Wednesday, November 23, 2011

An Introduction to Edward Said's Orientalism, EE- 305, Post colonial Literature




Name              -      Bhatt. Dhara. J

Roll no:          -       02

M.A.Part-2    -       Sem-3

Paper                      5, E-E-305

Paper name           Post Colonial Literature    

Topic for Assignment      -
An Introduction to Edward Said’s Orientalism

Submitted To: Dr.Dilipsir Barad
  Department of English,
  Bhavnagar university,
  Bhavnagar.                




An introduction to Edward Said’s Orientalism

·      Author - Edward W. Said
·      Publisher- Vintage
·      Year       - 1994

                                               “Orientalism” by Edward Said is Canonical text of cultural studies in which he challenged the Concept of Orientalism or the difference between east and west; as he puts it. He says that with start of European Colonization the Europeans came in contact with lesser developed Countries of the east. They found their civilization and culture very exotic, and established the science of Orientalism, which was the study of the Orientals or the people from these exotic civilizations.

                                  The book by chapter

Chapter - 1
“The Scope of Orientalism”

(1) Knowing the Oriental
(2) Imaginative Geography and its Representation:
     Oriental sings the Oriental.
(3) Projects.
(4) Crisis.

Chapter - 2

“Orientalists   Structures and Restructures”

(1)  Redrawn Frontiers, Redefined issues, Secularized Religion
(2)  Silvestre de Stacy and Ernest Renan: Rational Anthropology and Philological.
(3)  Oriental Residence and Scholarship: The Requirements of Lexicography and
(4)  Pilgrims and Pilgrimages, British and French

Chapter - 3

“Orientalism now”

(1)  Latent and Manifest Orientalism
(2)  Style, Expertise, Vision; Orientalism   World illness
(3)  Modern Anglo: French Orientalism in its fullest Flower
(4)  The Latest phase.

Basic knowledge about the Chapter:

Chapter-1

“The Scope of Orientalism”

                                   In this Section Said outlines his argument with several caveats as to how it may be flawed. He States that it fails to include Russian Orientalism  and explicitly excludes German Orientalism, which he suggests had “clean “ Pasts(Said 1978: 2 and 4),and could be promising future studies. Said also suggests that not all academic discourse in the west has to be orient list in its intent but much of it is. He also suggests that all cultures have a view of other cultures that may be exotic and harmless to some extent, but it is not this view that he argues against and when this view is taken by a military and economically dominant culture against another it can lead to disastrous results.

Chapter-2

                      “Orientalist   Structures and Restructures”

                                          In this chapter Said outlines how Orientalist discourse was transferred from Country to Country and Political leader to author. He suggests that this discourse was set up as a foundation for all further study and discourse of the Orient by the occident.

                                              He States that

                              “The four elements I have described expansion, historical Confrontation, sympathy, classification are the Currents in eighteenth century thought on whose presence the specific intellectual and institutional structures of modern Orientalism depend.”
                                Further travelers and academics of the East depended on this discourse for their own education, and so the Orientalist discourse the West over and East was passed down through European Writers and politician (and therefore through all European)

Chapter - 3

                    “Orientalism Now”

                    This chapter starts off by telling us that how the geography of the world was shaped by the Colonization of the Europeans. There was a quest for geographical knowledge which formed the base of Orientalism.

                     The author then talks about the changing approach to Orientalism in 20th century. The main difference was that where the earlier Orientalist was more of silent observers the new Orientalist took a part in the everyday life of the orients. The earlier oriental lists did not interact a lot with the orients, whereas the new orients lived with them as if they were one of them . This was not out of appreciation of their lifestyle but was to know more about the orients in order to rule them properly. Lawrence of Arabia was one of such Orient lists.

                      Then Edward said goes on to talk about two other Scholars Massignon and Gibb. Though Massignon was a bit liberal with Oriental lists and often tried to protect their rights, there was still inherited biased found him for the Orientals, which can be seen in his work. With the changing world situation especially after World War I, Orientalism took a more liberal stance towards most of its subjects, but Islamic Orientalism did not enjoy this status. There were Constant attacks to show Islam as a weak religion, and a mixture of many religions and thoughts. Gibb was the most famous Islamic Orientalists of this time.               

