The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's masterpiece. As he himself said, "This is the best work I can write in my life, which can be used as the end of all my creations." This work is the last flash of the author's thoughts in his later years. "Man can be destroyed, but not defeated" is the theme to be revealed in the novel. The image of Santiago, the hero, fighting alone in the vast sea is the continuation and development of Hemingway's image of "tough guy" in the 1920s and 1930s.

1953 In May, The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize, and Hemingway became the Nobel Prize in Literature winner of 1954. Emotional characters, profound psychological description, unparalleled harmony between plot and scenery, concise narration and fluent writing have long been evaluated in art, which is one of the reasons why it has become Hemingway's narrative art treasure.

The story of The Old Man and the Sea is very simple. There are only two characters, the old man Santiago and the child Manorine. On the surface, although the old man failed, he did not give in mentally. It can be said that this is a hymn of unbeaten losers, which shows Hemingway's superb narrative art, in which the characters portrayed are full of emotions, and the psychological description of the characters is naturally integrated with the scenes and scenery in the works. The narrative is concise and concise, and the writing is smooth and clear.

First of all, the novel comes straight to the point, and the first few strokes point out the whole story: "He is an old man, fishing alone in a boat in the Gulf Stream. He has been walking for 84 days and hasn't caught a fish. " When showing the image of the old man, the author used a very simple line drawing technique to roughly outline the appearance of the old man: "The old man has deep wrinkles on his back neck and looks thin and haggard. There are brown papules on both sides of his face, which are sarcoma caused by sunlight reflected from the tropical sea ... every part of his body looks old except his eyes. Those eyes, as blue as the sea, are happy but not depressed. " This is the youth of the elderly. Then, according to the development of the story, it tells the story of the old man Santiago's experience at sea and his friendship with Manorine, and then gradually unfolds the story.

Secondly, Hemingway draws lessons from the intuitive expression of western modernist painters, and depicts actions and shapes characters from the perspectives of vision, hearing, smell and touch. He vividly described the behavior of Santiago. The author is good at capturing the movements of the narrative object, such as the passage in which the old man put the bait into the water: "Before dawn, he put down the bait and drifted with the waves. Every bait is hung straight, the hook handle is inserted into the bait of the coarse fish, fastened and sewn, and the protruding part, curved part and tip of the hook are covered with fresh sardines ... When the sun rises for the third time, he only feels that the pressure of the rope is slightly relaxed, so he gently pulls it with his right hand, and the rope is tightened as usual, but he pulls to the broken edge and the rope begins to shrink inward. He put his shoulders and head out from under the rope and began to take it in gently. He shook his hands and tried to pull with his body and legs. The old legs and shoulders rotate with the swinging action of the rope. " The author gave a very accurate and detailed description of how he and Manorine prepared before going out to sea, how to observe the bait on the sea after going out to sea, how to catch the fish after the fish was hooked, and how to fight the shark with all their strength at last. Write about people in motion, sketch with line drawing, and write the specific actions of the old man clearly and vividly.

In addition, the author inserted narrative into the direct narrative, which interweaves the old man's memories of the past and his feelings about the present. Shortly after the old man went out to sea, he dreamed of the beaches, straits and mountains in Africa he had seen as a child. The next day, I remembered the background of my victory on the dock with a Hercules. He often thinks of The Lion's Dream, misses Manorine and talks to himself in the vast sea, which brings him strength and courage. He sometimes talks about "killing fish is a sin" and feels deeply about the injured left hand, for example, "What kind of hand is this?" These psychological descriptions and detailed descriptions are often combined seamlessly. Describing the appearance, experience, living environment and living conditions of the old man in the tone of the third person "He" shows the reader a tough guy image who is weather-beaten, strong and independent. The narrator's person is constantly changing-the third person and the first person are used alternately, which makes the monotonous fishing process colorful and fascinating.

The Old Man and the Sea pays great attention to the perfection and strong contrast of care. The old man lives alone in a humble hut by the sea. At the dawn of the 85th day, he carried tools from here and was sent out to sea by his children. Two days later, at dawn, he sailed back to the seaside alone. The child came to him first, and the whole story is like this. In terms of time, place, characters, props, etc., a caring relationship has been formed, and a perfect aesthetic feeling has been produced. At the same time, the strength of the old man's character is gradually revealed in a series of conflicts such as going out to sea, catching marlin and fighting sharks. Big marlin, fierce sharks, they are strong and do whatever they want; The old man is old and weak, facing powerful opponents alone, and the confrontation and conflict are very fierce. The old man can finally beat back all the attackers, and this power cannot but be admired. This kind of struggle between the weak and the strong can strengthen contradictions and conflicts and more clearly highlight the deep level of the protagonist. Using such reference and comparison in this paper is helpful to grasp the works comprehensively and intensively, and has a strong sense of wholeness.

Yu Xiansheng once commented that The Old Man and the Sea is just a simple story, but it has become a great work. Why? Because there is an "unknown structure" in this work. What is an "unknown structure"? Even after reading this work, it is difficult for you to evaluate whether this old man named Santiago is a success or a failure. He struggled hard and caught a very huge fish, but in the end, he pulled back an empty skeleton. Is he a winner or a loser? Mr Hemingway has been consciously or unconsciously accumulating or looking for a way to release his heart. The Old Man and the Sea is his way of expressing his life. The old man is actually his own symbol. "People can be destroyed, but they cannot be defeated." This can almost be regarded as the spiritual pillar of Hemingway's life.