The great American writer Hemingway was born in the city of Oak Park, a quiet and decorous suburb of Chicago.
“The writer’s father Clarence Hemingway was a doctor, but the main passion of his life was hunting and fishing, and he instilled a love for these activities in his son” [Gribanov B. Ernest Hemingway: life and work. Afterword / B. Gribanov// Hemingway E. Favorites. M.: Enlightenment. 1984. - P. 285].
Hemingway experienced his first joy in communicating with nature in the forests of Northern Michigan, where the family spent the summer months on the shores of Boulder Lake. The impressions he received there would subsequently provide rich material for his work. Hemingway wanted to become a writer since childhood. Identifying himself with his hero Nick Adams, he wrote many years later: “Nick wanted to become a great writer. He was sure that he would become one” [Hemingway E. Favorites / E. Hemingway-M.: Ripol Classic, 1999. - P. 309.].
This is a very important statement for the writer, it contains the key to one of the most important themes of his entire work - about the earth, which “will endure forever.” Like any major writer, he sought and found his own path in literature. One of his main goals was clarity and brevity of expression. “A mandatory feature of a good writer is clarity. The first and most important thing is to expose the language and make it pure, clearing it to the bones, and this requires work” [Gribanov B. Ernest Hemingway: life and work. Afterword / B. Gribanov // Hemingway E. Favorites. M.: Enlightenment. 1984. - P. 285].
Legends formed around the American writer Ernest Hemingway during his lifetime. Having made the leading theme of his books the courage, perseverance and perseverance of a person in the fight against circumstances that doomed him in advance to almost certain defeat, Hemingway strove to embody the type of his hero in life. A hunter, fisherman, traveler, war correspondent, and when the need arose, a soldier, he chose the path of greatest resistance in everything, testing himself “for strength,” sometimes risking his life not for the thrill, but because a meaningful risk, like he believed it was appropriate for a real man.
Hemingway's works of the 20s and 30s are filled with a keen sense of tragedy. An indelible mark on his soul, a never-closing heart wound, riddled with bitter pain, was left by the events he witnessed in his youth: the First World War and the severe suffering of the civilian population. Hemingway often recalled what he observed as a European correspondent for a Canadian newspaper covering the events of the Greco-Turkish War. These terrible sufferings of the people influenced their worldview. “I remember,” Hemingway wrote, “how I returned home from the Middle East with a completely broken heart and in
In Paris I was trying to decide whether I should spend my whole life trying to do something about this, or become a writer. And I decided, cold as a serpent, to become a writer and write all my life as truthfully as I can" [E. Hemingway. Collected Works / E. Hemingway - M.: Khud. Lit., 1968. - T. 1. - P. 123.].
The pursuit of elusive happiness, doomed to failure, dreams and hopes shattered, loss of inner balance, the tragedy of human life - this is what Hemingway saw in the surrounding gloomy reality.
Gribanov’s article “Man Cannot Be Defeated” also talks about what Hemingway felt and expressed in his early works. Hemingway's man intuitively, and later consciously, strives for his original origin, for nature. And at the same time, the post-war character begins to fight with her in order to ultimately achieve harmony. But this turns out to be impossible for him. Nature is incredibly difficult to enslave and defeat. She, in the end, turns out to be more powerful than man imagined her to be.
The fifties are the last decade of Hemingway's life. Its beginning was marked by intensive work on the story “The Old Man and the Sea.”
Illness and various unpleasant life events, as well as creative wanderings and the search for the meaning of life, distracted Hemingway from working on the “big book.” But he was still, as always, concerned with the theme of unbending courage, perseverance and inner victory in defeat itself.
The first approach to the topic should be considered the essay “On Blue Water,” “Gulf Stream Letter,” published back in April 1936 in Esquire magazine. The essay told about an old man fishing in the sea, about how he caught a huge marlin, which he fought with for several days until he pulled it to the boat, and about how his prey was torn to pieces by the sharks that attacked it. It was a sketch of the plot in its general form, which was transformed, acquired many new details and details, and was enriched with deep life and philosophical content.