                          After World War I the centre of Orientalism moved from Europe to USA. One important transformed (transformation) that took place during this time was instance of relating it to Philology and it was related to social science now. All the orientalists study the Orientals to assist their Government to come up with Policies for dealing with the orient Countries. With the end of World War 2, all the Europeans Colonies were lost; and it was believed that there were no more Orientals and Occident, but this was surely not the case. Western prejudice towards eastern Countries was still very explicit, and often they managed to generalize most of the eastern Countries because of it. For example Arabs were often represented as cruel and violent people. Japanese were always considered to be terrorists, thus, this goes on to show that even with increasing globalization and awareness, such bias was found in the people of the developed Countries.

                        Edward Said conclude his book by saying that he is not saying that the Orientalists should not make generalization, or they should include the orient perspective too, but creating a boundary at the first place is something which should not be done.

                        Hereby the presenter has narrowed down her discussion to the first part of the book Orientalism that is scope of Orientalism in study sub-chapter.
Ø Chapter- 1
                      “The Scope of Orientalism”


(1)       Knowing the Oriental


vIntroduction

                          On June 13, 1910, Arthur James Balfour lectured the House of Commons on “the Problems with which we have to deal in Egypt”. Then, he said, “Belong to a wholly different category.” Than those” affecting the Isle of Wight or the west Riding of Yorkshire.”
   
                           During his involvement in imperial affairs Belfour Serve a monarch who in 1876 had been declared Empress of India; he had been especially well placed in position of uncommon influence to follow the Afghan and Zulu wars, the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, the death of General Gordon in the Sudan, the Russo- Japanese war.               

                           Two great themes dominate his remarks here and in what will follow: Knowledge and Power, the Bacon an themes. As Balfour justifies the necessity for British occupation of Egypt, Supremacy in his mind is associated with”our” knowledge of Egypt and not principally with military or economic power. Knowledge to Balfour means rising above immediacy, beyond self, into Foreign and distant. The object of such knowledge in inherently Vulnerable to scrutiny; this object is a “fact” which, it develops, changes or otherwise transforms itself in the way that civilizations frequently do, nevertheless is fundamentally, even ontologically stable.                                                 

Balfour must then go on to the next part of argument:

                             It is a good thing for these great nations – I admire their greatness – that this absolute Government should be exercised by us? I think it is a good thing. I think that experience shows that they have got under it far better government that in the whole history of the world they ever had before, and which not only is a benefit to them, but it undoubtedly a benefit to the whole to the civilized west……. We are Egypt not merely for the sake of the Egyptians/ though we are these for their sake; we are there also for the sake of Europe at large.

                       Balfour produces no evidence that Egyptians and “the races with whom we deal.” Appreciate or even understand the good that is being done them by Colonial occupation. It does not occur to Balfour , however, to let the Egyptian speak for himself , since presumably any Egyptian who would speak out is more likely to be “ the agitator (Who) wishes to raise difficulties” than the good native who overlooks the “difficulties” of foreign domination. 

                               England knows Egypt; Egypt is what England knows: England knows that Egypt cannot have self-government; England confirms that by occupying Egypt; for the Egyptians, Egypt is what England has occupied and now governs; foreign occupation therefore become” the very basic” of Contemporary Egyptian civilization ; Egypt requires, indeed insist upon, British occupation. But is the special intimacy, between governor and governed in Egypt in disturbed by parliament’s doubts at home, then “the authority of what… is the dominant race and as I think ought to remain the dominant race – has been undermined.” Not only does English prestige suffer; “ It is vain for a handful of British officials – endow them how you like, give them all the qualities of character the genius you can imagine – it is impossible for them to carry out the great task which in Egypt, not we only, but the civilized world have imposed upon them.”

Cromer made Egypt, said Balfour:

                              Everything he has touched he has succeeded in … Lord Cromer’s Services during the past quarter of a century have raised Egypt from the lowest pitch of social and economic degradation until   now stands among oriental nation I believe , absolutely alone in its prosperity , financial and moral.

                               How Egypt’s moral prosperity was measured, Balfour did not venture to say. British exports to Egypt equaled those to the whole of Africa; that century indicated a sort of financial prosperity, for Egypt and England (some what) together.

