something," about a broken romance and a decayed mill; "Soldier's Home," a poignant study of a young veteran almost devastated by his family's lack of understanding―and the resonances that the stories acquire from the larger structure of the book help to make In Our Time a masterful achievement.
* * *
Two of Hemingway’s longest and best stories, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” both of which were first published in 1936 derive their backgrounds from an East African hunting safari which Hemingway made during the winter of 1933-34, and of which he gave an account in Green Hills of Africa (1935).
► “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” Ü With a wealthy woman who has been keeping him, a writer named Harry goes on a safari in the British East African colony of
As critics have pointed out, a convincing case can be made that this story reflects Hemingway’s dissatisfaction with himself for having gone for a period of several years without producing the kind of writing he felt himself capable of. On a more general level, the thematic focus of the story can simply be the death of a writer, any writer, before his work is done. Harry, who lies dying of gangrene from an infected scratch on his leg, is a cynical and unhappy American writer filled with self-condemnation because he has not written the things he should have written. The time available has been short and the temptations not to work are so strong. Harry has succumbed to the temptation not to work at his hard trade. He has come back to
He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook.
Interspersed throughout the story are vividly rendered retrospective vignettes in which Harry recalls experiences he had “saved” to write about, as well as major images of death: vultures which squat “obscenely” on the plain, of which Harry says ironically, “I watched the way they sailed very carefully at first in case I ever wanted to use them in a story”; a hyena that howls at night; "a sudden, evil-smelling emptiness"; and the shapeless, foul-breathed thing that moves closer and closer to Harry, finally crouching on his chest. The principal image, however, is the snow-covered Kilimanjaro with the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard close to its western summit, known to the natives as “the House of God.” It is to the top of Kilimanjaro, “great, high and unbelievably white in the sun,” that Harry knows he is going when he “dreams” just before he dies that he is aboard the plane which has been sent for to fly him to the hospital. The possible meanings of the mountain and the leopard and the question of their symbolic appropriateness have evoked much critical discussion. The mountaintop can be viewed as standing simply for death into which the hero passes, but it seems more likely that Hemingway meant it to be a symbol of immortality, of Harry’s vision of achieving a new life in death, a token of purity, a symbol of Truth, "the undefined ideal for which he has struggled." It is more likely though that to Harry in his hallucination the mountain symbolizes purity and escape: escape from a sordid life into the purity of death, escape from the mean, bickering life he has led with his wife, escape from commercialism into which his writing has degenerated, and, on a physical level, escape from the hot damp plain upon which he lies dying.[18] Although all we are told of the leopard is that “no one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude,” the statement clearly suggests aspiration. It had striven for some ideal just as Harry once had and knows he should have continued to do. The leopard did not achieve its goal, but its effort is both manifested and immortalized in its frozen, imperishable carcass. The leopard can be viewed as the symbol for Harry's moral nature.
From the technical point of view, the story’s experimental construction and style make it one of the most radical pieces of fiction. It is essentially an exercise in stream-of-consciousness. The style alternates between the sparse dialogue, limited action, and flashbacks, these latter set in italics, recalling the hero’s past career. These retrospective vignettes resemble Gertrude Stein more than anything else Hemingway wrote: their thought is disconnected, their syntax undulating, and their imagery evocative.
Julian, the friend mentioned in the story, is based on the character of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Several other actual persons are included under altered names.
► “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” Ü This suspenseful story is written in a more conventional style. The Macombers, an American couple, arrive in
The first part describes the reactions of each of the three principal characters―Macomber, a rich American sportsman of thirty-five; his wife, Margot; and the English hunting guide Robert Wilson―to Macomber’s conduct on a lion hunt from which they have just returned. Macomber speaks of having “bolted like a rabbit,” and he is very shamed and apologetic. His wife is not only shamed of him, but also bitter and cruel in what she says.
