Bring out the symbolism implied in the struggle of the old man against the sea in the novel.

The word symbolism came to be associated with Hemingway only after the appearance of the novel The Old Man and the Sea. In The Old Man and the Sea, we find that the symbolism of Hemingway has far deeper significance. Here also the story is only the small visible part built up by a series of parables and symbols. Hemingway himself has said, “I tried to make a real old man a real old man and a real boy, a real scene, a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and sure enough, they would mean many things. So apart from being a moving little story on fishing, the book could be read as personal parable and universal allegory”. 

Hemingway has taken many facts from his own life for this novel. Something of his character and personality is given to the hero of the novel. But in The Old Man and the Sea, the identification between the author and the hero is complete. In Santiago’s story the reader is to detect the struggles of Hemingway his confidence and his determination. Santiago goes for his work always with care and precision. He shows extraordinary courage. He represents Hemingway. They are similar in many ways. In spite of the extreme difficulties Santiago triumphs over the fish, even though finally he is defeated by the sharks. 

He is happy that he did not surrender to the marlin or the sea. For Hemingway Gulf Stream is time. The marlin which is hidden in the deep sea is truth hidden in the depth of time. Hemingway is trying to understand this truth like Santiago who tries to catch the marlin from the depth of the sea. We seeHemingway’s daring soul in Santiago’s determination to go far into the sea.The symbolism in the soul is not limited to personal level. Thewhole novel is underlined by a universal parable. It is the representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable natural forces. Victory is possible in this action. Santiago represents the great heroes of Greek tragedy fated to failure yet struggling nobly against the hatred of an adverse enemy.

Santiago’s aspiration, personality and inevitable nature of his failure reminds us of those heroes. His words “man is not made for defeat, a man can be destroyed, but not defeated” reflects this comparison. In the novel there is an unmistakable Christian strain. Santiago fights the good fight, without caring for the reward. Towards the end of his struggle, he even says, “I don’t care who kills who”. Santiago is an example of the doctrine of Christian love. He has the fisherman apostle and martyr from the sea of Galilee in him. He has also something of St.Francis in him as he feels for the birds and fishes. The natural compassion he feels towards creatures is essentially a Christian virtue. He repeatedly mutters “Hail Mary” but we cannot take him as a religious person. Instead we can see the Christian Spirit in him. He shows certain qualities of mind and heart which are clearly related to the character and personality of Jesus Christ in the parables. Hemingway’s use of symbolism is so restrained that he cannot be categorised along with those who are usually labeled as symbolists. He uses symbolism with a strict restraint so as to work protect his realism.

FICTION AS BASE FOR LITERARY AND MEDIA WRITING

Fiction is the term for any invented literary narrative. It refers to novels, short stories and other works of art that do not try to tell true stories. While they may be inspired by real events or people fiction writers create characters dialogue and plots completely from their imagination. Story telling becomes the basis of most other entertainment media like movies, television and comic books. In the 20th century, new media expanded, including motion pictures radio and television. These used fictional story telling structures borrowed from novelsor stage drama.

In modern times thousands of works of fiction are published in many languages every year. Electronic media like audio books and e-books offer new ways for readers to enjoy stories of all kinds. Self publishing and online publishing make it possible for writers to find readers outside of traditional publishing places. In a wider sense, fiction remains the primary form of narrative in most of the media. Movies, television shows, and stage dramas still depend upon the fictional forms to tell stories. While the future of print media is uncertain, the art of the story has already established a strong presence in the field of electronic media.

A visual narrative is a type of story that is told completely through visual media. There are no restrictions on the types of narratives that can be made in a visual manner. Visual narrative as a story telling style permits a great deal of variety in methodology and presentation. Such a narrative can be a film, a graphic novel or comic book or a series of images. Here artists and story tellers have a great deal of space for experimentation. Visual narrative allows the story teller to tell stories from many different angles. They use a wide range of methods also to communicate various aspects of the narrative. Written narratives and visual narratives have much in common. They have the same goals. Visuals narrative is always aiming to communicate a story of some form just as a written story is. They even use similar plot elements, complex characters, conflicts, leading to the further development of the characters.

Visual narrative primarily depends on images to communicate ideas by incorporating other media. This is done to enrich the story. Films often depend on speech and other audio components, even though most of the action is visual in nature. Most of the artists or story tellers like to tell their narratives by using images. These types of narrative will be highly informative and complex as any film or story.