                               How much “Serious Consideration” the ruler ought to give proposals from the subject race was illustrated in Cromer’s total opposition to Egyptian nationalism. Free native institutions, the absence of foreign occupation, a self-sustaining nation sovereignty:” these unsurprising demands were consistently rejected by Comer, who asserted unambiguously that the real future of Egypt …. Lies not in the direction of a narrow nationalism, which will only embrace native ‘Egyptians ….. But rather in that of an enlarged Cosmopolitanisms”.

Sir Alfred Lyall Once Said To Balfour:

                               “Accuracy is abhorrent to the Oriental mind. Every Anglo- Indian should always remember that maxim.” Want of accuracy, which easily degenerates into untruthfulness, is in fact the main characteristic of the Oriental mind.”

                                The European is a close reasoned; his statements of fact are devoid of any ambiguity; he is natural logician, albeit he may  not have studied logical; he is by nature skeptical and requires proof before he can accept the truth of any proposition; his trained intelligence works like a piece of mechanism. Many terms were used to express the relation: Balfour and Cromer, typically, used several.

                         The Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, “different”; Thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature,” normal.” In Cromer’s and Balfour’s language the oriental is depicted as something one judges (as in a Court of law), Something one studies depicts (as in Curriculum), Something one discipline (as in a school or prison), Something one illustrates(as in a Zoological manual).

                          An order of Sovereignty is set up from East to West, a mock chain of being whose clearest from given once by Kipling:

                           Mule, horse, elephant , or bullock, he obey his driver, and the driver his sergeant, and the sergeant his lieutenant, and the lieutenant his captain, and his Captain his major, and major his Colonel, and the Colonel his brigadier Commanding three regiments and the brigadier’s general who obeys the Viceroy, who , is the servant of the Empress.

                            As deeply forged as it is this monstrous chain of Command, as strongly managed as is Cromer’s “harmonious working,” Orientalism can also express the strength of the West and the Orient’s weakness- as seen by West. Such strength and such weakness are as intrinsic to Orientalism as they are to any view that divides the world into large. General divisions, entities that Coexist in a state of tension produced by what is believed to be radical difference.

                            For that is the main intellectual issue raised by Orientalism. Can one divide human reality, seems to be genuinely divide, into clearly different cultures, histories, traditions, societies, even races, and survive the Consequences humanly ? By surviving the Consequences humanly, I mean to ask whether there is any way of avoiding the hostility expressed by the division, say, of men into “us “(westerners) and “they” (Orientals).

Glidden Continues, now more enthusiastically:

                                “It is a notable fact that while the Arab value system demands absolute solidarity within the group, it at the same time encourages among its members a kind of rivalry that is destructive of that very solidarity” ; in Arab society only “ Success counts” and “the end justifies the means”;

                                 Arabs live “naturally” in a world “characterized by anxiety, expressed in generalized suspicion and distrust, which has been labeled free- floating hostility;

                                “The art of subterfuge is highly developed in Arab life, as well as in Islam itself”:

                                 The Arab need for vengeance overrides everything, otherwise the Arab would feel “ ego-destroying “ shame. The purpose of this learned disquisition is merely to show how on the western and Oriental scale of values,

“The relative position of the elements is quite difference.” QED.

Conclusion:
                            
                        This is the apogee of Orientalist Confidence. No merely asserted generality is denied the dignity of truth; no theoretical list of Oriental attributes is without application to the behavior of Orientals in the real world. On the one hand there are westerns, and on the other there are Arab- Orientals; the former are rational, peaceful, liberal, logical, capable of holding real values, without natural suspicion; the latter are none of these things.



Teaching English as Second Language in India,Ec 304,ELT



Name              -     Bhatt. Dhara. J 

Roll no:          -      02

M.A.Part-2    -      Sem-3

Paper               -    04, Ec-304

Paper name    -      ELT-             
"English Teaching Language" 

Topic for Assignment      -

“Teaching English as ‘Second Language’ in India-Kapil Kapoor” 

Submitted To: Mr. Devershi Mehta
  Department of English,
  Bhavnagar university,
  Bhavnagar.                






* Abstract:


                        This paper argues that the concept of English as a second language is not a purely pedagogic construct and has to be properly understood in the larger historical, social and education context. The concept is designed to give English a Pre-eminent position relative to the Indian language in the educational and, Consequently the Socio-political set up. It has also been employed to the Indian languages in the educational, and Consequently the Sociopolitical set up. It has been employed to discourage the study and learning of classical languages, particularly Sanskrit which has contributed to the rootless ness of the young Indian minds. English as a second language along with other Indian minds. It is then argued that there is a fundamental illegality in treating English as a second language along with other Indian languages, and it is this illegality which accounts for the poor ‘Standards’ of English in spite of the tremendous investment in ELT. The situation can only be reminded by recognizing and refining the role and goals of English as a foreign language and by choosing the right language teaching theories and parties. Else, no amount of methodology and technology would succeed.

