Synopsis of story:
Xiangzi used to live in the country. /kloc-when he was 0/8 years old, he unfortunately lost his parents and a few acres of fertile land, so he went to Beiping City to make a living. He is young and strong, and neither smokes nor gambles. He decided that pulling carts was the most profitable job. After three years of hard work, he finally scraped together enough 100 yuan and bought a new car. He was so excited that he almost cried. Since having this car, his life has become more and more exciting. He fantasizes that if this happens for two years, he can buy another car, one, two ... he can open a factory.
Xiangzi runs boldly every day, and he doesn't think twice when he leaves the car. When the war was turbulent, he went out to pull carts. One day, just to earn more money, he ventured to pull his car to Tsinghua. As a result, on the way to the sidewalk, I was caught by a dozen soldiers, worked for the soldiers, and even drove the car to the barracks. His ideal of self-reliance was shattered for the first time. Later, when the army was defeated, Xiangzi went out of the barracks at night and stole three camels left by the army. At dawn, three camels were sold to an old man for $35. From then on, he got a nickname, "Camel Xiangzi". On his way back to the city, Xiangzi suddenly fell ill. Xiangzi came to his senses, entered the city, and went to the original renter and garage.
Si Liu, the owner of Renhe garage, is nearly 70 years old and has only one 37-year-old daughter named Tigress. Tigress looks like a man. Si Liu likes Xiangzi's efforts very much, and Tigress prefers the simplicity and reliability of this fool. Xiangzi gave 30 yuan money to Si Liu for safekeeping, hoping to save enough money to buy a car.
Xiangzi didn't easily forget that his car was robbed. He can't wait to buy a new car at once. To this end, he did not hesitate to grab business with others. Xiangzi stayed at Mr. Yang's house for a month and got angry. He only stayed for four days and then left Yang's home. Xiangzi, full of worries, returned to the garage after 1 1 in the afternoon. He was seduced by Tigress's wine and slept with Tigress. Xiangzi woke up feeling ashamed and a little dangerous. He decided to leave the car factory and make a clean break with Si Liu.
So Xiangzi went to the home of Mr. Cao, the former driver, and Mr. Cao was also very kind to him. One day, Tigress told Xiangzi that she was pregnant. Xiangzi was surprised. Tigress gave him back the thirty dollars saved by Xiangzi and Liu Si, and asked him to celebrate Si Liu's birthday on the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, to please the old man, and then tried to get Si Liu to recruit him as a son-in-law.
Xiangzi met an old horse while pulling a cart in the street. He has no money to buy steamed bread for his grandson, so he can't make his grandson hungry. So Xiangzi bought some steamed buns for Lao Ma, who was very grateful to him. The old horse lamented that being a driver all his life is a dead end, and he deserves to die poor. No matter how strong it is, it is useless.
On the night of offering sacrifices to stoves, shopkeepers and others began to offer sacrifices to stoves. At about nine o'clock, Xiangzi took Mr. Cao home from Xicheng, and a detective followed them by bike. Mr. Cao told Xiangzi to pull the car to his good friend Mr. Zuo's house and asked Xiangzi to drive it home to see his wife and young master out. As soon as Xiangzi arrived at Cao Zhai, he was caught by Detective Sun, who was the platoon leader of the mutinous soldiers who had arrested Xiangzi. He cheated Xiangzi out of all his money, and Xiangzi's hope of buying another car was dashed. Soon, Mr. Cao's family left Beiping. The next day Xiangzi had to go back to Renhe garage.
Grandpa Si Liu's birthday is very lively. Because he was unhappy, he scolded Mulberry and poured his dissatisfaction on Xiangzi and Tigress. So Tigress couldn't help being angry and told Si Liu that she was pregnant and that the baby was Xiangzi's. He doesn't want to marry his daughter to Xiangzi. He was afraid that Xiangzi would inherit his property and asked Xiangzi to leave. Tigress didn't buy her father's account, so she rented a house with Xiangzi in a big house and got very close. Xiangzi insisted on going out to pull a rickshaw. Tigress couldn't beat him, so she agreed. Today's "Man and Car Factory" has become "Man and Car Factory". Si Liu sold part of his car and gave the rest to a car owner, so he enjoyed it himself. Tigress gave Xiangzi 100 yuan and bought a second-class car, which was also in the same hospital. Tigress, who is pregnant, doesn't like activities and likes to eat snacks, which leads to the fetus being too big and dying in dystocia. In order to hold a funeral for Tigress, Xiangzi forced to sell the car, and Xiangzi's efforts were all in vain.
