摘 要

《岛在湾流中》是美国作家海明威的小说作品，发表于1970年，是海明威的遗作之一。讲述画家托马斯的坎坷经历人生。在《岛在湾流中》中，海明威通过对人物以及环境的描写，展示了他对于“死亡”的理解。

欧内斯特·米勒尔·海明威（1899～1961）美国小说家、诺贝尔文学奖获得者。海明威的死亡意识与他一生的经历有关且他作品涉及的主题主要是“死亡”,他对于死亡意识的理解是一个从逃避死亡、直面死亡直到超脱死亡的过程。《岛在湾流中》是海明威的后期作品。这个阶段，海明威认为人类可以从精神上战胜死亡从而实现人生价值。论文先介绍何为死亡意识，再分析其在《岛在湾流中》一书中的体现，最后分析死亡意识对海明威乃至世界的影响，为海明威死亡意识的研究提供参考。

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关键词：海明威；岛在湾流中；死亡意识

Abstract

Islands in the Stream, a novel of Ernest Hemingway, an American writer, published in 1970, is one of the posthumous works of Hemingway. It tells a story about painter Thomas’s rugged experiences. In Islands in the Stream, Hemingway shows his understanding of death by describing the characters and the environment.

Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 - 1961) An American novelist and the winner of the Nobel prize in Literature. Hemingway’s literary creation is closely connected with his legendary life and the main topic of his works is death. Hemingway’s exploration of death consciousness is a process from escaping death, confronting death to overcoming death. Islands in the Stream is Hemingway’s later work, in this stage, Hemingway thought that human can overcome death in mental to realize the value of life. The paper first introduces what is death consciousness, then analyzes the death consciousness in Islands in the Stream. Finally the paper analyzes the influence that death consciousness brings to Hemingway and to the world, and provides reference for the research of Hemingway’s death consciousness.

Key words: Hemingway; Islands in the Stream; death consciousness

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 An Introduction of Ernest Miller Hemingway 1

1.2 An Introduction of Islands in the Stream 1

1.3 Researches on Hemingway’s Death Consciousness 2

2. Hemingway’s Death Consciousness 3

2.1 Escaping Death 4

2.2 Confronting Death 4

2.3 Overcoming Death 5

3. Hemingway’s Death Consciousness in Islands in the Stream 6

3.1 Escaping the death of his two little sons 6

3.2 Confronting the death of his left son 8

3.3 Triumphing over evil with his life 9

4. The Influence of Hemingway’s Death Consciousness 10

5. Conclusion 11

Hemingway's Death Consciousness in Islands in the Stream

1. Introduction

1.1 An Introduction of Ernest Miller Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had influenced the 20th-century fiction a lot, as well as his life experience of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. The majority of his works were produced between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and in 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered as classics of American literature.

Hemingway’s war experiences highly influenced his writing style. In World War I, Hemingway joined the American Red Cross battlefield service organization, and threw himself into the battlefield of Italy. After World War I, Hemingway was awarded the military exploit medal and the silver medal by the Italy government, and attained the rank of lieutenant. He saw his 237 battles scars as a badge of honor, as well as the painful memories that the war brought to him.

From 1937 to 1938, he attended the Spanish Civil war as a war correspondent. In World War II, he followed the army as a reporter and participated in the liberation war of Paris. After World War II, he was awarded a bronze medal.

The experience in the war not only hurt him in body, especially in soul. It gave him a chance to touch death, facing death by himself and seeing others death with his eyes. Due to this close contact with death, he spent his lifetime to fight with death, this spirit was reflected in his works.

1.2 An Introduction of Islands in the Stream

Islands in the Stream is a novel of Ernest Hemingway, published in 1970, it is one of his posthumous works, the novel tells the story about Thomas Hudson, who was a good painter, had divorced two times. He has three sons, all raises by his two former wives, and he lives by the Gulf Stream alone. Painting, swimming, drinking and sleeping make up to his daily life. He loves his work of painting and his sons. Good times do not last long, two of his sons died in a traffic accident, the left one also died in World War II. The dead of his sons hit him a lot, in the end, Thomas decided to give up personal joys and sorrows, and threw himself into the torrent of World Anti-Fascist War.

In 1942, the war was raging in Europe, at that time, Hemingway commanded a submarine in Cuba to collect information of the Nazis in the islands. This military action provides many valuable materials for his literary creation. According to this experience, he wrote Island in the Stream.

1.3 Researches on Hemingway’s Death Consciousness

“ Death ” is the main theme in Hemingway’s career of literary creation, he has said: “ Life is a lonely struggle, the desperate passion of action, behind consciousness no meaning or reason to life, nothing can be clearly explained, to improve or save, can not really raise or resolve any problems. As a result, only the barriers of life ‘ anger or die ’ or sad inability to wait and see. ”（Hotchner, 1999） Hemingway has experienced World War I and World War II, he saw many people suffering from the war, and the changing that industrialization brought to human. Focus on the life and die makes his works full of violent and death, as well as fear, evil, lost, despair and many other negative emotions, the heroes in his works are different in facing these challenges in different stages, it is a process from confused and fear to determined, and it shows the changing of Hemingway’s understanding of life and die. The typical characters ware called the Hemingway Code Heroes, they share some features that were the persistent character and the spirit of Grace under pressure. Hemingway expressed the death consciousness and realized his heroism dream in the creation of that.

The research of Hemingway’s death consciousness can be traced back to 1950s, the Hemingway of Young Philip, he analyzed Hemingway’s works in the aspect of mental, 10 years later, he modified his previous view and propose some new points, the“ Code hero” and the“ Grace under pressure. ” His research has a great impact on the research of Hemingway’s death consciousness afterwards.