METAPHOR ANAYSIS OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY
on
METAPHOR ANAYSIS OF THE CHARACTERS IN
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY
By
Ni Putu Mira Darmayanti Jurusan Sastra Inggris Fakultas Sastra Universitas Udayana
Abstrak
Dalam studi ini novella karangan penulis Amerika Ernest Hemingway yang berjudul The Old Man and the Sea atau dalam buku terjemahannya Lalaki Tua dan Laut dipilih untuk dianalisis. Tokoh dalam novella ini yaitu si orang tua Santiago, anak laki-laki, Manolin dan ikan Marlin yang diinterpretasikan dan dianalisis dari sudut metaphor supaya bisa ditemukan artinya dan apa yang ingin dikemukakan oleh penulisnya Ernest Hemingway kepada para pembaca. Metode menganalisis data dalam studi ini adalah deskriptif. Data yang dikumpulkan dari sumber data dianalisa berdasarkan teori William Kenney dalam bukunya How to Analyze Fiction, dan teori Warren dan Wellek dengan bukunya Theory of Literature. Masalah yang dibahas adalah bagaimana ketika tokoh dalam novella ini dianalisis berdasarkan sudut pandang metaphor dan apa sebenarnya yang ingin disampaikan oleh Hemingway kepada pembacanya.
Ernest Hemingway mencoba menuturkan kisah yang penuh dengan pelajaran hidup mengenai ketabahan dan kerja keras pantang menyerah lewat lembaran-lembaran penuh semangat. Apa pun konsekuensinya harus dihadapi dengan tegar. Termasuk, menunggu hasil pancingan selama 84 hari. Hanya berbekal perahu tua, kail pancing, umpan, dan niat untuk menggapai keberhasilan di dalam 84 hari tersebut, dia menantang lautan untuk mendapatkan ikan marlin raksasa. Mulai hari pertama hingga terakhir, dia menunggu umpannya disentuh ikan marlin. Tak ada setitik rasa putus asa di dalam hatinya. Terus saja dia tunggu ikan itu sampai datang menghampiri perahu dan umpannya tadi. Akhirnya dia berhasil. Meski, dia harus menghadapi kenyataan bahwa ikan tersebut tak bisa dibawanya ke daratan secara utuh. Santiago, tokoh utama dalam novella ini digambarkan punya semangat baja. Dia tidak menyerah meski usahanya mencari ikan sering terbentur kegagalan. Santiago sudah menganggap memancing sebagai tujuan hidup dan ia dinilai memiliki dedikasi tinggi terhadap profesinya.
Kata kunci: novella, Ernest Hemingway, laut
Kenney in his book How to Analyze Fiction, describes tha a work of fiction deals with events that occurs in temporal sequence – that is, one after another. The story of a man’s life for example, will include his birth, his growing up, his marriage, his growing old, and his death (1966: 12 – 13).
The Old Man and the Sea helped to revive Hemingway's reputation as a writer of great acclaim. This slim volume also contributed enormously to Hemingway's recognition as a world-renowned writer--with the award of the Nobel Prize for literature. The popular reception of the novel comes from its partparable, part-eulogy style--recollecting a by-gone age in this spiritual quest for discovery.
In literature, there are many things that can be analysed both intrinsically and extrinsically, there are elements to study such as theme, setting, character, plot, point of view, style and tone, structure and technique, and so forth. Extrinsically it can be concerned with the author’s biography, social and cultural status, personal experience with life and language, moral values, and so forth.
In this study, the story entitled The Old Man and the Sea was selected to be analysed. The character of the old man, Santiago, the boy, Manolin dan the fish, Marlin can be discussed and interpreted through the metaphor analysis. Furthermore, in this study, Santiago as the main character is also analysed from his dedication to his skill which separates him from the pragmatic fishermen motivated by money.
Based on the background mentioned above, the focus of this study is limited to the study of three characters. The problems then appear in this story are:
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1. How are the characters analysed metaphorically throughout the story of The Old Man and the Sea?
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2. What message does the writer, Hemingway want to convey?
This study is intended to fulfil three aims: the general, specific, and academic aims.
The general aim of this writing is to apply theories related to novella in order to get better understanding of Hemingway’s book entitled The Old Man and the Sea.
Meanwhile the specific aim of this writing is to find out the metaphorical meaning of the story and what message the writer wants to convey.
The last is an academic aim that is to apply the theory of literature studied in the English Department to write a scientific work which gives contribution to this department, so this writing can be used as a reference to help the student writes the same topic.
There are three aspects of the research in this study; they consist of data source, data collection and data analysis.
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4.1. Data Source
The data were collected from the story entitled The Old Man and the Sea by the Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway was chosen to be analyzed. It was published in 1953, and in this novella, Hemingway reflected much of his own character and experience through Santiago, as the main character.
The data were collected through reading the story intensively and noting down all the information relevant to Santiago, Manolin and the marlin as the focus
of discussion. Then the data were identified in accordance with their type then
descriptively presented. The data were collected as follows:
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1. The story was selected and carefully noted down the selected items based on the related topic.
