"Little Girl Fishing" is a short story created by Chinese-American writer Yan Geling, the story told in the novel is not difficult to understand, in the context of immigration, a Chinese girl named Xiaoyu, in order to help her half-time boyfriend Jiang Wei share the pressure of life, had to smuggle from China to New York to work.
And the boyfriend Jiang Wei is anxious to get rid of the predicament of life, so he arranges Xiaoyu to marry the Italian old man Mario to obtain the identity of a legal resident, and the seemingly beautiful Mario actually owes a lot of gambling debts, life is sloppy, in the process of getting along with Xiaoyu, Mario is touched by Xiaoyu's simplicity and kindness, and begins to regain hope for life... And Xiaoyu has also gradually transformed from an image arranged by others to a self-conscious woman.
This is a moving story about women's self-growth and self-redemption, interpreting women's truth, goodness and beauty from a female perspective and the theme of actively choosing growth.
As a narrator, Yan Geling's voice is peaceful, like the gentle breeze blown by the summer, telling us the story of human nature to goodness and beauty, and her small fishing all reflect the goodness and beauty of oriental women.
Today, I will deeply interpret the theme of women's growth in this novel from the three perspectives of identity, female growth, and story metaphor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Identity: Xiaoyu's love for Jiang Weifen forces Xiaoyu to drift to a foreign country to give up his old cultural identity and fake marriage to Mario in order to seek a new legal resident status</h1>
As a witness to the life of immigrants, Yan Geling can touch the tragic life of low-level immigrants under the pressure of reality, and can record the survival dilemma and the hardship of fate that she personally feels, which is not to show the injustice of fate, but to express the true concern for all women struggling at the feet of fate.
(1) Xiaoyu's righteousness to love stems from the lack of self-awareness
Woolf once said in "Having a Room of My Own":
"For many years, women have been like a mirror with a peculiar function, illuminating the image of men on twice the scale, when women put all their enthusiasm into their feelings, what they get is the disillusionment of illusions, the endings of the supreme love in the past and the present are tragic, love cannot save women, and love utopias are destined to be disillusioned."
In the face of love, women's emotional component index is often greater than rationality, and at the beginning there is no remorse for love, until finally they suddenly find themselves lost in love. Yan Geling's "Little Girl Fishing" portrays such a female image:
Lack of self-awareness, unilateral obedience and unlimited acceptance of men.
In the story, Xiaoyu has to leave his hometown and drift to a foreign country for the sake of Jiang Wei, the boyfriend of Qingmei Zhuma, in order to find a new cultural identity and get rid of the anxiety and panic that the old cultural identity cannot be recognized in a foreign country, Xiaoyu can only be forced to struggle and resist in the loopholes of society, so as to realize the confirmation of self-identity.
Before the fake marriage with the Italian old man Mario, the "lover" of the young girl Xiaoyu was Jiang Wei, and her fate has always been dragged by Jiang Wei. In the relationship between Xiaoyu and Jiang Wei, sex is an important part, and the acquaintance of the two people initially began from the flesh, Xiaoyu described Jiang Wei's exuberant sexual desire in this way:
"It's like being poisoned, like I have food but I'm hungry for you."
The scene of Xiaoyu Wencun in the story accompanies all the appearances of Jiang Wei, who is accustomed to using sex to express his inner jealousy, mania and love. He proved his existence through this expression, as if Xiaoyu's body could withstand everything he had.
(2) The self-esteem was trampled and destroyed, so that Xiaoyu began to find himself from the lost
Under Jiang Wei's arrangement, Xiaoyu had to commit to the italian old man Mario fake marriage in order to get a green card, but in Xiaoyu's heart, even if she married Mario, Jiang Wei's love is still her whole world, and she also strives to do the duty of a girlfriend, and there is no transgression between her and Mario.
Although Xiaoyu is a young girl with no cultural background, she has both the kindness and gentle inclusiveness of traditional Chinese culture women and the courage of women in the new era to change themselves and the consciousness of serious progress. But the marriage with Mario invisibly caused harm to Xiaoyu, and the pure relationship between her and the old man triggered a strong jealousy of her boyfriend Jiang Wei, who forced the simple and kind Xiaoyu to hurt her self-esteem.
After the injury, Xiaoyu's former love supremacy no longer exists, followed by a woman who actively learns new knowledge, works hard, gets rid of dependence, and realizes the value of self-existence. Xiaoyu gradually formed his own life values, began to examine the traditional meaning of life, after some independent thinking, Xiaoyu realized self-growth and identity under the guidance of the soul, thus showing the theme of women's growth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 Female growth: From passive acceptance to active choice, Xiaoyu has achieved self-growth and learned to choose her own life path after being tempered</h1>
Although "Little Fishing Girl" depicts the hardships of immigrant life, we see more beauty and optimism of women in the life of immigrants, especially the protagonist Xiaoyu, after experiencing the grind of life, Xiaoyu has completed the awakening from self-awareness to the growth of self-mind, and learned to choose his own life path.
(1) In the new social relationship, Xiaoyu re-examines his life and values, and follows his heart's wishes and makes the right choice
When he first interacted with Jiang Wei, Xiaoyu used to hide behind Jiang Wei in a passive posture, and when Jiang Wei instructed Xiaoyu to marry Mario on a sham, Xiaoyu had bitterness in his heart, but he could only accept it silently and live with the old man along Jiang Wei's consciousness. But in the process of living with Mario's purity, Xiaoyu gradually learned that Mario is not a bad person through Mario's works, so he broke the general friendship and began a warm exchange with Mario.
In addition to Xiaoyu's feelings for Jiang Wei's love-bound feelings and disregarded spiritual experience, Yan Geling also conveyed her inner appeal and life consciousness for Xiaoyu, so the author portrayed a young girl in the immigration environment from the initial obedience, forced to accept the latter's active choice, seek her own life path, and guide the awakening and growth of women's self-awareness.
