The domestic image of redundant people

Coincidentally, in the literary history of China in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of similar images of "redundant people" appeared. This is normal and inevitable. First, the social background of China in the 1920s and 1930s was similar to that of Russia in the19th century. The class contradiction is sharp, the country is in darkness, and the nation is declining day by day. People are eager for change to break this pessimistic situation. Second, China's "redundant people" are also middle and upper class intellectuals (including petty-bourgeois intellectuals and children of landlord families). They are talented and individual, dissatisfied with the status quo, and want to revitalize but can't see the way out, so they are in conflict. Third, in some writers' works, there is no shadow of the author himself. This also coincides with the Russian literary world. Many writers claim that their novels are their own quasi-autobiographies. Writers and figures are aristocratic intellectuals, who have many advantages in intelligence and character, but at the same time they inevitably have limitations and shortcomings in thought, class and times. Although the writer is superior to the role in understanding, the essence is the same. They "mourn their misfortunes, anger their indisputable", permeated with their own love and hate and their pursuit and desire for the future. When they criticize the characters in the works from appreciation, they even jump out of their class and identity limitations and move towards a new life.

The main images of "redundant people" in China's literary history in the 1920s and 1930s are Juan Sheng in Lu Xun's works, Jue Xin in Ba Jin's works, Little Qiu Jian in Rou Shi's works, Ni Huanzhi in Ye Shengtao's works, Zhou Ping in Cao Yu's works and so on. Lu Xun's second collection of novels, Wandering, contains 1 1 short stories he wrote from 1924 to 1925. Most of these articles adapted to the class division in the cultural circles at that time, discussed several intellectuals who accepted democratic ideas, described their pain and struggle, and also reflected their bankruptcy on the road of personal struggle. But Lu Xun is Lu Xun after all, and these characters in his works are not completely equivalent to the self-expression of ordinary bourgeois and petty bourgeois intellectuals. They were the first to realize in the revolutionary camp, but their personal struggle was weak and accomplished nothing. Its individual liberation cannot be separated from social liberation. Although Wandering has more melancholy feelings than Scream, its brushwork is colder, its realism is deeper, and its analysis and criticism of the old society are more mature and restrained.

When Nora by Ibsen, a Norwegian realistic playwright, reached China, it caused a long-term strong social response in China during the May 4th Movement. People began to discuss such important issues as love and marriage. To this end, Lu Xun wrote a series of articles such as After Nora Left, and put forward his own correct views. Besides, he also wrote the only novel about love in his life-Regret for the Past, which gave a concrete and vivid answer: After China gained the freedom of love at that time, did all the problems be solved? Don't! Absolutely impossible! A successful marriage is not enough. Only by eliminating the old moral norms and breaking the old system can we achieve lasting happiness. Juan Sheng, the hero of Mourning for the Past, believes that he and Zijun will achieve the goal of personality liberation and freedom of marriage, and bravely rush out of the old family and establish a new family, which will be a happy and smooth life. As a result, a series of practical problems came out immediately: Zijun tried to walk by Juansheng's skirts, making his will paralyzed by small family life; When the blow of unemployment came, Zijun was at a loss. Juansheng still had ideas and pursuits at the beginning, and he was eager to "save himself". He regards Zijun as a burden and wants to get rid of her. In this way, love was on the verge of disillusionment, and finally they had to break up. After Zijun returned home, he was weak and soon died because he could not stand his father's strictness and others' cold eyes and depression. To this end, Juansheng fell into deep regret and sorrow. He hesitated and explored. However, where is the new outlet? He is still at a loss. This novel criticizes the description of facts and the expression of feelings. Lu Xun not only condemned the social pressure through the experiences of characters, but also deeply analyzed the weaknesses of intellectuals.

