Last night I told the child "The Cat in the Boots", and although I was talking about it with depression, the child listened with relish.
But I paused several times during that time. Is it appropriate for a four-year-old to hear this story? He hesitated as he spoke, but he finished speaking.
Why hesitate? Because I'm terrified when I think about it!
The Cat in Boots is the work of French writer Charles Perot. The story is of a clever cat who wants to help his impoverished owner turn over, so he asks his owner for a pair of boots and a cloth bag, and goes through the thorns to hunt in the forest.
It offers each prey it acquires to the king, defeats the rich youkai with wit and bravery, and eventually helps its master gain the king's favor and the princess's admiration.
At first glance, the story seems to be nothing, without the kindness of the owner's young son, who does not compete with his two brothers for property; the cat is witty and brave, and solves problems for the owner; the king is calm and courteous.
But is the development of the story only superficial harmony and logical? On closer inspection, each character has more than one surface, there is indifference, there is hypocrisy, there is selfishness, there is routine, there is also the pursuit of power and money.
First, beneath the appearance of kindness is indifference and selfishness
The youngest son of the miller, who received only one cat when dividing the property, did not express unfairness because of the distribution of a cat, but agreed to the division of the property and suffered silently. It can be seen that he is kinder.
But when he was assigned a cat's young son, his first thought was not because he could not afford to raise it, to release it, but the idea of eating the cat and then making a cage with cat skin, which showed that he was very indifferent to other lives.
On the other hand, under the cat's witty routine, the youngest son was portrayed by the cat as a "wealthy, personable aristocrat, marquis of Calabar".
Instead of trying to stop it, he refused to do so as a deception, but instead fell in love with the cat. Under the cat's plan, they deceive the king and the princess together, which shows the selfishness and hypocrisy in his heart.
The most basic principle of being a person is to be kind, if there is no true kindness, how to talk about character, even if the family wealth is full of money, it has lost the meaning of life.
Second, a cat full of lies and routines
The cat feared that the impoverished owner would eat him, and in order to protect himself, he asked the owner to prepare boots and pockets for him. It means that the owner can live the life he wants.
The cat took the pocket and, with his own clever tricks, caught some prey every three to five and offered it to the king, lying and falsifying that the prey was given to the king by Mr. Marquis Calaba.
And the cat also arranged for its owner to jump into the river and swim at the designated place, causing a chance encounter with the king and the princess; let the farmers who cut the grass and cut the wheat claim that the land belonged to the Marquis of Calaba; and also tricked the real owner of these lands, the man-eating youkai, into becoming a small mouse and being eaten by himself, and the castle of the youkai became the Marquis of Calaba.
Although the story goes on in an orderly manner, each step is full of cat routines and cunning, although everything he does is witty and brave.
In real life, there are also many people who will play some cleverness and routines. In the long run, smart is mistaken by smart, playing small smart is ultimately unpopular, no one finds out for a day or two, and after a long time, who will treat you as a friend to get along.
Marriage is not a transaction of power and money
In the story, the king seems to care for the princess, but in fact is also a power and money supreme, if he has enough rights and money to exchange, he will not hesitate to offer the princess, without considering whether she will really get happiness.
The king was deceived because he valued his wealth too much. Otherwise he would not have asked twice who owned the meadow and wheat field when passing through the meadow and the wheat field.
He would not have made any in-depth investigation and analysis after learning that he was rich as the "Marquis of Carabar", and after a few glasses of wine, he could not resist his desire for power and immediately married the princess to the "Marquis of Carabar".
His extreme pursuit of profit and financial power has blinded himself.
A gentleman loves money and has a way of getting it. A lot of people are after money and power, but they have to get their way.
This is the right way to do your duty and work hard, and if you are blinded by the excessive pursuit of financial power, it will end in disappointment.
I finished reading the book, but I was still thinking inside. Although this is only a fairy tale, it is still necessary to correctly look at the characters in the book, give the child positive ideological guidance, and believe that when he grows up, he will also have his own dialectical views.