However, the 16-year path from sketch to story was not at all straight. Hemingway was obsessed with completely different thoughts and themes: Spain, China, the Second World War. In the post-war years, Hemingway conceived and made the first drafts of a large epic work, a trilogy dedicated to “land, sea and air.” Then the writer suffered an inevitable creative crisis.
Hemingway in his essays described the history of the creation of this story and work on it. When asked how the idea for this story came about, Hemingway replied in 1958: “I heard about a man who found himself in such a situation with a fish. I knew how it happened - in a boat, on the open sea, alone with a big fish. I took a man whom he had known for twenty years and imagined him under such circumstances" [Ernest Hemingway about his work // Questions of literature. - 1960. - No. 1.- P. 156. ]
He intended to place the story about the old fisherman in that part of the vast canvas of the work that would tell about the sea. When the idea crystallized, Hemingway began to write rapidly, in one breath. During this time he experienced an inspiring comeback
creative forces. As always, Hemingway placed maximum demands on himself. In a letter to the publisher Charles Scribner in October 1951, Hemingway said: “This is the prose on which I have worked all my life, which should be light and concise, and at the same time convey all the changes of the visible world and the sphere of the human spirit. This is the best prose that I am capable of now" [Ernest Hemingway about his work // Questions of literature. - 1960. - No. 1. - P. 157].
In September 1952, the story “The Old Man and the Sea” was published in the pages of Life magazine.
The story speaks for itself, no matter how differently it is interpreted. Hemingway himself, with mocking slyness, avoided interpreting this story and in one interview in 1954 said: “I tried to give a real old man and a real boy, a real sea and real fish, and real sharks. And, if I managed to do this well enough and truthfully, they can be interpreted in different ways. What is truly difficult is to create something that is truly true, and sometimes more true than the truth itself."
The 200-word essay “On the Blue Stream,” which tells the story of a Cuban fisherman who caught a large tuna and spent a long time fighting off his prey from a school of sharks, ended with the words: “When the fishermen picked him up, the old man was sobbing, half-mad with his loss, and meanwhile, the sharks were still they were still walking around his boat."
The story was a huge success among both critics and the general reader, causing a worldwide resonance and countless interpretations, often contradicting each other. Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for his magnificent book.
Illustration by Henry Seabright
Old man Santiago lives in a small fishing village in Cuba and fishes all alone. The last time he spent 84 days at sea, he did not catch anything. Previously, the boy Manolin was fishing with him, who helped the old man a lot, but the boy’s parents decided that Santiago was unlucky and told their son to go to sea on another boat.
The old man taught Manolin to fish, and the boy loves Santiago and wants to help him. He buys him sardines for bait and brings food to his hut. The old man had long since come to terms with his poverty.
He was too simple-minded to think about when humility came to him. But he knew that humility came without bringing with it either shame or loss of human dignity.
They talk with the boy about fishing and famous baseball players. At night, the old man dreams of the Africa of his youth, and “lions coming ashore.”
The next day, early in the morning, the old man goes fishing. The boy helps him take down the sail and prepare the boat. The old man says that this time he “believes in luck.”
One after another, fishing boats leave the shore and go out to sea. The old man loves the sea, he thinks of it with tenderness, as of a woman. Having baited the hooks, Santiago slowly floats with the flow, mentally communicating with the birds and fish. Accustomed to loneliness, the old man talks aloud to himself.
Before, when he was left alone, he sang; He sometimes sang at night, while on watch, when he was sailing on large sailboats or hunting for turtles.
The old man knows the different inhabitants of the ocean and treats them very tenderly.
First, Santiago catches a small tuna. He hopes that there is a big fish walking near the school of tuna that will like his sardines. Soon the old man notices a slight trembling of the flexible green rod, which replaces his fishing rod. The line goes down, and the old man feels the enormous weight of the fish that has bitten.
The old man tries to pull up the thick fishing line, but he fails - a large and strong fish pulls the light boat behind it. The old man regrets that the boy is not with him - he could remove the bait from other rods while Santiago fights with the fish.
About four hours pass. Evening is approaching. The old man’s hands are cut, he throws the fishing line over his back and places a bag under it. Now Santiago can lean against the side of the boat and rest for a while.
It is impossible for a person to remain alone in old age... However, this is inevitable.
