论文写作试卷A卷

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东北师范大学人文学院 2011-2012学年 第一学期 期末考试试卷

课程名称：论文写作 试卷类型：A卷

考试时间：＿＿分钟 考试方式：开卷

（卷面总分100分，占总成绩的 ＿70＿ %）

题 号 得 分 I 总分 评卷教师签字 得 分 I．Writing a Literature Review Directions: Write a literature review based on the materials you have collected about certain topic. It should include a brief description of the background of your study, critical assessment of important research trends or areas of interest relevant to your study, potential gaps in knowledge, and a need for future research projects. References should be listed after the literature review in the form required in the thesis writing course. Your literature review should be around 700 words to 900 words.

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA: A brief Literature Review

The old Man and the Sea is a fable of an old man’s life which was told by Hemingway.

Hemingway is a famous American writer of modern times. He is also an international literary celebrity in the world. His father is a prominent doctor, and also a dab at fishing and hunting. The influence of his father made him full of love with fishing and hunting. His life was active and adventurous, but it was full of pains. The First and the Second World Wars had affected Hemingway a lot, he had once joined the army and had injured in Italy, and he suffered much that was brought about by the war deeply. He was disappointed with the world and pessimistic about the fate of the man.

In his early days’ novel, The Sun also rises depicts the war, describing the bewilderment of the European and American young people, then he was look down upon by someone around him and some writers. “You are all the generation that has been at a loss.” So, seeking way out and seeking the understanding of life is the theme that Hemingway wanted to explore. He was an unyielding man, so he portrayed the distinctive individual character of “the character of unyielding man”. From all the works of Hemingway’s, we can find that when Hemingway chose personage, he especially liked to choose beggar, hunter, solider and so on, they could protect their dignity by resisting

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with the world which is full of hostility, they maintain a graceful demeanor under great force, but on target. The characters of the protagonist are different from that of the early days’ novel. For example, the leading character Jordan in For whom the Bell Tolls is a hero who devotes himself to the career he incites the evil force, which reflects the cherished desire for opposing the fascism war of the people, which is full of wide social meaning and the time’s breathe. All the characters of the protagonists in his novel show his inward world---he was an unyielding man, and has the desire to be the best one in the world, all these can be improved by the protagonists that are suffering but strong-minded As a mouthpiece of “the lost generation”, Hemingway suffered cold shoulder and attack almost t en years in the commentary field. In order to save the desperate situation, Hemingway wrote a work that he firmly believes to be the best works in his life, which was called The Old Man and the Sea, which is the inheritance and development of Hemingway’s unyielding character. Hemingway grew in the time that symbolism was embodied and expanded from circle of poet into the field of literature. Hemingway himself also thought that the novel should be like an iceberg, the one-eighth reveals above the water, the other seven-eighths hide deeply in the water, which needs the reader himself to understand. In other words, one has to keep a close eye on Hemingway’s words and reading between the lines because of his highly symbolic language. The theme and the description of The Old Man and the Sea is very simple, because it reveals only one -eighth on the face, the rest seven-eighths are hidden, when reading carefully and learning about the culture and situation at that time, you can understand the real hidden part by the writer. So, the distinctive writing style of Hemingway is his iceberg theory and symbolism. Symbolism is an artistic movement in the late 19th century that tried to express abstract or mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images. In literature, it is a writing style of using something to stand for something else by reasoning of relationship, association, accident resemblance, or a visible sign of something invisible.

As a master in literature, Hemingway uses very simple words and sentences to write some magnum opus, which is his iceberg technique that he uses in his work. He believed as a good writer, he didn’t need to reveal the action or characters clearly; obscurity can give us the aesthetic sense. So the words and sentences in his work are symbolic and suggestive. That is to say, one needs keep a close eye to read his works and read between the lines deliberately. In my opinion, the arbitrariness of Hemingway about the symbolical factors fully manifest that he is unwilling to accept the laurel of “symbolist”. When we study Hemingway, we must start it from The Old Man and the Sea, which promotes his creative writing to the summit of honor. When we study The Old Man and the Sea, we have to research its symbolical factors.

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To sum up, symbolism is a noted writing characteristic in The Old Man and the Sea. The old man, the sea, the marlin,

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the lions and so on and so forth, to a large degree has deep symbolic meanings respectively. I venture to say that the book is like a complex building built with unaccountable symbols. One can get different kinds of interpretations in accordance with a variety of points of views. And one also attains different kinds of symbols from several respects. In addition, by using symbolism Hemingway succeeded in reaching his goal of conveying the main theme of the story-courage is a way leading to success. In other words, a man can be destroyed but not be defeated. Both readers and critics give the works—The Old Man and the Sea so high comment just because of the artful and successful use of symbolism. The title is a symbol that the old man stands for the human beings and the sea symbolizes nature, the simple story could be eyed as a metaphor of a struggle between man and nature. Just as Hemingway once spoke highly of his artistic achievement in the great work that The Old Man and the Sea is the only best work during his lifelong literary creation．The work is also rewarded as the best magnum opus for symbolism.

References

[1] Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story [M]. New York: Scribner, 1969.

[2] Berman, Ronald. Fitzgerald-Wilson-Hemingway :Language and Experi-ence[M]. Tuscalo-osa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.

[3] High, Peter B. An Outline of American Literature[M]. London: Longman, 1986.

[4] Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Representation[M].Dover: Dover Pubns, 1969. [5] Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea [M]. Shang hai Yi Wen Press,2003. [6] 常耀信.美国文学简史（第二版）[M].天津：南开大学出版社,2003 年. [7] 邵华.海明威[M].辽宁人民出版社，1980 年.

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