"Good Soldier Shuai Ke" is about the absurd experience of an idiot who doesn't care about anything and participates in the First World War. This idiot is Handsome, a lowly little person.
At the beginning of the novel, the author tells us how different this version is in a scene: Shuaike chats with the maid at his home in Prague, and the maid tells Shuaik that Archduke Ferdinand was killed in the streets of Sarajevo in a car. You should know that this is the summer of 1914, and the two are talking about the trigger of the First World War: the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, in Sarajevo, and a war that is sweeping the world is coming. Miraculously, When Shuai Ke heard this big news, he was not surprised at all, and he said with no concern that he knew two Ferdinand, one was a guy in the store, and the other was a dung picker. You see, a big person who affects the fate of the world, in Shuaike's view, is no different from the small people around him, here, I would like to ask you to remember Shuaike's way of thinking, this kind of "don't care" is Shuaike's housekeeping skills, but also the source of the novel's sense of humor. Behind this is actually the political position of the writer Hasek anarchism.
In this book, however, the writer does not mention any political positions, and he explains to us the reason why Shuai Ke is full of nonsense: he is physically and mentally unhealthy. Shuaik had a severe rheumatism and a brain was not normal, once served in the Austro-Hungarian army, but was later identified as an idiot, driven out of the army, since then Shuaik lost his dignity, he found a means of livelihood, as the writer Hašek once did: sell dogs, and forged pure-blood certificates for hybrid dogs, becoming an unscrupulous trader who gave false certificates to dogs.
Let's move on to the story. After discussing the big news with the maid, Shuai Ke walked out of the house and went to the tavern. In the tavern, a plainclothes policeman is using the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand to spy on the position of the tavern owner, but the boss does not take the bait, but as soon as the handsome man arrives, the tavern is lively. Shuai Ke said that if Archduke Ferdinand had died of illness early, he would not have died as shamefully as he does now. With this high talk, Coke broke the plainclothes policeman, and he immediately arrested Shuai Ke for treason.
Speaking of which, you may have asked, how come this handsome man is not patriotic at all? This has to explain a few words. Shuaik was Czech, before the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the second largest power in Europe, and the Czech Republic was only a very weak minority of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czechs were enslaved and oppressed "second-class citizens", and had a deep grudge against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so after World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, and the Czech Republic warmed up with the Slovak newspaper group that was also a fallen man, forming the czechoslovak state. So, let's not blame Shuaik for not loving the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but why the Austro-Hungarian authorities were so nervous that they sent secret police everywhere to monitor the remarks of the Czech people in times of national crisis, and arrested Shuaik, an idiot without any threat.
At that time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was quite strong in both domestic and foreign affairs. After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the authorities monitored the internal pressure and issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, the Assassin's homeland, and even intervened in Serbia's internal affairs. In fact, the ambitious Austro-Hungarian Empire had long wanted to go to war, and the assassination of the Grand Duke was indeed just a fuse.
As mentioned earlier, Shuai Ke was convicted of his words, but he also used his nonsense skills to stir up trouble, so that the authorities had to release him. As soon as Shuaik returned home, the news of the Austro-Hungarian Empire declaring war on Serbia spread throughout Prague, and the First World War officially began.
At the beginning of the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered heavy losses on the battlefield, and Shuai Ke, who had just returned home for a few days of peace, was captured. In fact, although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a strong foreign power, although it was large in size, its military strength was far from that of other European powers. The strength is not enough, just use the number of people to make up, even an idiot like Shuai Ke has been arrested, you can imagine how ridiculous this war will be.
Sure enough, a ridiculous scene appeared. As mentioned earlier, Shuai Ke has a serious rheumatism, and he has difficulty moving, so when he enlisted, he went to report in a wheelchair, and it was still an old lady who helped push the wheelchair. The wheelchair-bound handsome man wore a military hat, flowers pinned to his chest, waved his cane in his hand, and shouted along the streets of Prague: "Hit Belgrade!" ”
However, this scene did not impress the military leadership. The physical examination committee insisted that Shuai Ke was pretending to be ill and wanted to be a deserter, and sent him to a military prison. In prison, Shuaik is caught in a new round of torment: he is used as a gambling chip by the priest and the officers, and becomes a messenger for a lieutenant named Lukasch.
