Excerpts from famous works
————"The Sorrows of Young Werther"
A light heart can withstand anything.
I see all kinds of people every day and observe how they live, so I am more tolerant of myself and no longer be too demanding on myself. Indeed,
we are born to like to take advantage of ourselves. Compared with others, our happiness or misfortune depends entirely on who and what we compare ourselves to. Therefore, the greatest danger is to be alone and helpless. Our imagination is naturally unfettered. , because the fantasy of poetry
nourishes, creates all kinds of thoughts that oneself is the lowest human being, so everything else seems to be better, and everyone else
They are all relatively perfect, which is natural. We often feel that we lack the characteristics that others obviously have, and all the advantages we have are added to another person, and some ideal qualities are also added. In this way a happy and perfect man is formed - a perfect creature of our imagination.
On the contrary, if we ignore our own strengths and difficulties and just keep moving forward, we will find that although there are delays and obstacles on the way, we are also like those who sailed on the sailing ship. Or people who paddle a boat go further and accomplish more, and if we
keep pace with others or even surpass them, then we feel a real sense of worth.
The True Story of Ah Q
The novella "The True Story of Ah Q" was written from December 1921 to February 1922. It was published in the supplement of Beijing's "Morning News" and later included in "The True Story of Ah Q". "The Scream" is the author's only novella. Since its publication, this work has been warmly welcomed and highly praised by readers at home and abroad. It has been published in nearly 40 translations in different languages. It is a rare artistic treasure in the treasure house of world literature.
The astonishing artistic charm of "The True Story of Ah Q" mainly comes from Ah Q's distinctive artistic image and rich character connotation. In the work, the author focuses on describing the core of this distinctive artistic image - the method of spiritual victory. In Ah Q's case, his spiritual victory method manifested itself in various forms such as arrogance, numbness and forgetfulness, self-contempt, self-deprecation, and self-deprecation. Ah Q couldn't even tell his surname and place of origin, but he often boasted: "We were much richer than you before." When he was defeated and his body ached, he would use spiritual comfort to balance his body. The pain: "I was finally beaten by my son, the world is really not decent now", so I was satisfied. When someone ordered him to say that this was a man fighting an animal, he immediately admitted that he was an insect worse than an animal. In this way, he won again, because he was the first person to underestimate himself, and the number one scholar was also "the first". Ah Q also has another superior method which is numbness and forgetfulness. He was beaten by a fake foreign devil, which was probably the second humiliation in his life, but "after the slap, it seemed that something had been completed for him, and he felt more relaxed." Walking to the door of the hotel, "I was already a little happy." This method of spiritual victory is not unique to Ah Q. When Lu Xun talked about the creative intention of "The True Story of Ah Q", he said many times that he wanted to "write a modern soul of our countrymen". "Exposing the weakness of the people." This weakness is a comprehensive reflection of the mental trauma caused by long-term feudal rule and aggression by imperialist powers. Lu Xun used the attitude of "sad for his misfortune and angry for his inability to fight" to describe the spiritual victory of Ah Q, an oppressed person in a society of the jungle, with the purpose of awakening the people to face reality and carry out practical struggles. "The True Story of Ah Q" not only exposed the weaknesses of the nation through Ah Q's spiritual victory, but also profoundly revealed the reasons for the failure of the Revolution of 1911 through Ah Q's tragic ending. It stands to reason that Ah Q, an exploited and oppressed person at the bottom of society, is most likely to have thoughts of resistance and revolution, and has the strongest revolutionary demands. But he knew nothing about revolution, and understood revolution as: "I will get whatever I want, and whoever I like will be who I am."