That night Macomber goes to bed feeling, even more than shame, “the cold hollow fear in him” and relives the whole experience which culminated in his fleeing before the charge of the wounded lion, leaving
The next day the three hunt buffaloes, and one of the animals Macomber shoots is wounded and escapes into the bush. As has been the case with the lion, it is necessary to go into the bush and finish him. In some mysterious way the buffalo hunt has made Macomber lose all his fear and he suddenly finds his courage in the excitement of the chase: “It had taken a strange chance of hunting, a sudden precipitation into action without opportunity for worrying beforehand, to bring this about with Macomber, but regardless of how it had happened it had most certainly happened.” He is eager, elated, and happy, and in the course of a half-hour (his “short happy life”) he develops character and enthusiasm for life; both Wilson and Margot sense the transformation. Margot also becomes aware that she can no longer be secure in her domination of him. She is inwardly furious. When Macomber stands his ground before the charging buffalo, Margot also shoots from the car behind Macomber and kills him. When
► “The Old Man and the Sea” (1952) Ü A long short story (novelette) widely acclaimed as a triumph and helpful in Hemingway’s winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. It retells with great force the old Hemingway story of man’s courage and his ultimate defeat. Here, with biblical overtones, the old story emerges as the great battle between and old Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin.
The Old Man and the Sea
Foundational and Learning Objectives
English 20 Objectives
The Old Man and the Sea
Objectives
A. Recognize that talk is an important tool for communicating, thinking, and learning.
Speak to share thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
- OLD1 - by storytelling an old story
- OLD3 - by debating a position
- OLD5 - in a talking circle
B. Speak to build relationships and a sense of community.
- OLD1 - by storytelling an old story
- OLD5 - in a talking circle
C. Practise the behaviours of effective speakers.Recognize and adjust verbal and nonverbal presentation elements (i.e., articulation, pronunciation, volume, tempo, pitch, stress, gestures, eye contact, facial expression, and poise) effectively and in keeping with purpose, audience needs, and individual cultural and linguistic background.
- OLD 1 - by storytelling an old story
D. Speak fluently and confidently in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and audiences. Speak to inform and persuade.
- OLD1 - by storytelling an old story
- OLD 3 - by debating a position
E. Practise the behaviours of effective listeners.Be sensitive to ideas and purpose when listening.
- OLD5 - in talking circles
F. Recognize reading as an active, constructive process. Recognize reading as an active process which requires readers to:
• make connections - OLD2 -response journals
• find meaning - OLD4 - response journals
• reflect and evaluate - OLD4 - response journals
G. Practise the behaviours of effective, strategic readers.
Recognize author's purpose, form, and techniques.
H. Read a variety of texts for a variety of purposes.
Explore human experiences and values.
Test ideas and values against ideas in text.
I. Practise the behaviours of effective writers. (Essay)
Write introductions which engage interest and focus readers' attention.
Achieve unity of thought and purpose.
Choose a method of development and organization suitable for a particular purpose and audience.
Write effective conclusions appropriate to the overall intent.
Analyze and evaluate own and others' writing for ideas, organization, sentence clarity, word choice, and mechanics (i.e., capitalization, punctuation, and spelling).
Prepare final copy using appropriate conventions of publication (e.g., title page, parenthetical references, works cited or bibliography).
Evaluate compositions for unity, coherence, and emphasis (e.g., proportion).
The Old Man and the Sea
Unit Evaluation
English 20 Overview
The Old Man and the Sea
Overview
The Old Man and the Sea
By Ernest Hemingway
This unit should only take us about two weeks to complete.
You will be evaluated as follows: Response Journals 20% (4 times 5%)
Storytelling 20%
Debating 20%
Talking Circle 10%
Essay 30%
The Old Man and the Sea
The Opening Scene
English 20 OLD1
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Opening Scene (pp.9-15)
Pre-reading: Response Journal
Choose one of the following topics to write on in your response journal:
1) JUST MY LUCK: Think of a time or a period in your life when you were unlucky--maybe unlucky beyond your worst dreams. Unlucky when you didn't deserve to be. Unlucky in spite of great effort or skill on your part. Perhaps it was a series of tests that got bad grades even though you studied. Or many trips to the plate without a hit even though you tried very hard and you're usually a good hitter. Outline this experience in your response journal.
2) FALSE PRIDE VS. TRUE PRIDE: (a)Are there times when we or someone else refuses help even though it is needed? Can you think of a time this happened to you? (b) More importantly, if it is refused, why? What's the difference between false and true pride? Define what you think false and true pride are and answer questions (a) and (b) in your response journal. (6 - 8 minutes)
If you can remember something like that, you have something in common with Hemingway's old man,
These opening paragraphs of the story are like an extract--a highly concentrated flavoring you might use in cooking. In these opening paragraphs, a considerable amount of background and insight about the old man has been put into relatively few words.
In the opening, we are introduced to the "old man" and "the boy", and we come to discover that there is a special bond between the two:
"The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him."
