EngLit

Teacher · Administrator Data inscrierii: 26/Mar/2008 Mesaje: 471

Text 1. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by E. Hemingway

Text 1. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA Text 1. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

The old man unhooked the fish, re-baited the line with another sardine and tossed it over. Then he worked his way slowly back to the bow. He washed his left hand and wiped it on his trousers. Then he shifted the heavy line from his right hand to his left and washed his right hand in the sea while he watched the sun go into the ocean and the slant of the big cord.

“He hasn’t changed at all,” he said. But watching the movement of the water against his hand he noted that it was perceptibly slower.

“I’ll lash the two oars together across the stern and that will slow him in the night,” he said. “He’s good for the night and so am I.”

It would be better to gut the dolphin a little later to save the blood in the meat, he thought. I can do that a little later and lash the oars to make a drag at the same time. I had better keep the fish quiet now and not disturb him too much at sunset. The setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish.

“But you have not slept yet, old man,” he said aloud. “It is half a day and a night and now another day and you have not slept. You must devise a way so that you sleep a little if he is quiet and steady. If you do not sleep you might become unclear in the head.” [...]

I’m clear enough in the head, he thought. Too clear. I am as clear as the stars that are my brothers. Still I must sleep. They sleep and the moon and the sun sleep and even the ocean sleeps sometimes on certain days when there is no current and a flat calm.

But remember to sleep, he thought. Make yourself do it and devise some simple and sure way about the lines. Now go back and prepare the dolphin. It is too dangerous to rig the oars as a drag if you must sleep.
I could go without sleeping, he told himself. But it would be too dangerous.

(Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea)

re-baited = a pus momeala din nou
bow = proră (partea din faţă a bărcii)
line = undiţă
lash the oars = a pune vâslele de-a curmezişul
to make a drag = a frâna (o barcă)
devise = născoceşte

TASKS:
1A. Identify the type of narrator in terms of his position to the diegesis (=world of the story)

1B. In the old man's spoken monologue, who is that YOU? Explain from a psychological point of view this special use of YOU.

1C. How do we distinguish (graphically and logically) the passages of the old man's SPEECH from those of THOUGH?

1D. In the passages followed by the mention "HE THOUGHT", the punctuation is unusual. What kind of discourse do we have here (direct/indirect/FDD, FID)?

1E. When the first person ("I...") occurs (=apare) in the narrative text, who does it refer to? What type of discourse do we have there (direct/indirect, FDD, FID)?

1F. Is there a justification in terms of expressivity for such uses of discourses? What impression do these convey (=transmit) to the reader?[img][/img]

AlexandraMi · Dunker Data inscrierii: 08/Oct/2013 Mesaje: 16

1A. The narrator, in this text, is not in the world of the story (“Heterodiegetic narrator”) because he is not a character who describes his personal experiences in the story.

1B. The personal pronoun “you”, is used in this case by a character, the old man, to refer to himself. This unusual situation might have occurred because the old man is insane.

1C. We distinguish (graphically and logically) the passages of the old man's SPEECH from those of THOUGH due to the use of dublu inverted commas (to mark the direct speech).

1D. From my point of view, we have free direct discourse, otherwise we would need quotation marks. Moreover, the presence of the reported verb “he thought” proves once again the idea of free direct discourse.

1E. When the first person ("I...") occurs in the narrative text it refers to the character. Here we also have free direct discourse.

1F. I consider that there is a justification in terms of expressivity for such uses of discourses, namely these convey the impression of dynamism and the action seems to be happening in front of you, like at the theatre.

Dochita Bondea · Trimis: 05/02/2014 12:10 Titlul subiectului:

1 A.The type of narrator in terms of his position to the diegesis identified in this text is Heterodiegetic narrator, because he is an outsider, he does not belong to the world of the story and also he does not relate his personal adventures in the story.
1 B. The personal pronoun "you" identified in this story refers undoubtedly to the character, the old man who, during the story, has a monologue (you=as himself).The character is psychologically unstable (sleepy), thing that proves that the narrator is unreliable.
1 C. We distinguish (graphically and logically) the passages of the old man's SPEECH from those of THOUGH by using inverted commas, whose aim is to mark the Direct Speech.
1 D. I consider that in the passages followed by the mention "he thought" is underlined the Free Direct Discourse,because it preserves the comments,the linguistic mark of the character(hesitation, thought). Even if the quotation marks are absent, the presence of the reported verb "he thought" emphasizes the idea of Free Direct Discourse.
1 E. The first person ("I") from the text refers to the character himself, (the old man) who has a monologue. We can also identify the presence of the Free Direct Discourse.
1 F. Yes. There is a justification in terms of expresivity for such uses of discourses where these convey the impresion of dynamism, hesitation or emotions ( from character's monologue), especially when you have the feeling that it occures in front of you.

danna · Trimis: 05/02/2014 17:07 Titlul subiectului:

1.A The narrator is not in the world of the story, so we have a heterogenic narrator because we have a third person narrative, so we can clearly identify the difference between the narrator and the character/s and the narrator doesn't tell us about his personal experiences.

1.B In the old man's monologue, that "you" refers to the character, to the old man, who is talking to himself.

1.C We can make a distinction between the passages of old man's speech and those of though because of the usage of double inverted commas.

1.D In the passages followed by the mention "he thought" we have a free direct discourse because the character talks to himself and this can underline the idea of direct discourse and the quotation marks are missing.

1.E Every time than the pronoun "I" appears, it refers to the character, the old man, who, as I said before, talks to himself. In these passages we have free direct discourse, too.

1.F In my opinion, such discourses are used for bringing the character's world in front of one's (reader's) eyes and to immortalize an important moment, or fact (In this case, the fact that the character is talking to himself).

Monica Hoz · Dunker Data inscrierii: 30/Oct/2013 Mesaje: 13

1A. The narrator is heterodiegetic because he is not a protagonist in the story; he is the one who present the old man's actions, "The old man unhooked the fish, re-baited the line with another sardine and tossed it over. Then he worked his way slowly back to the bow." and thoughts, "But remember to sleep, he thought."

1B. In his monologue, the old man is referring to himself by using the pronoun "you". This happens maybe because he is alone on the sea for a long time and as a human he feels the need to speak, to care a conversation with somebody.

1C. We distinguish the passages of the old man's speech from those of thought due to the quotation marks.

1D. In the passages followed by the mention "he thought" we have free direct discourse because the quotation marks are not present.

1E. The pronoun "I" in these sentence "I'll lash the two oars together across the stern and that will slow him in the night," is used by the character who says what he is going to do. This pronoun is in direct discourse because we have quotation marks.

1F. Yes, there is a justification in using different types of discourses because it captivates the reader's attention and the free direct discourse gives the reader the impression that he can also reads the character's mind.
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monihoz

Teacher · Administrator Data inscrierii: 26/Mar/2008 Mesaje: 471

1A. +, +, +, +
Right all of you: heterodiegetic.

1B. +, ++, +, ++
Right all of you.
Extra points for Dochita for first bringing up the term "monologue" and to Monica for clarifying the psychological ondition of the character.
Dochita's mention about an unreliable narrator makes no sens. Why? Well, is the Old Man the Narrator here?

1C. +, +, +, +
Yes, but the formulation of all answers is somewhat lacking in clarity...

1D. +, ++, +, +
Yes, all of you: free direct discourse. Extra point to Dochita for indicating the markers of this.

1E. +, +, +, —
Monica: irrelevant (or not enough context).
The rest: OK.

1F. +, ++, +, +
Yes, dynamism. I would also add: immediacy and a sense of disorganisation (lack of punctuation = lack of order of these thoughts).