【英语论文】海明威对待命运的矛盾态度在其作品中的体现

【英语论文】海明威对待命运的矛盾态度在其作品中的体现 海明威对待命运的矛盾态度 在其作品中的体现 HEMINGWAY’S CONTRADICTORY ATTITUDES TOWARDS FATE MIRRORED IN HIS WORKS Abstract The thesis shows Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes towards fate on the basis of an analysis of the main characters in his three well-known novels. In The Sun Also Rises, the protagonist Jake is unfortunate. His wound symbolizes the cruel fate as well as Hemingway’s pessimistic attitude towards life. But Jake has changed from a depressive to a person who has found the hope for life. His change reflects Hemingway’s optimistic attitude: remaining a gleam of hope in despair. In A Farewell to Arms, the death of Catherine, meaning the loss of love too cruel a fate for the protagonist Henry to stand, reflects Hemingway’s pessimistic view of life and his disappointment at reality. But Henry has changed from a man treating life as a game to a tough guy of duty who can face his heartbreak alone, which shows Hemingway’s positive view of life. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway reveals his positive attitude towards fate through the protagonist Santiago’s unusual courage and optimism and reveals his pessimistic view of life through Santiago’s failure and loneliness. But Hemingway also leaves a gleam of hope—Manolin. The boy will be the next champion not to be defeated. Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes towards fate are fully demonstrated in the protagonists’ fates in his works. The attitudes stemmed from his family background, his complicated life experiences and the social reality in America at that time. So we cannot simply see Hemingway’s attitudes towards life and fate as either optimistic or pessimistic. His attitudes are paradoxical. On the one hand, he admires unyielding efforts and believes in the strength of human beings; on the other hand, he reveals pessimistic attitude towards life that no matter how hard one tries, his efforts are all for naught. Key words: Hemingway; Contradictory attitudes; Towards; Fate 海明威对待命运的矛盾态度在其作品中的体现 摘要 通过对海明威著名的三部小说中主要人物进行可以看出海明威对待命运的矛盾态度。《太阳照样升起》中的主人公杰克是不幸的，他的伤象征着残酷的命运以及海明威对待生活的悲观态度。但是杰克改变了，从一个忧郁悲伤的人转变成为一个找到了生活的希望的人。杰克的转变反映出海明威在绝望中保留一丝希望的乐观态度。在《永别了,武器》中，凯瑟琳之死意味着爱情的失去，是主人公亨利难以承受的残酷命运。它反映出海明威悲观的人生态度以及对现实的失望之情。但是亨利从一个游戏人生的人转变为一个有责任感并独自承受巨大悲伤的硬汉。亨利的转变显示出海明威积极的人生态度。《老人与海》中主人公圣地亚哥非凡的勇气和乐观精神显示出海明威积极的人生态度，而圣地亚哥的失败和孤独则显示出海明威悲观的人生态度。但海明威还是留下了一线希望—马洛林。这个男孩将成为下一个不会被打败的胜利者。 海明威对待生活和命运的矛盾态度通过其作品中主人公的命运得到充分展现。他的这一态度源于他的家庭背景, 他复杂的人生经历和当时美国的社会现实。 所以，不能简单地认为海明威对待命运的态度是乐观的或者是悲观的。他的态度是矛盾的。一方面，海明威赞扬不屈不挠的努力，相信人类的奋斗精神;另一方面，他显露出悲观的人生态度，即无论怎样努力，一切都是徒劳。 关键词: 海明威; 对待; 命运;矛盾态度; Contents 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….….1 1.1 About Hemingway’s three novels……………………………………………….1 1.2 The protagonists’ fates in the three novels……………………………………...1 2. An analysis of Hemingway’s attitudes towards fate …………………………….2 2.1 Attitudes towards fate in The Sun Also Rises…………………………………..2 2.2 Attitudes towards fate in A farewell to Arms…………………………………...4 2.3 Attitudes towards fate in The Old Man and the Sea……………………………6 2.4 The causes of Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes……………………………8 3. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...10 Notes…………………………………………………………………………………10 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………11 Hemingway’s Contradictory Attitudes Towards Fate Mirrored in His Works 1. Introduction 1.1 About Hemingway’s three novels Earnest Hemingway, an American novelist and short story writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He is one of the great American writers of the th20 century. Lots of his works involve his own complicated life experiences, including his participation of the two world wars and his enthusiasm for fishing, hunting, bullfighting, etc. They are his autobiography to a large degree. Hemingway reveals his own innermost feelings, including his contradictory attitudes towards life and fate through the characters’ fates in his works. With the publication of his first true novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926, Hemingway was recognized as the spokesman of the Lost Generation and became an international celebrity. The novel, sold more than one million copies during his lifetime, is about some expatriates living in postwar Paris, who try to seek psychic solace by eating, drinking, traveling, and lovemaking. In 1929 Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms, another novel with World War?as its background. It tells of a tragic wartime love affair between an ambulance driver and an English nurse. Both the two books reflect an entire generation, including Hemingway himself, ruined by the war physically and mentally. His last masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea printed in 1952, earned him the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for 1952, and was instrumental in winning him the Nobel Prize two years later. It is a story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal—an agonizing battle with a giant marlin on the sea. The three novels, together with For Whom the Bell Tolls, are his main masterpieces, representing his great achievements in literature. Most protagonists in Hemingway’s works have distinctive characteristics, such as bravery, strong will and remaining graceful under pressure. They are well-known as Hemingway Hero. Hemingway’s works usually