In Wandering, Lu Xun also created two other "superfluous people" images. Lu, who went to the restaurant, was originally a young man with ideals and achievements. However, after several twists and turns, he became a "perfunctory and vague" person, spending his energy and time on meaningless things. Unable to extricate himself, he lost all his decision-making ability and fighting will. Wei used to be a famous figure with the title of "New Party" in Loneliness. The dark society gave him a great blow, which made him bear the threat of gossip and unemployment and almost starved and begged. As a result, he had to compromise with the evil forces, became an adviser to an old warlord (teacher), practiced "everything he hated and opposed before", treated life and society with resentment and helplessness, and finally died alone and helpless with strong mental trauma. In the Restaurant and The Lonely Man reflect the sharp opposition between the innovative power and the traditional power, and are full of the heavy historical atmosphere during the ebb tide of the revolution. With great anger, Lu Xun described the tragic experiences and great pains of the characters, and at the same time mercilessly criticized their personality weaknesses. It is undoubtedly of great practical significance to educate intellectuals to recognize their own situation and abandon the old way of life. The fifth "superfluous man" image in China is Zhou Ping in Cao Yu's play Thunderstorm. Thunderstorm is the first play written by Cao Yu in 1933, and it is also the representative work of the author. It reflects the contradictory and complicated interpersonal relationship of Zhou Puyuan, a big capitalist in the northern city. Zhou Ping in the play is a tragic figure. As the eldest son of Zhou Puyuan, he should be the darling of his family and the natural heir to Zhou Puyuan's career. Unfortunately, however, he is just the illegitimate child of Zhou's servant girl, living in a family with no maternal love but strict father. Although materially pampered, well-fed, mentally pale, empty, depressed and depressed. His birth, growth and living environment created his selfish, hypocritical, cynical but hesitant and timid extremely contradictory and complicated character. This character is manifested in various aspects: on the one hand, he tries his best to safeguard his father's dignity and prestige and the "most complete and orderly" family interests established by his father himself; On the other hand, he cursed his father and his family, and directly ruined his father's reputation and harmed the interests of the Zhou family with his bad behavior. In order to fill the spiritual emptiness, he took possession of his stepmother Fan Yi on impulse, which was a big mistake. However, in order to save himself and seek new excitement, he abandoned Fan Yi, but cheated his half-sister Sifeng and fell into a deeper depression. He tried to inherit his father's mantle, but he lacked the will, courage and skills of entrepreneurs. Although he didn't have the "ambition" of the bourgeoisie when he got married, he had his depravity, shamelessness, enjoyment and decadence and depression during the feudal decline. Although he had a desire to start another life, he unfortunately lived in an era when feudal forces were dying and the bourgeoisie was increasingly decadent and weak. This era will never provide him with any material and spiritual strength to improve the status quo, and will only end in his demise. As the author said, he is just a "beautiful empty shape", a dude with no life value. His drought-striken fields are the product of his father Zhou Puyuan's sin, and also the continuation and price of Zhou Puyuan's sin. Therefore, the author Cao Yu wrote in the preface of Thunderstorm that he created the play only to "vent pent-up resentment and slander China's family and society".

The typical "redundant people" in the history of modern literature in China are Juan Sheng, Jue Xin, Xiao Qiu Jian, Ni Huanzhi and Zhou Ping. From Juan Sheng to Zhou Ping, we can also see that "redundant people" are becoming more and more shameful and hateful because of the increasingly dark society and the increasingly fierce contradictions. This is exactly the same as the development track of similar phenomena in Russia! In addition, the three characters mentioned above, namely Wei, Lu and Y incarnation @ ①, are also quite important "superfluous people" images. Below, the author wants to talk about a few more important figures.

Mao Dun's early works, written around 1927, consist of three novellas: disillusionment, hesitation and pursuit. Among them, Pursuit describes the life, thoughts and mental state of a group of young intellectuals who left the revolutionary ranks after the failure of the Great Revolution (including Zhang, a pawn in the great era, Wang, Cao Zhi, Zhang Qiuliu and others). They are depressed and confused under the white terror. But they are still unwilling to be negative, and they will continue to work hard, hoping to make some contributions to society; However, without the guidance of correct thinking, its pursuit is very blind and has to be blocked everywhere. They have all lost their way in life, and their fate is doomed to be extremely sad, or depressed and world-weary, or blindly rushing in, or willfully dissolute, or self-indulgent, and they have performed scenes of "disillusionment" tragedy.

