Introduction to Yu Hua's novel Alive

1. Introduction: "Alive" tells the story of a man's life, which is the life speech of an old man who has experienced the vicissitudes and tribulations of the world, and is a drama that interprets the bitter experiences of life. The narrator of the novel, "I", acquired an idle occupation when he was young - going to the countryside to collect folk songs. In the summer season, I met the old man named Fugui and listened to his story of his own life: the landlord's young master, Fugui, was addicted to gambling and finally gambled away his family's fortune, leaving him penniless, and in the midst of poverty, Fugui went to seek medical treatment for his mother's illness, and was unexpectedly captured by the Kuomintang troops on the way to the countryside, and then was captured by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and returned to his hometown, where he came to know that his mother had already died, and that his wife, Jia Zhen, had raised a pair of children with much hardship. He realized that his mother had passed away, and his wife Jiazhen had brought up a pair of children, but her daughter had unfortunately become mute.

2. The real tragedy began to unfold gradually. Jiazhen can not do heavy work because of chondromalacia; son because of the same blood type as the governor's wife, to save the governor's wife died of excessive blood pumping; daughter Fengxia and the captain of the introduction of the city's biased head of the two Xi Xi Xi married, gave birth to a baby boy, died on the operating table due to hemorrhage; and three months after the death of Fengxia, Jiazhen also died; the two Xi is a porter, due to the cranes made a mistake, was two rows of cement slabs clamped to death; grandson Bitterroot with the Fu Gui When his grandson, Bitterroot, returns to the countryside with Fugui, life is so difficult that even beans are hard to eat, Fugui feels sorry for him so he cooks beans for Bitterroot, but Bitterroot unexpectedly dies from eating beans. The rare warmth of life will be torn to shreds by death again and again, leaving only the old Fugui accompanied by an old cow to reminisce under the sun.