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2. The metaphorical meaning of the three character was found out.
The analysis correlates to the problems that were formulated. The method used for analyzing the data was descriptive. The data were collected from the above data source and were analyzed by using the theory proposed by William Kenney. 1978. How to Analyze Fiction, and theory of Warren and Wellek entitled Theory of Literature written in 1962.
Metaphor is a shift, a carrying over a word from its normal use to a new one. In a sense metaphor, the shift of the word, is occasioned and justified by a similarity or analogy between the object it is usually applied to and the new object. In an emotive metaphor the shift occurs through some similarity between the feelings of the new situation and the normal situation arouse. The same word may, in different contexts, be either a sense or an emotive metaphor. (Richard I. A. in Morner. 1998: 131)
Santiago is an old man who has endured many unpleasant experiences. His wife was dead without any children. For 84 days, Santiago has gone without catching fish. Manolin, the young boy who was like a son to him and since the age of five, the boy fished with him and learned from him, now fishes with another fisherman as being instructed by his parents.
What Santiago wants is not just to survive, but to prove once more his skill, and his identity as a good fisherman, secure his reputation in the community, and ensure for all time that Manolin, the boy will forever remember his memory and become his successor as a great fisherman.
For Santiago, what matters most in life is to live with great favour and nobility according to his beliefs, to use his skills and nature's talents to do the best of his ability, to struggle and endure and redeem his individual existence through his life, and to pass on to the next generation everything of value that he has gained. In these desires, he reflects the desires of us all.
Manolin is Santiago's last and deepest human relationship, his replacement in the generational cycle of human existence, the one to whom he wishes to entrust his skill as a fisherman, the transforming power of his vision, and his memory. As Santiago is a teacher, a spiritual father, and the old man or old age, Manolin is a pupil, a son, and the boy or youth. Manolin loves and cares for Santiago, and at the story's end, he professes his faith in Santiago and everything Santiago represents.
Three times, Manolin professes his faith in Santiago. In accepting the marlin's spear, Manolin demonstrates once and for all that he clearly understands and accepts all that Santiago wishes to bequeath him — and all that comes with that inheritance.
The marlin is more than a great fish in long battle with Santiago, the old fisherman. Marlin is also a creature to whom Santiago projects the same qualities that he possesses, admires, and hopes to pass on: nobility of spirit, greatness in living, faithfulness to one's own identity and ways, endurance, beauty, and dignity.
As Santiago and the marlin remain locked in battle for three days, they become intimately connected. Santiago first pities and admires the fish and then empathizes and identifies with it. He recognizes that just as the marlin was born to be a fish, he was born to be a fisherman. They are brothers in the inevitability of their circumstances, locked in the natural cycle of predator and prey.
The marlin's death represents Santiago's greatest victory and the promise of all those intangibles he so desperately hopes for to redeem his individual existence. But like the marlin, Santiago also must inevitably lose and become the victim. After the mako shark's attack, Santiago eats the marlin's flesh to sustain himself, completing the natural cycle in which the great creature passes on
6 something of itself to Santiago. Not only are all creatures predator and prey, but all also nourishment to one another. The marlin's brave and unavailing struggle to save its own life becomes Santiago's brave an unavailing struggle to save the marlin from the mako sharks.
It is concluded that Hemingway pays a great attention to the skill and hands that Santiago uses in coping with the fish. Santiago lets the fish have enough line, so that it won't break his pole; but he and his boat are dragged out to sea for three days. Finally, the fish, an enormous and worthy opponent, gets tired; and Santiago kills it. Even this final victory does not end the Santiago's journey; he is a still far, far out to sea. To make matters worse, Santiago drags the Marlin behind the boat and the blood from the dead fish attracts sharks.
Santiago does his best to beat the sharks away, but his efforts are not enough. The sharks eat the flesh off the Marlin, and Santiago is left with only the bones. Santiago gets back to shore--weary and tired--with nothing to show for his pains but the skeletal remains of a large Marlin. Even with just the bare remains of the fish, the experience has changed him, and altered the perception others have of him. Manolin wakes him the morning after his return and suggests that they once more fish together.
What Hemingway wants to convey in The Old Man and the Sea is fishing was not merely a business transaction, or a sport. Instead, fishing was an expression of humankind in its natural state--in tune with nature and oneself. Enormous stamina and power must arise in the breast of the fishermen when they are fishing like Santiago. The simple fisherman can become a classical hero in his action to struggle.
Bibliography
Forster, E. M. 1974. Aspects of the Novel. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd.
Hemingway, Ernest. 1968. The Old Man and the sea. England; Penguin Books Ltd.
Kenney, William. 1966. How to Analyse Fiction. New York: Monarch Press.
Knickerbocker,, K.L. 1963. Interpreting Literature. USA: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.
Morner, Kathleen. 1998. NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chicago: NTC Publishing Group
Stanford, Judith. A. 2003. Responding to Literature; Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. New York: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.
Tarigan, Henry Guntur.1984. Prinsip-prinsip Dasar Sastra. Bandung: Angkasa.
Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. 1963. Theory of Literature. London: Cox and Wyman Ltd.
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