Night. The fish pulls the boat further and further from the shore. The old man is tired, but the thought of fish does not leave him for a second. Sometimes he feels sorry for her - the fish, so big, strong and old, must die so that he can live on. Santiago talks to the fish: “I will not part with you until I die.”
The old man's strength is running out, but the fish is not going to get tired. At dawn, Santiago eats tuna - he has no other food. The old man's left hand is cramping. The old man hopes that the fish will float up, and then he can kill it with a harpoon. Finally the forest goes up, and a fish appears on the surface. She burns in the sun, her head and back are dark purple, and instead of a nose there is a sword as long as a baseball bat. It is two feet longer than the boat.
Alone, on the open sea, he was tightly tied to such a large fish, which he had never seen, which he had never even heard of.
Having appeared on the surface, the fish again goes into the depths, pulls the boat along with it, and the old man gathers strength to hold it. Not believing in God, he reads the “Our Father.”
Another day passes. To distract himself, the old man remembers baseball games. He remembers how he once measured his strength in a Casablanca tavern with a powerful black man, the strongest man in the port, how they sat at the table for a whole day, without giving up, and how he, in the end, gained the upper hand. He took part in similar fights more than once, won, but then gave it up, deciding that he needed his right hand for fishing.
The battle with the fish continues. Santiago holds the line with his right hand, knowing that when his strength runs out, it will be replaced by his left, the cramp in which has long passed. A small fishing rod catches a mackerel. The old man reinforces his strength with it, although this fish is not at all tasty. He feels sorry for the big fish that has nothing to eat, but this does not diminish his determination to kill it.
It's good that we don't have to kill the sun, moon and stars. It is enough that we extort food from the sea and kill our brothers.
At night, the fish comes to the surface and begins to walk in circles, sometimes approaching the boat, sometimes moving away from it. This is a sign that the fish is tired. The old man is preparing a harpoon to finish off the fish. But she steps aside. Because of fatigue, thoughts are confused in the old man’s head, and black spots dance before his eyes. Santiago gathers his remaining strength and plunges the harpoon into the fish's side.
And then the fish came to life, although it already carried death within itself - it rose high above the water, as if boasting of its enormous length and width, all its beauty and power.
Overcoming nausea and weakness, the old man ties the fish to the side of the boat and turns towards the shore. The direction of the wind tells him which way to sail to get home.
An hour passes before the first shark appears, having swum to the smell of blood. She approaches the stern and begins to tear the fish with her teeth. The old man hits her with a harpoon in the most vulnerable spot on her skull. She sinks to the bottom, taking with her a harpoon, part of a rope and a huge piece of fish.
Santiago kills two more sharks with a knife tied to an oar. These sharks take at least a quarter of the fish with them. On the fourth shark, the knife breaks, and the old man takes out a strong club.
He knew that every push of the shark on the boat meant a piece of torn off meat and that the fish now left a trail in the sea as wide as a highway, and accessible to all sharks in the world.
The next group of sharks attacks the boat just before sunset. The old man drives them away with blows to the head with his baton, but at night they return. Santiago fights the predators first with a club, then with a sharp piece of tiller. Finally the sharks swim away: they have nothing left to eat.
An old man enters the cove near his hut in the dead of night. Having removed the mast and tied the sail, he wanders towards the house, feeling incredibly tired. For a moment, the old man turns around and sees behind the stern of his boat a huge tail of a fish and the reflection of a white ridge.
A boy comes to the old man's hut. Santiago is sleeping. The boy cries when he sees his wounded palms. He brings the old man coffee, calms him down and assures him that from now on they will fish together, because he still has a lot to learn. He believes that he will bring good luck to the old man.
In the morning, fishermen look in amazement at the remains of a giant fish. Rich tourists come to the shore. They are surprised to notice a long white spine with a huge tail. The waiter tries to tell them what happened, but they don’t understand anything - they are too far from this life.
And the old man is sleeping at this time, and he dreams of lions.
“The Old Man and the Sea” is a story by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1952. Tells the story of old man Santiago, a Cuban fisherman, and his struggle with a giant fish that became the biggest catch of his life.
