Introduction to Xiangzi Camel

Camel Xiangzi is the highest level of Lao She's novel creation.

Lao She officially started his literary creation on 1924, and successively published novels Lao Zhang's Philosophy, Zhao Ziyue and Ermayina.

The period from 1930 to War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression is the second period of Lao She's novel creation. During this period, he successively created novella Xiaopo's Birthday, novel Cat City, Divorce, Biography of Niu Tianci, Doctor Wen, Camel Xiangzi, short story Crescent Moon and Broken Soul Gun. Among them, A Tale of Cat City is an allegorical novel, which alludes to the dark China under the rule of the Kuomintang and shows the weakness of national character. Divorce is a successful novel written by Lao She, based on the life of civil servants in Beijing at that time. Through the gloomy and boring life pictures of a group of civil servants working in the reactionary government, the work indirectly exposes the corruption of bureaucracy, and at the same time, the second half of the work also reveals the evil of espionage system. This work marks the maturity of Lao She's novel creation. The short story "Crescent Moon" is an excellent work that is highly respected. The novel takes the tragic experience that mother and daughter are forced by life and have to sell themselves for a living as the theme, and takes her daughter's bleak memories as the clue to write the painful fate of women at the bottom of the city. In art, Crescent Moon pays attention to the creation of artistic conception and is a poetic novel.

After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Lao She's creation entered another peak. During this period, Lao She created novellas such as Cremation, My Life, A Family of Four Generations and Drummer. Four generations under one roof is a famous novel, which contains three works: Confusion, Stealing an Alive Life and Famine. Based on the life of four generations of Qi's hometown after the fall of Beijing, the works show the suffering, gradual awakening and indomitable struggle of Beijing people in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and at the same time expose the cruelty of Japanese invaders and the shame of traitors. Although the work is huge, the structure is symmetrical and the characterization is quite successful. At the same time, they are vivid and vivid in the local customs and life scenes in Beijing, showing the new progress in Lao She's thought and creation.

After liberation, Lao She's creative focus shifted from novel to drama.

Camel Xiangzi is an excellent realistic work in the history of modern literature in China. By describing the tragic experience and fate of a rickshaw puller during the rule of the Northern Warlords in the 1920s, the novel profoundly exposes the cruel exploitation and oppression of the lower-class workers by the exploiting classes in the old society, and at the same time puts forward the important issue of how the urban working people strive for liberation.

Xiangzi is the hero of the novel. He used to be a bankrupt farmer and became a rickshaw puller when he entered the city. At that time, he was hardworking, unyielding, competitive and had persistent life ideals. When he first arrived in Beijing, Xiangzi experienced the blow of life, but he did not lose confidence in life. He is "strong, silent and energetic". After becoming a rickshaw driver, his greatest wish is to own a rickshaw of his own, because he naively fantasizes that "owning his own rickshaw means everything", so that he can live an independent and free life without being exploited by the owner. For this hope, he went through the wind and rain, desperately pulling a car, desperately saving money, and finally exchanged his sweat for a car of his own. However, the good times didn't last long. The warlords scuffled, took his car and ruined his ideal. Xiangzi didn't lose heart after this life blow. In order to buy a car again, he began to "like a hungry beast", leaving early and returning late, and Dora ran very fast. But Xiangzi still didn't expect that, surrounded by the dark forces in the old society, the lower classes were always blackmailed and teased. Just as Xiangzi attacked his ideals day and night again, he was involved in the political persecution of the progressive Mr. Cao, and the detectives of the reactionary government took the opportunity to blackmail him and took all the savings he planned to buy a car. The blow caused Xiangzi a great mental contusion. "It seems that he is dead and wants nothing"; But soon, Xiangzi struggled to stand up again. Later, with Tigress's support, he got a car of his own, although Xiangzi bought it at the expense of his independent personality and dignity, and it was hard to pull it. But Xiangzi still had his own car, and he finally realized his dream of buying a car. But Xiangzi still didn't think that even if he lived in such humiliation, society wouldn't allow him. Soon, Tigress died in childbirth, and Xiangzi had to sell his car to take care of Tigress's affairs. After this blow, Xiangzi's mind was seriously damaged again. He began to complain about life, feeling that his life wishes were always "like a ghost, which can never be grasped firmly." And suffer those hardships and grievances. "Later, his beloved Joey also hanged himself because of his life. This last blow made Xiangzi despair. Since then, he has lost any hope and confidence in life. He completely changed from his previous love of pulling cars to his hatred of pulling cars, and finally he couldn't even pull the motor car. From previous loyalty to loyalty, it became brazen; From the previous perseverance to self-abandonment, self-indulgence, and finally completely transformed into a heartless, soulless walking corpse. Through Xiangzi's tragedy, the work summarizes the same fate of the bloody life and rickshaw pullers in old China, and expresses deep sympathy for the sufferings and fate of the lower class workers.

