Reading Notes: Biography of Hulan River-The Story of a Small Town

Everyone has a hometown, rich or poor; Whether it is warm or bleak, whether it is rural or urban, it will leave a deep imprint on the hearts of people far away from home.

The Biography of Hulan River describes the town of Hulan River in the northeast in the 1920s and 1930s. In this almost autobiographical novel, Xiao Hong, with her exquisite brushwork, humorous language and keen insight, makes the story in a small town more vivid, just like a picture scroll presented to readers, and also deeply touches those who have lived in the countryside, causing memories and reflections on people and things in their hometown. ?

The town is an ordinary town in the northeast. At that time, it had the general characteristics of material shortage and economic backwardness, as well as worldly wisdom, selfishness, indifference and even mental ignorance, but it also had the paradise and warm affection described by the author, and all the memories of hometown were slowly laid out in the author's pen. ?

People in small towns live a closed life, and their thoughts are backward or even ignorant. At the beginning of this article, after the rain, the big pits in the street often flooded the passing cars and drowned pigs and ducks, but no one ever raised them to fill them. Instead, after curiosity, onlookers and sighs, Enron bought the drowned pork at a low price. And this pit just regulates people's monotonous life and seems to add a little interest to the dull life.

The author carefully observed the life of a small town, and described the state and psychology of the people in the town with an almost humorous language. For example, people who sell fried dough sticks put them in baskets and sell them door to door. If you don't buy it, you should look at it and fiddle with it. Children should also rummage with black hands. Several children in a family will chase around them because they compare the size of fried dough sticks, and their mother will be by the puddle when chasing children. And the fritters that many people have been touching are finally sold out. The last person who bought the fried dough sticks saw that the fried dough sticks were shiny and shiny. The seller described the fritters touched countless times as if they had just come out of the pot, and the picture came out leisurely. ?

At the end of the evening dinner, the tofu seller came from the alley. Every household imagined that there was a piece of tofu, so how much to eat, you can mix shallots and water peppers, and finally you are embarrassed to buy it. However, tofu sellers still cross the alley every day, and the shouts still tempt people. Suddenly one day, the host of the family said firmly, "No, buy a piece of tofu to eat." It seems that buying a piece of tofu can bankrupt a family, which makes people laugh. At the same time, it is enough to see that most people in the town had a hard life at that time. The author brilliantly describes the psychology and behavior of people living in hardship.

Yu Hua's description in "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" also has the same effect. In three years of natural disasters, people struggled with hunger. One night, Xu Sanguan painted cakes for his three sons to satisfy their hunger and cooked a dish for each son. Of course, children can only listen to Xu Sanguan's songs under the covers. Such hardships and bitterness make readers even more moved.

People in small towns are sophisticated, numb and even mentally ignorant, which is probably the case in rural areas in the early 20th century. Little reunion's daughter-in-law described by the author was originally a healthy and cheerful girl. In the future, her mother-in-law often beat her up on the grounds of discipline, and even asked someone to hang her from the beam and stun her, and burned her soles with a red-hot soldering iron, and then turned this healthy girl into a jealous and weak person, but did not receive formal medical treatment, and invited a fortune teller. Although my mother-in-law really wants to save the girl at this time, people's ignorance is even more obvious. Even gave her a bath with almost boiling hot water. Under the onlookers of a group of people, she was burned alive and fainted.

As the author's grandfather said, a good girl was tortured to death.

Most of the people written in the book are spectators, and most of them hold a high-hanging mentality, just like the girl who made rice cakes when Feng Biao married. When people don't know what kind of family this girl will marry in the future, they all praise her as beautiful and prosperous. When she knew that she had married Feng Qiaozui of the lower class, it was extremely ironic. Describe in detail people's psychology about this power.

As the article says:

The yard behind my house is the paradise of "I" in the text, which has brought infinite happiness to my childhood and added a few bright colors to my memory.

The article is written like this:

Grandpa often goes to the garden to be busy. In spring, he will plant seeds of various vegetables and water and fertilize them in summer. In autumn, the garden is more pleasing to the eye. Green cucumber, red persimmon and pumpkin have really become the paradise of the author's childhood. Grandfather was busy in the garden, and the author put roses on his brim. Grandpa didn't know, and said, "There is plenty of rain this year, and the flowers are particularly fragrant." When grandpa saw the flowers on his hat, his grandparents and grandchildren burst into laughter.

Grandpa's love for his granddaughter is evident. A pig fell into a well and drowned. Grandpa pastes the pig with mud and cooks it for his granddaughter. A duck fell in and drowned. My grandfather baked it for my granddaughter. When no animals fell into the well, the granddaughter chased the duck to the well. When her grandfather saw it, he stopped her so that she didn't have to catch it alive. ?

The image of grandfather in the article is always full of warmth, which makes the author always have a deep warmth in that desolate yard and decadent place. Grandfather is very friendly even to neighbors or tenants. The second uncle who always steals things from home and sells them, his grandfather also turns a blind eye; For Feng Waizi, who works as a long-term worker, there is no place to live, and he is allowed to live at home without rent.

My grandfather is opposite my grandmother, but my grandmother has a bad impression of my granddaughter. You can tell from a little thing. The little granddaughter thought it was fun, so she poked enough paper with her finger. At that time, the paper pasted on the small wooden lattice was enough. When her grandmother came to stop her, her granddaughter ran away playfully. Later, once, when the granddaughter poked enough paper as usual, grandma waited outside the window with a needle. When the granddaughter was playing, her finger pressed on the needle. The granddaughter is far away from her grandmother.

Of course, my grandmother often sighs when her granddaughter takes out the old things in the warehouse to play, which are full of memories of her past lives. In the granddaughter's world, grandpa loves her the most. ?

Does the story of the small town remind you of your hometown?

(2020.0 1)