Roll
No. : 29
Paper
No : 10
Paper
Name : American Literature
Class
: MA Sem 3
Topic
: American Dream and Existentialism in old man and the sea
Enrolment
No : 2069108420190024
Email
Id : ruchikankrecha06@gmail.com
College
: SMT. S. B. Gardi Department of English
Submitted
to : Department of English
“Every day is a new day,
It is better to be lucky.
But I would rather be exact,
Then
when luck comes you are
Ready “
Introduction
:
‘The
old man and the sea’ is one of the best novel written by Earnest Hemingway. He
was an American short story writer, Journalist, Novelist and also sport man. When
we read his works, we can find some common themes such as, love, war,
wilderness, struggle, and loss etc. He also won the noble prize in literature
in 1954. His famous works are,
1.
To have and have not
(1937)
2.
The sun also rises
(1926)
3.
The old man and the sea
(1952)
4.
Adventure of a young
man (1962)
In
1930s, were filled with writing and adventure and as Hemingway hunted in Africa
and fished in the gulf stream near to Cuba. He also reported on the Spanish
Civil war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. The mid 1030s, Hemingway
began gathering material for the old man and the sea. The other parts which is
edited by Charles Scribner were later published in 1970 as Islands in the
stream and the old man and the sea won the Pulitzer prize in 1952. After two
years Hemingway also awarded the Nobel prize for literature. After some times,
he approached his sixties and his health began deteriorating. He suffered from
hypertension, depression and paranoia and committed suicide in 1961. So he is
remembered as one of the great stylistic innovator of the modern American
Literature.
Old
man and the sea :
The
old man and the sea is best novella which is published in 1952. This is the
story of one old fisherman Santiago and his struggle against Marline. In this
novella, there were following characters.
1.
Santiago – a man with
will power
2.
Marlin – symbol of
great achievement or opportunity
3.
Manolin– little boy
The
story as a depiction of the author’s real life experience. Hemingway was an
fisherman himself had caught his shore of Marline and witnessed shark attack at
his prize. In the novella we can find Following symbols.
1.
The sea – the
environment controls the lives of people, novel as an example of naturalism,
man was most able to prove himself worthy in Isolation.
2.
The Mast – one of the
religious symbolism, the torn of the mast lost harpoon – loss of power
3.
Lions – a common symbol
of pride which he value so much
4.
Religious symbolism –
Santiago as a god like figure, he suffers greatly but does nothing to help
anyone. He is on receiving end of help from the boy. Santiago credit himself
with an ability to triumph over adversity through a combination of will and
intelligence.
5.
Dimaggio – a model
against which Santiago Judges himself.
The
old man and the sea is the story of Santiago who is an agian Cuba fisherman man
and who alone in his life or in boat faces the most difficult fight against an
big fish Marlin. As we know that he is old and everything about him is old
expect his eyes and they were cheerful and undefeated. Santiago has lost his
fisherman’s identity or luck and he had gone eight – four days without catching
fish. Manolin’s parents called him to join another boat but still he believed
that his old man is good man and he has ability to prove himself. The other
fisherman make fun of Santiago but old man himself remain hopeful and
undefeated. Every day 7he struggled a lot to prove himself. The boy still loves
Santiago and help him a lot. The boy bring him food and clothing. When they
meet, Santiago and Manolintalked about Baseball and the important player of the
period, the DiMaggio. The old man also tells him about his past life and when
he sleep, he dreams of being young again like the Manolin and seeing lions on
the beaches in the evening. Old man’s boy is old but still strong. One day he
decide to go and he find one big fish Marlin – two feet longer than the skiff. Just
think what will we do when we find this kind of big fish. We will stop or runs
away. May be we will go back. But old man remembers his younger days when he arm
wrestled a man in a Casablanca tavern. So to catch this fish Santiago struggle
a lot but never defeated. In last he came back with the skeleton of Marlin.
“Those who live the struggle and exhibit
special process are Hemingway’s heroes. Those who don’t are depicted as
failures and weeklings”
Existentialism
in the old man and the sea :
Existentialism
studies about our existence. Why we all are here or what are we doing here?
This kind of question Existentialist ask or study. Why do we exist or in this
world in which we know that death certain. Our life is very uncertain but death
is certain. Still we keep on living or going. When we want to see this we have
to read the myth of Sisyphus. We all in hope that we will get the meaning but
it is not possible. So to live life we all are doing something. In waiting for
godat by Samuel Beckett, we can see that Vladimir and Estragon both are waiting
and while waiting they are doing some activities like changing the caps,
questions and answers etc. So they have hope that god will come. Existential says
that we are waiting for death. Death will definitely come but when we don’t
know. So we all are born here to do something or maybe something not. We can
only wait for death but we are not doing this. While waiting we are doing
something we are achieving something in our life. While waiting we all are
doing something. All human actions are meaninglessness or pointless even we are
doing in the hope of one thing which is certain is death. As we believe that
death is the medium to be free and that’s why we all are waiting for death. So
to wait is to exist. Throughyour entire existence you are continuously waiting
for something which is certain is death. If you accept death as it is than it
may create negative attitude but we have to see it objectively. You should keep
on working. Wait for something positively not negatively. So you like waiting
and all the experience. Be like a Sisyphus. One you start working, you like it.
In
old man and the sea we can see the life of old man (Santiago).So the old man
gives us positive existential attitude. He is keep on going even after he is
not getting anything or able to catch the fish and still hr keep on going. When
he see the marlin, at that time he is not stopping but keep going because he
knows that in life if you want to achieve something than this is the best time
to achieve. He think that I will go with marlin and his this positive attitude
proves him right. If he will think that marlin never come and why should I wait
than many we go back but he knows that marlin will come.
American
Dream :
Throughout
the history, American people believe that we are great and they are living with
the American dream. They have hope or belief that America is the best place to
live and they are believe that we will provide all the necessary thinks to
people. American dreams began after American independence movement. In America
there were party like Liberalist and they decided that we will prove that our
nation is best or greatest nation of the world. In Moby Dick or in The old man
and the sea we can find this dream. Romantic age in American movement is full
of this American dreams. There are cases where the Romantics and the critics
have try to break this American dream idea. They are saying that American dream
is just an illusion and we should not completely blind by this kind of think. After
all this is just an dream and it is an illusory concept. If you want to build
the nation, you can build it and you don’t need any dreams. You can do this by
your hard work and skills. You are binding other for your illusory dream.
In
the old man and the sea, the marlin signifies this American dream. So marlin is
American dream which old man wants to achieve. So the hope which embodies the
American dream is exemplified by Marlin. The old man is in hope to achieving
this American dream, in the hope of developing himself, in the hope of doing
something. At first, it is just an illusion and at the second level, it becomesan
ideal situation where you want the country tone better. The American dream is
the principle which explains contains rather than perfection. So Marlin
signifies this perfection. So we can say that,
1.
American dreams as an idea of perfection or
principle of success or development
2.
Marlin as the American
dream or metaphor for the American dream.
In
the Moby dick we can see the idea of American dream as well. The author
questioning the idea of the American dream.In t .his, the sailor fightingwith Moby-dick
or not trying to catch it. He is not on hope of catching the fish but he wants
to fight or defeat Moby Dick. So if the Moby Dick is strong, then he wants to
prove that he is stronger than Moby dick. So there is a revenge motif going on.
So
when we read this kind of work at that time we can see that all the writers are
questioning the things rather than accepting.
Conclusion
:
So
in the old man and the sea, we can find many interesting points which are
related to our life as well.
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