From the above quotation we also recognize Hemingway's distinctive style. It's distinctive by being stripped down to bare simplicity, and yet it says so much. A different writer (Hemingway fans would say a "lesser" writer) might have spent a paragraph or a page describing
The Old Man and the Sea
Storytelling Activity
English 20 MINIst
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Storytelling
Storytelling is an act of sharing, often as important to the storyteller as to the listener. When people tell someone a good story they release their real language power. Storytelling can come from personal experience, from one's imagination, or from stories heard or read. It involves people by creating a link with peers, with the oral tradition, and with literature. It attunes tellers to their audience, to the power of language, and to narrative structure. Storytellers should:
1.Select a story or story segment that lends itself to retelling. Their best choice is a story that has a tightly constructed plot with an interesting beginning, a logical development of episodes, spirited conflict, and a definite climax that brings out a brief, satisfying conclusion.
2.Visualize every scene and character. In their minds they should really "see" what is occurring until they feel they have actually lived that experience.
3.Use simple, powerful language consistent with the story's style. Do not try to memorize the author's words. Use your own words, except for a few phrases that you may need to retain to help the "flavour" of the tale. Because words are your only tools for building the story, use a rich vocabulary that arouses the imagination.
4.Breathe life into the tale. Show enthusiasm and spontaneity in voice, body, and eyes.
5.Create suspense through a varied tone and rate. It is boring to hear everything delivered in the same tone and at the same pace. Variety is necessary to communicate thought and feeling, and to build toward an exciting climax.
6.Use a flexible voice. Distinguish between the various people, giants, animals, and monsters that appear frequently in stories. Use a wide range of pitch, quality, and force. When you turn from character to narrator, keep your voice pleasant and pitched for easy listening. Always articulate clearly so the audience will catch every word.
7.Respect the background traditions of the story. Many Indigenous stories, for example, are living and sacred parts of a culture and not intended for public sharing. Only recently have some stories been shared with those outside that specific culture. Before telling such a tale, learn something of the story's importance and background as well as the associated protocol. For example, there are some stories that are to be told only during the winter months.
English 20 OLD1a
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Opening Scene / Assignment / Handout / Transparency
Post-reading (see mini lesson on Storytelling)
As we grow older we collect memories and experiences, which become a part of our memories and our very existence. Older people always have stories to tell; many of us have heard the opening "When I was young. . . ."
1) you will work in groups of 3 to 4;
2) each of you will be responsible for telling a story, which may or may not have come from an older person;
3) only one of the stories told by the collaborating group must follow these criteria:a) it must be non-fiction
b) it must be from an older person
4) the other stories DO NOT have to be true or from an older person, they can be absolutely fictitious;
5) each story must last at least 1 minute;
6) each member of the group must deliver their own story;
7) once each group has finished telling their story, the rest of the class (by vote) must determine which story or stories were true;
8) if the class cannot determine the true story or stories from the false ones, the presenting group gets a bonus tacked onto their mark;
9) if the class is able to distinguish all the true stories, the group does not get the bonus.
Your evaluation will be based upon the Storytelling Process Assessment Sheet.
The Old Man and the Sea
Dialogue Response Journal
English 20B MINIresp
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Response Journals / Transparency
What exactly am I looking for when you hand in your response journals to be marked? The following table helps to illustrate what I would like you to attempt. As you can see, the simple, straight-forward summary for a response journal is at the lowest level of responding, so avoid this in your response journals. Instead, evaluate, criticize, relate personal experience to what you have read and you will do much better as far as marks are concerned.
Developmental Stages of Reader Response
Developmental Stage
Characteristics of Each Stage
Students in this stage: Level of Questions to which Readers in Each Stage Respond
Stage 1
unconscious enjoyment of imaginary entry into what they read
55% to 65% - are uncritical, subjective readers
- relate to what they read, but can not say why they like it or dislike it
- respond to literal factual questions - What happened?
- To whom did it happen?
- When did it happen?
- What is the sequence of events?
Stage 2
self-conscious appreciation or perception of text purpose and meaning
66% to 80% - begin to become objective about the work and their responses to it
- compare their own knowledge, experiences, and values to the work being read
- begin to read between the lines and describe their evaluative responses Why did the events occur as they did?
How are you like the main character? How are you different?
Why do you think the author wrote this?
Stage 3
conscious appreciation and perception of text unity, purpose, and ideas
81% to 100% - choose their own reading material with increasing insight and discretion
- respond with pleasure to an increasing range and variety of text
- examine critically and reflect on their own response after reading - What is the significance of this section/selection in terms of what we are studying or have studied?
