The American folk song "Old Negro" was written by Foster in 1860 for an old black slave in his wife Joan's family. It has a beautiful melody, intimacy and pathos. Before 1860, old black slaves lived in the South of the United States. The conflict between the black slavery system and the development of northern industry and commerce triggered a war. He went through a lifetime of suffering, and his family members left one after another. In the end, he was the only one left, still treating the world in a friendly manner, without a single complaint, just to live.
"Alive" is a novel that Yu Huazheng decided to write after hearing the American folk song "Old Negro" and being deeply moved by the story of "Old Negro". The word "living" is full of power. Such power does not come from shouting or attacking, but from enduring, to fulfill the responsibilities given to us by life, and to feel the happiness and suffering, boredom and mediocrity that reality gives us.
"Alive" portrays the suffering life of the protagonist Xu Fugui. He was supposed to live in a complete, wealthy and happy family, but fell into the poor lower-class society. Fugui experienced the suffering caused by social changes, and finally chose to "live for the sake of living." He experienced social changes throughout his life and lived with death as his companion. Facing the tragic reality of his relatives dying one by one and the psychological pressure of drastic changes in his life, he still lives with an optimistic attitude and cries with a smile.
1. Falling into poverty at the bottom of society is not an accident, and experiencing social changes is inevitable: first-person flashback, compatible with interjection
"Alive" was collected by Yu Hua in the countryside more than ten years ago While singing folk songs, I met the old man "Fugui" by chance and told his life experiences, which turned into the prototype of the novel and wrote this work. The author adopts the first-person "I" perspective throughout the article, allowing "Fugui" himself to narrate his own life. The author uses flashback techniques at the beginning and interjections during the process, creating a switching effect of space and time, which is fascinating and avoids reading fatigue.
1. From the upper class of society to the life of the poor lower class: human desires and real life cause accidental conflicts
The background of the work begins with life under the landlord system of the old society, where Master Fugui stands In the upper echelons of society, he often plays tricks on his subordinates and contradicts his teachers. He is a typical image of a playboy from a rich family. His whole body exudes the smell of copper, and he walks with the sound of money. He naturally becomes the focus of people's admiration, but he lives in a world full of lies, surrounded by the illusion of happiness.
Yu Hua uses flashback techniques to describe Young Master Fugui as a playboy, unwilling to make progress, and a typical old man from two aspects: family and school. Due to the lack of family education, the dandy young master was raised as a flower in the greenhouse. He also did not study well in school, causing further degradation.
Due to the imbalance between the human desire for survival and the needs of real life, the gambler Long Er set up a gambling game to obtain the Fugui family property. He coveted the life of a landlord in the upper class of society, and it happened that Fugui's appearance became "meat in the crow's mouth". Long Er caught the weakness of Mr. Kuo's gambling habit and playfulness, and overnight he changed from landlord Mr. Kuo to a commoner who lost all his money.
Fugui is so hopeless that even his wife cannot bring him home from the casino. He did not listen to his wife's advice and ignored his family's discipline, which shows that Mr. Kuo has been paralyzed by gambling. Jiazhen's unexpected appearance was to reverse the tragedy, but it backfired, and the identity of a wealthy young master as a landlord has become a thing of the past. Fugui is lucky to live in a landlord's family, but he is unlucky to live in a world full of lies.
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2. Changes in the ruling system affect social life: it is inevitable that the life needs of the people at the bottom will conflict with social development
"Alive" uses the old society The economic background of the landlord system unfolds, following the historical development time, first going through the Kuomintang Civil War, liberating the whole of China, then ushering in the "Great Leap Forward", and finally ending the story with the "May 4th Movement" as the background. The transformation of Fugui's image in chronological order is as follows: a wealthy young man from a landlord family - a tenant at the bottom of the poor society - a captured Kuomintang soldier - a target rescued by the People's Liberation Army - a farmer who regained his freedom and returned to the village - a hard-working and frugal father - a lonely old man.
Surviving under the landlord system, coupled with the suffering caused by the war, oppression and suffering have always suppressed the lives of the people at the bottom, and living has become a kind of survival. But for Fugui, those are just real feelings, just a kind of life. Land ownership cannot be resolved. Only by overthrowing landlords can society develop and ordinary people live a better life. The landlord system has no longer adapted to the development of the times and is destined to disappear in the long river of history.
The fictional old man in Yu Hua's works is full of "real" feelings of poverty and suffering. The struggle for land ownership has become the root cause of social class changes. Between death and social class changes, it belongs to the suffering, poverty and backward life of the lower class of society. This old man has gone through suffering and still wants to live, which shows that the life needs of the lower class of society are not coordinated with the needs of social development.
2. Dramatic real-life suffering tests the conscience of human nature: layer upon layer of suspense, transformation of time and space
"Alive" stems from the tense relationship with reality, Fugui's Life is not an intentional arrangement, it comes from the feelings of life between fiction and reality. The author uses the pauses in Fugui's self-reported life experience to complete the switch between memory and reality, and skillfully transform time and space.
·The old man was plowing the fields. It was changed to 40 years ago when his wealthy father was walking on the property and watching the tenants plowing the fields, but he was enjoying the life of a wealthy young man. Comparing the real-life image with the prototype 40 years ago, the old man is still repenting and still calm.
· When Jiazhen was picked up by her father-in-law in a red sedan chair, the scene changed to the laughing old man. Indulging in the happiness of having a wife like Jiazhen, Fugui's failure to discover and wake up early seems sad.