Teaching English as ‘Second Language’ in India

* Introduction: ->


The term second language is in two different ways-
(I)English is second language after one or more Indian languages, which are primary and more significantly,
(ii) In School Education, the second language is what is introduced after the primary stage and has a pedagogical as well as a functional definition, particularly in the context of the ‘three-language formula’.
                   The significance of English as Second language can only be understood in the larger and in the historical perspective. It is to be noted that English in India is a symbol of linguistic Centolalism whereas the numerous Indian language are seen to represent linguistic regionalism from Macaulay to Murayama Singh, we have seen now in Indian the movement from one to the other. Following the withdrawal of the British from India, the language question naturally came to the fare, in which the central issue was the role and status to English vis-à-vis Indian language, both were vernacular and classical. This Conceptual structure has three parts:
          1 Modernization
          2 Mythologies
          3 Language Policies

1)  Modernization :-> 


              First, the concepts of modernization and internationalism were invoked and English became the language of both modernization and internationalism and by implication the Indian languages became associated with’ tradition’ which by definition was assumed to be anti-modern and backward looking.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
2)   Mythology :->


              Once this was taken to be true, the next step in the argument was to define the role and relationship of English vis-à-vis the Indian languages. This need gave birth to ‘language-planning’ which was in fact the linguistic analogue of a particular politics.’ Language planning’ operated with a whole set of lexical weaponry that gradually created a new mythology. Major Indian languages become in this discipline,’ Regional Languages’-and even Hindi is a regional language which has been accorded the status of an official language of the Union and some status.

3) Language Policy :->

            English, the other official language did not suffer from this disability. Its major strength is argued to be the fact that is cannot be identified with anyone region and therefore, English is one pan-Indian’ language that would promote National Integration, as regional would. So while the Indian languages, as regional languages, English a ‘foreign’ language, promote unity and integration. Centralism has an inherent appeal for the intellectuals at a time when an impatient unitary centralism was the dominant political ideology.
          To further buttress this argument, a whole mythology got built up around the role of English in which the central metaphor is the metaphor of the’ window’:

1) English is the language of knowledge (science and technology),
2) English is the language of liberal, modern thinking;
3) English is our window on the world;
4) English is the link language;
5) English is the library language; English is the language of reason;
6) English is the lingua-franca.

          The Education Commission, 1964-66 has this to say about the teaching of English (a Paraphrase): Because for years to come English will continue to be necessary in higher education as a library language, so a solid foundation in English must be laid at the School Stage. We have recommended that study must begins from class V, though we feel that for many students, particularly those in the rural areas, it cannot begin before class VIII. English for a very large number of students will remain only the second or the third language…..

          The elite-mass-rural divide, are projected in this report itself and the indecisiveness about English L2 or L3 is also so much evident. What is L2? What is L3? And what is the first language? These terms get different definitions depending on how they are defined chronologically, linguistically, from the point of view of language policy or pedagogically.
1)   The First Language broadly is the language introduced in the School as a subject from grade I to X and it is commonly used as the medium of instruction at the school level and as the medium of expression by the Lerner in his social Communication. It is usually the mother-tongue or the regional language of the child.

2)   The Second Language, i-e, L2 is that language which is introduced compulsorily either of the end of primary stage or in the beginning of the lower secondary stage after the attainment of sufficient proficiency in the first language by the learner. The main objective of the second language is to enable the speaker for wider participation in society, and the nation leading to Secondary socialization.

3)   The Third Language: L3 is introduced simultaneously or after the initiation of second language. Generally in grade VIII.The main objective of introducing the third language is to prepare the learner for all-India mobility leading to ternary socialization and give the learner  a working knowledge of the language so that the learner may read, comprehend and express correctly in that language.

4)   Notice that as defined above, English functionally, is L3; the third language-it cannot be L2.But English is allowed to be introduced and studies as the second language.