- What is distinctive about the author's style/craft?
- How does the setting contribute to the overall effect of the work?
- Do you agree with the author? Why or why not?
English 20 MINIjour
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Dialogue Journals / Transparency
Dialogue Journals
Dialogue Journals are interactive written conversations between students and teachers or peers. The participants share their responses and observations, collaboratively negotiating and clarifying meaning as they extend and elaborate on the initial entry.
Through reader response you have opportunities to use language in order to share ideas and opinions with each other. Here you have the opportunity to have authentic audiences, your peers.
In Partner Dialogue Journals you write something about the topic in question and, when everyone is finished, you exchange the journal with someone else, who reads it and writes comments on the same sheet to hand back to you. You, in turn, return the favour. This is why they are known as "Dialogue" Journals. The criteria on which they will be graded has been covered in the mini lesson seen earlier. Remember: stay away from simple summaries.
English 20 OLD2
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Opening Scene / Transparency (pp. 15 - 24)
Pre-reading
An author sometimes uses a character's surroundings to tell us something about the character him/herself. The old man's shack is an example. The description tells us that he is poor, certainly, but we also get the impression that
One room. Dirt floor. Table, bed, chair, shelf. That's it. But we hear no complaint at any time from
Post-reading: Dialogue Response Journal (See mini lesson on Dialogue Response Journals)
1) THE LIONS ON THE BEACH If you had a recurring dream and mentioned it to a half dozen experts, you'd probably get a half dozen different interpretations. And you might meet someone who concludes, "Who knows what it means? You'll have to decide that for yourself."
2) That's what you'll find if you investigate different critical interpretations of
In your response journals please write about a recurring dream you may have, something odd that you cannot interpret or have difficulty understanding. Or, write about what you think
Once you have completed your response journal, exchange it with one of your peers so that they can share a dialogue response with you.
The Old Man and the Sea
Point of View / Class Debate
English 20 MINIPofV
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Point of View / Transparency
POINT OF VIEW
"Point of view" in fiction is not the author's opinion of his/her subject. it's how--actually by whom--the author decides to tell the story. Another way to put it is: who is the narrator?
1) If a character in the story relates the events, that's first person point of view. (Usually, but not always, it's one of the major characters.)
2) If the narrator is not a character, if it's somebody (never identified) outside of the action, that's third person point of view. And within third person point of view, the author has two other choices: objective and omniscient.
a) Objective means the author tells only what could have been observed by someone who was actually on the scene.
b) Omniscient means the author relates the inner feelings and thoughts of the characters.
English 20 MINIdeb
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Point of View / Transparency
Debating is a discussion of the arguments for and against something and can be either formal or informal. Even two people can have a debate. A useful classroom debate format follows: 1.Decide on a topic and a proposition. For example, "Be it resolved that Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is relevant to today's youth".
2.Choose four students. Two students take the affirmative. They research and attempt to defend Romeo and Juliet's relevance. The other two students refute the resolution. They attempt to prove that Romeo and Juliet is not relevant.
3.The four students alternate, each presenting speeches of a predetermined time (e.g., five minutes). The order is:
•first affirmative
•first negative
•second affirmative
•second negative.
4.Each of the four is allowed a few minutes to disprove the other team's arguments. The order is:
•first negative
•first affirmative
•second negative
•second affirmative.
5.The class may direct questions to the four debaters.
6.A vote is taken.
Debates Involving the Entire Class
Debates can be structured so they involve an entire class. Cruchley (1984) developed the following format for a full- class debate: 1.Establish an issue with the class.
2.Divide the class into pro and con. Rearrange the desks to have the two sides face each other.
3.Each student independently records ideas and proofs to justify his/her assigned position. Begin with the affirmative.
4.Use the following rules: •Each student is given five points the first time speaking.
•Students get a point for each idea presented.
•Students get two points for each proof cited or example given.
•Points will be deducted if a student speaks without being recognized by the chair, insults the opponents, etc.
•A student may speak only twice.
The chairperson keeps a running tally of points accumulated.
•Students can prepare a "formal" debate using research (e.g., "Be it resolved that immigration policies be changed").
