摘 要

海明威一生中发表了很多作品，《老人与海》是其中最经典的作品，该小说先后获得了普利策奖和诺贝尔文学奖，也奠定了海明威在世界文学中的突出地位。小说的背景是 20 世纪中叶的古巴，当时古巴人民遭受殖民者的压迫，想要争取民族独立，思想解放。本文旨在通过分析《老人与海》中马林鱼这一特殊意象的使用，研究它对于当时背景下的个人和社会的象征意义，认为这一意象反映出努力拼搏、坚持不懈的精神，这对于社会底层人民起到了重要作用，同时对现代人在面对挫折和挑战时也有精神启发。本文主要从两个方面进行研究：一方面从个体的角度，根据老人出海前后心理的变化，分析马林鱼对个体的象征意义； 另一方面，从社会的角度，进一步分析马林鱼自身的变化对当时的古巴社会带来的影响。马林鱼这一形象，最终也体现了作者对现实的看法和态度，从而成为作者追求理想和希望的载体，就这一方面，以后可以作进一步研究。

关键词：海明威；象征意义；马林鱼

ABSTRACT

Hemingway published many works in his life. The Old Man and the Sea is one of the most classic works. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature and it also helps Hemingway become an outstanding writer. The background of the book is in the middle of the twentieth century. At that time Cubans suffered from colonial oppression and they wanted to fight for national independence and ideological emancipation. This thesis aims to study the image in The Old Man and the Sea from the perspective of the personality and society to demonstrate the persistent spirit reflected by image at that time. It mainly studies from two aspects: on the one hand, analyzing the symbolic meaning of marlin according the old man’s changes of psychological; on the other hand, analyzing the influence from the changes of marlin. Marlin finally reflects the author’ view and attitude of reality.

Key words: Hemingway; symbolism; marlin

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 2
   1. Symbolism in writing 2
      1. Introduction of symbolism 2
      2. Symbolism in Hemingway’s works 3
      3. Symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea 4
   2. Symbolism of marlin from two aspects 5
      1. Analysis of marlin from the perspective of the individual 5
      2. Analysis of marlin from the perspective of the society 6
   3. The influence and inspiration of marlin 7
      1. The social influence 7
      2. The inspiration to modern world 8
3. Conclusion 9

An Analysis of Symbolism of Marlin in The Old

Man and the Sea

Introduction

Ernest Miller Hemingway, an American writer and journalist, is considered one of the most famous novelists in the twentieth Century. He has won many awards in his life. In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1954, the book helped Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature. The old Man and the Sea is the most classic work in Hemingway’s whole life and it also helped him become an outstanding writer in world literature. Hemingway himself also thought it was the best piece of work he could do in his life.

The study of The Old Man and the Sea by foreign scholars is mainly from the perspective of religion, psychology, ecology and so on. Baker analyzes the worship of humanity and tragic heroic color. Burhans analyzes the courage, love, humility, loneliness, interdependence in terms of symbolism and irony. Glen A. Love points out that Santiago represents the undisputed tragic hero and fully proves that the spirit of human fighting for nature rules, in order to explain the importance of nature in Hemingway's heart. Carlos Baker analyzes the worship of humanity and tragic heroic color in his journal "Hemingway: The Writer as Artist."Clinton S Burhans analyzes the courage, love, humility, loneliness, interdependence in terms of symbolism and irony in his journal "The Old Man and the Sea: Hemingway's Tragic Vision of Man." Glen A. Love points out that Santiago represents the undisputed tragic hero and fully proves that the spirit of human fighting for nature rules in his journal "The Ecocriticism Reader", in order to explain the importance of nature in Hemingway's heart.

Compared with studies abroad, the study of symbolism in the novel is more

popular in china. Gao Heshun uses the iceberg principle to analyze the rich symbolism of the old man, a little boy, the marlin, the shark, the lion and so on, shows

the value of human life. Gao Hui interprets the symbolic meaning of sea from the ecological point of view in the old man and the sea, and she points out that human destroying nature will be punished; only the harmonious coexistence is the best method. Li Hongxia makes us learn more by analyzing the symbolic meaning of the boy, the boy's kindness, generosity and positive attitude towards life. Tan Xiaoping pointed out that an important reason to get a great success of the novel is that the author created several distinctive and symbolic meanings in the novel in the literary image. Marlin is one of them.

The research on symbolic meaning of the old man is very common, but few people study the symbolic meaning of the marlin. This thesis aims to focus on the symbolic image of marlin. On the one hand, from the individual's emotional changes and psychological activities, it analyzes the symbolism of marlin for his personal; on the other hand, from the change of marlin itself, it analyzes its symbolic meaning under the social background.

Demonstration

Symbolism in writing

Symbolism is one of the schools of European and American modernist literature, which originated in France in the latter half of the nineteenth Century. It is the opposite of the naturalism movement. Its ancestor was the poet Charles Pierre Baudelaire. Later, by the succession and development of other writers, symbolism became a conscious literary movement in 1886. By the end of last century, it began to spread to other European and American countries, and gradually formed an international modernist literary movement.

• • 1. Introduction of symbolism

Symbolism is a literary trend. It mainly uses symbols to represent things. Many writers use this approach in their works. It can arouse readers’ further thinking by some concrete objects. But more often, through the symbolism, readers may explore the thoughts or theories that writers want to show and it may also help readers