The work ends with a tragic ending in which Ah Q is still upset that the bet is not round, and is beheaded in public before he can shout "Help!"; through plots such as the scholar, the fake foreign devil, and the "Xianxian and Reform" of the Juren Master, it is clever and true. It clearly reveals the reasons for the failure of the Revolution of 1911: the revolutionaries failed to awaken and mobilize the peasants to participate in the revolution, and finally the feudal forces usurped the fruits of victory. It was in this specific historical environment that Ah Q was tied to the execution ground and led to a tragic ending. It is precisely because of this profound era and historical connotation that the image of Ah Q will remain in people's hearts forever.
In addition to the artistic characteristics of Lu Xun's novels that highlight the character traits of the characters, "The True Story of Ah Q" also uses a fusion of tragic and comic expression techniques, which makes the work unique in the readers' tearful laughter. artistic charm.
"Midnight"
"Midnight" is an epoch-making epic masterpiece that the author started writing in 1931 and completed in February 1932. Mao Dun's naming of the book is full of symbolic meaning. "Midnight" means midnight, which is the darkest time before dawn. The work is written from May to July 1930, about two months before and after. At this time, on the one hand, the world economic crisis that began in 1929 had spread to China. Imperialism intensified its plunder of backward countries, and semi-colonial China certainly became the main target of their exploitation. On the other hand, at home, the "Central Plains War", a melee between the warlords of Chiang Kai-shek, Yan and Feng that broke out in 1940, is still going on. For China's national industry, this is indeed the darkest period facing desperation. The author reflects the national bourgeoisie's influence in the empire through the two-month adventure and failure of the national industrial capitalist Wu Sunfu in Shanghai in 1930 in the novel. The tragic fate under the communist invasion shows that "China has not taken the path of capitalist development, and China has become more colonialized under the oppression of imperialism." ("How Mao Dun's "Midnight" was written") The author's purpose is to This is in response to Trotskyist fallacies such as "China is already a capitalist society."
The artistic achievements of "Midnight" are multifaceted. First of all, the author shows us a colorful picture of social life in the 1930s. Through this picture, we can not only see the shadow cast by the world economic crisis in China, but also get a glimpse of the prairie fire that the awakened working and peasant class burned down the old world. fire. Active in this picture are national industrial capitalists, comprador financial capitalists, exchange brokers, lawyers, scholars, landlords, courtesans, prostitutes, farmers, workers and other figures from all walks of life. Among these colorful characters, the national capitalist Wu Sunfu is the most successfully portrayed. Secondly, the structural art of "Midnight" has always been praised by people. Although the work has many characters and complex conflicts, the author centers on Wu Sunfu and unfolds the narrative through multiple clues such as the Exchange and Yuhua Silk Factory. At the same time, the author handles the complicated plot clues in an orderly manner. It breaks through the shortcomings of previous long novels, which either had a single clue, or had too many branches and loose structure. Therefore, Mr. Wang Yao said that "Midnight" has "a variety of intertwined clues, which fully demonstrates the author's new achievements in structural layout." (Wang Yao: "Mao Dun's Historical Contribution to Modern Chinese Literature")
"The Besieged City"
"The Besieged City" was completed by Qian Zhongshu in two years from 1944 to 1946 of a novel.
"Fortress Besieged" is first of all a novel with very profound content and meaning. The work expresses the author’s views on marriage, love and even the whole life through Fang Hongjian’s life experiences such as returning from studying abroad, looking for a job, pursuing love, and family conflicts: “Marriage is like a golden birdcage, and the thoughts of birds outside the cage are Once inside, the bird in the cage wants to fly out; so it will be knotted and separated, with no end in sight. "There is also a saying in France. However, instead of saying it is a birdcage, it is said to be a besieged castle. People want to rush in, and people in the city want to escape. "Throughout the entire work, the author not only expresses the "siege" in love, marriage, and family, but also uses some overseas students and high-level intellectuals in the 1930s and 1940s to express their love and fame. The competition reveals to us that the entire society is a big "sieged city."
Qian Zhongshu said in the "Preface to the First Edition of "The Besieged City"", "In this book, I want to write about a certain part of society and a certain type of characters in modern China." The protagonist Fang Hongjian is the representative of "a kind of character" carefully portrayed by the author.