English 20 OLD3
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Opening Scene / Transparency (pp. 24 - 38)
Pre-reading
(See mini lesson on Point of View)
Post-reading (See mini lesson on Debating / Entire Class)
Some fishermen,
You probably won't understand the sea any better, but you'll gain a clearer understanding of your own concept of masculinity and/or femininity. That's a fairly important issue to know "where you are" in these days of debate over unisex versus traditional roles. And if this fictional fisherman can help stimulate your thinking, that's one of the benefits of good fiction. Comparing and contrasting ourselves with well-drawn fictional characters is a great aid toward self-understanding. To make it happen, though, we need to open our mental eyes wider than just enough to "see how the story comes out."
Were things better when women were to be "bare foot or pregnant"? Or have the changes brought about by feminism altered society for the better? For our next activity, we will divide the class up into two groups and have an informal debate on this subject:
The old proverb: "women should be bare foot and pregnant" should never have been abandoned. Society is now worse because it has lost this fundamental belief.
You will be evaluated in the following fashion:
Hook and Evans (1982) suggest a possible method for appraising individuals' contributions to panel discussions that would work well with discussions of almost any type. They suggest that one keep a tally sheet and mark each time a speaker speaks. A plus (+) indicates a helpful contribution, a zero (0) indicates a neutral one, and a minus (-) indicates a contribution that is "digressing, sidetracking, blocking, or overly aggressive". For example,
Speaker One: 0+++000000
Speaker Two: ++++
Speaker Three: 00--0--
Speaker Four: 000++
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway's Style
English 20 MINIhs
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: The Hemingway Style / Transparency
THE HEMINGWAY STYLE Take some time to appreciate the sparse but effective description in this brief scene. Phrases like "the small tuna's shivering pull as he held the line firm and commenced to haul it in" are again both simple and rich.
And what an incredibly, richly accurate description Hemingway gives us of the just-landed fish! "...his big, unintelligent eyes staring as he thumped his life out against the planking of the boat with the quick shivering strokes of his neat, fast-moving tail." If you've ever caught a fish, that description makes you almost shout, "Yes, that is exactly what it looks like!"
Accidental? Hardly. Hemingway may easily have spent a half hour or more perfecting that sentence. He was a dogged rewriter.
Another mild jolt: "The old man hit him on the head for kindness." This time it's not so much the concept; we know right away he hits him to hasten the inevitable death of the fish. The jolt is in the words this time, the contract between "hit" and "kindness" within this seven-word phrase. (Another great writer, Shakespeare, gives us a similar jolt in the words of Hamlet: "I must be cruel in order to be kind.")
Since we've mentioned this "Hemingway style" so often, it's worth taking the time to explore or imagine how a different writer might have said the same thing, in a style much more drawn out and explanatory: "Realizing that if he simply left the fish in the bottom of the boat, its death would be prolonged, the old man hit the fish in the head in order to render it unconscious and hasten its end. Although this would seem to be, on the surface, an act of cruelty or brutality, it really was, in a paradoxical way, an act of kindness."
Well, that's not Hemingway for certain. And it's not effective either.
English 20 MINIsp
The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Split-page Journals / Transparency
Split-page Journals
These help take your responses beyond an initial, personal reaction toward a more reflective, critical response. To do this, create a split-page journal by drawing a line down the middle of each page, making two columns. Entitle the left-hand column First Impressions. This column is for initial, personal responses to what you read, your first thoughts and feelings. Entitle the right-hand column Second Thoughts. This column is used following discussion or reflection about what you read and about your first impressions. Second thoughts are usually more interpretive, critical, or evaluative because you have had the opportunity to rethink or discuss your initial reactions. Make connections between your own and others' ideas as well.
Split-page Journal
Question at hand:
First Impressions Second Impression
English 20 OLD4
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Catch: The Hemingway Style / Transparency (pp. 38 - 64)
Pre-reading (See mini lesson on Hemingway's Style and Split Page Journals)
FEELING THE CHARACTER'S SITUATION: It's seldom that you have a chance to really get into a fictional character's physical situation. You can improvise here. It might be called an offbeat way to appreciate a character and a book; it might also be worthwhile add memorable.
Try pulling or pushing against something utterly immovable, a wall, a huge rock, anything. Keep it up. Keep it up for however long you want the experiment to last. But make it enough to acquire the feeling of nonstop, tensed muscle strain. Are five minutes enough? Would you go ten? Or would two be more than enough?
Or is it possible to get into a character's situation at all? Can words really transport your empathy into a fictitious character's mind and soul? Please divide a fresh piece of paper in two to prepare for a split page reader response journal. On the left hand side comment on whether or not you can feel a character's pain, happiness, and feelings in general.