The hero "He" in Yu Dafu's novel "Sinking" (published in 192 1) is also a typical "redundant person". As a student studying in China, "He" is melancholy and withdrawn, and at the same time he is sentimental, self-abased and even has abnormal complex. This "weak country man" was banished to a foreign country, and his strong love demand was suppressed and distorted in a strong atmosphere of ethnic discrimination, so he was disappointed, sad, shy and sad, and eventually developed into a sexual pervert. "He" masturbated first-"the crime committed in bed", then peeped at the hotel owner's daughter to take a bath, went to the wild to eavesdrop on the whispers of men and women trysts, and finally committed suicide by jumping into the sea. "He" always feels that people around him are shooting at his back with vicious eyes and looking down on him, so he feels very lonely. This is all because he is from China. He shouted in his heart, "China, China, why don't you get rich? I can't stand it any longer. " . Finally, when he committed suicide by jumping into the sea, he looked at the direction of the motherland and cried heartbreakingly: "motherland, motherland, you killed me!" " Get rich quick! Be Big! You still have many children suffering there! "It is the author himself shouting, not a pervert. The works are full of strong patriotic feelings, reflecting the great mental trauma caused by racial discrimination to the protagonist. But what is more important is the contradiction and conflict of the protagonist's own personality, which is based on the cognitive limitations of his petty bourgeois intellectuals. " He "contains the outstanding autobiographical color of the writer Yu Dafu." After writing Shen Lun, Yu Dafu recalled: "Life always goes through a romantic and lyrical era, from 189 to 20 years. At this time, even dumb birds who can't talk have to open their throats and sing, let alone emotional human beings. My lyrical era was spent in an island country where warlords were dictatorial, brutal and dissolute. Seeing that Lu Chen, the old country, was humiliated by a foreign land, I felt what my husband thought and experienced everything, except disappointment and sadness. Like a young woman who lost her husband at the beginning, she has no strength, no courage and is sad. It was that book that caused a lot of criticism at that time. " (See Monologues of Heritage)

Zheng Zhenduo's early short story Indifference (1923) is somewhat similar to Lu Xun's Mourning for the Past. During the May 4th Movement, a pair of young students, Wen Zhen and Zhi Qing, fell in love freely because of their common interests, and each got rid of the shackles of the original marriage. However, because they have different views and attitudes on "the purpose of life", and Zheng Wen regards love above all else and is too idealistic, which will inevitably lead to the ultimate tragedy. The beginning of their cohabitation is also the starting point of their breakup. After the ups and downs of life, Man's Love has become realistic, sophisticated and adrift. In this regard, Wen Zhen expressed deep dissatisfaction. He was indifferent, negative and pessimistic, and loved him to the point of disillusionment. At this time, she thought: they have lived in "two completely different ideological worlds" and it is inevitable to break up.

Sha Ting's novel The Fight between Trapped Animals, which was written in the period of "War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression", reflects the life and experience of intellectuals in the rear of Kuomintang-controlled areas, and describes their depression, depression, anger and pursuit after the turn of the times in a small town in Sichuan. An old friend who came back from the front aroused their enthusiasm for propagating anti-Japanese in the early days of the war of resistance. However, when they re-prepared the drama activities, they failed because they could not tolerate the reactionary authorities. The novel takes this plot as the main line, and it is also interspersed with love entanglements caused by depressed life. Among this group of small intellectuals, there is also a strong "superfluous person" character: although I hope to do something, I finally get nothing because of my weak strength and inner hesitation. Even if I have passion, if I lack fighting spirit, I am indecisive and divorced from the masses, but I am too arrogant, wouldn't that be a joke?

In a word, through the analysis of the above-mentioned "superfluous man" images, we can see that in the history of China literature in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of typical literary images of "superfluous man" in19th century Russian literature were created due to the similarity of the background of the times and the similarity of the writers' own origins, experiences and thoughts. If further analysis is needed, there are still some differences in their production, performance and ending, and each role also has specific differences; However, in more ways, they are still not very different. Inspired by Russian literature, modern writers in China absorbed the essence and made outstanding contributions to China's literary career. These dazzling "redundant people" are typical and occupy a more important position in the People's Gallery in the history of modern literature in China.