share an exciting topic that how a tough guy braves and experiences hardships calmly and gracefully. But those protagonists also reveal a pessimistic view of life from time to time. From those vivid images’ determination as well as pessimism, Hemingway unfolds people’s great physical and mental suffering in a certain times and reveals his contradictory attitudes towards life and fate. 1.2 The protagonists’ fates in the three novels The protagonist Jake in The Sun Also Rises is a symbol of despair, loneliness, and melancholy. He is a typical image representing an entire generation who have torn 1 by World War?and are grieving for the loss of their romantic idealism. Jake is injured during the summer of 1925 in Italy, which leads to his sexual dysfunction. Later, he falls in love with Brett who loves him, too. But both of them are aware of the impossibility of their having a life together. Jake suffers more than any other person in this book physically as well as mentally, but finally he manages to seek solace from fishing, swimming, tennis, and, especially, bullfighting. He finds the ring of bullfighting is a new world on which he can concentrate his thoughts and feelings. The bullfighters, together with the rising sun bringing warmth and brightness to the world, symbolize his hope for life. The protagonist Henry in A Farewell to Arms also represents the entire generation ruined by World War?. He has been changed greatly by his violent wounding, from a man treating life and love as a game to a tough guy of duty who can face his heartbreak alone and continue his life bravely. He escapes from the battlefield during the retreat and manages to arrive in Switzerland with Catherine. He begins to understand the value of love and enjoy the true love. But before long he loses all of that when Catherine dies of a difficult labor. The protagonist Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea is a classic image of tough guy in Hemingway’s works. Santiago, an old lonely Cuban fisherman with unusual courage and optimism, hooks and finally kills a giant marlin through days of painstaking efforts far out in the Gulf Stream. But his capture is almost eaten up by the sharks during the long voyage home. 2. An analysis of Hemingway’s attitudes towards fate 2.1 Attitudes towards fate in The Sun Also Rises The Sun Also Rises is the first published long piece of fiction written by Hemingway. The whole story is dominated by a tragic and depressing atmosphere. The protagonist Jake represents an entire generation ruined by World War?. He loses more than he deserves in the war, and even worse, he is disillusioned with traditional American values of hard work. He meets Brett who is a nurse’s aid when he is injured and sent to a hospital in Milan. They fall in love. But when Jake learns that he is impotent, they decide to go their separate ways. They love one another, but they feel there is nothing they can do about the cruel reality. It is painful and destructive for them to be together. When they meet in England again, they discover that they are still in love. However, their love ends in misery. Jake’s wound is not life-threatening, but it is too cruel for anyone to bear. It deprives Jake of the right of being a normal man. Except grieving for his misfortune and his lost love alone, he can do nothing about his wound, which actually symbolizes the unchangeable and terrible fate. He loses much more during the celebration in 2 Spain, for his love and respect for Brett have been tarnished. What sustained him is gone. Undoubtedly, he is one of the most lonely and tragic characters in Hemingway’s works. By describing Jake’s suffering and despair, Hemingway reveals his own pains and sorrows when his idealism has been ruined by World War?. After the war, people’s interest on Hemingway’s bravery on the battlefield gradually cooled, and Hemingway, suffering from the wound and the terrible recollection of the war, led a humble life. He even could not have enough money for food. His passion and idealism before he participated the war had turned into deep disappointment, or even, hatred towards the reality and society. He felt that he had been cheated and everything was a lie and life, dominated by fate, was painful and aimless. People could not change their unfortunate fates no matter how hard they tried. The only thing they could do was suffering the endless misery silently like Jake. But it is an oversimplification to regard Hemingway as a pessimist just according to the description of Jake’s misfortune. Jake finally manages to learn how to make a life for himself, seeking solace from his work, sports, swimming, bicycle racing, observing box, fishing, and especially, bullfighting. His wound has nothing to do with his relationships with man, and he makes a lot of male friends. He is satisfied with his life in a man’s world and he has become a tough guy who can brave and shoulder pains and sorrows alone. He gets solace from the ring of bullfighting and those masculine bullfighters belonging to the man’s world. The ring of bullfighting serves as a psychic refuge for him. The sun, rising every day in the east, brings warmth and bright to the world and implies that life will continue its process no matter how hard it is and that people should not lose heart but should remain a ray of hope in despair and continue their lives bravely. The mortals’ vexations