The next pages describe the catch itself, from the first signal that something is after the bait to the actual setting of the hook. Take special notice of how Hemingway relates it. This section has been both praised and criticized.
English 20 OLD4
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Second Day: The Hemingway Style / Transparency (pp. 64 - 96)
Pre-reading
Is Hemingway successful in grabbing our empathy and placing it with the struggling
Have you changed your mind about whether an author can have his reader sympathize with a ficticious character? Discuss.
The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway's Style / Response Journal
English 20 OLD4
The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Second Day: The Hemingway Style / Transparency (pp. 64 - 96)
Post-reading
HEMINGWAY'S CATHOLICISM: The Hail Marys and the pilgrimage to a shrine are, of course, specifically Catholic, which is not surprising considering
Your reaction to this section will depend on your own religious views. Whatever they are, it's worth thinking about. What is prayer, in your opinion? Does it do something? Does the effectiveness of a prayer depend on the person who prays?
The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said that prayer doesn't "change" God, but it does change the person who prays. That's not
If you're quite religious, this scene might come across as a bad satire on prayer and relationship with God in general. If you're not particularly religious, you might still identify with
Please write a response journal to respond to the above section.
The Old Man and the Sea
Talking Circle
English 20 MINITc The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Talking Circles / Transparency
Talking Circles
Talking circles are useful when people need to share feelings or when the topic under consideration has no right or wrong answer. People are seated in a circle. One person holds an item such as a small stone while speaking. Only the individual holding the object is allowed to speak. When finished, the object is passed clockwise to the next person. This procedure is followed until all participants have had an opportunity to speak. Any participant who does not wish to speak may pass and silence is an acceptable response. Comments that put down others or oneself should be discouraged (e.g., "I don't think anyone will agree with me, but ..." or "I'm not very good at ...").
Moral or ethical issues can often be dealt with in a talking circle without offending anyone. The purpose of talking circles is not always to reach a decision or consensus. More importantly, the purpose is to create a safe environment for individuals to share their feelings and points of view. They come to believe what they say will be listened to and accepted without criticism. They gain an empathetic appreciation for points of view other than their own. People also develop an appreciation for a traditional communication and decision-making style of some Indian and Métis peoples.
English 20 OLD5The
Old Man and the Sea
Theme: The Third Day: The Church / Transparency (pp. 96 - 126)
Pre-reading: Response Journal
Read the last paragraph on page 96. Even in death the fish resists, and
One final spurt of sympathy darts up within the old man when he sees the marlin's eye: "...as detached as the mirrors in a periscope or as a saint in a procession." That's another line Hemingway may have spent hours laboring over.
A VIEW OF SAINTLINESS While we're here, let's take a moment for the second part of that comparison, the saint's eye. Is it simply a great comparison or is Hemingway giving us a sly, indirect barb at sainthood? After all, he does simply say "saint" rather than "the statue of a saint."
So, having invited you to consider prayer, this strange "little" story invites you to consider sainthood, and whether or not saints are as detached from real life as the marlin's eye, the marlin now being dead.
In a talking circle (See talking circle mini lesson), discuss the idea of whether or not you believe the Church and those in its orders are detached from real life as we know it. Is their idea of what sin is and how we should live our lives in order to get closer to God a realistic one?
The Old Man and the Sea
Final Essay Assignment
English 20 MINIwf The Old Man and the Sea
Mini Lesson: Writing Folders / Transparency
Writing Folders
A writing folder is a collection of an individuals in-process writing. During an English language arts course, you will produce a number of compositions. Some will reflect the entire writing process but some will reflect only parts of it. For example, you might begin five different writing pieces. You might complete the pre-writing for all five, but terminate three of them after completing a first draft. Two other pieces might reflect the complete revision process. One of these might be selected for presentation and/or grading.
A simple letter-size file folder or a manilla folder can be used to store the various compositions as well as checklists, editors' comments, and student and teacher evaluations. Writing folders can be made from Bristol board or a similar light cardboard. Separate sections can be kept for ideas, notes, and first drafts; for work in progress; and for final drafts.
Ideas
Notes
First Drafts Revise
Edit
Proofing Final Drafts
I would like you to use a writing folder for this writing assignment.
English 20 OLD5 The Old Man and the Sea
Theme: Final Essay Assignment
Choose one of the following topics and create an essay, which must be typed and roughly 500 pages (3 pages double spaced) long.
