Maxim Gorky (1868.3.28 ~ 1936.6.18) was a proletarian writer of the former Soviet Union and the founder of socialist realist literature. He was born in poverty and lost his father when he was young. At the age of 11, he was running around the society to make a living, working as a stevedore and bakery worker. The slums and docks became his "social" university classroom. He shared the fate of society with the working people, and personally experienced the cruel exploitation and oppression of capitalism. This had an important influence on his thought and creative development.

Gorky worked hard to educate himself on cultural knowledge, and actively participated in revolutionary activities to explore ways to transform reality. In 1892, he published his debut novel "Makar Chudra" and entered the literary world. His early works were a mixture of realism and romanticism. This was an inevitable stage before the formation of his proletarian worldview. Romantic works such as "Makar Chudela", "The Old Lady Izegil" (1895), "Song of the Eagle" (1895), etc., praise the strong personality of freedom-loving, longing for light and heroic achievements, and express the desire The passion of fighting; realist works such as "Cherkash", "The Fallen People", "Konovalov", etc., describe the people's suffering life and their noble moral character, and express their anger and resistance. Most of the protagonists in these works are characters who strive to explore new paths in life, think about the meaning of life, and are full of intense inner conflicts. In 1901, he created the famous prose poem "The Song of Haiyan", which created the image of the brave petrel that symbolized the brave revolutionaries fighting against the wind and waves, foretelling the coming revolutionary storm and inspiring people to face the great battle. This is an article The proclamations and hymns of the proletarian revolutionary battle were enthusiastically praised by Lenin.

On the eve of the revolution in 1905, Gorky's creation turned to drama. From 1901 to 1905, he successively wrote "Little Burgher", "The Bottom", "Summer Guests", "Children of the Sun" and ( Plays such as "The Barbarian", especially "Little Burgher" and "The Bottom", showed the new image and new mental outlook of workers in real life, and showed their determination and optimism in fighting for their rights. Their performances were very popular at the time. It caused a sensation in the Russian theater world.

In 1906, Gorky wrote the two most important works of the novel "Mother" and the play "The Enemy" - marking a new peak in his creation. "" created the heroic image of the first batch of proletarian revolutionaries in the history of world literature who consciously fought for socialism, and was the foundation of socialist realist literature.

1905. After the failure of the revolution in 1908, Gorky went to the United States and Italy and wrote a series of political articles, criticizing the Western capitalist system and all kinds of reactionary trends that filled the ideological and literary circles. The novella "Confessions" written in 1908 revealed the creation of idealism. Theistic ideas were severely criticized by Lenin and received his enthusiastic help. Despite this, Gorky's dominant tendency was still positive and full of revolutionary fighting spirit to theorize the characteristics of the new proletarian literary creation method. He made many explorations and put forward the viewpoint of combining realism and romanticism. His creative achievements between the two revolutions were quite fruitful, such as "Ogulov Town" (1909), "Summer" (1909), and "Matvey". "The Life of Kozhemyagin" (1910-1911), "Italian Fairy Tales" (1911-1913), "Russian Fairy Tales" (1912-1917), and the first two of the later completed autobiographical novel trilogy "Childhood" and "The World" (1913~1916)

In the ten years after the October Revolution, Gorky was in poor health and only wrote about the unique artistic style and importance of Lenin and some writers. In 1921, he followed several works such as "My University" (1922-1923) and "The Artamonov Family's Career" (1924-1925), the last part of the autobiographical trilogy. Lenin advised to recuperate abroad. After returning to China in 1931, he began to write the voluminous and epic work "The Life of Klim Samkin" in 1936. Before his death in 2001, he also wrote "Travels in the Soviet Union" (1929), "The Hero's Story" and many plays "Yegor Brechev and Others" (1932), "Toschigaev and Others" (1932) 1933), "Vasa Zhileznova" (1935), and a large number of literary theory, literary criticism and political articles, which made significant contributions to Marxist literary theory and socialist cultural undertakings.

< p>Gorky was not only a great writer, but also an outstanding social activist. He organized and established the Soviet Writers Association and hosted the first All-Soviet Writers Congress to cultivate new literary talents and actively participate in the cause of defending world peace. . Gorky's works have been introduced to China since 1907. His excellent literary works and treatises have become the common wealth of the proletariat around the world.

"Childhood" is the first part of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy. It mainly describes Alyosha's childhood. The other two parts of the trilogy, "In the World" and "My University", mainly describe Alyosha's childhood. Describe Alyosha's teenage experience. In order to give readers a complete understanding of Alyosha's growth process, here is a brief introduction to the content of the last two works.