Joey, the daughter of neighbor Joel Hadron, expressed her willingness to live with him. Xiangzi really likes Joy, but he is unable to support his family. I had to leave and make a promise. And went to Mr. Cao's house and promised to pull a monthly subscription. Who knows that when I return to the quadrangle, I can't see the joy. Later, I learned that I went to the White House.
After the autumn, he wanted all those disgusting people to die, while Xiangzi wanted to live strong, and his life rekindled hope. He found Cao Fu again, and Mr. Cao promised to pay Xiangzi a monthly rent, willing to go with him with joy. Xiangzi felt that there was hope for life again and he came back from the dead. However, there is no joy in the quadrangle. Xiangzi found out that Joy had gone to the White House and went to see her. Who knows that Joy hanged herself because of tossing. So Xiangzi began to degenerate, smoking, playing badly, being lazy, and no longer cherishing cars. It's windy and rainy. He doesn't drive, and his body is a little sore. He has a rest for two or three days. In the eyes of patrolmen, Xiangzi is a "thorn in the side" of the first class.
While pulling a rickshaw, Xiangzi met Si Liu again. Si Liu asked him where Xiangzi's daughter was. Xiangzi said she was dead, and left without telling him where Tigress was buried. Being angry with Si Liu, Xiangzi was relieved again.
All his hopes are dashed, and there is no hope of life any more. If he can't be strong, he can only fall heavily. Xiangzi made money by all kinds of cruel means. Finally, he betrayed Minh Nguyen and became a villain. Xiangzi stopped pulling rickshaws and did everything for money, even betraying Mr. Cao. Xiangzi ate, drank and gambled, and gradually became a degenerate, shameless, numb, down and out, cunning, taking advantage of others and giving up on himself. In Xiangzi's mind, everything is "so", and he can't help taking advantage. Xiangzi became the last ghost of individualism.
Editor's brief introduction Camel Xiangzi is the representative work of Lao She (1February 3, 899 ~1August 24, 966). Camel Xiangzi is Lao She's favorite work. Lao She, formerly known as Shu Qingchun, was a Manchu. The word "Sheyu" (the surname is divided into two), Lao She is his most commonly used pen name, and there are other pen names such as Hongse and Feiwo. Manchu is a red flag man. Born in Xiaoyangquan Hutong (now Xiaoyangjia Hutong) in Xicheng, Beijing, a poor family in Manchu city. Modern famous writers and outstanding language masters are known as "people's artists". His father, a Manchu guard, was killed in the street fighting when Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing. Lao She grew up in the living environment of the bottom citizens in Beijing. When he was abroad, he read many famous western European literature and began to write novels. His early works, such as Lao Zhang's Philosophy, Zhao Ziyue, Ermayina, etc., are satirical in humor, which is quite similar to the works of British writer Dickens, but sometimes they are exaggerated out of proportion and almost slippery. However, for Lao She, the initial creation is an indispensable practice. In 1930s, his creation gradually matured. /kloc-in 0/930, he created short stories such as Fair and Sakura Sea Collection. Finally, he released his representative work Camel Xiangzi at 1936.
