The theme of Camel Xiangzi is that the sufferings and destinies of the working people at the bottom of semi-colonial and semi-feudal China society are the same.

In old China, the warlord forces fought for profits, causing wars, and people's lives were hard, especially working people like Xiangzi, who were at the bottom of society. The dark and corrupt social reality is the root of Xiangzi's tragic fate.

Camel Xiangzi reveals the tragic fate of the bottom people in semi-colonial and semi-feudal China society through the life story of the rickshaw driver Xiangzi who finally fell down. Xiangzi's experience proved that the working people in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal era could not change their situation through their own hard work and personal struggle.

The novel depicts many small people like Xiangzi. Some of those little people had to live alone because of the family separation caused by the war, some were crushed by their families, and some sold their bodies to support their brothers. The tragedy of the working people at the bottom of society is a tragedy of the whole era. Everyone in it will eventually escape the same fate as Xiangzi, unless they recognize their present situation and unite to overthrow the cannibal society and system.

Xiangzi's life reflects the collapse of bankrupt farmers in China in the 1920s in the process of "citizenization", so Xiangzi's tragedy is not only his personal tragedy, but also contains more profound cultural and times factors.

The author analyzes Xiangzi's fate with concern for the national and cultural outlet, criticizes the negative effects of modern deformed civilization from the positive factors of traditional civilization, laments the decline of traditional virtues, is dissatisfied with the inferiority of national culture accumulated in Xiangzi, curses the dark society and system that "turns people into ghosts", and laments the degradation of ignorant good people in the morbid old society.

Means of artistic expression

Artistic structure

A prominent feature of Lao She's novels in structure is that the writer is the center and the plot revolves around the fate of the characters. Xiangzi's fate is the central clue in Camel Xiangzi. In his works, Xiangzi's leading role is always unshakable, and all the other characters he wrote exist because of Xiangzi. People are mainly Xiangzi, of course, if the victim pulls a cart. In this way, the author let all the people have a relationship with the car, thus tying Xiangzi up, just like tying a lamb under a willow tree on the grass.

The novel takes the life experience of the protagonist Xiangzi as the description focus and structural center, takes Xiangzi's struggle, struggle and degeneration as narrative clues, organizes materials and arranges plots in a beaded way, which is dense and condensed. This simple, centralized and clear structure not only makes the plot of the novel complete and accurate, but also effectively shows the complete process of the character's development and the inevitability of its tragic ending.

At the same time, through the intricate relationship between Xiangzi and the people around him and the description of various life scenes, it reveals the social life environment of that particular era, which is both simple and complicated, thus revealing the social significance of Xiangzi's tragic fate in a broader social background.

Extended data:

Camel Xiangzi is a novel written by Lao She (Shu Qingchun), a people's artist, which describes the tragic fate of rickshaw pullers in the warlord melee in the 1920s. Xiangzi was a representative of the working people in the old society.

Camel Xiangzi tells the story of Xiangzi, a young and energetic rickshaw driver in Beiping, China.

Xiangzi is from the countryside. He is a bankrupt young farmer. He is hardworking, simple and kind. He kept everything that he was brought up and educated in the countryside, but he never wanted to go back to the countryside. Xiangzi, who came to the city from the countryside, is eager to buy a car of his own with his honest labor. Being an independent laborer is Xiangzi's wish, hope and even religion. With hard work and perseverance, he spent three years scrimping and saving, and finally realized his ideal and became a self-reliant first-class driver.

But after only half a year, the car was taken away by deserters in the war. Xiangzi lost his car and brought back only three camels. Xiangzi didn't give up, but still stubbornly started from scratch, and it was more economical to pull the cart. However, before he could buy a car again, all his savings were ransacked by detectives, and his dream of buying a car was shattered again.

When Xiangzi pulled the rickshaw again, it was at the expense of his deformed marriage with Tigress. The good times didn't last long. Because Tigress died in childbirth, he had to sell a rickshaw to arrange the funeral. At this point, his life ideal was completely shattered. Coupled with the suicide of his beloved woman Joy, it blew out the last spark of hope in his heart. After being hit by life, Xiangzi began to lose any desire and confidence in life, and could no longer summon up the courage to live. He is no longer as proud of pulling carts as he used to be. He hates pulling carts and working.

Xiangzi, teased by life, started playing games, eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. In order to drink, Xiangzi cheated money everywhere and eventually became "urban garbage", making a living by giving people weddings and funerals and doing odd jobs. Xiangzi changed from a "decent, strong, dreamy, selfish, personal, powerful and great" bottom worker to a "depraved, selfish, unfortunate and socially ill child, the last ghost of individualism".

The novel Camel Xiangzi is set in old Beijing in the 1920s. Xiangzi lived in the era of Northern Warlords. ?

The background world in Camel Xiangzi is a dark, deformed and unbalanced old society in China. People live in poverty, and Xiangzi is only the representative of the working people. Although they have some freedom, they have to make a living, and poverty deprives them of what little freedom they have.

1936, a friend of Lao She's from Shandong University, told his experience and knowledge of hiring a rickshaw driver: a rickshaw driver bought a rickshaw, sold it soon, went up and down like this, and finally became poor. At that time, Lao She thought that this theme could be written as a novel. Since the birth of new literature, Hu Shi, Lu Xun and other writers have written about rickshaw pullers, but they all expressed their sympathy for rickshaw pullers from the perspective of intellectuals, without going deep into their hearts to appreciate their lives.

Lao She was born in poverty and was in contact with the lower classes since he was a child. He has a profound understanding of the living conditions and psychology of the working people, which provides a source of material for Lao She to create Camel Xiangzi.

Lao She's friend went on to tell the story of another coachman. He was caught by the army, but he turned disaster into pleasure and got back three camels when the army moved. This is the prototype of the story of Xiangzi camel. Lao She decided to combine the camel with the driver, and used the camel to draw the protagonist Xiangzi out. Lao She put Xiangzi in his familiar Beiping.

1936 In the spring and summer, Lao She was obsessed with collecting materials and constantly polishing Xiangzi's image. There is a student tide in Shandong University. Lao She resigned from her teaching post and devoted herself to the writing of Camel Xiangzi. 1937 65438+ 10 month, the novel was serialized in Cosmic Wind.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-camel Xiangzi