5)   Here is how the report of the working Group on the study of Language (NCERT, 1986) presents the chronological distribution of the three languages, through the school system in the context of the three language formula:








1) Primary Stage :->
           Only Mother Tongue /Regional Language both subject and media from class I to V.

2) Post Primary /Secondary :->
           English and modern Indian language. Three languages to be taught-state language, one modern Indian language and English.

3) Secondary Stage :-> The same pattern as in post primary.

4) Senior Secondary :->
                                    State language and optionally, English for specific purposes.

The picture is like this,
      Stage                                        Class                            Language
1) Lower primary                         I to V                             Mother tongue/state language.

2) Upper Primary                        VI to VIII                       State language/modern Indian                                                                                                                               language English.

3) Secondary                                 IX to X                         State language/modern Indian
Language English.

4) Senior Secondary XI to XII state language C+ ESP, Optical:
                                   
                                   Notice, the relative’ Constancy’ of English: also how to the concept of ‘Second language’ became diffuse. The same report: says this role of English.

                                   Knowledge is growing at a breath taking pace. English should primarily be taught so that at the end of a four /five year.

(a) It can be used as a library language to enable the learner to keep abreast of the latest accretions to the different fields of knowledge, and.

(b) It can enable the learner to pursue higher/Professional education.

                                    The basic Competencies in the four years should be that of reading, writing, listening and speaking (and) these should be developed with reference to a specific corpus of language material and communication needs.

                                    This is early recognition of the purely ancillary role of English. Elsewhere, however, English is treated at par with Hindi as a second language, and this is evident: from the ’Constancy’ of English in School stages.

                                    “The three language formula should be effectively implemented. The first language should be the mother tongue/regional language. The second language may be Hindi or English in case of a non Hindi speaking state and one of the modern Indian languages or English in the Hindi speaking states. The third language in non Hindi speaking states should be Hindi or English whichever have not been studies as a second language. Similarly, in the Hindi speaking state, the third language should be English or modern Indian language whichever has not been taught as a second language.”










                                  The provision in effect has made English the second language pedagogically and chronologically all over the country. What is the function of a second language? One NCERT report on Teaching of Hindi as a second language says that
                                 “The purpose on Teaching of Hindi as a second language in relation to the first (language) may be as follows:

1) To help the individual in maintaining his personal relations with the people beyond his linguistic.
2) To help the individual to carry on his business purposes beyond linguistic group.
3) To help the individual to carry on his social and cultural activities beyond his linguistic group
4) To help the individual to feel his identities with a large group, may be the nation.”

                                  In this perspective while Hindi is truly a second language functionally English is certainly not-no Indian uses English for the purposes set but above.

                                  The competence that is required to be attained in a second language, if it is to serve it purpose of secondary socialization, end its’ national and cultural purposes, ’It just a note less than the competence in the first language. Such level of competence obtusely unattainable in a foreign language.

                                  Finally, a review of the problem that has been faced and formulated in the teaching of English as a second language, will exemplify and reinforce what we have said above: lack of clarify about basic concepts, wide gap between facts of the situation, and the assumptions of the recommendation made to improve English.
Teaching, shifting theoretical inputs, wide disparity of practices in different parts of the country, and lack of agreement about the desirable principles and methods are some of major problems that the English teaching has faced all along First, there has been little agreement in attitudes to language –learning, on question such as.

I)  Extent and use of language drills.
ii)  The use of simplified texts or specifically prepared texts or specially compiled texts.
iii)  Amount and range of required reading to be prescribed
iv) Role of grammar in language learning and whether grammar should be at all taught, and lastly.
v) The error-approach the whole philosophy of ‘errors’ and teaching as essentially a re-medical process.

                                 There is also considerable confusion about instructional objectives. Basically it is difficult really to distinguish clearly the differing levels of for the first language and second language, uniformly. That is, the expected levels of attainment in the case of an Indian second language and English as second language cannot be the same.

*        Again, even for English, one can order the skills in different orders of priority! Should it be ‘listening – reading – speaking – writing or ‘reading – listening – speaking? Even when the efforts have been made to delimit the second language objective, one is not convinced by the recommendation, because the reasoning behind them it is not very clear. Also, sometimes the discrete categories get up are not really discrete language. Consider for example the competence in comprehension.
Three levels of competence may be distinguished:

a) Gathering only information about the facts.

b) Developing crucial understanding of the ideas, the learner comes across when he listens or reads.

c) Creative understanding of ideas and values and their creative interpretation.