When Lao She was young,
Lao She worked hard all his life and created a lot. In 1930s, he became one of the most successful writers, with novels such as Xiaopo's Birthday, Cat City, Divorce, Legend of Niu Tianci, Camel Xiangzi and short stories such as Fair. After the publication of Camel Xiangzi, it became famous in the literary world, describing the miserable life of people living in the lower classes, marking the formation of Lao She's realistic style and reaching the highest achievement of his novel creation. It is one of the best novels in the history of modern literature in China and has been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages. His works in the 1940s include: novel Cremation, Four Generations under One roof, novella My Life, collection of short stories Anemia, Crescent Moon and collection of popular literature 34 1. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China people's works mainly include novel Under the Red Flag, reportage A Name in Unknown Heights, prose collection Fuxing Ji, script Longxugou, Teahouse and so on. Lao She's literary creation lasted for 40 years, and his works mostly focused on the life of urbanites, with clear love and hate and a strong sense of justice. The characters are distinct and the details are true. He can master the language skillfully, and is good at accurately using Beijing dialect to express characters and describe events, so that his works have a strong local color and a strong flavor of life. Lao She won people's love with his satirical and humorous style. 195 1 year, Beijing Municipal People's Government awarded him the honorary title of "People's Artist".
The pseudonym Lao She was first used in the novel Lao Zhang's Philosophy. Other pen names include Jie Qing, Jie Yu, Feizi and Hongse. Lao She is a generation of "language master", with strong language and writing skills, especially making good use of Beijing dialect, which makes his works have a strong local color and a strong flavor of life, forming a unique style of humor.
19 13 was admitted to Beijing Normal University. 19 18 graduated from Beijing normal university, and served as the principal of a primary school in the northern suburbs, giving advice to students. The ideological trend of democracy, science and personality liberation aroused by the May 4th New Culture Movement awakened him from the life creed of "running a primary school seriously, respectfully serving his mother, getting married and having children properly". The prosperity of the literary revolution made him "obsessed with new literature and art", thus starting a new starting point in his life and career. 1922 worked as a Chinese teacher in Nankai Middle School. In the same year, the first short story Jason Chung was published. From 65438 to 0924, he went to England and worked as a Chinese lecturer at Oriental College of London University. After teaching, I read a lot of foreign literary works and officially started my creative career. Three satirical novels describing the life of citizens, Lao Zhang's Philosophy, Zhao Ziyue and Ermayina, were published one after another. Starting from 192
Rickshaw Boy
In the past five years, he has written three novels in succession: Lao Zhang's Philosophy vividly exposes the smoky educational circle; Zhao Ziyue's flogging edge points to the young students who praise the new school, but they are actually intoxicated; The protagonist of Two Horses is a Beijinger living in Britain. Ironically, it is still the abnormal mentality of "leaving the nest" cultivated in the soil of feudal small-scale production society-they all use crisp Beijing spoken language and humorous language to render Beijing folk customs, express their worries about the fate of the motherland through the analysis of closed and conservative national psychology, and show their unique artistic personality and ideological perspective. After the three works were serialized in Novel Monthly, they attracted the attention of literary circles. 1926 Lao She joined the Literature Research Association. /kloc-in the summer of 0/929, he returned to China via Europe and Asia. During my stay in Singapore, I was inspired by the rising demand for national liberation and created a novella "Xiaopo's Birthday" reflecting the awakening of the oppressed nation.
1925, Lao She's first novel, Lao Zhang's Philosophy, was published, which was based on Lao She's experience in Beijing education. The novel reveals the darkness and chaos in the field of education under the rule of Beiyang government, and shows humorous artistic style in art.
1930, returned to the motherland, served as an associate professor of cheeloo university College of Literature, and edited Qilu Monthly.
/kloc-in the summer of 0/934, he went to Qingdao Shandong University as a professor of China Literature Department.
/kloc-in the summer of 0/936, I quit my teacher and specialized in literary creation. After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, he went to Wuhan and Chongqing to preside over the work of the All-China Anti-Japanese Federation of Literary and Art Circles, served as the executive director and general affairs team leader, and organized the publication of Anti-Japanese Literature and Art magazine.
1946 March invited by the State Council to give lectures in the United States for one year, and then stayed in the United States to write after the expiration.