are so negligible in comparison with the eternal sun. Jake’s change and his strong in mind reflect that Hemingway does not lose all his hope for life, Hemingway is by no means a pessimist denying everything in the world. Instead, he believes there are a lot of beautiful things and hopes, such as the rising sun and the ring of bullfighting, in life. One may fail in one field as Jake loses his love and the right of being a normal man, but one can be successful in other fields as Jake gets rid of his decadent attitude towards life and finds something sustaining him to continue his life. In spite of Hemingway’s disappointment at reality, he did not completely lose his hope for life. His personality prevented him from taking a decadent attitude towards life. Actually, when he led a humble life in Paris in the expectation of achieving his objective of being a successfully professional writer, he never had an idea of giving up even during the hardest times when he hardly had anything to eat. The change of Jake embodies Hemingway’s strong will and the optimistic attitude 3 towards life. So The Sun Also Rises is a tragicomedy rather than an absolute tragedy. In this novel, Hemingway reveals his contradictory attitudes towards fate mixed by disappointment and hopefulness for life. 2.2 Attitudes towards fate in A Farewell to Arms Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes towards fate are also mirrored in A Farewell to Arms. During World War?, Hemingway served a few weeks as a Red Cross ambulance driver on the Italian front in 1918 before being injured by an Austrian mortar burst. In the Milan hospital, he fell in love with an American nurse who was eight years older than he was and who eventually refused to marry him. His wound and the failure of his first true love are a heavy blow to him. A Farewell to Arms is Hemingway’s autobiography to a large extent. One of the main differences between the protagonist Henry and Hemingway is that Henry understands the war in a way that Hemingway never did in Italy at the age of nineteen. That is the reason why Henry holds a decadent attitude towards the war and life and treats life and love as a game. There is a sharp contrast between Henry’s decadence and Hemingway’ zest during the war. At first, Henry treats his relationship with Catherine as a game. When Henry kissed Catherine, “Oh, darling,” she said, “You will be good to me, won’t you?” “What the hell, I thought. I stroke her hair and patted her shoulder. She was [1]crying.” A piece of his monologue reveals his view of love and life at that time. “I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you [2]had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes.” Henry’s decadence actually reflects Hemingway’s disappointment and pessimism towards life and the social reality when Hemingway understood the truth about the war a few years later on. Hemingway, tortured by his wound and the terrible recollection of the war, was depressed and suffered from insomnia. He began to view the war in a new way, understanding the so-called glory and the salvation of democracy in the world were nothing but nonsense and he was cheated by the political propaganda. . But Henry has been changed greatly by his violent wounding. He begins to understand the vulnerability of life and the value of true love and his feelings, habits, and character alter. His escape during the retreat is by no means cowardliness but a farewell to arms and the pursuit of life, peace and love. The most exciting and beautiful scene in the story is when Henry and Catherine meet again. “That night at the hotel, …outside the windows the rain falling and in the room light and pleasant and cheerful, …feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone waking in the [3]night to find the other one there, and not gone away…” As for Henry, it is a farewell 4 not only to arms, but also to the decadent self and those abstract notions such as faith, honor, and patriotism and it is a beginning of being a man of duty who has understood the significant meanings of life and love. Finally Henry and Catherine successfully arrive in Switzerland, where they enjoy the happiest days in their lives. In the novel, the rural scenery in the neutral country is described like a fairyland. “ In front of the house where we lived the mountain went There was an island with two trees on down steeply to the little plain along the lake … the lake and the trees looked like the double sails of a fishing-boat. The mountains [4]were sharp and steep on the other side of the lake…” At there, Henry and Catherine enjoy the happy life to their heart’s content. By describing the change of Henry and the true love between him and Catherine, Hemingway is in praise of the beauty in life and demonstrates his positive view of life. Henry and Catherine’s happy life in Switzerland symbolizes beauty and hope, serving as a solace to people who are suffering the cruelty of war and life. The picturesque and serene land is an idealistic shelter from the disappointing reality. Hemingway thinks that one should grasp opportunity and take action without any hesitation to change his life and fate like Henry’s resolute farewell to arms and one should not succumb to misery but should try to break away from it to create a promising future. It is an optimistic and positive attitude towards life. However, as the story goes