"In the World" depicts Alyosha's experience of entering the society and going out to make a living at the age of 18. He suffered a lot in life, worked in all kinds of labor, was bullied, insulted, fooled, even beaten and framed, experienced the hardships at the bottom of social life, and realized the ugliness of human nature. However, the kindness of his grandmother, the integrity of the chef, and the erudition of Queen Magol made him see the bright side of life. His interactions with cultural relic appraisers, stokers, carpenters and others also made him feel the multifaceted and complex nature of human nature. He loved books and took every opportunity to read the books he could come across, and suffered all kinds of hardships for this.

"My University" describes his activities and growth experience in Kazan. At the age of 16, he came to Kazan with the desire to go to university, but his dream could not be realized. The slums and docks of Kazan became his social university. He had nowhere to stay and shared a bed with others. Worked everywhere in docks, bakeries, and grocery stores. Later, his thoughts changed due to contact with college and middle school students, members of secret societies and revolutionaries who had returned from exile in Siberia. He read revolutionary democratic and Marxist works until he participated in revolutionary activities. Under the guidance of revolutionaries, he got rid of the spiritual crisis of suicide. The four years in Kazan made him make great progress in thinking, knowledge, and social experience. In 1914, Russian writer Thoreau Gub wrote in "A Writer's Diary" about Gorky's trilogy of autobiographical novels: "I felt regretful while reading it. I couldn't help but think of Leo Tolstoy's fragrant novels Childhood. On the contrary, here is fighting, fighting, whipping... It is simply a kind of psychologically incomprehensible sadism." Indeed, what is depicted in the entire "Childhood" is a strong and colorful one. , a bizarre and indescribable life. That life seemed like a tragic fairy tale told by a kind and extremely honest genius. In that dark life, there are too many cruel social things. The child did something wrong and had to take off his pants and was beaten; the father, son and brothers fought and fought over the separation of the family, and even beat their heads to blood; the grandmother did nothing wrong and could not escape the punches and kicks of the grandfather; Mikhail In order to have fun, the uncle teased the old craftsman Grigory with a red-hot thimble; the mother knelt on the ground and begged her stepfather not to fool around outside, but the stepfather kicked her hard in the chest with his booted feet; Grigory was the grandfather. After working all his life, when he became blind and lost the ability to work, he was kicked out of the dyeing workshop and wandered the streets begging for food. Not only did his grandfather cruelly exploit the workers, but he also disowned his relatives. When making tea with his wife, he would also put tea leaves in the palm of his hand. I counted them carefully, for fear that I would suffer a loss. Finally, he kicked his wife and grandson out of the house and left them to fend for themselves. But despite the many unbearable tragedies and scandals described in the work, the whole work still radiates the brilliance of optimism like sunshine through clouds. The protagonist Alyosha was not overwhelmed by the hardship, pain and humiliation of life. He was full of confidence, struggled hard, broke through all kinds of obstacles and misfortunes, and constantly explored new life. This optimistic spirit gave the work a positive ideological content. color.

The author Gorky also stated repeatedly in "Childhood": "Whenever I recall the depressing, dirty and barbaric life in Russia, I often ask myself: Is it necessary to write about such ugly behavior? I answer myself every time with full confidence: It is necessary! Because this is the living and ugly reality of life. This reality still exists. To change this reality, we must start from people’s memories and hearts. To eliminate its influence from the heavy and dirty life, we must have a thorough understanding of this reality. "I describe this kind of ugly behavior in real life for a more positive reason: although these ugly behaviors are disgusting and make us feel." Repression; although they kill countless beautiful souls, the Russian mind is still so healthy and young that it is overcoming and finally able to overcome this ugly behavior. "Our life is very wonderful. , although there is fertile soil that breeds all kinds of shameless scum, this soil will eventually grow outstanding, healthy and creative forces, grow good and humane things, and they will continue to inspire us to build a bright humanity. "The immortal hope of life." This aspect shows Gorky's aesthetic principle: the writer does not have to avoid any scandal in life, but the purpose is to awaken people's attention, thereby completely eliminating it, and firmly believe that human society has a kind of truth, goodness and beauty. regulation mechanism. On the other hand, it also shows that Gorky’s purpose in writing about his tragic childhood experience is not to show people how worthy of sympathy and pity he is, nor is it simply to recall his childhood life, but to use his own childhood experience to tell readers that no matter what How harsh the environment is and how difficult life is. There are always some kind and beautiful people. As long as they have a positive heart, they can cultivate a healthy and upright mind in a dirty environment. Therefore, we say that the ideological content of the book is positive rather than decadent. The work mainly creates two types of characters, and the author expresses his love and hatred for them through the narration of these two types of characters. There are two major types of characters: one is the selfish and cruel person represented by the grandfather, and the other is the upright and kind-hearted person represented by the grandmother. Grandpa is a person that Alyosha hates very much . Whether it is the description of his appearance or the engraving of his inner world, there is always the author's bitter irony in it.

