A Strange Old Man

Ernest Miller Hemingway(July 21,1899—July 2,1961) is one of the most famous American modern novelists in the 20th century.From 1939 to 1960,he settled in Cuba and named himself as "an ordinary Cuban".During this time he finished his famous masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea.In Hemingway's mind The Old Man and the Sea was the best writing of his life.This is a story about an old fisherman named Santiago who fished in the sea only by himself.After eighty-four days of not catching a fish,he hooked a great marlin.The old man had never seen or heard of such a big fish,one that was two feet longer than his skiff.Suffering a series of trails,the old man killed the great marlin and bound it to the skiff.But on his way home,sharks came up.The life-and-death battle was helpless for the old man,eventually there was only the bald backbone of the fish left.Hemingway created Santiago successfully as the protagonist.Up to now,there are many researches at home and abroad related with Santiago,which almost focus on his tough-guy spirit.The research scope is very narrow.Based on Emest Hemingway's "iceberg theory",in this thesis I will have an explanation on Santiago's characteristics from analyzing his Americanization. Yakeefied characteristics means the behaviors relate to or like the United States of America or its people,language,or culture.Combining the background of the times and the Hemingway's writing purpose,I will also analyze the causes and whether there are some relations between Santiago's yankeefied characteristics and his tragical destiny in The Old Man and the Sea,in this thesis.The contents of the paper are outlined as follows:The first chapter is about Santiago's yankeefied characteristics:Santiago's realistic yankeefied characteristics while preferring American popular culture, ignoring Cuban traditional religion,having the racial attitudes,plus Santiago's symbolistic yankeefied Characteristic,that is endowed with avatar of American Jesus.The second chapter is about the reasons for Santiago's Americanization. Analyzing from social backdrop,the influence from the America culture diplomacy was an important reason.Firstly of all,America used cultural policies to win Latin Americans hearts and minds.Furthermore,the oligarchy and racialism were also spread by American culture.Thirdly,swarms of missionaries promoted "new ways of thinking" to weak native confidence in their old ways of doing things.And analyzing from writing purpose,it was because Hemingway's resistance to hegemony from the United States.The third chapter is the consequences of the impact of Americanization on Santiago.Because of the Americanization Santiago became more independent and self-confident in achieving his goals.On the other hand,also because of his Americanization,he made mistakes and got punishment from the marlin and sea.In a nutshell,from the analyzing Santiago's Americanization and seeking for the relationship between man's spiritual pivot and society,we will get edification from that.