Analysis of Santiago in the Old Men and the Sea

Abstract

The American writer Ernest Hemingway created a series of tough characters in his masterworks. Santiago could be regarded as the essence and sublimation of Hemingway's tough character in his creation of literature The Old Man and the Sea.  "Man is not made for defeat, a man can be destroyed, but not defeated." It is the attitude to life that endues the character with courage, confidence, self-esteem, and never-give-up spirits. The novel focused on describing the protagonist of fishing alone on the sea for three days and nights. The plot is exceedingly simple but meaningful. In recent decades, domestic and overseas scholars did a lot of researches on The Old Man and the Sea, but most of them regarded tragedy consciousness, nihility thought and artistic characteristics as the heart of the study. This thesis wants to analyze why the old man cannot combine with today’s social environment. The author believes that there will always be reasons for failure and no matter how time and space changes. One should be able to introspection, otherwise, you will be the next tragedy definitely.

Keywords Social environment Failure reason Self-examination

【摘要】：

美国作家海明威在作品中塑造了一系列硬汉形象,《老人与海》中的圣地亚哥可以说是海明威式“硬汉”形象的概括和升华。“人不是为失败而生的,一个人可以被毁灭,但不能给打败。”正是这种人生态度赋予了他笔下的圣地亚哥——勇敢、自信、自尊,永不屈服的性格特征。小说的主要篇幅集中在描写主人公单身一人在海上三天三夜的捕鱼活动，虽然情节十分简单，但是寓意深刻。 

近几十年来，国内外学者对老人与海进行了大量的研究，他们大多把小说的硬汉形象、悲剧意识、虚无思想和艺术特色等作为研究重点，而笔者更多的是想结合自身所处的当今社会环境，去分析老人失败的原因。因为笔者认为失败总是会有原因的，不管时空转变，我们应该善于总结、自省，而不能一味盲目跟从，不然也许下一个悲剧就是你自己。

【关键词】 圣地亚哥 当今环境 失败原因 自省

Contents

Abstract I

Contents I

1. Introduction 2

2. Literature Review 3

3. Santiago’ outcome in current social environment 4

3.1 Current Situation of China's Workplace 4

3.2 The main cause of Santiago's failure 4

4. The worth learning spirit in Santiago 6

4.1 Daring spirit for facing the challenge 6

4.2 Everlasting Hope for the future 7

4.3 Heroic behavior in the actual battle 7

4.4 Loneliness endurance in the long fighting 9

5. Conclusion 10

6. References 11