          Similarly in expression the three levels of competence :->

a) Communicating information in daily conversation or correspondence
b) Communicating the ideas.
c) Communicating abstract ideas , concepts and value with originality .

Conclusion:-

It is the absence of grammar centered teaching that accounts for so much stress on methodology, ‘Method” and ‘methodology’ are dharma in western tradition it is assumed that it the method is right , the god will be automatically achieved , if the facts are correct , with the right method , we are bound to reach the right conclusion. This assumption has created a widespread concern for selecting and refining the right methods. The classical simplicity and democracy of learning / teaching in which the black board the wooden slate , the ink-pen , the ink pot , and a primer or book were all that was needed , is now perhaps instrievably lost  may be it  is not right to abandon technology , may be technological gadgets have a proper use, but surely a country with a huge body of learners needs to examine all these rather closely for , there is no doubt that just as rituals or karma kanda  killed – before it itself was disastrously killed = the sprite of a whole way of life, the rituals of  language teaching takes the enthusiasm and the intellectual challenge out of language teaching , which is reduced to a mechanical routine and process in which “How” become more important the both “What” and “Why”.



Reference  

·       Brown, G., and G. rule. 1983. Discourse Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

·       Corded, S.P. 1967. “The Significance of learner’s Errors” IRAL, V14.
…1973, Introducing Applied Linguistics. Harmonds-worth,           Middlesex: Penguin.
     
·       Jain, M.P. 1974. “Errors: Source, cause and Significance”, Journal of the school of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Monsoon Issue.



·       Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1973. A Communicative Grammar of English, London: Longman.

·       Mumby, J. 1978. Communicative Syllabus Design, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


·       Mussen, P.H.1963. The psychological development of the child, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

·       Rivers, W. 1968. Teaching Foreign Language Skills, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.


·       Saunders, P.A. 1967. Introductory English, London: FLBS.

·       Wilkins, D.A. 1976. National Syllabuses, London: Oxford University Press.


                  

                                                         

The Old man and The Sea-Allegorical Interpretation,Ec-303,American Literature

Name                -     Bhatt. Dhara. J

Roll no:             -      02

M.A.Part-2       -     Sem-3

Paper                -      02, Ec-303

Paper name     -     American Literature             
      

Topic for Assignment  -
The old Man and the Sea – Allegorical
Interpretations




Submitted To: Dr.Dilipsir Barad
  Department of English,
  Bhavnagar university,
  Bhavnagar.                  




The old Man and the Sea – Allegorical
Interpretations:-
* I *

®           A Parable:-

The Old Man and the Sea means more than it directly says.  According to several critics, for example, there is a close parallel between Santiago, his Marlin, and the sharks on the one hand, and Hemingway, his fiction, and the critics on the other.  According to Mark Scholar, this novel is not only a moral fable but a parable:

“It is an old man catching a fish, yes: but it is also a great artist in the act of  mastering his subject a fish, yes; but it is also a great artist in the act of mastering his subject, and more than that of actually writing about the struggle.  Nothing is more important than his craft, and it is beloved; but because it must be struggled with and mastered, it is also a foe I enemy to all self – indulgence, to all looseness of feeling, all laxness of style, all soft pomposities.”

®                        The realities in the Old Man and the Sea have to do with the craft of fishing.  But in all Hemingway’s best work, these particular occupations and professions are transposed into universal meanings:
                                In the Old Man and the Sea, the mystique of fishing, with its limited triumphs and tragedies, is transposed into a universal condition of life, with its success and shame its morality and pride and potential loss of pride.”
* II *


®           Two Levels – Symbolism and Story-

v              Since the nineteen – forties there had been an increasing emphasis on Hemingway’s use of symbolism in his novels.  The view has been gathering strength that Hemingway’s work should be studies on the symbolic as rill as on the story level for a full appreciation of its art.  And of all Hemingway’s books.  The Old Man and the Sea demands must to be studies on both levels.

®           Based on the Great Abstractions-

v              The Old Man the Sea is a very good Hemingway story.  It is strictly and smoothly told; the conflict is resolved into a struggle between a man and a force which he scarcely understands, but which he knows that he must continue to strive against though knowing also that the struggle must end in his defect.  The defect is only apparent however for as in the short story called “The Undefeated,” it becomes increasingly clear throughout that it is not the victory or defect that matters but the struggle itself.

