Point Of View, Speech And Thought Presentation In The Old Man And The Sea

This paper attempts to study point of view, speech and thought presentation with the integrated approach of narratology and Stylistics in Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea.Point of view, speech and thought presentation are common subjects between Stylistics and narratology. Of course, point of view, speech and thought presentation have apparent distinctions. However, they are related to each other. Various modes of speech and thought presentation reflect different points of view; the alternation of focalization is realized in different modes of speech and thought.In The Old Man and the Sea the alternation of focalization plays a huge part in the narrative effects of this story. The narrator tells the story mainly through internal focalization to display the old man's rich, profound, and contradictory psychological state. The narrator uses external and zero focalization to tell the detailed process of the event and some related background information. The old man's contradictory psychological state and the great differences between his actions and thoughts reflect the harmonious and contradictory relationship between man and nature. The study of the relationship between the focalizer and the focalized shows that the old man has a harmonious relationship with the nature . While he focalizes everything in the nature the old man also focalizes himself. He is the focalizer and the focalized at the same time. He has positive evaluation toward himself. He thinks that he is a strange and strong old man. He has faith in himself and has tricks and resolution. The omniscient narrator also focalizes the old man. The evaluation words of the omniscient narrator are almost the same to those of the old man's self-evaluation, which shows that the narrator's positive attitude toward the old man. The narrator praises the resolution and strong will of the old man, which also shows the theme is positive. Narrative voice is another important aspect to narrate the story. This story is told in a calm, lyric voice in The Old Man and the Sea .The use of the alternation of speech and thought presentation contributes a lot to the success of The Old Man and the Sea. The alternation of different speech presentation such as the shifting of direct speech and free direct speech construct the use of external focalization, which show the close relationship between the child and the old man and other important information. The old man's rich, profound , and contradictory psychological activities are fully developed in the shifting of various modes of thought. His contradictory attitude to the nature reflects the harmonious and contradictory relationship between man and nature. Whatever modes of thought the narrator chooses to express the theme shows the use of internal focalization.In general, the study of The Old Man and the Sea shows that the analysis with the integrated approach of narratology and Stylistics complement each other. They yield a better understanding of the story than either narratological or stylistic analysis can offer alone.