1) Overstepping one's bounds. Does that perhaps tie in with his recent mention of pride--perhaps sinful pride?
APPLICATIONS OF "TOO FAR" Assuming for a moment that this is the case, let's try to think of some instances where a person attempts too much (goes out too far) and in doing so causes harm (evil).
A young athlete who pours his or her entire life into becoming the best, setting a new record-and in doing so wrecks relationships with family and friends: would that be an example? What about a business person attempting too much success, wrecking family ties and borrowing too much money to make the great venture go? Are these contemporary parallels to
Again assuming that your answer tends to be "yes," the really big question still remains: is that sinful, morally evil? Or just an unfortunate but excusable error in judgment?
2) A CONSIDERATION OF "DEFEAT" AND "DESTRUCTION" Concentrate for a moment on your concepts of "defeat" and "destruction." What's the difference? Is one preferable to the other? In some instances, are they identical?
Hemingway, through
Do you agree? One way of testing the idea is to reverse the terms and make it: "A man can be defeated but not destroyed." Which makes more sense to you?
3) BEING AND DOING The idea that past accomplishments mean nothing is positively depressing to most people. But
It's not what you are that counts, it's what you do. In fact, we don't even know what you are until we see you in action. Then we know. If you're doing heroic things, we can tell you're a hero.
For the moment; just for now, no longer. Tomorrow you might act like a bum, and then that's what you'd be--for that time period. Abstractions are nothing; only the concrete matters.
You need to make a decision about this view. Does it go too contrary to your experience? We do, after all, categorize people. "So and So is basically this kind of person, even though now and then he or she acts in a different manner." That's how we normally think, isn't it?
4) A FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF STYLE How would you write this scene? That's probably an unfair question if you've never been on the sea and fished for marlin. Still, it's worth considering or comparing your expectations with what Hemingway does.
"The line rose slowly and steadily and then the surface of the ocean bulged ahead of the boat and the fish came out. He came out unendingly and water poured from his sides." If you haven't already, read those two sentences again slowly. Where is the obvious power and drama in them?
Well, it certainly isn't in Hemingway's exotic choice of verbs for the fish's entrance. The core of the entrance itself is "...the fish came out." We've been imagining this fish for so long; does that make the utterly simple "came out" effective? We can certainly ask what other, perhaps equally simple, words contribute to the power of the passage.
5) The confidence is apparent. Notice how it's capsuled in the word "my."
A CONSIDERATION OF "
And again just for fun, if you were speaking
Study Questions: The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
1. Based upon textual clues in the early part of the book, where do you think this story is taking place. What is your evidence?
2. Describe the old man’s (
3. As the book begins, how is the old man’s fishing career going?
4. What does the old man dream of?
5. What is the difference between la mar and el mar? Explain. (See pp. 29-30)
6. How does the old man use the man-of-war bird to help his fishing?
7. What does he think of the Portuguese man-of-war? Why does he feel that way? (See pp. 35-36)
8. Describe the first few moments of the battle with the marlin. How does the old man first notice him? How does he go about hooking him?
9. How does the marlin respond to being hooked? What happens to the old man during the afternoon and night as a result?
10. Notice the following sentence from p. 50: “The boy was sad too and we begged her pardon and butchered her promptly.” What does it mean? What does it tell you about the old man and his relationship with his natural surroundings?
11. Describe the preparations the old man makes (i.e., how he gets extra line) for the battle with the marlin.
12. What does the old man eat to replenish his strength? Describe the process by which he prepares his food.
13. Describe the fish as the old man sees it when it first jumps.
14. At this point in the story (through p. 67 or so), what seems to be the old man’s attitude toward the fish? How does he feel about the marlin?
15. What happened in the arm wrestling match the old man thinks of as the sun sets?
16. What is the old man’s next meal? How does he obtain it, and how does he prepare it?
17. Why doesn’t the old man just tie the line with the marlin on the end to his boat for a while so that he can get some sleep?
18. When the marlin starts jumping again and running, what happens to the old man as a result?
19. Describe the process by which the old man lands the marlin. (See pp. 86-96)
20. How does the old man attach the marlin to the skiff for the journey home? Why doesn’t he just toss the fish in the boat?
21. Describe the first encounter with a shark. What is the result?
22. On p. 105, about the marlin, the old man thinks to himself, “If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?” What does he mean? What do you think about the question?
23. Describe the second shark encounter, this time with the shovel-nosed sharks. After it is over, the old man says to himself, “It makes everything wrong.” (p. 110) Explain what he means.