PLOT, CHARACTER AND THE STRUCTURE OF NOVEL IN FICTION

Fictions are especially novels describing imaginary events. Novels have different kinds of plot form-tragic, comic, satiric or romantic, and to a great extent its characters reveal themselves and their intentions in dialogue. The novel is characterized as the fictional attempt to give the effect of realism, by representing complex characters with mixed motives that are rooted in a social class. It functions in a highly developed social structure. It also mixes up with many other characters. It is like a play with plot and characters. A dramatist must depend on what he can make us see and hear for ourselves, but a novelist can describe what could never be presented on any stage. He can tell us what is happening, explain it and finally give his own remarks on it. His story may not be symmetrical in exposition, crisis and denouement. At the beginning of the book there will be a crisis. After that before the climax, the book will devote its pages to show how the crisis arose.

 The novel has no strict frame work. Usually foreign critics have commented that English novels lack as ense of proportion even though it has richness and variety in it. Due to this the author takes full advantage of the freedom he gets. The novelist is eager to represent life in its fullness and its creative urge may overshadow his sense of artistic unityand balance in narrative, description, characterization and dialogue.  But this willmatter nothing if the author can keep the reader under his control with his plot,characters and narrative style until the story ends. The author’s personality is a veryimportant factor. Every novel must present a certain view of life and some of the problems of life. It should be a mirror reflecting the author’s outlook of the world with all incidents, characters, passions and motives. It should be our agreement or disagreement with this view of life that decides our choice in fiction.

The earlier works of English fiction were stories of action. In modern novels the tendency has been to subordinate action to psychology. They try to find the central theme in the mental and spiritual development of the characters rather than in their physical adventures. In the greatest novels plot and characterization are organically connected. There is an argument that characterization is the most important aspect.Even if the reader cannot relate the complex plot, they will never forget the characters.

The setting of a novel can be in any part of the world. They can be set in any time past, present or future. Almost every period of English history has contributed a novel. Regarding the settings many authors have their own selection of places. Some have even marked out a region as their own. After reading the ‘Waverley Novels’ of Walter Scott, one looks for the places mentioned in the novels. Thomas Hardy dominates the south-western England for which he gave the name Wessex. Arnold Bennett selected the Midland region potteries as the background for his novels. The seexamples will be enough to show how English novelists responded to local influences. One can even classify the novels by their social settings.

Through every novel unintentionally the author comes up with his own views of life and problems. Older writers saw nothing wrong in this and it was a regular practice with them to give a type of running commentary. It was a time when people liked to be lectured rather than entertained. But in modern fiction, readers do not like the authors appearance since it interrupts his story. In fact, the readers like the lesson to be taught revealing through the plot and the characters rather than the author teaching them. The effect of this method will be great. The Short Story is a prose narrative of shorter length than the novel especially one that has a single them. It is not merely a greatly shortened novel. It has all the usual constituents of a fiction. But the plot, character and setting cannot be treated with the same detail as in a novel. Each has to be reduced to the minimum, but should get the intended effect. The plot should be reduced to the essentials. Characters are used to the indispensables. Sometimes the writer may construct a story of plot alone with characters and setting restricted to the requirement. At other times character alone may be prominent with plot and setting restricted.

The language of short story should contribute to its effect different from a novel which has passages that sometimes has nothing to do with the plot. This will drag the plot and lead it nowhere. Descriptive passages are only valuable in so far as they contribute towards the total effect. Short stories will long continue to meet the needs of readers and find new plots to suit the taste of the changing

world.

Essay- as a writing method in literature.

Essay is an impotent writing method in literature .  An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument — but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have traditionally been sub-classified as formal and informal. Formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas the informal essay is characterized by "the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc.

Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population are counterexamples. In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education. Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing the performance of students during final exams.

The concept of an "essay" has been extended to other mediums beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary film making styles, and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions. An essay has been defined in a variety of ways. One definition is a "prose composition with a focused subject of discussion" or a "long, systematic discourse". It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley, a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject. He notes that "the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything", and adds that "by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece". Furthermore, Huxley argues that "essays belong to a literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference". These three poles (or worlds in which the essay may exist) are:

The personal and the autobiographical: The essayists that feel most comfortable in this pole "write fragments of reflective autobiography and look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description".

