The Phenomenon Of Becoming Animal In Literature-A Study Based On The Old Man And The Sea And "the Bear"

Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner are representative figures in world literature. From their writings, readers can penetrate the inside of American society, and figure out the trends and ideology in the western world. This paper focuses on Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea and Faulkner's"The Bear". The author will use Deleuze (and Guattari)'s Becoming Animal theory to analyze these two stories, discover the connections between plots and theory, human beings and animals, and dig into the hidden meanings and untouched perspectives. This thesis will first present readers with examples of Becoming from Deleuze's understanding of literature. And then the author of this paper will expound Deleuze's theory on Becoming, especially Becoming Animal. In the first chapter, many examples of Becoming Animal will be provided, especially the classical representative: Moby-Dick. Following this example, the canonical book The Old Man and The Sea will trickle in. It resembles Moby-Dick in the sense that the two stories are both set in the sea. Continuously, another different literary environment will be invited, which is the forest, the background of the novella"The Bear". In both stories, human beings are in some sense conquering nature, but meanwhile they are conquered by nature, which explains the concept of Becoming Animal. In the part afterwards, the author will go on analyzing the epitome of Becoming Animal in various environments, sea, forest, and even the society, and finally draw the conclusion on the importance of the attributes of Becoming Animal in literary works.