In this fake marriage scene, there is no doubt that Xiaoyu is the biggest victim.
In the face of her boyfriend Jiang Wei, she could not rule out the existence of the predicament, so she could only silently endure Jiang Wei's suspicion and suspicion of her; in the face of Mario, the small fish under the fence, everything could only be cautious, thinking that the unreasonableness of others was a kind of compensation for her own sins, silently bearing everything. However, in Xiaoyu's bones, she is strong and resolute, she will not be easily defeated by reality, and in the interaction with Mario and his wife Rita, she re-examines her life and values, follows her heart's wishes, and makes the choices she thinks are right.
(2) Xiaoyu has always maintained an attitude of self in her heart, and she will not change her original intention because of the oppression of others
In the story, Xiaoyu used her tenacity and kindness to assimilate the old man and his wife, so that they also wanted to live like normal people, face up to the value of their own lives, no longer demean themselves, self-depravity, and find their own meaning and lost self-esteem little by little from ordinary life.
After experiencing Jiang Wei's betrayal and suspicion and Mario's indifferent discrimination, Xiaoyu still shows tolerance, generosity and kindness in her body. The senseless misunderstandings she carries and the endless suffering she endures are the choices she made after a yearning for a better life.
From passive acceptance to active choice, this change stems from her dissatisfaction with her own life, she does not want to live in such a quagmy social environment, and is eager to realize the value and meaning of her life.
In Xiaoyu's heart, she has always maintained an attitude of self, she will not change her original intention because of the oppression of others, and gradually in the real society, trigger the awakening of self-consciousness, so that she can leave herself a purity in the complex and chaotic reality situation. Not only was she not violated by others, but she infected the people around her with her own good qualities, awakened the depraved humanity of others, re-embarked on the stage of life, and realized the growth path of self-choice with her persistent belief.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03 Story Metaphor: The deep connotation of Xiaoyushou's metaphor is the image of a woman who immigrated overseas as an Oriental woman and knew herself through hardships</h1>
A good work is often not limited to the surface of the story content, but a potential metaphor for the reflection and aftertaste behind history. "Little Girl Fishing" not only has wonderful story content, but also has a profound historical connotation. Chen Sihe once said:
"Yan Geling is a writer with a strong artistic charm."
Indeed, Yan Geling is a writer who pays attention to the expression of artistic skills, and she is good at digging out the hidden cultural connotations behind the stories from the small stories and the images of marginal characters, thus triggering the reader's deep contemplation.
(1) The character of Xiaoyu represents the survival and growth of marginal characters who were neglected by society in that era
In the novel "Little Girl Fishing", Yan Geling uses the sensitivity and meticulousness of female writers to capture marginal people and details that are easy to be ignored, and with the help of the emotional collision between the characters in the story, she shows the truth hidden behind the story.
The deep connotation of Xiaoyusuo's metaphor is the image of a woman who immigrated overseas as an Oriental woman and knew herself through hardships. As a marginalized figure ignored by society, you will either survive in a chaotic society, or in a situation of suffering, you will stick to your position, not be disturbed by the outside world, and strive to seek opportunities to realize the value of your life.
In the experience of migrants from Xiaoyu, we see not only a single character image, but also in the context of that special era, due to the backwardness of the country, so that China's immigrants cannot be treated fairly and scrutinized in foreign countries.
As a result, a large number of illegal immigrants continue to struggle with life in the current of reality in order to obtain a better living space, and strive to pursue a more ideal way of life. But in the era of political commanders, their resistance is often accompanied by abandonment, accompanied by sacrifice, and the unwilling heart can only silently heal itself in the dark night. Yan Geling takes a deep glimpse into that chaotic era through the writing of immigrants who insist on themselves in the context of a particular era, have hope, and strive to seek self-awareness.
(2) Xiaoyu is not only an individual, but also symbolizes a group portrait of a female group who insists on self and constantly seeks self-redemption in the process of growing up
In the suspected betrayal of her boyfriend, Xiaoyu has stood up with a tenacious, positive, kind and gentle posture from beginning to end, and her existence is a high praise for the spirit of traditional Chinese women.
Xiaoyu's own growth is a metaphor for historical change. On the one hand, the awakening of Xiaoyu's self-consciousness refers to the embodiment of the same as Xiaoyu's general women's efforts to find their own value in the state of immigration, on the other hand, it refers to the era, although chaotic, but in the end in their own way, continuous progress, pointing to the many suffering people in the era, under the actual situation, do their best to move towards the society they desire.
It is precisely in the immigrant life of Xiaoyu and Jiang Wei and his party that we see the lost self of Chinese immigrants in that era, the current situation of life struggling to survive, and the powerlessness and tragedy of those immigrants who are difficult to change the status quo, leaving us with profound reflection and aftertaste.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >04 is written at the end</h1>
Yan Geling's theme of women's growth writes about the series of costs women pay for growth and the awakening of self-awareness. In the novel, as far as possible, the characters are placed in a special era background, telling the hardships and difficulties of human life in that era.
In the immigrant environment, Xiaoyu has completed the construction from the awakening of women's self-consciousness to the female self-subject, and in Xiaoyu's self-redemption, we see the tragic song of women's fate, and see that women can truly realize their own life value only after the awakening of self-awareness.
At the same time, Xiaoyu's kind and tolerant spiritual beauty has reached eternity in the work, and the clean and pure soul has not been infringed in the wave of immigration, not infected by the world, and this kind of human beauty extends in the work, sublimating the theme of women's growth, and also making readers understand the difficulty of women's self-salvation, causing readers to reflect deeply after compassion.
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