on, the couple are confronted with tragic fate again. Catherine delivers a stillborn baby boy and, later that night, dies of a hemorrhage. Catherine is a perfect character in the story, representing kindness, gentleness, honesty and strong mind. She is the incarnation of Hemingway’s first love. Catherine’s death symbolizes the uncontrollable and terrible fate and human beings’ doom. Much as Henry loves Catherine, he can do nothing about her difficult labor; skillful as the surgeon, he can only postpone death for a little while instead of saving Catherine or her baby. It is a world where people are all permanently at risk and have little control. Hemingway cannot offer a satisfactory explanation to the destroy of beauty in life. It is the world, he thinks, that “kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially”, and “If people bring so much courage to this world the world [5]has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them.” Like the ants on a log in the fire, it is impossible for people to escape from inevitable misery and defeat no matter how hard they try. Hemingway, seized by pessimism again, sees life as an agonizing and helpless process in which man is negligible, fragile and is predestined to be defeated. At the end of the story, Henry, a changed man, bears his heartbreak with an astonishing endurance. By writing short and concrete words and dialogues, Hemingway impresses the readers with Henry’s great pain and, more important, his 5 strong will. “You can’t come in now,” one of the nurses said. “Yes, I can.” I said. [6]“You can’t come in yet.” “You get out,” I said. “The other one too.” Behind the seemingly plain words are Henry’s heartbreak and endurance. Then Henry “went out [7]and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” He has become a genuinely tough guy who can endure agony on his own calmly. Undoubtedly, Henry will continue his life firmly and live his life according to his principles instead of slipping back into his old decadent lifestyle. In the dominant tragic atmosphere, Hemingway leaves a gleam of hope to the readers, encouraging them to face hardships bravely and remain a gleam of hope in despair, which is a positive view of life. In this novel, Hemingway’s attitudes towards life and fate are contradictory. On the one hand, he thinks life is hopeless and is predestined to end in misery; on the other hand, he refuses to reconcile himself to the dominance of fate, considering the future still hopeful. 2.3 Attitudes towards fate in The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes towards fate are also mirrored in The Old Man and the Sea. This novel is Hemingway’s last masterpiece and one of his most enduring works. Written in 1952, this hugely successfully novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a huge part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature. The protagonist Santiago is a typical Hemingway Hero with unusually optimism and endurance. Living in a shack and hardly having anything to eat, he still talks about baseball match enthusiastically with the boy who is his former apprentice. He does not take a fish for 84 days and his beloved apprentice has forced to leave to him. In that condition, his eyes “were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and [8][9] undefeated.” He says to the boy, “I feel confident today.”And, “Eighty-five is a lucky number,” the old man said. “How would you like to see me bring one in that [10]dressed out over a thousand pounds?” When the boy wonders why the old man’s eyes are still good after years of turtle-ing that is very harmful to the eyes, the old man [11]says, “I am a strange old man.” For Hemingway, the word “strange” not only means unusual courage and optimism, but also symbolizes human beings’ strength and resolution to brave hardships and to challenge life and fate, which is what Hemingway most admires. In the skiff, before the giant fish has been hooked, [12]Santiago says, “My big fish must be somewhere.” During the days of agonizing battle with the fish, he says, “I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.” “But [13]imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky.” Finally Santiago succeeds to kill the fish. But during the long voyage home, he is 6 confronted with more powerful enemy—the sharks. Although he is exhausted and knows in his heart that his chance of winning is slim, he tries his best to fight against [14]them. He thinks, “It is silly not to hope.” “Fight them,” he said. “I’ll fight them [15] until I die.” The sea is a stage where Santiago fully demonstrates his courage, confidence, and optimism, which represent human beings’ resolution and dignity under pressure. The intense fight between Santiago who symbolizes the champion in society and the giant marlin that symbolizes the champion in nature ends in Santiago’s success. By creating the image of Santiago, Hemingway reveals his admiration for the immortal spirit of not giving way to pressure and his optimistic view of life. Santiago, an old man in a shabby skiff, finally killed the champion in nature. It illustrates that man can achieve his objective through unyielding efforts and the key to winning is not giving up even in the severest conditions. Optimism is the reflection of this spirit, for it means remaining a gleam of hope in face of difficulty and believing in the brilliance [16]of the