Mo Yan wrote in "Fat Buttocks": Why do flowers have a bloody smell? Because the earth is soaked with human blood. Where is this society? This is an endless dark jungle, where is there happiness? There is only the pleasure of nothingness between the thorns of suffering. This kind of reflection of the life of the people at the bottom of the society, people can't bear to read it, every time the society experiences a change and turmoil, it will follow, and what we should adapt to is not life, but survival.
Poverty is like a shadow in the moonlight, you don't look at him he does not exist, but as long as you pay a little attention, it will be like a shadow, some people are poor to the only faint moonlight shadow to accompany, before the most basic physiological needs are not met life can not withstand the toss, when a person is carefree to consider the higher spiritual needs, just as marlos needs hierarchy theory in the form of the pyramid, the bottom is always most of the ordinary people.
Mr. Lao She's writing is vulgar and exquisite, elegant and popular, writing the bitterness and bitterness of the people at the bottom, he is good at depicting the life portrayal and fate of the urban poor, he once said: No language art master is divorced from the masses, and no language art master records the people's language without processing it.
Created in old China in the 1930s, "Crescent Moon" tells the story of a mother and daughter of a low-level society who have fallen into prostitution and degenerated under the devastation of poor life. The crescent moon accompanies her daughter's most difficult time, the dark moonlight hints at a mysterious force to urge people to advance, and the night is shrouded in a little moonlight, but in the end the crescent moon is still swallowed up by the darkness, leaving only endless darkness.
"Crescent Moon" takes the daughter as the first perspective to describe the mother's journey from kindness and tenacity to being overwhelmed by poverty and becoming a dark prostitute, and the daughter's transformation from a shameless mother to a dark prostitute to a self-depravity to fill her stomach. In the text, crescent moon appears many times, and each appearance hints at the change of the daughter's state of mind, until the daughter is involved in the abyss of society, and the crescent moon is completely submerged by darkness and has never appeared again.
The crescent moon struggling in the darkness, soberly describing the depravity of others
The first appearance of the crescent in the novel is when the father dies, the crescent child with cold air reflects the bitterness in the daughter's heart, the father's death makes the already poor family worse, the mother becomes the daughter's only dependence, the young daughter soberly knows that everything is cold, only the chestnuts bought by the mother for herself are hot.
Whenever there is not even a little porridge bottom in the pot, the mother will give the daughter a small bag to dang, clothes, mirrors only some daily necessities can still be dangled, until the mother decides to put the grandmother's relics hairpin, the weak crescent appears again, the mother holds the daughter's hand, everything is cold, only the mother's hand is hot, the crescent is warm hope.
The mother has a job, washing the stinky socks like "cowhide" all day, smoked by the smelly socks to the point of not being able to eat, becoming more and more emaciated, sometimes the crescent moon has hung up in the sky, she is still washing, the daughter loves this faint moonlight, looming in the dark. My mother's hands were thick, but even such a terrible job was not common.
For the first time, mothers compromised with life, women's independence and self-improvement could not fill their stomachs, and they needed to eat and had to rely on men. On the day of the mother's marriage, the crescent moon is incomparably clear, but it is like a big eye to close, and the life of the mother and daughter has hope, but will the boundless darkness come back?
The stepfather is very good to the daughter, for the daughter to go to school, for three or four years, the daughter never saw the crescent child again, did not expect that in the year when the daughter graduated from primary school, the stepfather did not quit, the burden of life fell on the mother, the mother for this patriarchal society under the tragic abandonment of the mother and daughter also seems to be expected.
The mother has not escaped the fate of becoming a prostitute, there are often men in the family, and the benevolence and morality in the classroom let the daughter know that what the mother does is immoral, there are many ways to make a living, and the mother chose the most shameful way. The daughter can only pin her hopes on the crescent moon, looking for the shadow of the crescent moon in the dark.