He is short and skinny, only as tall as his grandmother's shoulders. He walks with fast and thin steps. He is selfish, cruel, savage and rough. He beats and curses people at every turn. Even if he encounters something unsatisfactory, he will have a hysterical attack. In order to maintain his shaky status as a small business owner and his disintegrated family, he cruelly abused his workers and even disowned his relatives. He drove out the old craftsman Grigory who had worked for him all his life and married him, his wife who had lived with him all his life. She also needs to fend for herself. When you are rich, you are domineering and arbitrary. After going bankrupt, he became even more greedy and stingy, with a bad character. Physically bankrupt and completely mentally ruined. Although there is still a glimmer of humanity in this philistine man, for example, when he was young, he worked as a tracker on the Volga River, experienced poverty and a heavy life, and was a fighter and warrior in life. When he told Alyosha about his experience at that time, he showed a sincere and excited expression. Another example is that he told Alyosha to read, which also reflects his love for Alyosha. But all this cannot conceal his overall human cruelty and selfishness. Alyosha hated his grandfather's various bad behaviors, especially when his grandfather beat his kind-hearted grandmother for no reason. He was extremely angry and took revenge on his grandfather. This kind of disgust and anger also exists in the author's heart. Through the description of Alyosha's resistance to his grandfather, he expresses the author's contempt, disgust, and denial of the kind of people represented by his grandfather. It also expresses the author's contempt for the filthy bourgeoisie. , the negation of dirty and bad character. Contrary to his dislike of people like his grandfather, the author expresses his love and admiration for the working people represented by his grandmother through his memories of his grandmother and others. Grandma is kind and kind. She loves her relatives, neighbors and everyone. She willingly takes on all the pressures in life without complaining. The hardships of life, the beatings of her husband, and the disobedience of her son... could not extinguish the light of kindness deep in her heart. She is a working woman full of life and poetry. She is good at singing and dancing, and is good at telling all kinds of legends, fairy tales and folk stories. She is also a brave person. When the workshop caught fire, everyone was panicked. Only she rushed into the fire and grabbed a bucket of sulfate the size of a bucket. Therefore, although she has the shortcomings of obedience and patience towards evil forces and blind faith in God, this does not affect her overall brilliance as a human being. People who are similar to my grandmother include the young man Gypsy and the tenant "Good Things". The young man, Gypsy, was an abandoned baby and was adopted by his grandmother. When he grew up, he became his grandfather's employee. He was hardworking, capable and extremely powerful. Although he was treated like a cow and horse by his grandfather and uncle, he was still kind and optimistic. Compared with the young man Ci Gang, the tenant "Xiao Shier" is an adult with a thorough understanding and understanding of life. He is one of the countless outstanding figures in the motherland, with far-reaching vision. He taught Alyosha to observe and discover life carefully, and taught him to pay attention to skills in everything he does. These people are all liked and respected by Alyosha. They have an important influence on the formation of Alyosha's outlook on life, and they positively arouse Alyosha's passionate yearning for life. These people all opened their hearts to Alyosha to varying degrees and helped him understand that besides scandals, there are also healthy and creative things in life. The author wrote in the work: "In my childhood, I imagined myself as a beehive, where some ordinary and ordinary people, like bees, send the honey of their knowledge and thoughts about life. Everyone does his or her best. This kind of honey is often dirty and bitter, but all this knowledge is still honey." Therefore, Gorky showed his love and praise for these people in his works, through Alyosha. His enthusiasm for interacting with them praised them. The work also exposes the reality of society at that time through the description of Alyosha's childhood experience. At that time, Russian society was in the period of from the 1870s to the 1890s, which was the eve of the Russian Revolution. The entire society was under the rule of the Tsar, and the people were displaced. Stealing has become a custom among the villagers and is no longer considered a sin. It is almost the only way to make a living for the half-starved and half-fed citizens. Children have no money to go to school and are forced to live on the streets, picking up rags for a living.

Broadly speaking, it is this social environment in which people are living in dire straits that caused Alyosha’s personal tragedy