Abstract:
Ernest Hemingway, one of the most famous modern American novelists, was well-know both for his contribution to the advance of western literature and being the representative of the “Lost Generation”. His economic writing style is very popular both in Europe and America, and in1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature according to his masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea, which may be read as a tragic and adventurous story, as a fable of unconquerable spirit of man, as a parable of religious significance and a solemn and stirring epic that distinguishes itself from those outstanding works of the literature. Symbolism, the most representative writing technique in this work of his, was highly-skilled applied in this novella, and created the term of “Code Hero” in literature. Hemingway respectively endowed several characters their symbolic meanings to make sure that the understanding and appreciation of the story can be much easier and better for the readers to cherish. This thesis, aiming to share the author’s humble understanding toward this novella, is an attentative exploration of the application and magnification of the most representative writing technique, symbolism, and the hidden meanings of those symbols, that is, the strong undercurrent of emotions of the author toward them and those between the lines.

Key words: symbolism; The Old Man and the Sea; symbolic meanings

摘  要：
欧内斯特•海明威，美国现代最著名的小说家之一，因其对文学的发展和作为美国“迷失的一代”的代表性人物，而为人们所熟悉。他精练的写作风格备受欧美读者的推崇，并且凭其代表作《老人与海》，他获得了1954年的诺贝尔文学奖。《老人与海》不仅仅是一部悲剧意义和冒险性的作品、一个讲叙人类不屈精神的故事，更是一部满含宗教意义和催人奋进的史诗般著作，并藉此傲立于世界文学名作之林。象征主义作为这部作品最具代表性的表现手法，作者将其在平白的叙述中运用得恰到好处，并由此造就了“海明威式的英雄”这一文学术语。为能够使读者更好的了解、体味作品所要表现的主题，作者赋予各意象以丰富的象征意义。本文从象征手法的运用及其所蕴含的深层次意义出发，试探究和重新解读海明威的《老人与海》这部作品。

关键词：象征主义；《老人与海》；象征意义

1 Introduction
Crowned as a literary master in the western literature, as well as in the world literature, Ernest Hemingway was renowned as a prestigious representative of “Lost Generation”. Many of his works, pursuing the ultimate meaning of human beings, deal with the themes of life, adventure, nature, and humanity, with The Sun also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Across the River and into the Trees, The Old Man and the Sea, and etc, being examples of this kind. Among all of these works, The Old Man and the Sea is publically considered as the most outstanding one of his latter phase of writings because of his masterful creation of characters, his unique international theme, his skillful command of the English language, and especially, his profound application of symbolic images.