In 1868, Gorky was born into an ordinary family, and his father was just an ordinary carpenter.
Unfortunately, when Gorky was three years old, his father died.
He followed his mother back to his grandmother's house, but after his grandmother's house went bankrupt, life was difficult. Before Gorky finished elementary school, he went out to become an apprentice, entered the school of "society", and was with people of all kinds of teachings. He had been a street thief like a thug, had many jobs, and had been a hooligan and a vagabond.
Therefore, Lu Xun sharply said that Gorky "looks like a hooligan", because he really did be a hooligan.
After reading some books, he wanted to go to university, but he had no money, no access, no diploma, and could not enter a real university, so he could only be forced to enter the university of "life" and society.
He hates the vulgar life of the little citizens, they are trapped by life, they are calculating, he likes freedom, he yearns for beauty, he likes to read, reading saved him, and did not let him completely become a product of life.
Years later, he wrote an autobiographical trilogy based on his own energy: "Childhood", "In the World", and "My University".
Gorky did not go to university, but in his recollections, he called Russian society a "university", and society taught him a lot, and he saw the good and the ugly in it, but he always chose to go to the good and walk towards the light.
People spend their lives learning in the social world, and before death comes, who dares to say that they have really "graduated"?
Fortunately, in this life, as long as we are willing, no matter where we are and what kind of life we live, we can find the strength to become ourselves and absorb the nutrients that our souls need.
01
In a blink of an eye, Alyosha has already experienced a lot, he is crawling around in the vulgar life, and most of the people he sees are mediocre citizens, who may be sneaky and full of chicken feathers.
This kind of life is a big dye vat, and if you are not careful, the people in it will be dyed with the color of this life.
Fortunately, Alyosha likes to read, and books keep him from falling into the gears of life.
Among the people he knew, there were also people who, like a lamp, illuminated something other than life for him.
When they saw him reading with a book in his hand, they said to him:
You were born to serve science.
Whatever the purpose of the remark, it convinced Alyosha that he had some rare scientific ability.
So, Alyosha wanted to go to university.
In the autumn of 1884, he finally got on board a ship and went to university in Kazan.
When he was leaving, his grandmother told him:
You, don't fight with others anymore, you are always aggressive, powerful and arrogant. One thing you have to remember is that God doesn't judge people, only the devil likes to do it.
After leaving, Alyosha painfully felt that he would never see such a caring relative again.
He lived in the house of a good widow, and she asked him:
What are you doing here?
Alyosha said:
Come to school, go to college.
She went on to ask:
With this ability, will you be able to go to college?
Alyosha spoke very seriously about his plan, about his actions, as if after completing the plan, the doors of the temple of science would open in front of him.
At this time, Alyosha was full of hope, but looking at the people in front of him who were full of suffering, and seeing the people walking extremely this land, he had no choice but to concoct those things that could benefit the people in his heart.
There were too many hard days, so Alyosha was more adept at fantasizing.
He did not expect help from others or hoped for lucky opportunities, and his will gradually became tenacious.
The more difficult the living conditions, the stronger and even smarter I feel.
Because he understood early on:
Man is made in rebellion against his surroundings.
He didn't go to college, but that's his "university".
02
The widow is kind, but life in her family is difficult.
Alyosha didn't want to mess with her, so she went to the slums to survive.
Here, Alyosha met a lot of people.
In our lives, everyone we meet will teach us something to a greater or lesser extent, some teach us their tolerance of suffering, and some teach us to complain about fate.
But there are also people who tell us like a light to be full of hope, to rebel, to pursue freedom and beauty.
Alyosha was surrounded by mixed fish, but he was told:
Don't learn from those petty thieves, you're going the other way, you're a person who values spiritual life.
Alyosha did not understand what it meant to value the spiritual life, and the man went on to explain:
People who value the spiritual life have no envy for anything, only curiosity.
But Alyosha felt that this was not right, because he was envious of many people and many things.
Many of the people he met were thinking about life, they talked like they were arguing, each telling his own business, and almost no one listened to anyone.
Sometimes, mingling with these people and listening to them talk about vulgar and frivolous things, Alyosha would feel that his hopes of climbing up and going to university were insulted.
Because in this kind of life, he felt that he was completely capable of sinning.