®           The use of Christen Symbols:-

v              Christian religious symbols and through the story there are so closely interwoven with the story as to suggest an allegorical intention on Hemingway’s part.  Santiago is a fisherman and he is also a teacher he was taught the boy not only how to fish that is, how to make a living – but how to behave as well, giving him the pride and humility necessary to a good life.  During the trials with the great fish and with the sharks his hands ache terribly; his back is lashed by the line; he gets an eye-piercing headache; and his chest shrinks and he spirits blood.

Hemingway Comments:

“There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just such a noise as a man might make involuntarily feeling the nail go through his hand and into the wood.”

v              All these details are obviously reminiscent of the Biblical account of chili’s crucifixion.

®           From Man to Fish and Back to Man:-

v              The Christian symbolism so evident here shifts from man to fish and back to man throughout the story.  This apparent can fusion is consistent not only within the Hemingway philosophy as an example of the sacrifice – sacrificed phenomenon but within formal Christianity as well, if the doctrine of the Trinity be accepted.

®           A Commentary of All his previous work:

v              The answer lies in the third level on which The Old Man and the Sea must be studies – as sort of allegorical Commentary by the author on all his previous work, by means of which it may be established that the religious overtones are not peculiar to this ook among Hemingway’s works, and that Hemingway has finally taken the decisive step what might be called his philosophy of manhood to the level of a religion.

®           Hemingway’s concern with Man as Man:-

v              Two aspects of Hemingway’s total work must be considered in order to clarify this conclusion, and to answer the questions concerning Hemingway’s Christianity.  The first of these aspects is Hemingway’s concern with man as man in relation to things of this world almost exclusively.  The other world, God, does not often enter into the thoughts, plans, or emotions of a Hemingway character.  Most of the characters are riling to admit God’s existence; they are at least unwilling to deny it.  But they will not admit his existence as an imminent being not ever benevolent or malevolent.
v             
®               The Rules for Living:-

v              The Second aspect of Hemingway’s total work is the rules which Hemingway has formulated for living and for the attalmment of manhood.  These rules are as rigid as can be found in any religion, and there is an elaborate procedure for the application of these rules.  Hemingway’s philosophy of manhood is a philosophy of action; a man in honest when acts honestly; he is humble when he acts humbly; he loves when he is loved or being loved.

®            The Rules for Living:-

v    It is not only in his treatment of the bull – fight that this second aspect of Hemingway’s total work is evident the rules, the ritual, the sacrifice dominant the details of the Old Man the Sea as they dominant those of the undefeated and the sun also rises.  We are told carefully, painstaking, how Santiago performs his function as a fisher man, how he prepares for the expected struggle:

          Before it was really light he had his baits out and was drifting with the current one bait was down forty fathoms.  The second was at seventy five and the third and forth rear down in the blue water at one hundred and one hundred and twenty five fathoms.  Each bait hung head, down with the shank of the hook inside the bait fish, tied and sewed solid and all projecting part of the hook, the curve and the point, was covered with frees sardines”.  
                                                                   (Pg. - 25)
v              We are told how he hooks the fish and secures the line, waiting suspense-fully for the fish to turn and swallow the bait, then waiting again until it has eaten the bait, well then striking.

                   “With all the strength of his arms, and the provide weight of his body”.

v              There times, setting the hook, then placing the line across his back and shoulders so that there will be something to give when the fish lunges, and the line will not break.  We are told specially in terms reminiscent of such descriptions of the bull – fight, how the hill is made.  The imminence of death for the sacrifice as well as for the scarified, and his total disregard of its possibility, are made clear of the climax of the struggle when Santiago thinks:

          “You are killing me, fish… come on and kill me.  I do not care who kills who.”

®                       The Religion of Man:-

v              Hemingway’s world view adds up to something more than a philosophy or an ethic; it adds up to what may be called a Religion of none.  Hemingway did not turn religious to write The Old Man and the Sea.  He had always been religious, though his religion was not of the orthodox, organized kind.  He celebrates, as he had always celebrated, the religion of Man.  The Old Man the Sea merely celebrates it more forcefully and convincingly than any previous work of Hemingway.  It is the final step in the celebration.  It is the book which elevates the philosophy to a religion by the use of allegory.  It is also the book which, by being an allegory of the total body of his work, enables us to see that work finally from the point of view of religion.

