I never thought that among the books I read this year, the one that made me feel like I was on pins and needles, and it was the category of children's literature that turned back and forth in my heart.
I have to name and praise the two books from the series "Great Writers for Children" that came out of the waves, one is Osamu Dazai's "Goga Grass Paper" and the other is "Cat's Paradise: Zola's Children's Stories" by Emil Zola.
Both books are from the fourth level of the series, which focuses on critical thinking ability, which corresponds to the requirement of the new curriculum standard (i.e., the Chinese Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2022 Edition)) to "be able to initially comprehend the connotation of the work and obtain beneficial enlightenment for nature, society and life".
I have introduced the book "Mika Grass Paper" before, and today I will talk about the book "Cat's Paradise".
The author of the book, Émile Zola, was one of the most important French writers of the 19th century and a representative of naturalistic literature. He advocated the objective position of science, worshiped Flaubert, a realist master, as a teacher, recognized Balzac, the father of modern France, as a guide, and was friends with Maupassant, Dude and others at the same time, and was buried with Hugo and Alexandre Dumas after his death.
The series "Great Writers for Children" selected three from Zola's first collection of short stories, "Tales for Ninon". My personal favorite is "My Neighbor Jacques", followed by "Cat's Paradise", while "Big Man Mishu" leaves a weird feeling.
That's what the writer Francis, a contemporary of Zola, said of him:"No one loves human compassion more than Zola. He is a moment of human conscience. ”
When the story describes the appearance and attitude of Jacques, the neighbor who is engaged in "the most despised coolie among the working people of Paris", my heart seems to be crumpled and I can't speak.
"The next day, I met him on the stairs. He timidly leaned against the wall, shrunk as far as he could, and humbly tugged at the folds of his blouse so that it would not touch my clothes. He stayed there, his eyebrows lowered, and I caught a glimpse of his poor gray-white head trembling with emotion. ”
A few words describe the humility of a person. Humility implies a person's denial of self-worth, but this ** is not a person who has done something wrong, but from his identity - Jacques is a coffin porter. This status can feed Jacques' family, but it can't make the family live decently. Jacques worries most about his daughter being looked down upon because of his work. When my daughter was five years old, she saw the black coat in which he worked, and she was scared and cried. Later, he hid in the stairs and changed his clothes before returning home.
The narrator, "I", extends a warm hand to Jacques, allowing him to change in the attic where he lives, and to leave his overalls there. As Jacques and Jacques became more acquainted, he talked to me about his work from time to time, "and in this way, I knew the intimate details of each deceased. I knew how heavy their bodies were, what sounds came out of each coffin, and the postures they had to use to carry them downstairs. ”
The story ends with a bit of humor in the sadness. When Jacques died suddenly, two of his colleagues came to carry his body and joked as they went downstairs, "every collision made the coffin let out a low whining sound". Is Jacques complaining that his colleague is acting too recklessly and disrespectfully to the deceased?Or are you complaining that death came suddenly, and he has not fulfilled his promise to "me" - "will gently bury me and bury me in a resting place with friendship"?
My Neighbor Jacques chronicles the life of a small person recorded by a bystander. Like ants, a little person who can overturn his world with a gust of wind has no power to fight back. In addition to sadness, there is also a kind of tenderness. The dignity of the little person is obtained through the narrative of "I". This may be the power of words, not only for heroes and great men, but also for ordinary people.
This story is suitable for one person to watch and feel silently. I am skeptical about parent-child co-reading, worried that common guided questions and answers will make it too easy to skim compassion and instead discuss the wrong and right of behavior and the level of value. Besides, I was afraid that my children would ask me why being a corpse porter was a menial job, and I didn't know how to pretend to be calm and say that "there is no high or low job", when in fact I would unconsciously walk around the cleaner on the road.
Reading this kind of children's literature, as a parent, I no longer worry about whether my child can understand it, but because I don't really believe in the noble qualities, benevolence and morality that I am trying to instill in my child, and I will choose the favorable side according to the actual situation, and I also claim to be witty and flexible.
In addition, I am also worried that the angle from which I guide my children to look at the problem is "entrainment of private goods". For example, through "Cat's Paradise", I discussed with my daughter what it means to live a happy life. The result of the priority of the baby is that they are well fed, warmly clothed, have entertainment, have family, and have freedom. I couldn't help but remind her that she doesn't have the ability to stand on her own right now, and the first three items are provided by her parents. So the child immediately put his family first.
I then asked: If you are self-reliant, isn't your family the first place?The child said that at that time, her family was in second place, and the first place became her ability to take care of herself independently. Hearing this answer, I had mixed feelings in my heart. She is happy that she has planted the seeds of independence in her child's heart, but she is worried about the decline of her family's status in her heart, and she seems to care more about the material conditions provided by her family than she is grateful.
Parenting comes first. I once thought that children's literature was full of great values, detached from reality, and blindly preachy, but I never thought that the series "Great Writers Write for Children" broke this prejudice, and gave me a lot of introspection and reflection on the road of parenting, which helped me and my daughter start a deep conversation, so as to have a deeper connection.
Thanks for meeting the good book.
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