great and significance conveyed by a compressed action. The core of the novel’s action is fishing. To the hero, fishing is not simply of contest in life. It contains profound philosophic meaning. In addition, two details-the baseball match and the hand wresting with the Negro, like fishing, symbolize the contention in life. They compensate and enrich the inner meaning of the main plot of fishing. So the simplicity of the novel is highly suggestive.
Occasionally, the author uses such figures of speech as metaphor, personification, etc to describe details. Hemingway likes to us natural things to make metaphors. For example, he describes Santiago’s eyes as “the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.”11The metaphor reveals that the old man is closely linked with nature. At the beginning of the novel, a simile is used: “the sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.”12 Here Santiago’s eyes are contrasted with the patched sail, which symbolize defeat, as reveals Santiago’s unyielding character.
So Hemingway has formed of narrative and dialogue, though natural and simple on the surface, is actually deliberated and artificial. It combines elements that are realistic with elements that are stylized and heightened.
How Hemingway has formed such a writing style? The reason is related to his own experiences. “His use of short sentences and paragraphs and vigorous and positive language, and the deliberate avoidance of gorgeous adjectives are some of the traces of his early journalistic practices.”13 After leaving school at 17, he went to the Kansas City Star, which was one of the best newspapers in America at that time. He served as its eager and energetic reporter. As a journalist, Hemingway trained himself in the economy of expression. He once said that, during his working in Star, he had to learn to use simple sentences,
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