Fang Hongjian was born in a family with a strong feudal atmosphere. Later, his father-in-law provided a huge sum of money to support him in studying abroad. This kind of background, experience, and upbringing formed his character of being indifferent to worldly affairs and drifting with the crowd. This character ultimately made him a weak, cowardly, and useless person. Whether in love or career, although he has many pursuits in life, he always lacks the courage to face life head-on. In university, he transferred to three departments. After going abroad, I changed places three times in four years. I took a few random courses but gained no experience at all. In the end, I deceived myself and bought a doctorate diploma. On the road of love, he still lacks courage and decisiveness when dealing with those he loves and those he doesn't love, and in the end he is helpless amid various contradictions. This kind of character of Fang Hongjian is the embodiment of the independence of a group of intellectuals at that time. Their hope was to break through their own limitations and the "siege" of the dim semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.
In addition to Fang Hongjian, the work also deeply portrays the images of intellectuals in semi-feudal and semi-colonial Chinese society such as Li Meiting, Wang Chuhou, Su Wenwan, Gao Songnian, Han Xueyu, and Chu Shenming; Qian Zhongshu Said, "When writing about this kind of people, I did not forget that they are human beings, just human beings, with the basic instinct of hairless bipeds." It is they who have caused all kinds of comedies and tragedies of mankind. It is they who constitute the "siege city" of this society.
"Fortress Besieged" has always been regarded as another treasure of satirical art after "The Scholars". Some of the characters in the work are either foreign doctors who have been washed away by European style and beauty, or they are new Confucian students who have spent several years in institutions of higher learning. But they are not only flirtatious, but also vulgar and boring. The author uses vivid life details and humorous language to ridicule them, and readers often hide their books in laughter and think deeply.
"Jane Eyre"
The author of "Jane Eyre" is Charlotte Bronte, a famous British female novelist in the mid-19th century. In the novel "Jane Eyre", the author uses true and natural writing and poetic passion to create a novel female image of self-respect, self-love, integrity, kindness, the courage to resist, and the courage to maintain her independent personality and dignity. Jane Eyre in the work is not only ugly in appearance, but also comes from a humble background and has no relatives. In other words, she did not possess the two major criteria for measuring women's social status in 19th-century bourgeois society: wealth and beauty. However, she boldly pursued her own happiness and power with a hundredfold courage. In her childhood, Jane Eyre faced her cousin's tyranny and her aunt's discrimination. She fought back and resisted without fear. At Thornfield Manor, facing the arrogant master, Jane Eyre was neither humble nor overbearing, without the slightest hint of obsequiousness. She even Publicly confessing to Rochester: "Do you think that because I am poor, humble, not beautiful, and short, I have no soul or heart? You are wrong." "In front of God, we are equal." It was this self-respect that won over the manor owner. At the wedding, when she learned that Rochester was a married man, she clearly realized that if she continued to stay in Thornfield, the fate that awaited her would be to become a mistress. Therefore, she resolutely left Rochester and walked into the vast wilderness. Jane Eyre's running away was her challenge to secular concepts, and it was also a common woman's arduous journey on the road to fighting for her own personal independence and dignity. The spirit of resistance embodied in Jane Eyre for personal independence and dignity contains extremely profound social content. It can be said that it is the author's strong cry to change the social status of British women who were highly discriminated against at that time. In Jane Eyre, in addition to this strong ideology of self-esteem and self-love, she is also a sincere, simple woman full of human beauty. In terms of love, what she pursues is a marriage based on true equality and mutual respect without any external conditions or interests. She despises money-filled marriages and will never be a vassal of a noble family.
Throughout the book, although the challenge and resistance to social conventions are the dominant aspects of Jane Eyre's character, there is also a side of her that is bound by religion, and it is this character that The contradictions and complexity of Jane Eyre constitute this true and full artistic visualization.