1949 ended and returned to Beijing. He used to be a member of the State Council Culture and Education Committee, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee, a vice-chairman of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, a vice-chairman of Chinese Writers Association and secretary of the Secretariat, a vice-chairman of China Folk Literature and Art Research Association, a member of Chinese Dramatists Association and China Music Association, and the chairman of Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles. 1966 was persecuted to death by the gang of four.
I am a pawn in the literary and art circles. For more than ten years, I practice on my desk and stool every day. My pen is a gun, and I spill my blood on the paper. The only place I can be proud of is my diligence; I didn't have the general's strategy in my mind, but I did what I had to do. I was, I am, and I hope I will be in the future. On the day I enter the tomb, I hope someone will give me a short tablet with the inscription: A conscientious pawn in the literary and art circles will rest here.
-Lao She
Edit this paragraph to appreciate the overall framework of the overall interpretation: Xiangzi has three ups and downs.
Together: I came to Beiping as a rickshaw driver, worked hard for three years, scraped together 100 yuan and bought a new car.
A fall: even people and cars were arrested by the gendarmerie as able-bodied men. The ideal was shattered for the first time.
Second: sell camels, pull carts desperately and save money to buy a new car.
Raul: When it was time to get a monthly salary, Xiangzi's hard-earned money was also taken away by Detective Sun, and his second hope was dashed.
Three times: Tigress bought Xiangzi a car at a low price from her neighbor's second hand, and Xiangzi got another car.
Sanluo: In order to arrange Tigress's funeral, Xiangzi sold the car again.
Xiangzi's trilogy of fate is "strive for progress-unwilling to fail-willing to fall"
Theme of the work
Mainly tells the bitter story of rickshaw pullers in old Beijing. This paper denounces the immoral people who oppress the people, exposes the exploitation and oppression of simple and kind workers in the dark old society, accuses the old society of turning people into ghosts, expresses the author's deep sympathy for the working people, and criticizes selfish and narrow individualism. At the same time, it also reveals that personal struggle is not the theme for the working people to get rid of poverty and change their situation. It also shows that people are animals that change with the environment and are the most vulnerable. The ugliness of human nature is exposed here. Lao She mercilessly criticized this society-it doesn't let good people have a way out.
Summary and central idea of the novel
Camel Xiangzi tells the tragic story of Xiangzi, a rickshaw driver in Beiping, old China. Xiangzi came from the countryside, and the declining countryside made him unable to survive. He came to this city, eager to create a new life with his honest work. He tried all kinds of jobs and finally chose a rickshaw. This career choice shows that although Xiangzi left the land, his way of thinking is still the way of thinking of farmers. He is used to individual labor, and he is also eager to have a car as reliable as land. It is his wish and hope to buy a car and be an independent worker. Even religion and cities seemed to give Xiangzi a chance to realize his wish. Struggled for three years, bought a car, and was robbed in less than half a year. But Xiangzi still refused to give up his car dream. Although he doubted his pursuit and wavered several times, he kept pulling himself together and struggling again. It should be said that Xiangzi's tenacious character and stubborn attitude struggle with life, which constitutes the main plot content of the novel. The end of the struggle ended in Xiangzi's failure, and he finally failed to realize his dream of owning his own car. The realism of this novel lies in that it not only describes Xiangzi's material deprivation caused by the harsh living environment, but also describes Xiangzi's spiritual degeneration after his life ideal was destroyed. "He has no heart. His heart has been taken away." In this way, a hardworking and kind-hearted rural youth was transformed into a walking dead unemployed.
The characters sum up Xiangzi-Xiangzi comes from the countryside. He is honest, strong and persistent, like a camel. He has strong self-esteem, bears hardships and stands hard work, and makes a living on his own. But in the end, after three ups and downs, Xiangzi had lost confidence in life. He became numb, down-and-out, cunning, taking advantage, eating, drinking, gambling and giving up on himself. A first-class driver who was once so strong did not struggle out of his tragic fate in the end. Xiangzi is the epitome of the poor working people in the old society, and he reflects the hardships and helplessness of the working people in the old society.
Tigress, a middle-aged woman who is provocative and somewhat psychopathic, is born a man's character. She is good at taking care of things and keeping people and garages in order.
