-Reading Cao Wenxuan-"Root Bird"
Root Bird is another illusory and realistic "initiation novel" after Cao Wenxuan's Straw House and Red Tile. Author Cao Wenxuan is a professor and doctoral supervisor of Chinese Department in Peking University. His academic background and consistent aesthetic pursuit seem to determine the strong symbolic and allegorical features and aesthetic pursuit in his works. Generally speaking, there is no doubt that this novel has strong practical significance. When it expresses this reality, it uses a fairy-tale beautiful and fantastic writing style, and with the strong symbolic meaning contained in various scenes and wonderful plots, readers can enjoy the beauty between reality and fantasy and receive a spiritual baptism at the same time.
According to the scene * * *, this novel is divided into five chapters: Jupo, Qingta, Guigu, Mixi and Yingdian, and it is also based on "mystery, dream, parting, romantic mood, looking into the distance, the bud of love, right? The impulse to live in the world, yearning for ... "is the meeting point. Every scene, character and plot are carefully arranged by the author, with specific symbols and meanings, which are highly concise to the real world.
"Giant Slope" is the hometown of young root birds. It is here that 14-year-old young root bird went out hunting alone for the first time. He wants to prove his growth to his father and all the people in Jupo with his prey. By chance, he found a piece of cloth on the foot of a white eagle. So, he began a dreamland full of lilies, a flying white eagle and a girl named Yan Zi, which was confusing and full of poetry. In order to find this unique dream, Root Bird took the last step in autumn. When Shan Ye looked haggard and boundless, it left the giant slope and began a three-year journey of escape, vagrancy and growth with horses as its dream.
On the way to the "Qingta", the root bird was puzzled and laughed at. Here, he met an old man who was pursuing his lost dream-Mr. Metal Sheet. With the help of Mr. Sheet Metal, after several hesitations, he finally overcame himself and decided to beg for humiliation for his dream. He learned to create a life by his own efforts; Know self-esteem and self-reliance; The most important thing is to understand the persistence of your own beliefs. However, in Ghost Valley, the root bird was kidnapped and trapped by long legs and experienced unprecedented hardships. After escaping, he was tired, doubted his faith and returned to Jupo. But with his father's encouragement, Genbird set off for the west again. In Mi Xi, Genbird meets Qiu Man's family, a place where he could have stayed and made it his home. The pursuit of a comfortable life, the obsession with "happiness" and the satisfaction of the status quo are the most likely to make people lose their fighting spirit, but that dream once again urges him to go on the road. Although the root bird is not the original root bird at this time, he has become "cold-shy" and "fragile". The casinos and troupes in Yingdian are places where people indulge and degenerate, and Root Bird is no exception. He learned to enjoy, to gamble and to drink, and he couldn't help but indulge in this kind of life. When he finally got tired of depravity and wanted to "find everything he lost", he returned to Missy. The beauty he once owned and yearned for has long gone with the wind. At the end of the story, he met the metal sheet again and watched the old metal sheet die on the road of chasing his dream. He suddenly woke up, packed his bags again and continued his journey.
Teenagers will be subjected to various tests in the process of growing up. "Maybe they will shrink back because of setbacks, maybe they will be unconscious and willing to sink because of illness and fatigue ..." All the temptations and sufferings, all the sweetness and hardships, seem to be in the novel. In that long lonely journey, the root bird was misunderstood by others, rudely laughed at, seduced by sweetness and tenderness, and revived by the inertia in her heart. He doubted his faith. It was a dream-a pure and beautiful dream, which dragged him out of the muddy mud again and again and went forward bravely. Here, the scenes such as Jupo, Mixi and Yingdian all go beyond the geographical concept, which is symbolic: if the root bird burned its home to get rid of the fetters of family ties and left Midian to give up real material enjoyment and agree with the arduous journey of pursuing dreams, then, under the inspiration of sheet metal, when it finally bid farewell to Yingdian's life and embarked on the journey of pursuing dreams again, it was a teenager who experienced hardships and became mature, with a lofty image.
This is a journey of chasing dreams and growing up.