· In real life, old man Fugui stopped to rest under a tree because he was hungry. It changed to 40 years ago when he went to the city to sell vegetables. An acquaintance told him the truth about his gray hair. At that time, Fugui was the image of a hard-working and frugal father, running for life, struggling with his destiny to stay alive, and shouldering the responsibilities of a father for the family.
① Treating life well but being teased by life, kind-hearted humanity is degraded by society, full of drama
When Fugui, a tenant, passed by the county magistrate's house, he kindly helped the children knock on the door. But unexpectedly, a farce occurred. Leaving you in suspense, why did the county magistrate's house close down? Why did the child knock on the door? Why does the servant think of himself this way? It was clearly a kind act, but why did Fu Gui suffer such torture? Why do the children in the city become like this? The author sets up suspense layer by layer and constantly analyzes the close relationship between human nature and changes in the nature of society.
Fugui fell from the upper class of society to the bottom of society. He learned to understand the situation of others, became kind and sensible from a dandy, and changed his human conscience from bad to good. The deterioration of social atmosphere has affected people's growing environment, and the kindness of human nature will be ignored or even exploited. City people are playing out a drama of survival. What is even more surprising is that because of this kind act, this tenant was captured and served as a soldier in the National Army. From being treated by a doctor for his mother to being a captive soldier, it was not only full of suspense, but also had dramatic effects.
②? The struggle on the edge of death awakens the deep desire for life in human nature and tests human nature
“When a bird is about to die, its song is sad; "Words are also good." This is a famous saying by Zeng Zi in the Taibo chapter of "The Analects of Confucius", which reveals that when life is struggling on the edge of death, it hopes to forget pain and evil and yearn for the remaining joy and purity. When he is nearing the end of his life, he longs to live and tests the goodness and ugliness of human nature at the same time.
Fugui stood on the edge of death, thinking deeply about his mother and wife at home. He transformed from the image of a playboy who ignored his family to the image of a man with mature conscience. Death is not about choosing between being afraid of death and not being afraid of death. It is about unearthing the people and things that are hidden deep in the heart. It’s those people and things that best reveal humanity. War brings excruciating suffering, death awakens the deep desire for life in human nature, and the result of witnessing the maturity of human conscience is worthy of praise.
3. Live for life itself and bravely resist the suffering brought by real life
All different people cannot resist one basic similarity, that is - —Alive. People live with an optimistic attitude and tolerate the suffering of life to the maximum extent. People live for life itself, not for anything other than life. But living is not the same as compromising to a life of suffering, nor is it the same as being content with the status quo. Living is a brave and powerful counterattack against a real life full of suffering.
①Endure a life of suffering, accept the maturity brought by suffering, and promote the growth of human nature
Mr. Kuo moved from the upper class of society to the bottom of society, and became poor. From the image of a rich playboy, Transformed into an ordinary person who was hardworking and thrifty and tried his best to make a living. His ill-fated life, on the surface, was caused by social changes that led to the impact of life at the bottom of society. In fact, it was caused by Fugui himself. He lost his life in gambling, but won in the maturity of his mind and soul, and the growth of human conscience.
Only after human nature has experienced suffering will it become psychologically mature and stable. The landlord's young master is no exception. He carries the halo of the protagonist in the novel. After being baptized by layers of suffering, the stains and childishness on his body are washed away. Finally, he appears as a laborer who silently endures the suffering of real life and lives a hardworking and brave life. Appear simple.
Tolerating the real life full of suffering is not only living in the company of death, but also the confidence to survive bravely. A kind of lucky life blessed by God. This kind of luck comes from real life feelings. The slight dividing line between life and survival lies in the ability to withstand suffering. If you can survive, you will survive. If you can't, it will be the end of life. But Fugui's survival is just a kind of life.
③? Live positively and optimistically, take responsibility for life, and defeat the suffering of real life
Fugui has experienced a lifetime of suffering, and his family members have left him one by one, but he is still optimistic Live on earth, endure all kinds of sufferings brought by real life, and face life with a forced smile while crying. After Fugui knew that he had lost all his family property, he originally wanted to end his life, but in the end he failed to leave the world full of suffering. Instead, he mustered up the courage to refute.
From Xu Fugui’s perspective, he has experienced a lifetime of suffering, but he is actually full of happiness and joy, because he finally believes that Jiazhen is the best wife in the world, believes in his children, and His son-in-law and his grandson made him feel the warmth among relatives and that the world is full of true love. Xu Fugui finally lived happily with the cow he rescued. His own life experience made him sympathize with the old cow's plight, which is also a noble sentiment.
Living positively and optimistically is not only facing life with a smile while crying, but also a responsibility given to life, and it also continues the life and soul sustenance of relatives and friends. Living for one's own sake is the most effective and powerful suppression of the real suffering life, and it is the responsibility of life. Since you do not accept the arrangement of real suffering life, you must muster the courage to resist the suffering of life.
4. Conclusion:
On the surface, writing about the old man’s life experience actually implies the changes in the social class system and the turmoil that affects the life of the bottom class of society. The root cause of the turmoil is Land ownership and distribution system. Using real history as the background and combining it with the archetypal story of the "Old Black Slave" to create a virtual image of Xu Fugui, Yu Hua wrote about the true feelings of ordinary people living at the poor bottom of the old society in "Alive".
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Living is a personal true feeling and does not belong to anyone’s opinion. In the eyes of most people, Fugui is a kind of survivor under social changes, but in his life, it is just a kind of life, and this kind of life comes from the true feelings in his heart. After experiencing the ups and downs of family members, the surprise of seeing true friends in need on the battlefield and surviving in desperate situations, the desire to survive with all one's strength under social changes, and the pain of losing family members one by one, he finally chose to endure the suffering of real life. , still maintain an optimistic and positive attitude towards life.