Lord Paoge Si Liu in the old society improved and built a garage. He is an honest and frank man with a strong personality and never refuses to lose face in the outfield.
Teacher Cao, an ordinary teacher who loves traditional art, is tolerant of others because he believes in socialism and is regarded as a "saint" by Xiangzi.
Gao Ma is a kind-hearted and strong-willed old lady who is ready to help others. After experiencing misfortune, she learned the lowest methods in the old society. She has her own ideas and often enlightens Xiangzi and teaches him to keep accounts. She is a person whom Xiangzi worships.
Pony's grandfather-he is a rickshaw puller, strong all his life, but in the end even his little grandson can't be saved. One step away from death.
Joy, a kind and sad figure, is Xiangzi's favorite, but what she left us was deep sympathy and infinite thinking. Step by step towards destruction.
Erqiangzi-a driver who gives up on himself.
Character change
Xiangzi: (at first) simple and honest, tenacious, self-respecting and hardworking; (finally) numb, down and out, cunning, easy to take advantage of, self-indulgence.
Tigress: She has a heavy mind and a dual personality. On the one hand, she has her own desire to pursue happiness and is sincere to Xiangzi. On the other hand, the consciousness of the exploiter has penetrated into her soul. She wants to control Xiangzi (mentally abnormal) and is the possessor and dominator of the family.
The theme of the novel is the social level: it is generally believed that this novel reflects the tragic life of the people at the bottom of the old China city, and Xiangzi's tragedy mainly embodies the connotation of social criticism including national criticism; The level of the relationship between civilization and human nature: the story of moral degeneration and spiritual corrosion caused by the opposition between a simple farmer and modern urban civilization contains thoughts on the relationship between urban civilization disease and human nature. Lao She tried to reveal how the anomie of civilization caused the pollution of human nature in the city, and was deeply worried about the harm that pathological urban civilization brought to human nature. Lao She's works exploring the source of modern civilization were unique in the 1930s.
Novel influence:
Camel Xiangzi occupies an important position in the history of modern literature in China. Most of the new literature after the May 4th Movement is good at describing the lives of intellectuals and peasants, but few works describe the urban poor. The appearance of Lao She broke this situation. With a number of works describing the life of the urban poor, especially the novel Camel Xiangzi, he expanded the expression range of new literature and made special contributions to the development of new literature.
Related comments:
Camel Xiangzi is a tragedy described by Lao She with sympathetic brushstrokes: in Beijing in the 1920s, a hardworking and sturdy lowlife struggled hard with a beautiful dream of getting rich, and was finally swallowed up by a dark storm. Revealed the slave psychology and hope of the "little people" at that time. With the suicide of Xiangzi's beloved woman Xier, Xiangzi put out the last spark of personal struggle. This is one of the fates of the poor citizens in old China and old Beijing.
Camel Xiangzi is a classic of modern vernacular novels, which uses a lot of descriptions of Beijing dialect and some old Beijing customs.
Camel Xiangzi was first published in Cosmic Wind magazine (1936), and 10 People's Literature Publishing House (1955) published a new monograph. Lao She made some modifications and deleted the second half of chapter 23 and the whole chapter 24. The complete works of Lao She published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1980s, 1982, restored the original appearance of the old edition.
There is a saying in Camel Xiangzi that "money will lead people into a bad society, put aside noble ideals and willingly go to hell." It not only vividly describes that the lower class people, after endless grief, pass on their resentment of social injustice to money. In fact, what is evil is not money, but an unhealthy mentality. It is this distorted cynicism that depicts the social sorrow and human sorrow and constitutes a social tragedy!
Language scores:
First, Lao She wrote about the bumpy and miserable life of a laborer, a rickshaw puller, based on his living environment, what he saw, heard and met at that time, which made the readers feel deeply and personally. In addition, readers who are also living in ups and downs can feel that someone understands their experiences and knows how to face their misfortunes.