future. As Santiago says to the boy, “Tomorrow is going to be a good day,” he does not get discouraged about his bad luck, instead, he believes that things will be better. It is optimism that supports him to fight unyieldingly. Through Santiago’s unusual courage and optimism, Hemingway reveals his positive and optimistic attitude towards life and fate. But veiled by the seeming optimism and confidence, the whole story is pervaded by an atmosphere of depression and despair. From the beginning of the story, Santiago is in a mood mixed by cheerfulness and gloom. The readers can perceive his deep loneliness. Except the boy, Santiago hardly has any friend. In his shack, there is only [17]“a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal.” He has taken his wife’s photograph down from the wall “because it made him too lonely [18] [19]to see it…”When he is asleep, “there was no life in his face.” A fisherman’s life [20]is lonely. “Most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars.” “No one [21]should be alone in their old age, he thought. But it is unavoidable.” Behind his loneliness is his deep disappointment about life and society. The sea, however, is like a kind, beautiful, but very cruel woman and the porpoises and the flying fish are his brothers. He even loves and respects the hooked giant marlin and he also sees it as his brother. The sea, including all the living things in it, is another world in Santiago’s life. In that world, he can pour out his innermost feelings, including the occasional diffidence and pessimism that he never reveals in the land world. Although he does not believe in religion, he prays God many times for help on the sea. During his agonizing battle with the giant marlin, he says aloud that he wishes he had the boy for [22]nine times. He even says, “Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman…” The sea provides him with a temporary shelter from the loneliness and misfortune in the land 7 world. The loneliness and melancholy of Santiago reflects Hemingway’s pessimistic attitude towards life and his passive thoughts of turning a blind eye to reality. Hemingway’s pessimism is especially reflected in the failure of Santiago. The sharks symbolize the abominable fate too hard for people to overcome. The first appearance of the sharks has announced Santiago’s failure. Much as he tries, he can do little about his capture’s being robbed by the terrible animals. Santiago “knew he [23]was beaten now finally and without remedy…” The world is full of misery and disappointment and the so-called tough guy as well as spiritual success is just a consolation for people. No matter how hard man tries, his effort, like the marlin’s [24]skeleton, is for naught. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Behind the seemingly exciting words are Hemingway’s innermost feelings of despair and helplessness. The striking contrast between Santiago’s spiritual success and his material failure, between his days of painstaking efforts and the giant skeleton, embodies the embarrassment Hemingway was suffering both in his life and in his writing career. He hoped to be the best all the time, but he was at his wits’ end in his later years. Like the ring of bullfighting and the rising sun in The Sun Also Rises and Henry’s endurance in A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway also leaves a gleam of hope—Manolin. The boy is faithful, kindhearted and strong-minded, representing the advanced productive force and human beings’ hope. He will be the next champion not to be destroyed. It is admirable of Hemingway to keep a slight hope in despair. When he wrote The Old Man and the Sea, his physical and mental state began to deteriorate. He reveals his contradictory attitudes towards fate through Santiago’s characteristics and fate. 2.4 The causes of Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes Hemingway’s contradictory attitudes towards fate stemmed from his family background, his complicated life experiences and the social reality in America at that time. Hemingway was born in a comfortable middle-class family in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. His father was a physician with a passion for hunting and fishing. His mother, on the contrary, was interested in culture and arts. His parents, completely different in characters and interests, were both stubborn and self-opinionated. Although they were not in harmony with each other, they both cared about Hemingway and hoped to influence and cultivate their son according to their own interests and characters. Therefore, Hemingway formed a character mixed by bravery and an artistic temperament. Behind the seeming blessing was a curse for Hemingway. The contradictory educational styles actually had a negative effect on immature 8 Hemingway’s mind. His passion for the outdoors helped him to form a distinctive personality that he could be the best in whatever he did while his artistic temperament contributed to his sensitivity and melancholy. Hemingway was outwardly strong, but inwardly fragile. His contradictory attitudes towards life and fate were a reflection of the conflict of the educational styles in his family. When Hemingway was a high school student, his attitudes towards life were mainly positive. He believed that one could succeed as long as one made great efforts. Ideal, energy, plus the political propaganda, made