英语论文网

me from himself at heart. There is a contradiction existed in his mind. His whole life depends on the sea and of course he has become an old experienced fisherman for he has been living in the sea for many years. But at this time he catches nothing for 84 days. Other people or fisherman starts to suspect his ability and joke about his decreased capabilities of fishing. Gossips made the old man determine to sail into the deep sea, which leads to his tragedy, because sailing to the deep sea has surpassed his capability in his old age. He still wants to become a successful fisherman in people’s eyes; but his outsized dream’s destruction made him feels so sad. In the end, the old man becomes more silent, he only wants to sleep in order to refresh his body, and he only expresses his sadness, but not his ambition to conquer the sea any more. At that time, he has realized his dream could not be fulfilled any more. Even through he knows his ability could not realize his outsized dream completely, this dream could not vanish in his mind. At the last paragraph of this novel, words from a female traveler made readers give more pity on the old man, the female traveler points the titanic skeleton and asks a waiter what it is. Not until the waiter explains, she thought it is a shark’s skeleton and cries out “I has never saw such a beautiful shark’s tail”. The old man’s dream completely shattered, his fruit has been mistakably regarded as a shark’s skeleton. People around the shore don’t understand what the old man strives for in his old ages. No one understands his sadness besides himself. If he doesn’t want to become a successful fisherman in his old age, he could enjoy himself till the end of his life. Throughout the novel, all of the old man’s tragedies come from his ambition, his outsized dream. He is too old to sail into the deep sea and he should stay in peaceful harbor; enjoy himself in his little boat although life may be poor, however, he needn’t prove his ability to other people. In one word, perfectionism leads to Santiago’s outsized dream which caused his tragedy. III Perfectionism A. Definition If a person with a character who always compares himself or his achievements with perfect things, this kind of person is a perfectionist. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary explains “perfectionist” as the following two meanings: one: person who is not satisfied with anything less than perfection; two: person who insists on perfection in every detail even when it is not necessary. Famous psychologist Burn pointed out:“perfectionist is a person who determine to get higher aims, and compel himself to pursuit their aims excessively. In the process of pursuing those aims, they are easy to hurt themselves”. One of perfectionist’s main features is their eagerness to prove their ability. Psychologist Karen Harney has already given these explanations for perfectionist’s eagerness: “the meaning of perfectionist’s life is not existed in his happiness and enjoyments, but focus on his accomplishments about his own responsibilities and compulsory. In terms of their motivation of life, they are not willing to acquire happiness but pursue right and perfect things in all of their life.” The other main feature of perfectionist is their self-contradictory characteristic; many perfectionists struggled in their self-contradictory minds. Generally speaking, perfectionist’s character is always stubborn, straitlaced, and inflexible. They always