Brief Analysis of Individualism in The Old Man and the Sea

论《老人与海》中的个人主义思想

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining life. Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, (1930s) and Cuba (1940s and 1950s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he killed himself in mid-1961.

The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel written by Hemingway in 1951 and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida. In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one#8217;s goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group. The individualist does not follow one particular philosophy, rather creates an amalgamation of elements of many, based on personal interests in particular aspects that one finds of use. In the book of The Old Man and the Sea, what Santiago does has given us a direct outlook of individualism. And his life of being individualist brings us more knowledge of individualism.

1.2 Need for the study

The thought of individualism in the main character Santiago brought us to a adventurous world. In spite of many scholars#8217; talking about this topic, more research in individualism in The Old Man and the Sea should be done to give readers a more detailed understanding of relationship between man and environment. What#8217;s more, after contrasting and comprising with other works on individualism, we can truly realize what individualism means.