第1个回答 2014-01-02
There are around 700 relevant reviews.I copied and pasted two longer ones below.I also found and pasted a review in Chinese below.
1.Hemingway delivered his last masterpiece with this book, a cultural phenomenon when first published in the early '50s: in an unprecedented move, Life Magazine published the novella in its entirety,recognizing that Hemingway, the most influential writer of 20th century American literature and then a world-wide celebrity, had delivered a long-awaited masterful story. The Life magazine edition sold more than 5 million copies in a week so this book reached tens of millions of people within days - not many authors can achieve that! And that's before becoming a much beloved story translated into scores of languages. It is fair to say that this book, which won the Pullitzer Prize, reignited the interest and respect for Hemingway as a serious writer and might have been the decisive factor for his Nobel Prize award.
It is so disappointing when people say that story is boring and has too much simbolism... if you have experience fishing or sailing or simply appreciating the sea and nature, then the book offers a marvellous account of man AND nature (not man vs. nature). As for the simbolism, don't dwell too much on it. Hemingway himself said that the book is about "an old man, a boy, a fish and the sea", but if the story is told well enough (as it is on this book) it can mean so much more.
And the story is indeed so much more, in no small part because of the inherent goodness of the old man. That's how I enjoy and interpret the book: it is a straightforward tale of an old man embracing the struggles and rewards of life with courage, dignity and still full of the human spirit. Santiago is one of the most dignified characters in Literature, and I have to say he is my favorite and a bit of a personal hero... the old fisherman strives to be the best he can be and do the best he can do... he does not complain of his living in poverty, do not blame others for anything. His spirit is big, generous, undefeated. While other Hemingway heroes might have disappointed some people by way of too much machismo, Santiago keeps all the best traits of courage, resilience and non-nonsense survivalism, while displaying more maturity and humility - perhaps reflecting the middle-age wisdom of the author (then is his fifties).
Hemingway story-telling skills are at his best here. I am a big fan of his style, particularly in the short-story format, but here he is astounding all the way. yeah, the prose is deceptively simple at first, but if you pay attention we can see the craft of a master. The opening sentence alone is formidable and could only be delivered by a master of the short-story format. Ihe last sentence is also wonderful and pure Hemingway- simple but infinitely deep, and in this story hopeful and bitter-sweet.
In between, Hemingway writes with uncanny power,in such a way that you can fully experience what the character is going through: first you see what the old man does, from mundane tasks and spadework to the excitement of the deep-sea hunt and the exhausting struggle, and in the process you start to think the way Santiago thinks and finally you are feeling the way he feels. It is magical if you only give it a try. Granted, it is easier to immerse into this story if you are familiar with the ways of fishing and the ocean, but in any case, when Santiago is alone in the boat looking at the sea creatures or at the night-sky... I guess the recognition of the infinite solitude of human condition, mitigated by the bonding with the life and the world around us, that is truly universal.
2. Ernest Hemingway, the author of The Old Man and the Sea, is a novelist, short-story writer who liked to depict people whose courage and honesty are set against the atrocious ways of society and in the midst of the confrontation, would lose all optimism and faith. A classical novella, The Old Man and the Sea, displays emotional sentiment virtually throughout the story. This is a heroic story that is perfectly written and that is filled with perseverance, pride and friendship. This novella mostly takes action at the sea.
Santiago, the old Cuban man, goes for eighty-four days without catching a fish. His buddy, Manolin, strongly believes in the old man that he can catch a fish. Manolin has been deprived of going with the old man who has worst luck. The two of them like to talk about baseball in their conversation. Santiago's favorite baseball player is the great DiMaggio.
On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago goes sailing far beyond the island's shallow coastal waters and ventures into the Gulf Stream. Like always, whenever he throws the line that has the bait fixed to it, a fish would eat whatever is attached to that line and rapidly move away. The following is a battle which tests the old man's skill to suffer to the limit. It was as if perseverance was in the man's blood. At noon, this particular marlin catches on the line and actually moves the skiff along. The strange man points out that the fish was two feet longer than the skiff. During some time, when the line was steady hard, Santiago's left hand got cramped. He disgustingly looks at his hand and asks it how it is doing after eating fish that he caught earlier.
While weariness hit him, he remembers the time when he and an African American went one day and one night arm wrestling. By remembering this event, he gave himself confidence. At daylight, the old man defeated the African American and became known as "The Champion." This memory effectively shows that the old man has sustained before and can still endure the encounter with the enormous fish.
During the whole story, the old man wishes that the boy was with him to see this magnificent fish. He has only three things that are his brothers, his two hands and the fish. He greatly admires this marlin but at the end, he pities the great fish that he had hooked. On the third day of the struggle, the fish circles around the boat which means exhaustion. This was the time for the old man to strike into the fish.
Hemingway effectively shows his objective by describing an old man against society (the fish and the sea). Frankly, this simple book is mostly about fishing, friendship, and endurance. I strongly encourage anyone who enjoys to fish to read this novella. Its suspenseful climax really lures the reader to finish the book. I liked this book because of the structure on how it is written and its simplistic wording.
第2个回答 2014-01-02
1The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works.Told in language of great simplicity and power,it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman,down on his luck,and his supreme ordeal——a relentless,agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.Here Hemingway recasts,in strikingly contemporary style,the classic thene of courage in the face of defeat,of personal triumph won from los.Written in 1952,this hugely successfully novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a huge part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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Comments by Bob Corbett
January 2006
Once again I return to the work of Ernest Hemingway after an almost 50 year hiatus. The Old Man and the Sea is a magnificent story. At one level it is the tale of a man and a fish, at another, a story of man versus nature, at yet another, the story of the culture of manhood, courage, bravery in the face of existence, and at yet another a history of what life was like when individuals were more the central actors on the human stage and not groups or organizations.
At the most basic level the very elderly fisherman, Santiago, goes out in his small fishing boat after 84 days without hooking a decent fish. He goes far out, and hooks a gigantic 18 foot long sword fish. The battle then begins, and the fish drags the small boat and Santiago far out to sea. For two days they battle, and Santiago wins that battle, but then loses the great fish on the way home to the scavenger sharks who find him easy prey.
Hemingway celebrates the courage and raw guts of this old man, even recounting a time in Casablanca when he had spent an entire day in an arm wrestling match with a much larger man in a seaside tavern. Hemingway celebrates a concept of humans as beings who go it alone, fierce, brave, courageous without even thinking about it, oozing strength from the nature of the best of the species.
The story is told with incredible economy of words and description, yet nothing is sacrificed which drives home the power and inner strength of this man, who just takes it as what he does, what it is to be a serious fisherman.
Hemingway抯 world is not my world. I am no Santiago, no macho man. And the culture of today has little place left for the radical individual whom Hemingway celebrates and Santiago portrays. Yet the power of Hemingway抯 telling is such that I couldn抰 help but be on Santiago抯 side, to admire him, to ache with his loss in the end to forces greater than he.
There is a side tale as well. This great individual, the man who stands alone, is not alone completely by choice. He has developed a friendship, a working relationship, a love with a young boy who began fishing with him when the boy was only five. Now the boy has moved on to another boat, a more successful one, at his parents?behest, but he pines to work with Santiago, and when the battle with the great fish has been engaged, Santiago pleads over and over and over wish the boy were here.?
Like many readers who might come upon this novel today, I live a life of citified ease and comfort. A life far removed from harsh confrontations with nature. But Hemingway forces me to remember and acknowledge the individual, the struggle for the most basic existence, the battle with nature for survival itself. But most importantly he makes one acknowledge the importance of the individual and the magnificence of courage, skill, art and endurance.