The daughter is affected by the moral education of the new era, has illusions about social survival, she cannot understand the mother's choice, the mother's livelihood from the daughter from concealment to no shyness, let the daughter of the mother's love for the mother mixed, from the perspective of family affection, mother and daughter rely on each other for many years, whenever the daughter feels cold, the mother will always warm her, like a weak crescent to make the daughter feel hope. Morally speaking, the daughter has received the concept of independent female education in the new era of higher education, and this self-depraved behavior of the mother makes the daughter incomprehensible.
The mother is like a crescent moon, giving her daughter hope again and again, but finally she can't escape the devouring of the night, and then the crescent moon, like the mother, gives the daughter hope to take it back, and the women under the patriarchal society in the old era are attached to men like parasites to survive, and men have the right to choose how long to protect her.
At this moment, her daughter lives under the protection of her mother and has not experienced social beatings, she does not know that her mother's choice is to compromise with society again and again, and to become a secret prostitute is only for her and her daughter to fill her stomach.
The biggest injustice of society to people is to expound different facts from her eyes, to think about different lives with her human thoughts, in this tragic story, the mother is not wrong, the daughter is not wrong, just like the daughter's confession: the mother's heart is fierce, but the money is more fierce.
The crescent moon, swallowed by the night, witnessed her daughter's struggle and depravity
The mother once again remarried to the manager of the steamed bun shop, the daughter chose to flee from her mother, the enthusiastic principal took in the daughter and provided a job for the daughter, on the day the mother got married, the crescent moon had no shadow, and the daughter did not dare to see the desolate moonlight again.
The mother is also like a crescent moon, one will shine with hope, the other will bring darkness to the daughter, the mother's remarriage has disappointed the daughter to the extreme, the daughter chooses to leave the mother to rely on herself, with her own industrious twins to support herself.
The school changed principals, the new principal refused to take in her daughter, the daughter was homeless again, and the daughter who had received a new ideological education firmly believed that she could find a decent job to support herself with the knowledge learned in the classroom, but the reality gave the daughter a heavy blow, and the discrimination against women in society was like the discrimination of daughters against their mothers, and women were only appendages of men.
See the crescent moon again, the pure crescent is the beginning of hope, the daughter meets the nephew of the principal, lives in a free house, and begins a "decent" love, the crescent is covered by the clouds, and the daughter loses herself in ignorance. Crescent Moon is not the embodiment of the daughter, a faint glow that can easily be swallowed up by darkness.
The wife of the principal's nephew came to the door, and the daughter knew that she was no different from her mother and wanted to leave with dignity, but she could not eat it decently. The daughter also knows that the path her mother takes is the only way, and the more she struggles, the more afraid she becomes.
A step is the abyss, a fluke is the result of the daughter's subconscious pursuit, the daughter knows that her life is about to be surrounded by darkness, but even if there is only a little moonlight, the daughter does not want to sink.
The daughter runs around the city with hope to find a job, and finally only reluctantly finds a job as a waitress in a restaurant, but loses her job again because the waitress wants to betray her hue. Since then, the daughter has lost the crescent moon, just like the daughter's life, and the darkness is sympathetic.
The discrimination of women in the old society is deeply rooted in the marrow, even the hotel receptionist can not escape the fate of betraying the hue, the meaning of women's existence is only sex and inheritance, the transmission of social education has not made the old Chinese people realize the value of women themselves, and women are still men's appendages.
The daughter chose to fall, and in the face of starvation everything is a small thing, just like the daughter's monologue:
We are like two unattended dogs, for our mouth, we have to suffer everything, as if we have nothing else in us, only one mouth, for this mouth, we have to sell everything else.
From grinding and chirping to pain and happiness, the daughter began to romantically earn money to eat, circling the fireworks and wine, finding out the details of various types of men, and knowing "money" and "people".
Money is more powerful than man, and if man is a beast, money is the courage of a beast.
The life of a prostitute made her daughter sick at a young age, and the daughter wanted to see her mother for comfort, but she did not hear from her mother for several days, until her mother came to the door herself.
The mother was abandoned by the steamed bun shop keeper, hungry and afraid, as soon as she came back, she counted her daughter's things, and the mother's desire for food and money made the daughter feel empathy, and at this moment the mother was no longer a lowly prostitute in the eyes of the daughter, and the daughter became the mother's fellow traveler, and this profession seemed to be hereditary and specialized.