Secondly, Lao She wrote this rickshaw puller truly and nakedly, without any distortion or modification, presenting the exploitation and oppression of laborers in the dark old society of China at that time to the readers completely. This will help government officials who read this book to understand the poor life of workers, thus improving the harm caused to them by the dark old society in China. In addition, readers of other classes can understand the poor life of workers after reading it, thus helping them face various difficulties.
Third, Lao She wrote this book in Beijing vernacular. In this way, the reader class of Camel Xiangzi will be wider. Moreover, those citizens whose Chinese level is not high will not be affected by language barriers and cannot understand what Lao She expressed.
Lao She is an outstanding "master of language art" and has made great contributions to the development of language art in China vernacular literature. Lao She grew up in a miscellaneous courtyard in Beijing, and he also likes local operas and folk arts in Beijing. He is very familiar with Beijing dialect, which is a good foundation for his integration into Beijing local spoken language in his creation. He once said: "Some people criticize me, saying that my literature is not bookish, too vulgar, too poor, and almost vulgar as a driver's pawn;" "I'm not ashamed at all!" However, Lao She did not completely use Beijing dialect in his creation, but refined and processed it by himself. It can be said that this kind of language training effort runs through Lao She's life's creation. Camel Xiangzi is a mature work of Lao She's language art. His language not only retains the liveliness of folk spoken language, but also has the simplicity, agility and mellow artistic language. It is known as "nothing is so simple, natural and pure without the paleness of a student's accent, the melodrama of Taiwanese, and the verbosity of Europeanization". This language can be elegant or vulgar. In Camel Xiangzi, Lao She wrote all kinds of people in civil society in this language, which is very interesting in life. Writing about Xiangzi's experience in torrential rain and scorching sun, and writing about the night in Beihai are full of brushwork, scene blending and rich in texture.
Xiangzi's Tragedy Xiangzi's tragedy is a social tragedy, and his good wish of "being an independent laborer" was finally shattered, which has its historical inevitability. The mutinous soldiers of the warlords, the detectives of the reactionary government, and the extortion of car dealers are all products of the semi-colonial process of China society, and the ultimate deprivation of the right to live is an unavoidable historical fate of the lower-class workers.
Xiangzi's tragedy is also a spiritual tragedy. The novel aims to observe what hell is like from the driver's inner state, and to explore the internal causes of his tragic fate from the character and spiritual weakness of the lower-class workers in the city. First of all, Xiangzi's life ideal and the behavior of realizing this ideal are deeply branded with the thought of individual workers. His self-confidence in personal strength, age and hard-working quality makes it impossible for him to compete with powerful social dark forces by personal struggle. Can only be "the last ghost of individualism." Secondly, Xiangzi's tragic character, kindness, integrity and realistic oppression made him unable to get rid of the shackles of his marriage with Tigress, and his weakness determined that he could not control his own destiny.
Xiangzi's tragedy is deeply rooted in the soil of civic culture. His life ideal is marked by a small producer. He dare not face the reality of blind self-confidence. After all his efforts failed, he gave in to fate and even fell. Deep down, it is precisely because of his cultural foundation. Although Xiangzi entered the city from the countryside, his production and lifestyle, living standards and values are still closely linked with the traditional agricultural culture. The traditional virtues, such as kindness, diligence, chivalry and simplicity, as well as the negative factors, such as narrowness, selfishness and ignorance, which were initially shown in him are the products of traditional agricultural culture. The blind self-confidence of not daring to face the reality at first, and then yielding to fate after all efforts failed, is the result of the continuous expansion and deterioration of negative factors in traditional cultural character.
Xiangzi's tragedy is also branded with the modern civilization of a semi-colonial city with abnormal development. The "money worship" and hedonism in this deformed modern urban culture, accompanied by Xiangzi's life course, have been eroding Xiangzi's soul.
Through the description of Xiangzi's tragedy, Lao She completed his dual cultural criticism: he not only examined traditional culture with modern rationality, but also criticized the disadvantages of urban modern culture with the positive value standpoint of traditional culture. In this way, Xiangzi's tragic image is brought into the overall cultural critical vision of Lao She's novels.