Xiangzi, as the hero of the novel, is the most prolific figure in the author's works. His experience is similar to that of poor farmers who went bankrupt in modern rural areas and flooded into cities in batches, so he is quite representative. In Xiangzi's unfortunate experience, the author highlighted his description of characters, reflecting a strong sense of tragedy, which was developed through the protagonist's trilogy of fate of "spiritual upward-unwilling to fail-self-indulgence":
At the beginning of the novel, Xiangzi first arrived in Beiping, hoping to find a new way of life and began his personal struggle history. He is like a "tree" growing from the soil in the countryside, "robust, silent and lively", which is simply a symbol of yearning. (P3, 4) He is young, strong, kind and upright, and is willing to help the poor who share the same fate with him. He is tenacious, gritting his teeth in the wind and rain and drinking tea at lunch. He almost fanatically regards buying a car as "a wish, a hope, even a religion" to achieve this goal, and weaves a beautiful dream with lonely struggle. He is confident and self-respecting, and despises the degeneration of ordinary foreign drivers. At this time, Xiangzi's "career" was flourishing and his image was lovely. The author did not hesitate to praise him.
Xiangzi met with bad luck at the beginning of the novel. This is mainly manifested in two aspects: buying a car in business and marrying a wife in personal life. On the one hand, it is his unscrupulous active pursuit, on the other hand, it makes him stay away. However, fate prevented him from pursuing the car, and the wife he avoided was imposed. After three years of hard work, Xiangzi finally bought his dream car, but within a few days, it was taken away by soldiers and taken to work as a coolie. After trying their best to escape, some of them were lured by Tigress. At first, Xiangzi was "confused, ashamed, sad and felt a little dangerous", but she awakened Xiangzi's desire to sleep. Even Tigress pretended to be pregnant and forced her to get married. Xiangzi really became an outlet. His life is just a grievance, not only because of Tigress's sexual oppression, but also because of her financial difficulties. As a result, her independent personality was degraded and she had to suppress the human nature and needs of normal people. Even so, Xiangzi was unwilling to bow his head and admit defeat. He tried to resist and struggle against Tigress's sexual entanglement to a certain extent, and forced Tigress to buy him a car. Even if he fell into Tigress's trap, he still didn't change his original intention of being an independent worker, and he didn't want to rely on Tigress's economic advantage to beg from his wife, let alone be bound by her. All these show Xiangzi's attitude of being unwilling to fail, struggling hard and resisting life in the face of the teasing of fate. At this point, Xiangzi's image is admirable, and the author holds a compassionate attitude.
Tigress died in childbirth, so Xiangzi had to sell his car to bury his wife. There was no hope of buying a car in this life, and Xiangzi finally couldn't bear the last heavy blow when he learned that his lover Joy was dead. He was desperate, fell down and never stood up again. For a long time, the vicious attack of savagery and beast was hidden under his human nature, and the original sense of justice disappeared. He eats, he drinks, he whores, he gambles, he is cunning, he fights to take advantage, he sells other people's lives for 50 yuan, and even he hates his rickshaw puller, which is his foundation. He described it as obscene and dirty, like a walking corpse. The cruel reality distorted his character and swallowed up this once powerful individual struggler. Lao She's pen blames all this on the evil old society and evil forces, but also mercilessly criticizes Xiangzi's self-indulgence. The author clearly sees that Xiangzi's self-indulgence lies not only in external social oppression, but also in his internal self-abuse psychology. This is the greatness of Lao She as a big hand. Only in this way can Xiangzi's tragic fate have the power to warn the world.
Xiangzi degenerated from a hard-working and simple laborer into a selfish and unfortunate child in a sick society. The last ghost of individualism is a tragedy soaked with blood and tears.
Objectively speaking, there are two main reasons. One is the oppression of turning people into ghosts in the old society. Xiangzi wants to buy a rickshaw himself, just like farmers dream of owning land, which is just the minimum wish of an independent worker. However, this legitimate wish seems to be an extravagant hope in that society. Xiangzi experienced hardships and grievances, with three ups and downs. He wants to be independent, but he can't achieve it. Xiangzi can only be a child of this morbid society. It is impossible for him to compete with this dark society with personal strength, but this society has turned him from a man into a ghost-the ghost of individualism. The second is Tigress's deception. Xiangzi and Tigress have sharp conflicts in their life ideals. Their marriage is a "twisted melon" without love, only Tigress's sexual desire for Xiangzi. For Xiangzi, Tigress's entanglement was a disaster, a tragedy in which the ugly bourgeoisie seduced and corrupted and the unpaid class strengthened men. From the deep meaning of the works, Xiangzi and Tigress are more important than Xiangzi and Camel. In the process of causing Xiangzi's fate tragedy, Tigress's intervention is undoubtedly an important factor that cannot be ignored.
The author also discusses the subjective factors of Xiangzi's tragedy from Xiangzi's own point of view, writes out the limitations of life on him, and reveals his ideological limitations and psychological weaknesses. Xiangzi's innate small-scale peasant consciousness and narrow vision, especially his personal struggle thought, are the most fundamental subjective factors that caused his tragedy. Xiangzi's tragedy is a complete denial of personal struggle. Secondly, Xiangzi's personal character and psychological weakness gave birth to his self-abandonment in the face of various blows, and he lacked sufficient self-control in grasping himself. Under the influence of Tigress, some changes in his attitude towards life are also one of the reasons why he went to the abyss. Xiangzi's tragedy is the tragedy of the strong, the tragedy of character and fate.