* III *

®           The original Magazine Article:-

v              The substance of the story was first pointed in the course of articles on deep sea fishing written for a periodical in 1936.  Hemingway related than an old fisherman had been picked up by another boat sixty miles from land with a huge marlin tied to the side of his skiff.  When his obscures found him, suffering from hunger and thirst, he as crying and half out of his mind.

®           Use of Symbolic Devices:-
v              Hemingway carried the incident in his head for years as one that he would some time develop into a full length story.  When he finally did deal with the incident, he brought to it all the new experiences which he had gained in the handling of the symbolic devices while writing his preceding novel.  Across the river and into the Trees.

®           A Parable on the theme of fighting the Good Fight:-

v              When the book was published, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece.  On the purely literal level, this otory of an old fisherman’s single – handed fight with a huge fish in the Guld Stream north of Havana is a wonderfully written narrative, direct, intense, and spell binding.  But most readers found an extra quality in it, namely that the story was a parable on the theme of fighting the good fight.  It is in fact a beautifully, executed essay in Dantesaue allegory.  Every action and motif may be interpreted allegorically, and the literal and symbolic meanings operate continuously and consistently.

®           A Double Allegory:-

v              The Old Man and the Sea is a sustained and continuous performance in the field of symbolism Hemingway himself said of this book:

                   “I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks.  But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.”

v              It is possible to interpret the book as a double allegory, of the nature of man’s struggle with life, and of the artist’s struggle with his art.  Strangely enough, Hemingway never wrote more significantly of himself than in this most externalized of all his stories; line sati Santiago determining to justify his reputation as a skilled fisherman:
          “The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing.  Now he was proving it again.  Each time was a new and he never thought about the post when he was doing it.”
(Pg. 58)
v              These words about satiago are fully applicable to Hemingway himself as a writer.

®           Undertones of Christian Scriptures:-

v              The simple prose in which the story is written the story is written has the flavor of the struggle of the bible.  There are other subtle undertones of the Christian scriptures, as for instance, in Santiago’s almost Franciscan communion with the fish and the birds of the Gulf Stream and in the similarity between Santiago’s voyage and the episode pertaining to Ulysses in Dantle’s Inferno.  In Dante the voyage of Ulysses ends in ship break, and the episode is usually interpreted as symbolizing the disaster of a thirst for scientific knowledge uncontrolled by humans and religious feeling.  Santiago also spls out beyond his proper limit, and his voyage too ends in material disaster. “Half – fish” he says.

          “Fish that you were I am sorry that I went too far out.  I ruined us both.”

®           A Double Allegory:

v              But Hemingway shapes his parable towards a different end:

          “But man is not made for, defect,” Santiago said.  “A man can destroy but not defeated.”

          “It is silly not to hope, he thought.  “Beside I believe it is a sin.”
                                      (Pg. 93 and 94)

v              Hemingway’s exploration of the vices and the heroism of humanity are guided by compassion and respect.  That is the reason why he gives different meaning to his parable.

®           Santiago’s Moral Victory:-

v              With his simple faith, his hope, and the charity of heart which binds him to his brother, the fish, Santiago is endowed with the chrolistian binds him to his brother, the fish, Santiago is endowed with the Cholistian virtues:

          He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility.  But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.
(Pg. 9)

v              When he meets disaster, he acquires a moral victory by his courage and revolution.  Nearly broken physically, but spiritual undefeated, he reaches the shore in safety.

®           Allegory of the writer’s struggle with His Material:-

v              But the book may also be read as on allegory of the artist’s struggle with his material.  It is possible to see Hemingway himself, with his line set accurately at various depts., sailing out into the guild stream to land his biggest final the technical failure of his preceding novel.  Across the river to think of only one thing.  That which I was born for.

®           Conclusion:-

v              A number of ingredients in their novelette have obvious significant in relation to Hemingway’s practice of his art as a novelist.  These ingredients include the fisherman’s respect for the giant marlin, his absolute struggle to master it his mounting confidence when he realizes that he is.

Hearing how to do it.”?

v              His fight against the hungry sharks that seek to destroy the beauty and glory of his prize, and the undefeated courage and hope which even in failure will take him out to sea again.