Plot: 84 days old Cuban fisherman Santiago goes to sea and cannot catch anything. Even his little friend Manolin almost stopped helping him, although they are still friends and often talk about this and that. On the 85th day, the old man goes out to sea, as usual, on his sailboat, and luck smiles on him - a marlin about 5.5 meters long is hooked. The old man regrets that the boy is not with him; it is not easy to cope alone. Over the course of several days, a real battle takes place between fish and man. The old man was able to cope with a fish with his bare hands, which was longer than his boat and armed with a sword. But the marlin takes the boat far out to sea; it’s not enough to catch a fish - you still have to swim with it to the shore. Using the blood from the fish's wounds, sharks gather at the old man's boat and devour the fish. The old man enters into a fight with them, but here the forces are not equal. When he swims to the shore, all that remains of the fish is a skeleton, a head and a sword, which Santiago gives to the boy as a souvenir.
Literary researchers call the story of the outstanding American writer E. Hemingway (1898-1961) “The Old Man and the Sea” a “parable”; this is probably true. Since this, on the one hand, is a very realistic work - not a simple description of an interesting adventure, not just a story about a fight between a brave old fisherman and the sea and fish. This story has a much broader and generalized content, which is not limited to the author’s idea of the need for a person to maintain courage and dignity under any circumstances.
A parable is a story of an instructive nature. Reading Hemingway, we often encounter philosophical themes such as unity with nature, courage and heroism, old age and youth, and, finally, the place of man in life. Why did Santiago defeat the fish? He won because he saw the meaning of life in struggle, knew how to endure suffering and not lose hope. Hemingway says in this work that a person can be destroyed, but cannot be defeated. This is precisely the main idea of the story.
Hemingway's parable of the old man and the sea is also about humility and fortitude. Faith is a key concept in “The Old Man and the Sea”
Although he did not read the “Our Father” a hundred times within the confines of the narrative, he acquired that helplessness that is necessary for faith.
The sharks ate the fish because it's not about luck: sometimes happiness is expensive. But because everything is really not in the hands of the old man. Because you really shouldn't ask for something that's not yours. The old man repented that he had killed the fish. He killed the fish because he was proud, he thought that this was his proud destiny. “...But in fact, you have to love what they give you. After all, God is good, He gives what is asked of Him. ( If you ask for a fish, will He give you a snake?)..." But not everything a person can take.
42. The phenomenon of postmodernism in literature of the 1950-1990s.
The term “postmodernism” appeared during the First World War in the work of V. Pannwitz “The Crisis of European Culture” (1917). In 1947, Toynbee, in his book A Study of History, uses it in a cultural sense. In his opinion, postmodernism symbolizes the end of Western dominance in religion and culture. In the 1960-1970s, the term “postmodernism” was also used to define stylistic trends in architecture, directed against faceless standardization and technicalism. Soon he came to literature and painting.
The development of the concept of “postmodernism” was facilitated by the thoughts of the philosophers J. Derridi, J. Battey, J.-F. Lyotard, as well as the concept of the semiotician and writer W. Eco.
Postmodernism is, first of all, a special worldview, a spiritual state that characterizes a crisis era. This state is characterized by feelings of disappointment, confusion, despair, and exhaustion of existence. Postmodernism leaves no hope; it certifies crisis moments in the development of society and man, which, in the figurative expression of W. Eco, “ are on the very edge of the abyss " There is nowhere else to go. For a person who finds himself on the edge of an abyss, everything is revealed from a completely different perspective - both life and death, and it is his existence that brings him to this terrible state. And since any real step can be the last, there is only one thing left to do: take a mental step in the direction of yourself, look into yourself, look at yourself and the world from the position of this extreme border. And this look, which is recognized as the “last”, since there is nowhere to go further, reveals the whole unconcealed truth of an unsettled and still not properly organized human life, devoid of a high goal, spiritual meaning. But postmodernism is not just a crisis worldview, but also an awareness of the crisis and self-awareness in this crisis, turbulent, unstable world, where the very foundations of existence are being destroyed. And this moment - awareness and self-awareness - makes the works of postmodernism relevant for our time
Postmodernism reflects the general absurdity of life, the breakdown of social and spiritual ties, the loss of moral guidelines in society. Disharmony and destruction are the main signs of the postmodern art world. There is nothing definite or permanent here. This world is terrible and chimerical. It frightens with its confusion and uncertainty, the depth of crisis and hopelessness.