Fortunately, the romanticism of the young man did not allow him to deviate from the path he was destined to take, even if it was a bumpy one, and he had read a number of serious books that encouraged him to pursue something that was not quite clear, something that had a greater meaning than anything he had ever seen.
To live, people also need some pursuits that are higher than the vulgar life.
But in this world, many people are accustomed to vulgar life, they drink, prostitute, seek all kinds of thrills, and curse life.
All this made Alyosha have a question in her heart:
What is all this for? What is the purpose of people's lives?
Alyosha felt that the life of the people here was so boring and boring that he wanted to escape from this boredom and live a different life.
When a certain life fills our lives, the only way to change is to jump out of it.
03
Life is full of constraints, but for a man who craves change, nothing can hold him back.
Alyosha did not give up on himself, so a better life would not give up on him.
He also finally met some better people, who talked about noble things, full of dreams and hopes.
But his life was still difficult, he found a job in the bakery, and he had to do a lot of work every day.
Physically, I have experienced a lot of pain, but it is even more painful mentally.
He will also feel pessimistic and hopeless.
I felt powerless, inadequate in knowledge, unable to solve even the simplest problems of life, and I felt like I was being thrown into a dark mud puddle where people crawled like blind maggots.
To escape the misery of real life, they drink, go to brothels, and brag unashamedly about their sexual prowess, as if this is all they have to offer.
Alyosha was told:
People seek forgetting and comfort, not knowledge.
This sentence completely shook Alyosha, people endure life, seek pleasure, only to forget and comfort, but he does not want to live such a life.
Alyosha has heard many people say that life is meaningless, labor is not beneficial, that everything is meaningless, that life does not need to be changed, that the world does not need to change.
They are pessimistic, hopeless, and accustomed to life being endured and accepted.
In such an environment, Alyosha sometimes doubts himself:
Should I live like this?
But his pursuit does not allow him to live like this, his ideals do not allow him to live like this, and he should pursue a better life.
But what is a better life? Alyosha didn't know, he just knew that he had to learn, he had to keep exploring, not stop where he was.
When people stand still, there is only one life.
04
Alyosha tried to write poems on her own, which was a kind of beginning.
When he saw poetry in life, there was some hope in life.
He worked in the bakery, fourteen hours a day, and was so tired that he was dizzy every day.
Alyosha was also thinking:
What will happen in the future?
In order to avoid thinking about these problems, he worked hard, because labor gave him no time and energy to think about these things, but it also made it impossible for him to study.
Day after day, such days were repeated, however, Alyosha was not blinded by life, and a stronger desire arose in his heart:
Spread what is reasonable, good, and eternal.
He tries to use his imagination to make up stories, to make up a good life, and he also tells others the stories in the book.
A person may encounter many difficulties when moving towards a better future, but as long as he keeps moving forward, he can keep getting closer to himself.
Romain Rolland has a saying:
Most of them die at the age of twenty or thirty: after this age, they only change their own shadow, and the rest of their lives are only used to imitate themselves, to repeat what they have said, done, thought, and liked day by day, and the way of repetition is becoming more and more mechanical, more and more detached.
Many people stop where they are at a very young age, unwilling to explore the possibilities of life anymore.
Alyosha was constantly exploring, and he had seen the traditional apologists who kept the old rules, buried their lives in them, and trapped others in them.
Alyosha hates such people.
He also had other doubts:
How can we explain that life is a constant struggle for human happiness, and that kindness and love only stand in the way of victory?
However, he was told that only love can connect people with the spirit of the world, and that "those who do not love will not live."
Man is always human no matter where he goes, so he does not need to work hard to change his position in life, but only to cultivate the spirit of loving humanity.
However, this is only a great ideal, and in real life, people are constantly intriguing for trivial and trivial things.
For Alyosha, all he needed was books, and everything else meant nothing to him.
He would not live in humility and triviality like this, and he would not like to live like an ant in such a busy life, and he felt that such a life was very stupid.
But he also sadly found that those who talk about fraternity are also unconsciously obeying the trend of life.
At this time, Alyosha was confused, so he was in pain.
However, the reason why a person is confused is because he has doubts about the life in front of him, and he who is steadfast in his life in front of him is never confused.
05
In real life, Alyosha felt like a trapped horse, surrounded by a large herd of horse flies.
