2 The Introduction to the Background

　　Hemingway’s life was active and adventurous but full of pains. He lived in the period that the World War One broke out when many young volunteers took part in the war which also called “a war ends all wars”. But the cruel reality made them aware that modern warfare was not as glorious as they thought. Actually the First and the Second World Wars had affected Hemingway a lot, for he had once joined the army and had injured in Italy, so he suffered much which was brought about by the war deeply. He was disappointed with the world at that time and became very pessimistic about the fate of the human beings. As a young writer and spokesman of the “The Lost Generation”, and influenced by the greedy and heedless way of life in America, Hemingway’s works all vividly recorded the life of those physically and mentally wounded soldiers, revealed the frustration, loneliness when “God is dead”.

　　3 Plot

　　It is a poetic tragic novel told in language of great simplicity and power. Its hero is an old Cuban fisherman ---Santiago, who is down on his luck, and tries to fight against his fate. In the story Santiago has gone for 84 days without catching a fish. As a result, Mandolin, a little boy, who used to sail with him, is forbidden from fishing with the old man by his parents and forced to catch fish in another “good-lucky” ship. Later despite the boy asks for fishing together again, but the old man insists on fishing alone and at last, he succeeds in hooking a giant marlin which is eighteen-foot, the largest he has ever known before. But the fish is very powerful and disobedient. It tows the old man and his boat for almost 48 hours, the old man could do nothing but bearing the whole weight of the fish through the line on his back. The old man, with little food and sleep, has to bear a lot of pain and at the same time fight against the fish. To his great excitement, he was rewarded for his struggle. On the third day at sea, he finally catches the weakened marlin to the surface and harpoons it.