A critical study on the meaning and symbolic value of the word "sea" in Cesare Pavese's works

Cesare Pavese is one of the figures of Italian modern literature. He in fact belongs to literary and artistic movement of Realism, and lives two world war’s tragic experience. His works are also influenced by Symbolism and sealed by shadows of Neorealism. In most of his works many natural elements are usually used by the poet to mean existential concepts of human life. One of this natural elements is “sea” that so many times, in some of his works in prose and in poetry, takes on several different values and meanings as if to show contradictions that exist in poet and writer’s soul and also in his private life. In the other hand, sometimes word “sea” means death, nothingness, no way and on the other times it means as a pure and primitive curiosity that gives man a very deep energy to hold on and continue to live. In this paper we focus on a critical analysis of the word “sea”‘s different meanings that we can find in Pavese’s works.