Root bird is a simple teenager, only a dream, a pure beautiful dream and a concrete dream supports him. Here, the dream is the desire and pursuit of growth, and it is an unshakable belief in the goal of life. If the later journey is the process of his growth, then it is such a beautiful and pure belief that supports him. Because of his unswerving belief, he is doomed to suffer the hardships and fetters of this world. He seems to live in two different worlds and collide with each other. Suffering tormented him, and ease eroded him. No one in the real world understands and supports his beliefs except his father who believes in God's will and Mr. Sheet Metal who pursues his dreams. Each of us is actually a root bird, constantly pursuing and shrinking, stumbling forward on the road of life in high spirits and depression, in pain and happiness.
It is also mentioned in the novel that Genbird began to dream at the age of fourteen, and it took three years, but Mr. Banjin's family "suddenly stopped dreaming" after the age of eighteen. In fact, there is a deeper symbolic significance here: the struggle of Root Bird in reality and illusion, similar to Tang Xuanzang's arduous westward journey, is essentially an allusion and reflection on some current social values. In this increasingly materialistic consumer society, money and desire are full of dreams. How many people will still have such a pure and poetic dream, and how many people will come to Wan Li for this?
In this materialistic era, dreams are no longer talked about by people. People in the real society are more bound by the desire and thirst for money under the economic trend. Looking forward to the future, he found that to get married, get an education and live a good family life, he had to have at least several million dollars, so he had to put his life into the wheel of making money. When students who are busy playing computer games or going to school find that they have to pay expensive tuition fees, have more beautiful clothes or pursue girlfriends and boyfriends, they add another item to their daily homework: part-time jobs. As a result, there are no more leisurely steps in the street, and it is difficult to have books on campus. Everything began to get so hasty that people began to run around like Mr. Sheet Metal. Even a dreamer like Root Bird got strange eyes and suspicious eyes from the opposite side. As a result, people who are confused and struggling in reality have doubts about their dreams and dare not have their own dreams. Life has been forgotten, living itself is becoming a kind of confusion, and dreams have become an elusive existence.
People who "suddenly stop dreaming" after the age of 18, just like Mr. Ban Jin, once they "grow up", they lose those beautiful and pure dreams of childhood, which is the author's exploration of society through novels. Here, the author no longer stays in the specific joys and sorrows of life, pondering the beauty and ugliness of love, but allegorically reveals life and some ideas in life.
The author once mentioned in the preface of this novel: "The meaning must be multifaceted. It can be said that it is an enlightenment novel of love, a novel thinking about life, and even a novel full of philosophical meaning. " Because of the differences in age, status, mood and accomplishment, everyone's understanding will be different. But one thing is * * *, that is, we must firmly adhere to the beautiful and pure growth dream, take the dream as a horse and go forward bravely.
Root bird, the hero of root bird, is looking for purple smoke trapped in the grand canyon full of lilies and heading west towards a goal. After a long journey and countless problems, he removed everything and everything. With tenacious perseverance, he finally reached the grand canyon full of lilies that appeared in the dream of Root Bird ... His perseverance and never-giving-up spirit are beneficial and not afraid of difficulties. The metal sheet in the novel is no exception. As long as he has a goal or the goal remains the same, even on the edge of life, even if he has nothing, he will try his best to fulfill his wish. The root bird came to the grand canyon full of lilies. He looked at the white eagle. Isn't the root bird like this white eagle? In order to find reliable people to help Yan Zi, Bai Ying came to the eastern giant slope not far from Wan Li and gave the cloth to Root Bird. The root bird is not far from Wan Li to the Lily Grand Canyon in the west. He knew that he spent a lot of money and time to fulfill his wish and his father's life, but what he got in return was that he had always been his friend's friendship, the white horse given by the old abbot, the abuse of scar, the deception of long feet and Du's daughter and trust. He recalled his efforts for this goal, and all the ups and downs were recorded in Root Bird's "Heart Notebook". Can he stop him from crying? I think men should have a goal like a bird. The goal is to get people motivated. In this process, you need to constantly find ways to make the goal closer, instead of racing against the goal at a fixed speed. When encountering difficulties, we should face them bravely and make breakthroughs. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, you can remember yesterday, but if you imagine tomorrow and don't pay attention to today, no matter how good you imagine tomorrow, today can't be changed. Look at the book Root Bird, open the window of the soul, let the soul get fresh air, get sublimation, and feel the beauty of pure novels. When I finished reading it, I felt like a root bird. ...