The late writer Lu Yao's novella "Life" was popular as soon as it came out, and among the popular people, especially the "new generation of rural youth in the eighties" in the last century. The love triangle story of Gao Jialin, Liu Qiaozhen, and Huang Yaping in "Life" makes people who have just changed from the era of ideological imprisonment to the emancipation of their minds feel refreshing.
And many people know Gao Jialin and Liu Qiaozhen, not because they read Lu Yao's 130,000-word ** "Life", but first through the "Radio Drama" adapted from the same name on the radio, and then watched the "Life" adapted into a movie, and then the TV series "Life". In the spring of 1986, after enlisting in the army, Taihang read the novella "Life" from a comrade-in-arms named Ma Peng in Shaanxi.
Recently, I re-read "Life" and read several reviews, all of which regarded Gao Jialin as an inspirational role model, but Taihang read the review and said that Gao Jialin was a selfish young man of the times, which was not for eyeballs, and deliberately reversed right and wrong. Let's talk about the character of Gogarin from four aspects.
1.Rural Era Background
Before 1980, the members of Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province privately distributed the collective cultivated land to the peasant households according to their fingerprints, which was called Dabaogan, and the members cultivated and harvested on their own, and after handing over the public grain, the remaining surplus grain belonged to the peasant households, and Xiaogang Village quickly changed from a beggar village to a well-fed village.
Gaojia Village, where Gao Jialin is located, is in a great era when the production team of the National People's Commune is going to be disbanded and the fields are to be divided into households.
After the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, there have been a few years. At that time, the state stipulated that after graduating from high school, rural youths should return to their rural areas of origin to work as farmers if they could not get into collegeYoung people with urban hukou who cannot be admitted to university after graduating from high school are assigned jobs in the city where their parents are located, and they are called to eat commercial grain.
For example, after a work unit in the country lacks workers, it will go to the rural areas to recruit workers through the ** department, and the rural youths who are recruited will move out of the rural areas to eat commercial grain.
In this way, Gao Jialin was given to Gao Jialin by Gao Minglou, the village party secretary, and Ma Zhanshan, the county labor bureau, who gave Gao Jialin the quota that was not given to Gao Jialin. And the operation became a work-for-work, and Gao Garin became a cadre in the county propaganda department.
It is normal for Gogarin to graduate from high school, not to be admitted to university, and to go back to the countryside to work as a farmer, whether you want it or not, or if you are talented. And being able to become a private teacher in the countryside is like a person who works as a farmer. How did Gao Garin become a private teacher in "Life"**, it should have been needed in rural primary schools at that time!
Zhang Kenan and Huang Yaping, who are also Gao Jialin's classmates, because their parents are both cadres in the city and their household registration is in the city, after graduating from high school, they were naturally recruited and arranged to work.
At that time, there was no saying of migrant workers, and individuals were not allowed to register companies to open stores and start businesses, that is, the small shops in the village were called consignment stores, which were retail points set up by supply and marketing cooperatives in the village.
Only by understanding the above background of the times can we continue to discuss the character of Gogarin in depth.
After the advent of "Life" in the 1980s, more people positioned the character of Gao Jialin as the contemporary Chen Shimei.
Chen Shimei, a negative man, is a well-known character in the drama, telling the story of a young man named Chen Shimei in the Song Dynasty who was admitted to the top prize, and was favored by the emperor's daughter, Chen Shimei concealed the fact that he had a wife at home and married the princess. Later, the daughter-in-law of Chen Shimei's hometown brought the child to find a husband, and Chen Shimei sent someone to kill the original wife and child.
Why does the audience equate Gao Jialin with Chen Shimei?This is in the context of the times, when the intellectual youth returned to the city from the countryside or were recommended to go to university, most of them broke off the confirmed relationship with their lovers who were still in the village. Writer Lu Yao fell in love with a female educated youth in Beijing back then, and the two fell in love with each other, Lu Yao gave him the recruitment index to the Beijing educated youth, and after the Beijing educated youth returned to the city, he broke off the relationship with the young Lu Yao, which was called "at the time".Female Chen Shimei
At that time, more rural youths passed the college entrance examination, graduated from college and were assigned to work in the city, serving iron rice bowls. Before taking the university entrance examination, many young people in the village follow the local marriage customs and make marriages through the words of matchmakers;There are also many who are engaged for life after free love, and almost without exception of this generation after graduating from college, they have cut off their romantic relationship with the object who is still in the village and have a new partner in the city.
There are also young men and women in the countryside who have married their partners after graduating from university, but have a new love when they work in the city, and divorce their daughter-in-law or husband who is still working in the village. These people are naturally associated with Chen Shimei, the negative man in the play.
In such a context, in "Life", Gao Jialin has become the target Chen Shimei. As long as one of the men and women flies out of the countryside and breaks off the relationship with the party who is still living in the village, they will be rudely praised as Chen Shimei, and the audience will make Gao Jialin bear the black pot of contemporary Chen Shimei.
From this, we can get a glimpse of the whole leopard and know the concept of love in that era. If you treat it from the current marriage and love, although Gao Jialin and Liu Qiaozhen are in love freely, it is what you and I want;But when Gao Jialin met Huang Yaping, who thought he was more suitable, he broke off his relationship with Qiaozhen, which is a normal thingIf Liu Qiaozhen meets a lover who is more suitable for her than Gao Jialin, she can also cut off her relationship with Gao Jialin!
But in the black and white era, there is no gray transition. For example, Chi Zhiqiang, a popular movie star in that era, was sentenced to prison for hooliganism after being reported for falling in love.
Therefore, in terms of pursuing a love that is more suitable for him, Gao Jialin is not Chen Shimei, and Gao Jialin is not selfish.
Lu Yao once said: "A truly powerful feature** does not rely on the plot to win." A thrilling plot may not be written as a thrilling **. A writer's greatest talent should be to be able to interpret the huge content that makes people's hearts tremble in the daily fragments of life. And this intellect should be based not only on a deep understanding of life, but also on a deep insight and understanding of those lives. ”
Lu Yao is committed to expressing the bitterness and struggle of rural youth in his works, from 1979 to 1981, more than 140,000 words were written for three years, because he was not satisfied with his several deletions, the role of Gao Jialin, injected too much personal emotion into Lu Yao. He once said: "If you think about it, the best days of my life so far were more than 20 days when I wrote the first draft of Life. At that time, Lu Yao, facing his writing life, was also full of spirit.
"Life".What is presented to the reader is such a unique picture of the contemporary rural world, which does not need a thrilling plot to shock people, and does not have a commanding character to save the world, but gives us the most profound thinking and the most primitive touching with the most simple beauty in life.
The book was selected in 2018".The 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up is the most influential**, probably we've finished reading"Life".is also as inspired and excited as Jack Ma was when he first finished reading it, but in the end he couldn't become a person who controlled his destiny like him. But we can be like"Life".In Gogarin, he turned suffering into motivation and had the courage to take a step forward in every difficult moment of his life. Unable to change your life, you learn to reconcile with it.
Reading is the best cultural investment for yourself, and when you meet a good book, you meet a better version of yourself. "Life" is recommended for you who love to read.
If you are interested, click the link below to learn more about the book!