The mother listened numbly and indifferently to the voice of others trampling on her daughter, as if only when she saw money, there was light in the mother's eyes, and the mother and daughter lived for ten years as a year, and the depraved and dark life urged the daughter to grow old.
Since then, I have never seen the crescent moon, the crescent child who brought hope to her daughter has fallen into darkness, but if there is any other way to live, the daughter will not take this step, the daughter who has received higher education clearly looks at her own depravity, and also clearly watches the crescent disappear, just as life has no hope, waiting for death.
Crescent Moon witnessed the survival game between new ideas and old societies
At the end of the novel, the daughter is arrested by the patrol officers and sent to the correctional institution because she is a prostitute who does not accept donations, and the prostitutes who donate can do business as usual.
The people in the correctional institution teach their daughters to work, but those jobs do not make money at all, and they think that the best result is that they are indoctrinated and married, and it only takes two dollars to get a woman to the correctional institution.
Dissatisfied with the behavior of the correctional institute, the daughter spit on the senior official who came to review, and the people of the correctional institute refused to reform the daughter, and the daughter was sent to prison by the prosecutor.
The outside world is not stronger than the prison, in the prison the daughter reunited with a long-lost good friend - crescent moon, if the crescent moon accompanied the daughter to spend a lifetime in prison, it is not a good thing, imprisoning the four walls of the daughter, so that the daughter began to re-examine her life, look up at the crescent moon again.
In the novel, the crescent moon accompanies the daughter's life, looming in the daughter's vision, the daughter cherishes the days when the crescent moon is accompanied, and even the daughter is unwilling to look up at the sky after the complete degeneration, for fear that she has defiled the pure and flawless crescent.
Crescent Moon witnessed the hardships and misfortunes of her daughter, who compared Crescent Moon to herself, so weak and so strong, from the initial fantasy to the final depravity, all of which came from her daughter's inner struggle and social squeeze.
The complex cruelty of society and human feelings is far less than education - allowing the poor to receive higher education, making people clearly and clearly watch themselves degenerate, selling while suffering for vague enlightenment, and the disappearance of the crescent moon is also a symbol of the daughter's loss of hope in life.
The novel was written in old China in the 1920s, where the invasion of imperialism and the weakness of the Kuomintang government caused social unrest, the people's lives were miserable, the economy was out of order, the workers were unemployed, and the people were displaced. The lower classes of the city live underfed, and prostitution is rife.
Mr. Lao She saw the suffering of the people at the bottom and used words to describe the history of the existence of the undert prostitutes who were hated at the bottom of society at that time, but as long as there were other ways to live, they did not want to be scolded by others.
At that time, learning advanced Western culture became the mainstream, and women had the opportunity to enter the classroom with men to receive education in advanced cultural ideas and learn morality and ethics.
The daughter is the beneficiary of this ideological enlightenment, the daughter knows the meaning of women's existence, but also knows the basic skills of hard struggle and self-reliance, and the daughter at this moment is like a newborn crescent child, full of hope for life.
The daughter is also a victim of this emancipation of the mind, and the teacher in the classroom tells the daughter the value of women's independence from men, so that the daughter has the ability to think independently, and the pain of knowing and ignorance can make the daughter erase the hopeful thoughts of the past and the misfortune of soberly watching her own depravity.
This kind of formal education method makes the maturity and self-confidence that the daughter has accumulated for days be ruthlessly dismembered by the reality of life. The cruelty of society is to make you understand what is shameful, and to let you fall into this shameful abyss alive.
Goodbye crescent moon, the original intention is still the same
Life is only precious if it is difficult, Mr. Lao She's crescent moon is sometimes strong and sometimes dim, and the moonlight has not escaped the devouring of dark clouds, just like the life of her daughter, even hard work is a luxury.
Goodbye Crescent Moon, if you are ignited by hope, may every girl who is with you receive your blessings.
Goodbye Crescent Moon, see you again, don't come unharmed.
I am Ah Fu, a free-flowing soul.