The objective, the factual, and the concrete-particular: The essayists that write from this pole "do not speak directly of themselves, but turn their attention outward to some literary or scientific or political theme. Their art consists on setting forth, passing judgement upon, and drawing general conclusions from the relevant data".

The abstract-universal: In this pole "we find those essayists who do their work in the world of high abstractions", who are never personal and who seldom mention the particular facts of experience.

Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays "...make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist."

The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing, and his essays grew out of his commonplacing. Inspired in particular by the works of Plutarch, a translation of whose Œuvres Morales (Moral works) into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot, Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais, was published in two volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. Francis Bacon's essays, published in book form in 1597, 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays. Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in English in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary

why Human language is different from animal language ?

1. Duality of patterning (Duality of structure)

Language displays two levels of patterning. It is made up of sounds and smaller formalunits called phonemes, morpheme and words. A stretch of speech in any human language can be analyzed into smaller units and larger number of meaning can be expressed by means of limited number of signals. For instance a sentence such as “Our teachers like all the students” can be analyzed into words: Out/teacher/like/all/the/students/. Some of these

words may further be broken into smaller units: teach/er/s; student/s. Each word in the

sentence is made up of speech sounds called phonemes. For example the word ‘like’ is made up of an initial consonant /l/, a medial diphthong /ai/and a final consonant /k/. The same words can be rearranged in order to construct another sentence “All the students like our teachers”. Thus in human language two levels of structure are found: a primary level which consists of compounding of words

and a secondary level which consists of compounding of sounds.

Animal communication on the other hand, consists of meaningful cries which cannot

be analyzed into constituent elements such as phonemes, morphemes or words. The cry of animals denotes approaching danger, mating instinct, anger etc. The chirping of birds and the buzzing of bees are means of communication. But they serve only a limited number of purposes. The bees for example, have only two modes of body movements called bee dance- one to signify distance and the other to denote the direction of forage. Unlike animal language, human language is articulate as it has got a structure. Human language can be analyzed into a number of smaller constituent elements like words, phonemes and

morphemes. That is why human language is said to be a “system of systems”. The cry of animals or the body movement of the bees cannot be analyzed into smaller units. Human language is structured at different levels- at the level of phonemes and morphemes and at the level of words. Charles Hockett calls this property of language as the duality of

structure

2. Recursiveness (Creativity)

Since there are various ways of combining the units of language, there is

considerable scope for creativity within it. Using a few basic rules of construction, human beings can produce and understand a large number of utterances. There is no limit to the length or number of sentences a speaker can produce. Using a finite number of rules which are repeatedly used, a speaker can produce grammatical sentences never uttered before.

This property of language is called recursiveness. We can add new words and sentences to the already existing ones or even form sentences inside sentences. This property of

language is referred to as creativity. Languages always remain open-ended. The signals in human language can be combined in a variety of ways. Human language may therefore be called an open -ended system.

Animal language, on the other hand, exhibits only a very little creativity or recursiveness. It does not have any variety of combination or organization of constituent

elements.

3. Arbitrariness. Generally speaking, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the vocal sounds

and the concepts or ideas they stand for. The relationship between a word and its referent is purely arbitrary. In other words there is no positive relationship between a speech sound and the object. This property of language is referred to as arbitrariness. There are a few exceptions to this feature of language. A few words are representational in nature. In English, for example , words like ‘buzz’, ‘hiss’, ‘rattle’, ‘bang’, ‘thud’ etc. actually

represent the sounds of their referents. Such words are called Onomatopoeic words. With the exception of such words, the relationship between the signifier and the signified (i.e. the word and its referent) is generally arbitrary.

4. Displacement.

Animal communication is context bound but human communication can be context

free. Human beings can talk about others experiences. They can talk of objects and events which are not present at the time and the place of speaking because the use of human language is not directly controlled by stimulus. This property of language is called displacement. In the case of animals, there is a direct relationship between stimulus and they can respond only to their immediate environment.

5. Transferability.

Human language has two basic manifestations: One is speech and the other is

writing. It is possible to write down spoken language and read aloud the written material. This property of language is referred to as transferability. These differences between human language and animal language are primarily due to the fact that the human brain has an innate capacity for learning language creatively.