Xiangzi finally degenerated, from human to "ghost". The image of "ghost" is ugly. So, what made Xiangzi, a once lively, simple and idealistic young man, degenerate into a "ghost"? The profound ideological content of the work lies in that it not only shows the sufferings and fate of tens of millions of lower-class people in Qian Qian through Xiangzi's tragedy, but also makes people think about the root of Xiangzi's tragedy through Xiangzi's becoming a ghost.

The root of Xiangzi's tragedy is firstly the cannibal old society. Xiangzi came to the city from the countryside, hoping to gain an independent living position by his hard work and tenacity, but he was constantly devastated, including soldiers robbing his car, and Mrs. Yang refused to feed his servants. Tigress bullied him, grandma fooled him, and Mrs. Xia seduced him. It was these soldiers and bandits, the scum of society, who formed a huge net and constantly exploited and oppressed Xiangzi. Finally, they destroyed his ideal, devoured his soul, destroyed his strong body and turned him into an animal. While the work shows Xiangzi's tragedy of turning from human to ghost, the pen always focuses on a dark society. This makes people see Xiangzi's tragedy, and at the same time further see the irrationality of the social system that devours Xiangzi's soul and pushes Xiangzi into the abyss of depravity, as well as its cannibalism nature. It should be said that this is the most ideological value of the work.

Xiangzi's depravity is not only related to social oppression, attack and destruction, but also related to Xiangzi himself. Xiangzi did have ideals in the past, and his pursuit of ideals was once quite persistent and tenacious. Sadly, Xiangzi's vision is too short-sighted, and he only wants to pull his own car. In other words, he only pursues personal happiness. In this way, Xiangzi's struggle and resistance are isolated personal struggles. Because it is a personal struggle, on the one hand, he can't see the surrounding environment and himself clearly, just like a blind man groping in the dark, so that he runs into a wall everywhere; On the other hand, because he is lonely, he faces powerful dark forces, and of course he is easily swallowed up by them. As the old horse in the work said to Xiangzi in the teahouse, "It is more difficult to do hard work by yourself than to ascend to heaven. What can a person jump? Have you ever seen a grasshopper? I can jump far alone, but if I teach a child to catch it and tie it with a rope, I can't even fly. Arrive in droves, hum, and eat up the crops in the whole area in a moment. No one can cure it! " Through Xiangzi's tragedy, the work not only attacked the cannibal old society, but also profoundly showed that it was impossible for a laborer like Xiangzi to change his destiny by personal struggle.

Camel Xiangzi is also unique in art.

First of all, from the needs of shaping characters, the method of depicting characters through delicate psychological description is successfully used. Because Xiangzi is introverted and fights alone, Xiangzi is often taciturn in the whole work. Therefore, the excavation and description of characters' psychology has become one of the important means to shape characters. For example, in the first two chapters of the work, Xiangzi's excitement when he bought a new car was described in detail: his hands trembled even more, and he almost cried when he pulled up the car. He pulled the car to a secluded place and studied it carefully. "Even if you are not ideal for yourself, you can forgive because it is already your own car." This description is delicate and vivid. It accurately conveys the extraordinary love of a simple and honest young man like Xiangzi for cars and the uncontrollable excitement after buying a car, so that readers can see what a strong desire and pursuit of ideals Xiangzi once was. After losing his car for the first time, Xiangzi refused to lose a business in order to earn more money, and began to compete with others for pulling a car. At this time, the kind-hearted Xiangzi was also quite contradictory: "... many times, he robbed the business and ran away, with a curse behind him." He never talks back, flies with his head down and says to himself,' If I hadn't bought a car, I wouldn't be so shameless!' "These pen and ink, very vividly wrote a young man whose conscience has not completely disappeared, because life forced him to betray the pain and contradictory state of mind when he was kind. It makes readers see Xiangzi's original simple and kind nature, and how he began to slide to change little by little under the pressure of darkness. In addition, the work vividly and meticulously describes Xiangzi's inner pain after being deceived by Tigress, and his complex inner feelings from disappointment to rekindling hope and finally falling into numbness in the face of a heavy life blow, so that readers can see the course of Xiangzi's spiritual change.

Secondly, the language is very distinctive. The most prominent feature is that both the characters' language and narrative language are fresh and lively, and many of them are refined and processed Beijing spoken language, which makes the works full of rich life flavor and Beijing local characteristics. As Xiangzi said, "Speak slowly and I'll listen!" It's not only short, but also just wait for a while. On the one hand, it accurately shows Xiangzi's personality, on the other hand, it highlights the characteristics of spoken English in Beijing's lower classes. As Tigress said, "Xiangzi! Did you let the wolf take you away, or did you go to Africa to dig for gold? " "Don't drink, fuck off, kindness, ingratitude? You stupid camel! " These words are not only in line with Tigress's fiery and rude character, but also have oral characteristics, full of Beijing flavor.