A work of postmodernism is presented not as a finished product, but as a process of interaction between the artist and the text, the text with the cultural space and social space, the text with the artist, etc. Here we are talking about a specific feature of postmodern writing, which provides for an emphasized conventionality of what is depicted. The work represents a so-called conventional text and a conventional world. And everything in this artistic world obeys the rules of the aesthetic game. The playful principle is inherent in most works of postmodernism. Readers get the impression that the heroes do not live, but play at life. And it’s as if the artist is not writing, but playing with literature, playing with the reader. According to the laws of the game, in postmodern works a variety of events can occur on the edge of the real and the surreal. The game makes it possible to freely move from one time to another, from reality to the world of the subconscious, etc. The question arises: why this game, this emphatically conditional aesthetic activity?.. And the point is that an aesthetic game can turn a tragedy into a farce, that is, in a certain way overcome the tragedy of existence, at least on an aesthetic level. In addition, aesthetic play, a kind of theatricalization of art, allows the artist, together with the reader, to replay certain situations over again, to look not only into the hidden corners of reality, but also into himself, and finally free a person from the oppression of difficult reality, the existing absurdity.
If modernism experimented with form, then postmodernism experiments with meaning and content.
Year of publication of the book: 1952
The story “The Old Man and the Sea” by Hemingway first saw the light back in 1952 in one of the American periodicals. It was for this work that the writer received the Pulitzer Prize. Based on Hemingway’s story “The Old Man and the Sea,” many performances were staged and several feature films were made. The last film to be released in 2012 was “Shal,” produced in Kazakhstan.
The story “The Old Man and the Sea” summary
Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an old man named Santiago has been going to sea every day for more than two months, but he has never been able to catch anything. Because of this, the residents of his village consider the hero unlucky. Just a few days ago, Santiago went to sea in the company of a boy named Manolin. However, now the parents of this same boy forbade their son to communicate with the old man, because they believed that he was bringing him bad luck. Nevertheless, Manolin is very fond of Santiago, who taught him all the intricacies of fishing. The boy even buys large sardines that would make good bait and brings them to the old fisherman's house.
In the work “The Old Man and the Sea” we can read that Santiago himself lives quite modestly and has even come to terms with his poor life. The next morning, the old man goes fishing again, which will bring terrible trials. Manolin helps him prepare the boat for departure. With all his heart, the main character believes that this time luck will smile on him. While fishing, he enjoys the view of the sea and plunges into memories. The first fish to bite the bait is a small tuna. Santiago was delighted, expecting that larger fish might be swimming near the tunas.
In the work “The Old Man and the Sea,” the summary says that soon the old man’s fishing rod begins to be pulled to the side. Pulling the line, Santiago realizes that a huge fish has taken his bait. He tries to pull her out, but to no avail. The hero regrets that Manolin is not next to him now, who could help him get the fish. Meanwhile, evening comes, and Santiago’s hands are already covered with scars from the fishing line. He pulls on the fishing rod and places a bag under it so he can rest a little.
In Hemingway’s story “The Old Man and the Sea” we can read that throughout the night the fish continues to pull the old man’s boat as far as possible from the village. Despite being very tired, Santiago never stops thinking about how lucky he was in the form of a big fish. The hero understands that he will try to get her to the last. In the morning, the exhausted old man was forced to eat a single tuna. The tugging of the fishing line caused a severe cramp in Santiago's left hand. Suddenly the same fish appears above the water. She was purple in color and had a huge sword-sharp nose. The old man is surprised because he has never seen such a large fish. Now he definitely doesn't want to lose her.
In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the summary says that another day passes and the main character is still struggling with the fish. Distracted from hunger and loneliness, he begins to remember his childhood and youth and even talks to himself. Alternately changing hands, he continues to hold the fishing line so as not to lose the exhausted fish. At night, the old man manages to plunge a harpoon into the side of his prey. He ties her to the boat and heads home.