the young generation, including Hemingway himself, seething with righteousness. He and a lot of ardent youngsters enlisted and went to the battlefield in Europe, harboring an ideal of the salvation of democracy. But World War?changed them greatly. Hemingway was seriously injured during the war. His wound and the cruelty of the war tortured him for the rest of his life. In addition, the failure of his first real romance saddened him for a long time, making him develop a feeling of distrust or, more exactly, hatred about woman. It is one of the reasons why most Hemingway’s works belong to man’s world. The years after the war witnessed the doubt about conventional morality and the emergence of new trends of thoughts in America. The American society of the 1920s was an aureate symphony with the taste of money and desire. The American Dream, based on dollars, had become the dominant ideal and doctrine in spirit with corruption beneath prosperity. Torn by the war physically and mentally and bewildered by the change in society, Hemingway began to doubt what he had firmly believed and began to develop a pessimistic view of life. But he was reluctant to give up his belief in the strength of human beings and the positive attitude towards life. This dilemma is first reflected in The Sun Also Rises, making him the leader of the Lost Generation. During his writing of the book, his father committed suicide. This event depressed Hemingway deeply and impressed him the vulnerability of life. He began to consider society an absurd, brutal, and irrational existence full of violence and evil. Hemingway also suffered from loneliness. As a professional writer, he had to endure loneliness. He reveals his fear and hatred of loneliness through Santiago’s lonely life. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago also suffers from loneliness. He talks with a bird perching on his boat and sees the porpoises and the flying fish as his brother. Hemingway’s loneliness is also reflected in the similar topic of many his works that how a strong-minded man braves hardships on his own. His loneliness is one of the reasons why he developed a pessimistic view of life. During the 1950’s, Hemingway’s conditions were from bad to worse. In January 1954, Hemingway and his wife survived two plane crashes in two days. In addition to a “full-scale concussion, his injuries included a ruptured liver, spleen, and kidney, 9 temporary loss of vision in the left eye, loss of hearing in the left ear, a crushed vertebra, a sprained right arm and shoulder, a sprained left leg, paralysis of the [25]sphincter, and first degree burns on his face, arms, and head.” As winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature, he was even unable to attend the ceremony owing to his poor health. In his later years, he began to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, and cirrhosis of the liver. In order to combat the pain, he drank more heavily, which made his conditions even worse. His mental state began to deteriorate as well, and he experienced bouts of extreme paranoia. The electroshock treatments destroyed much of his short-term memory. In that condition, Hemingway still kept a gleam of hope. He tried to write, but the books written during that period were not satisfactory. The exhaustion of his literary talent broke his last hope for life, but his ideal and personality forbade him to reconcile. He hoped to face his failure calmly as Santiago did, but he could not make it. In despair, he committed suicide. He refused to submit to the dominance of fate by killing himself. 10 3. Conclusion So we cannot simply see Hemingway’s attitudes towards life and fate as either optimistic or pessimistic. The tragic topic and the characters’ misery in Hemingway’s works cannot justify a conclusion that he is a fatalist. Likewise, the characters’ unusual courage and optimism in his works are insufficient to support an opinion that he is a positive who firmly believes in the strength of human beings. Hemingway’s attitudes towards life and fate are paradoxical. On the one hand, he admires unyielding effort and believes that one can succeed through painstaking efforts; on the other hand, he reveals the pessimistic thoughts that no matter how hard one tries, his efforts are all for naught. The readers, however, might not develop a negative attitude towards life or even to the extent of committing suicide. On the contrary, they could learn a lot about how to brave hardships and about keeping a glimmer of hope in despair, in which the perpetual charm of Hemingway’s works lies. 11 NOTES [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (Xi’an: World Publishing Company, 2004), p.16, 18, 164, 189, 164, 218, 218. [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24] Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2001), p.2, 19, 9, 7, 28, 70, 101, 112, 6, 8, 8, 11, 21, 41, 44, 116, 99. [25] Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969), p.522. 12 Bibliography [1] Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story[M]. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969. [2] Donaldson, Scott. By Force of Will: The Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway[M]. New York: Viking, 1977. [3] Donaldson, Scott, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ernest Hemingway[G]. 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