II The Tragic Color in The Old Man and the Sea
A. Definition of the Tragic Color
In the ancient Greek, tragedy is defined as Socrates died from poison; Jesus was hung on the cross. In the eyes of westerners, tragedy is the highest art in aesthetics. Some artists even thought real art only comes from tragedy. A large number of writers and artists focus their eyes on tragedy, so that they are willing to create their works with tragedies.
There are so many explanations for the word “tragedy”. The definition of tragedy in the Dictionary of Literature Theory is: “tragedy is a story with contradictory confliction ended up with the good person’s unfortunate fate.” Aristotle, who is one of the greatest teachers in ancient educational history, has ever defined tragedy thus: “tragedy, then, is and imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.”(王佐良，2004，29) Chinese famous literary writer Lu Xun defined the word “tragedy” that: tragedy destroys the most valuable things in people’s life in front of human beings. Generally speaking, tragedy only refers to good persons’ unfortunate fate. In the eyes of this thesis’ author, according to this Hemingway’s novel—The Old Man and the sea, which is a typically works that comply with Chinese tragic recognition---destroy the old man’s efforts in front of people. That is the cruelty of tragedy. In this medium-length novel, tragedy represented in many respects, such as the old man tortured by loneliness, sickness and so on, even the titanic fish has its tragedy.
B. Tragic Color Represented in the Novel
Tragic color in this novel is mainly represented in two quarters, the first respect is the titanic fish’s inborn tragedy; the second part is the old man’s tragedy.
1. Titanic Fish’s Tragedy
The first tragedy is existed in the giant marlin’s tragedy. Fish is born to be defeated, it’s an immutable fact.
It was defeated by the old man, andthen it was destroyed completely by four fierce sharks’ continually attack. A fish is born to be defeated, its fate is bound to be defeated and shared by human beings or other stronger animals. That’s a fish’s tragedy. It’s an inborn loser.
2. The Old Man’s Tragedy
The titanic fish’s tragedy is one of tragedies in the novel, but the old man’s tragedy is the main tragedy in it.
From the very beginning of this novel, Hemingway depicted the sad tone that a poor and lonely man with shabby boat, deep sea as background is also symbolizes a kind of sad tone, these sad tones last at the end of this novel.
The old man’s wife has been dead for many years, without leaving any descendants, he misses his wife very much, in order to not miss his wife, he puts off all of his wife’s color photos, because he feels so lonely once he sees those photos.
The old man’s tragedy is also represented in no one care about him except his good friend, a little boy named Mandolin. However, the little boy could not always stay with him and take care of him. During the days the old man sails into deep sea with his outsized dream, no one company with the old man, he feels so lonely. He misses his beloved wife and his good friend---the little boy, he wants the little boy to help him and speak to him, but he can only speak to himself, the giant marlin, little tired bird and the deep blue sea. During those days, with little food and sleep, he endures much pain and fights against his treacherous hand cramp, no one helps him, the old man says to himself again and again: “that’s great if the little boy is here”.
The result of his sailing is also one of tragedies in the novel. After he has caught the giant marlin, and returns to shore, he only takes a big fish skeleton, people respect his capability but he dissatisfies with the result and he still feels frustrated. He expresses his loneliness to the little boy. There are no more words for him, the fatigue and his tortured heart made him feels so tired, he sleeps deeply in his shabby boat. He dreams of a group of lions which symbolizes success, but this sailing is not thought as a successful one by himself.
All of old man’s tragedies come from himself at heart. There is a contradiction existed in his mind. His whole life depends on the sea and of course he has become an old experienced fisherman for he has been living in the sea for many years. But at this time he catches nothing for 84 days. Other people or fisherman starts to suspect his ability and joke about his decreased capabilities of fishing. Gossips made the old man determine to sail into the deep sea, which leads to his tragedy, because sailing to the deep sea has surpassed his capability in his old age. He still wants to become a successful fisherman in people’s eyes; but his outsized dream’s destruction made him feels so sad. In the end, the old man becomes more silent, he only wants to sleep in order to refresh his body, and he only expresses his sadness, but not his ambition to conquer the sea any more. At that time, he has realized his dream could not be fulfilled any more. Even through he knows his ability could not realize his outsized dream completely, this dream could not vanish in his mind. At the last paragraph of this novel, words from a female traveler made readers give more pity on the old man, the female traveler points the titanic skeleton and asks a waiter what it is. Not until the waiter explains, she thought it is a shark’s skeleton and cries out “I has never saw such a beautiful shark’s tail”. The old man’s dream completely shattered, his fruit has been mistakably regarded as a shark’s skeleton. People around the shore don’t understand what the old man strives for in his old ages. No one understands his sadness besides himself. If he doesn’t want to become a successful fisherman in his old age, he could enjoy himself till the end of his life.
Throughout the novel, all of the old man’s tragedies come from his ambition, his outsized dream. He is too old to sail into the deep sea and he should stay in peaceful harbor; enjoy himself in his little boat although life may be poor, however, he needn’t prove his ability to other people. In one word, perfectionism leads to Santiago’s outsized dream which caused his tragedy.
III Perfectionism
A. Definition
If a person with a character who always compares himself or his achievements with perfect things, this kind of person is a perfectionist. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary explains “perfectionist” as the following two meanings: one: person who is not satisfied with anything less than perfection; two: person who insists on perfection in every detail even when it is not necessary. Famous psychologist Burn pointed out:“perfectionist is a person who determine to get higher aims, and compel himself to pursuit their aims excessively. In the process of pursuing those aims, they are easy to hurt themselves”.
One of perfectionist’s main features is their eagerness to prove their ability. Psychologist Karen Harney has already given these explanations for perfectionist’s eagerness: “the meaning of perfectionist’s life is not existed in his happiness and enjoyments, but focus on his accomplishments about his own responsibilities and compulsory. In terms of their motivation of life, they are not willing to acquire happiness but pursue right and perfect things in all of their life.”
The other main feature of perfectionist is their self-contradictory characteristic; many perfectionists struggled in their self-contradictory minds. Generally speaking, perfectionist’s character is always stubborn, straitlaced, and inflexible. They always plan a high standard for themselves and try their best to achieve it, if they failed, they will feel so sad and hard to accept the result. This could explain why perfectionists are easy to involve in depression, once they fall into the sadness, they also can not make them catch up again.
本文来源：http://www.010zaixian.com/wenxue/laorenyuhai/893790.htm