Meanwhile, a shark had already swam towards the smell of blood. Santiago gets rid of her with a harpoon. However, having sank to the bottom, the shark took the weapon with it. In addition, she managed to bite off a large piece of fish. After that, there were several more sharks, which Santiago tried to scare away with a knife and a huge club. They all took turns biting the fish, so soon the old man noticed that he only had the huge head of the prey and its backbone tied to the boat.
Ernest Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an exhausted Santiago enters the bay and goes home. In the morning Manolin comes to him. The boy notices the wounded hands of the protagonist and tries to think how to help the old man. He brings him coffee and tells him that he wants to continue fishing together so that Santiago does not feel lonely. That same morning, all the villagers look at the old man’s huge catch. Even tourists gathered around the fish, trying to figure out what exactly Santiago had caught. The old man continues to sleep soundly and dreams of huge lions walking along the coast of Africa.
The story “The Old Man and the Sea” on the Top books website
Hemingway’s story “The Old Man and the Sea” is still as popular to read as it was decades ago. Thanks to this, the story ended up in ours, as well as in. And given the consistently high interest in Hemingway’s work and creativity, we will see this work more than once among.
The story “The Old Man and the Sea” is one of the last completed works of Ernest Hemingway. Literary scholars define the genre of this work as a story-parable. The story is closely related to all the writer’s previous works and is the pinnacle of his thinking about the meaning of life. Its plot can be retold in a few sentences.
Santiago: sant - saint, iago - ego. Santiago is a holy man. He symbolizes holiness, his actions, besides, he is old and his old age and death are approaching. The sea is a symbol of life, life itself. The old man also symbolizes strength. Despite the fact that he is old, he is a strong man, both in spirit and in body. In his youth, he was strong and rarely got sick, which means he did not feel weak or dependent on anyone. No wonder the old man dreamed of lions. Firstly, the lion is a symbol of happiness. This is a harmonious, strong animal. Secondly, the lion is a symbol of strength. The old man symbolizes human experience and at the same time its limitations. Next to the old fisherman, the author depicts a little boy who is learning and adopting the experience of the old man. Old people are like children, only the former are much more experienced. The loneliness of man is revealed by the author in symbolic pictures of the shuttle against the backdrop of the boundless ocean. The ocean symbolizes both eternity and an irresistible natural force. Hemingway himself, when asked about symbols, answered: “Obviously, there are symbols, since critics do nothing but find them. Sorry, but I hate talking about them and I don't like being asked about them. Writing books and stories is difficult enough without any explanation. In addition, this means taking bread from specialists... Read what I write, and do not look for anything other than your own pleasure. And if you need anything else, find it, it will be your contribution to what you read.”
Sail – correlates with the symbolism of air and wind. It is an attribute of Fortune, which personifies its inconstancy.
Sea - the ancient Greeks saw the sea as the embodiment of the maternal principle. At the same time, this is an image of an element that brings natural disaster and death. Sailing at sea is often seen as a state between life and death. Bone - in the Bible there is an episode where bones scattered across a field are reborn into flesh at the behest of the Lord. The bone thus becomes a symbol of life and faith in a future resurrection.
The ending of the story also becomes symbolic. The old man sleeps and dreams of lions. And next to him, watching his sleep, sits a boy. Youth is next to him both in the form of a boy and in the form of lions, which often come into the old man’s dreams from his youth and make him remember his youth and wanderings in Africa. In these dreams, the old man becomes young again.
In its stylistics and figurative style, the story “The Old Man and the Sea” is close to the literary genre of parable, which is based on allegories and provides for some moral science. Many critics accepted it as a parable and tried to interpret the whole story of the old man as a symbolic image of the struggle between good and evil, the struggle of man with nature. Hemingway himself protested against such a one-sided and simplified interpretation of his work, defending the realistic basis of the story. He said: “No beautiful book will ever be written in such a way that the symbols in it were thought out in advance and then inserted into it. Such symbols rise to the top like raisins in raisin bread. Bread with a twist is beautiful, but simple bread is better.” In The Old Man and the Sea I tried to create a real old man, a real sea, real fish and real sharks. But if I have done them quite well and quite truthfully, they can mean a lot."