摘要
The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's last important work which is regarded by critics as the summary of his life and his philosophic views on life. The paper attempts to approach the story with the view of existentialism, which flourished at the time when Hemingway began to create this novella. In light of the existentialist views on the relations between being-in-itself and being-for-itself, and existence and essence, the author tends to analyze the interactions of the characters of the story with themselves through the choices they made, which is to be of significance for those who strive to understand Hemingway's work and who try to comprehend human beings and themselves.