Futabatei Shimei, born in 1864 and died in 191, was the founder of modern Japanese realistic literature. His real name was Hasegawa Tatsunosuke, and he was born in the first year of Meiji.
In the 192s of Meiji in Japan, the turbulent era in the early Meiji period was over, and the civil rights movement representing democracy and freedom also failed. After many fluctuations, the autocratic regime of the emperor was finally firmly established. The emperor's government has successively promulgated various laws and decrees, forming a powerful rule at home, and everything is done in accordance with the requirements of the government bureaucracy. People from all walks of life have also changed. Some people follow the times and are willing to become slaves of the government. Some people feel depressed, depressed and dissatisfied with the various laws and regulations of the government. "Floating clouds" is to describe the "tendency of young men and women" under the changes of the new era.
The novel shows the different tendencies of "Meiji youth" through the ordinary life of a dismissed small official, Nahai Wensan, and the activities of people around him, exposing the corruption of bureaucracy and the vulgar habits of ordinary citizens in society.
Nahai Wensan is a poor petty-bourgeois intellectual. After his father died, he lived in his uncle's house in Tokyo, studied hard, and got a humble position in the government after graduation. He is kind, honest, hardworking, and settled in his ordinary life. He only wants to get married with his cousin Ashe, who loves him, and take his old mother, who lives a lonely life in his hometown, to enjoy family happiness. However, he was not worldly and would not go against his conscience to meet the needs of his boss, and was finally dismissed by the government. After losing his job, he was first scolded and criticized by his aunt, A Zheng, and ridiculed and ridiculed by his colleagues, and then his lover, A Shi, turned to others. He felt pain and trouble, and resented his unfair fate.
Nahai Wensan is a nobody. He has no ambition to make great achievements, nor is he a proud figure who stands out from others. His ideal is to be honest, work hard and live a well-off life without competition. He was weak, indecisive, lacked firm belief and brave behavior, and was finally excluded from the door of social happiness.
But there is also a pure character in him, an "upright" disposition, and a clear consciousness of maintaining personal dignity. He never goes against his conscience, goes with the flow, and goes along with the decadent forces. He looked down on Honda Sheng, a colleague who has no ability to work and only flatters, and called him "something inferior to cats and dogs". I also dare to despise my boss and ignore his unreasonable demands. His character was quite different from the official atmosphere at that time, so he was squeezed out by government agencies and became the object of ridicule by the world. Although Wen San's idea is unconscious, it shines with the light of modern personality awakening. It is the impact of modern democratic thoughts on old feudal customs, and it is a kind of "persistent sense of social justice and responsibility, and resistance to humiliating humanity".
It reflects the democratic tendency of the intellectual youth in Meiji. Naturally, the tendency of this new era is still very weak in Wen San, and no conscious consciousness has been formed. He can't cut off the inextricable connection with the old traditions and old ideas, and he is in the rebellious ranks of society. He is timid and hesitant. Even after losing his job, he has no courage to leave his uncle's house and stand on his own feet after being despised by his aunt and betrayed by his lover. This is not only because it is difficult to give up the relationship with Ashe, but also because it is hoped that the lover will change; It is also because when the uncle is not at home, the responsibility of rectifying the family is regarded as the task of the family man. This feudal principle of life has become a fetter that prevents him from standing in a new look. The writer criticized Wen San's weakness, but his intention was to write a new era's call for democratic thought through an ordinary person.
Compared with Wen San, the author also depicts two other kinds of young people: Honda Sheng is a philistine raised by officialdom, and when his colleagues are dismissed one by one, it is the day when he is valued by his superiors and promoted. He won the favor of his boss with humility and flattery; He even took advantage of people's danger to provoke the relationship between Wen San and his lover Ashe and seduce Ashe to satisfy his lust. His behavior is despicable and his soul is dirty, but he is the proud of Meiji society. His pride reflects Wen San's frustration and loneliness, and further exposes the darkness of the bureaucracy. Wen San's cousin Ashi pretends to be a "new woman" everywhere. She is arrogant and frivolous, chasing fashion, vain and flashy, changing her mind, lacking sincere and deep feelings for Wen San's love, and turns to others with Wen San's downfall. Her "fashion" is nothing more than the superficial expression of modern Japanese civilization. In the end, she is nothing more than a snobbish ordinary citizen. The description of Ashe expresses the writer's denial of the Europeanization tendency of Meiji society. Aunt A Zheng is an old-fashioned ordinary citizen who hates poverty and loves wealth. When Wen San is in office, she regards Wen San as a "treasure" and "fondles it". After Wen San was fired, he was regarded as a passer-by, and he was sarcastic and "looking up." A Zheng and A Shi, though different in appearance, are a pair of secular villains with the same smell.
Floating Clouds reflects the social outlook of Meiji era with ordinary events and figures in society, especially profoundly exposing the vulgarity and corruption of the Japanese emperor's government bureaucracy. It is worthy of being the foundation stone of Japanese modern critical realism literature.
The description of the characters in the novel has outstanding personality, typical characteristics and the color of the times. When talking about character creation, the writer said: "Of course, it is not accidental to find a model, so I think it is very interesting;" But first in my own mind, I have some vague and abstract ideas about the tendency of Japanese young men and women at that time, and then I think about what kind of image to portray in order to make it concrete. In this brewing process, I will find many people who are related to my abstract ideas from people I have met somewhere or people I have known in the past. So I created a model based on this person. "
My Confession for the First Half of My Life, based on the principle of typification of realism, highlights the characters of various characters in the novel and compares them with each other, strengthening the description of the relationship between the characters and deepening the theme of the work. Writers are good at describing characters' inner feelings, describing their complicated and contradictory psychological states delicately and truly, and highlighting their personalities. For example, the portrayal of Wen Sanyi's inner activities fully shows his indecision, good thinking and little action. "Floating Clouds" is the first literary work in modern Japanese literary history that adopts vernacular style, and it is created by vivid, vivid, lively and vivid spoken language. It has guided a new direction for the language of modern Japanese literature.
floating clouds is the foundation work of modern Japanese literature, but at that time, it was not accepted by the literary world and could not get the social response it deserved. This greatly hurt Er Yeting's heart, and he felt that his literary talent was not valued by people. After the publication of the third edition of Floating Clouds, he angrily abandoned his pen. This has become a pity in modern Japanese literature. According to the writer's original intention, Floating Clouds ends with the fall of Ashe and the madness of Wensan. It can be seen that the tragic ending of the work will be more powerful in accusing the darkness and injustice of Meiji society.