He wanted to get out, but someone dragged him and pushed him to a nasty place, and he had to face the dirty things.
He felt tired, a kind of mental weariness.
"People should be angry with themselves and overthrow their vile lives. ”
When people can't take it anymore, they will rise up against what they hate, and they will rebuild their lives.
Painful, too painful.
Alyosha wanted to commit suicide, he bought a pistol, but he failed to hit the heart, only a lobe of the lung, lay in bed for a month, and returned to work in the bakery in embarrassment.
Just when Alyosha was disappointed in life, a man named Khohol approached him and offered him a better job so that he could study better.
Alyosha agreed, he took a boat to his new place of work and started a new life.
There, he met more and better people, read a lot of books, and he also had a deeper understanding of freedom, and he also knew more about love.
He began to feel that he was living well, that there were new and important things every day, and he gradually understood the misery of the people's lives, and he also saw those who had been pursuing a happy life, and they never gave up.
Alyosha unwittingly participates in a great change, but it is destined to be difficult, and although it is done for the sake of a better life for humanity, people are not necessarily willing to support it.
Why?
They have worked so hard to settle a certain life for themselves, and they are used to it, but one of them rises up and rebels, and tells them, "Don't live like this!"
Don't live like this? How do you live that? They have poured all their energy into this life.
These people will say to change, "you."
If a person wants to live a new life, it means that he has to subvert all his past efforts.
06
Change is fraught with suffering, and it can be a disaster even for the first person to propose it.
Thousands of years ago, Socrates saw people living blindly, and he told people to know themselves and live a life that can stand up to scrutiny.
However, he tried to wake up those people who killed him.
More than 100 years ago, Lu Xun was still in the banknote, in order to escape the helplessness of life, Qian Xuantong found Lu Xun, hoping that he could make some articles.
Lu Xun understood what Qian Xuantong meant, and he asked Qian Xuantong:
"If an iron house is windowless and indestructible, and there are many sleeping people in it, who will soon suffocate to death, but go from slumber to death, and do not feel the sorrow of death. Do you think you are worthy of the cry of the more sober men, and the unfortunate few have been brought to the point of irreparable deathbed?"
Qian Xuantong said:
"But since a few people have risen, you cannot say that there is no hope of destroying this iron house. ”
Yes, hope cannot be lost, so Lu Xun also joined the ranks of shouting.
Where Alyosha lives, people also live blindly, they are insensitive, hopeless, sneaky.
Alyosha was furious that some people were fighting for a better life, but some peasants were sneaking around.
He asked the change-maker named Romans:
Are you angry with these peasants?
Romans Says:
Not necessarily, they're just stupid. Resentment, which is also stupidity.
Yes, they're just stupid.
Stupidity is the greatest evil in the world.
Romans also told Alyosha:
It's easy to condemn people, and don't be enthusiastic about it.
Not long afterward, Alyosha also left, and the spiritual seeds in his heart had begun to grow, and he had seen a better life, even if it would take a lot of effort and many difficulties.
However, everything will pass, everything will get better, and as long as people don't give up on getting better, they won't suffer in vain.
07
Everyone who lives in this world wants to arrange their lives better.
However, on the road to becoming better, there will be many, many difficulties, and even some difficulties that are prohibitive.
As a result, most people walk and stop on their own, because they don't want to face difficulties that they don't know about, but prefer to face life that they are already familiar with.
Without stepping out of one's "comfort zone", people can't really change.
And stepping out of your comfort zone means embarking on a new adventure that could turn your past life upside down and make your life look something else entirely.
Everyone wants to be better, but not everyone has the courage to step out of their "comfort zone".
Accustomed to forbearance, humility, and please, it is difficult to become self-respecting and self-loving from the bones, but it does not change, and only by continuing to forbear, humble, and please, can life go on.
If you are accustomed to enduring pain, you will have endless suffering.
When you become accustomed to dependence, some of your own minds and behaviors will also deteriorate.
Accustomed to getting pleasure from indulgence, Mr. Mu Xin said well, the so-called bottomless abyss, go down, it is also a long future.
……
Everything can be used to and can become a "comfort zone".
But people should also consciously and voluntarily open their eyes to see what kind of existence the so-called "bondage" really is.
Text|Not interesting soul & plain shoes