Lieutenant Lukasch, like Shuaike, is Czech, but unlike Shuaike, he is afraid of weakness. In the face of the powerful people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he only promised, and in the face of his subordinates, he struck hard and called his fellow countrymen Shuai Ke "untouchable beasts". At that time, the official languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were German and Hungarian, and Czech was the dialect of second-class citizens, so that even in the face of Shuaik, the lieutenant did not dare to speak his mother tongue Czech, lest his commander know his origins. It can be seen how serious the national oppression was at that time.
In fact, the lieutenant's fate was not much better than that of Shuaike, they were grasshoppers on a rope. Within the empire, ethnic hierarchical relations oppressed them, and in the army, the superiors oppressed them. In the face of oppression, the lieutenant did not dare to say a word, but Shuai Ke resisted with his "I don't care about anything" skill. The way he resisted summed up was: superficially obeying orders, actually messing up tasks, and letting his superiors take him no way.
Let me give you an example. The first task Shuai Ke received was to clean the room for the lieutenant. The room was packed, but there was a big disaster: the lieutenant's canary was eaten by the cat. Shuaike's motives are very simple, the two pets often fight across the cage and make a mess of the room, so Shuaike feels that it is better to let them try to see if they can be a good friend, and as a result, of course, the cat eats the canary. It is said that Shuai Ke will be beaten up by the lieutenant if he breaks into trouble, but don't forget, he has the ability to talk nonsense. Shuai Ke admitted his mistake as soon as he came up, and then, with an innocent face, Shuai Ke denounced the cruelty of the cat, not only clearing his responsibility, but also successfully diverting the lieutenant's attention.
Next, Shuaike talked about his experience as a dog dealer, and the lieutenant was fascinated by the dog and ordered Shuaike to find one for himself and be a pet. He then found a good dog for the lieutenant, who went out to walk the dog, but was arrested. It turned out that the dog had been stolen by Shuaike, and the owner was a colonel. The lieutenant was scolded and did not dare to resist, so he went back to Shuai Ke to settle the account. At this time, Shuai Ke was chatting with a messenger soldier, who said that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be defeated in the war, and such a stupid imperial dynasty should not exist in the world at all. This dangerous remark was bumped by the lieutenant, and the result was that Shuai Ke used nonsense to fool the past and turn the danger into a disaster. But the lieutenant himself did not have the ability to turn the danger into a disaster. It wasn't long before the lieutenant was sent to the front by the colonel, who was angry that his dog had been stolen.
The first volume of the novel ends here, this volume is called "In the Rear", although in the rear, but the rear is not safe at all, the bureaucracy and the army pushed Shuaike to the end of the road again and again. In prison, Shuai Ke became a gambling chip for priests and lieutenants, and the safety and value of life depended entirely on the mood and bid of the master. It is worth mentioning that when the priest sold the handsome to the lieutenant, the price tag was 100 crowns. And the novel mentioned a detail, the most expensive dog that Shuai Ke has ever sold, the price is also 100 crowns, this price, just shows that Shuai Ke is a "dog-like lowly person".
However, the lowly Handsome Ke used nonsense again and again to turn the danger into ruin, and also used a stolen dog to send his superiors to the battlefield, and at the same time, he was faithfully carrying out the orders of his superiors the whole time, and there was nothing to blame. Shuaik is absurd, but war is more absurd than Shuaik, Shuaik is foolish, but Austria-Hungary is more stupid than Shuaik. In writing this, the author is actually using small characters to satirize the serious big history, and using the absurdity of the novel plot to satirize the absurdity of war.