Symbolism In Ernest Hemingways The Old Man And The Sea

Abstract Masterful writers use literary devices and techniques in a unique way to exemplify their mastery in writing. In American literature Ernest Hemingways novel The old man and the sea is a worthy symbolic novel which conveys the ability of the author to employ symbols to give literary value of the text .The objective of this work is to explore the symbols used in the novel to decode these symbols and identify the various interpretations that they stand for. This work divides into four chapters. The first chapter deals with aestheticism in general and tells about the common stylistic devices in literature such as simile metaphor irony and so on. The second chapter makes the connection with the concept of symbol and some theories that are related to symbols such as Langers Theory Whitehead Theory Fryes Theory and Saussures Theory. The third chapter gives the general overview about American literature and the major works of Ernest Hemingway focusing on his masterpiece The old man and the sea and its literary analysis while the forth chapter stands for the symbols used in the novel and their interpretations This work aims at showing the interest of Hemingway for symbols and his intention to represent themes behind the use of symbols in The old man and the sea.