24. By the end of the story, what has the old man lost? What has he won? Explain.
25. Why, do you think, is this book titled The Old Man and the Sea, as opposed to, say, The Old Man and the Boy, or the Old Man and the Really Big Fish, or The Old Man and the Sharks? Explain.
26. In what way(s) is the old man is conflict with nature? In what way(s) is he in harmony with nature?
[1] Hit with shrapnel, he was dragging another wounded soldier to the rear and was hit again―in the knee. He spent several months in a
[2] Although this lesser satirical novel can be highly amusing to those familiar with
[3] The African book is an account of a big-game expedition, interspersed with numerous passages having to do with literature, Africa, and
[4] Harry Morgan, finding it impossible to earn an honest living for himself and his family, strikes out on his own as an outlaw, smuggling rum and Chinese nationals into Cuba. At the end he is killed, but not before learning that a man has no chance alone. This message, which has some appearance of having been tacked on to the novel's action, is consonant with the burden of Hemingway's next work, The Fifth Column (1938).
[5] A peacetime army colonel, closely resembling the author, comes to Venice on leave to go duck shooting, to see the young Italian countess he loves, and to make a significant pilgrimage to the place where he, Richard Cantwell (and Nick Adams, Frederic Henry, and the author himself ), was wounded in World War I. The novel points up sharply the importance of that war injury in the author's life and work, but in some of its postures and mannerisms it seems to read like a parody of Hemingway's better fiction, and Cantwell seems at times a caricature of his creator.
[6] As a war correspondent, Gellhorn experienced some of the most exciting and horrifying events of the time. She reported on the Spanish Civil in 1937-38,
[7] In a 1945 letter Hemingway wrote: "It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg Address was so short."
[8] With is primarily used in the meaning of "having," "which has/have" and to avoid participial constructions: ditches which had water in them flowing → "ditches with water flowing"; There were villas surrounded by iron fences → "There were villas with iron fences."
[9] One critic (Leon Edel) has written that Hemingway "belongs to the second shelf of American fiction, not the first," along with Sinclair Lewis, because he gave only the illusion of style. "A style involves substance as well as form. […] I would argue that Hemingway has not created a style: he has rather created the artful illusion of a style. […] He has conjured up the effect of a style by a process of evasion, very much as he sets up an aura of emotion―by walking directly away from emotion! […] He has not written an 'adult' novel."
[10] In the story called “The Gambler, the Nun and the Radio,” both figures are presented in clear and contrasted form.
[11] A short story published in Men Without Women, 1928, about a prize fighter who is bribed to allow himself to be defeated.
[12] In
[13] Hung.: A prédikátor Salamon könyve. As regards title, authorship, and date, the word Ecclesiastes [ik'li:zi:'æsti:z] is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Koheleth, or Qohéleth, which means "one who participates in, or speaks to, an assembly." The King James translation of the word is "Preacher" (1:1). Like the book of Proverbs and The Song of Songs, this essay is attributed to Solomon, "the son of David, king of Jerusalem" (1:1); but both subject matter and linguistic considerations have led most scholars to conclude that Solomon had nothing to do with its composition and that its principal author was a learned Jew, either Palestinian or Alexandrian, writing in the latter part of the third century B.C.
[14] The Nick Adams stories include “Indian Camp,” “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife,” “The End of Something,” “The Three-Day Blow,” “The Battler,” “The Big Two-Hearted River,” “The Killers,” “Fathers and Sons,” “Ten Indians,” “Now I Lay Me,” “Cross Country Snow,” and some other first-person fragments and vignettes.
[15] Not unnaturally, the story ends with the boy and his father discussing suicide. Readers are now unable to avoid the hindsight that the prototypes for both these figures were themselves destined, like the Native American who “couldn’t stand things,” to take their own lives. Dr. Hemingway shot himself with a Civil War pistol in 1929; it was a shotgun that took his son’s life in 1961.
[16] That Nick ultimately manages to come to terms with life is suggested by the final view we have of him in “Fathers and Sons,” in which he is thirty-eight, a writer, and the father of a young son. The story is mainly one of reminiscence. Nick thinks back to his boyhood summers in
[17] The problem of the “sell-out” of the writer greatly interested Hemingway at this time. There are similar discussions in Green Hills of Africa.
[18] As in the novels, snow, cold, and purity are equated with the finer nature in man and with all that is sublime in the physical world.
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