Xu Sanguan was born in poverty and desperately wanted to live. Ordinary little people are struggling in the ups and downs of the times, constantly flapping the stirring waves with their not strong arms. But the suffering and sadness are clearly visible, and the tragicomedy of ordinary families is ridiculous and pitiful under Yu Hua's delicate brushwork. In satirical and humorous writing, we can see the helplessness of characters in suffering and the gap between reality and ideal that can never be bridged. In this gap, the author put in the intention of "selling blood", which seems absurd, but in fact it is meaningful.
Selling blood is given a sense of ritual in the book. Xu Sanguan drinks a lot of water before selling blood. In Xu Sanguan's view, drinking water can make more blood in the body. After selling blood, Xu Sanguan will eat a plate of fried pork liver and drink two or two yellow wine, because pork liver enriches blood and yellow wine promotes blood circulation. Before eating fried pork liver, Xu Sanguan stood up, patted the table and said to the waiter, "Give me a plate of fried pork liver, and warm me up with rice wine." . These ceremonial feelings make the process of selling blood vivid and rhythmic, and the description of various details makes us see Xu Sanguan's simplicity, kindness and optimism. In fact, these ceremonial feelings are everywhere in our lives. When we are about to face a known challenge, we tend to be over-prepared, and this preparation process is no easier than the challenge. Xu Sanguan's drinking water is like reviewing before an exam or an interview, and a plate of fried pork liver rice wine is our reward after completing the challenge.
It seems that Xu Sanguan wants to eat a plate of fried pork liver and drink two or two pieces of yellow wine, but in fact he misses the time when he devoted himself to his family. In fact, in his heart, he recognized his past behavior and the results it brought, and was proud of it. When the hospital refused his request to sell blood and said that only painters would want his blood, Xu Sanguan showed anger, followed by grief. He felt that he had lost the means to contribute to his family, and he was worried that if something happened at home, he would not be able to sell blood, even though he was no longer needed at home. At this moment, the experience of selling blood will always exist in Xu Sanguan's memory, and he completely bid farewell to his former self. Xu Sanguan endowed the act of selling blood with value, but he lost this value because he could not sell blood. I remember when I was a child, my grandmother, like Xu Sanguan, used to be thrifty to support this family, but when I was old, my family no longer needed her frugality, and she would still let me buy 20 cents of leeks and let me crush the burnt honeycomb coal and pour it on the ground in the backyard. The neighbors laughed at her and she ignored her, but when my parents or I refuted her, she would fly into a rage.
Literature is an exaggerated art, while absurdity is an advanced exaggeration, and advanced absurdity is often more real than truth. Visually, red is conspicuous, and blood is a symbol of cruelty. The use of the intention of selling blood makes the impact of the plot on readers more intense, and also makes readers feel the thoughts that the author wants to express more deeply. In Yu Hua's works, Xu Sanguan's blood selling behavior is a refinement and sublimation of reality and a combination of real behaviors. Under the influence of cruel social reality, Xu Sanguan chose to sell blood again and again. Selling blood consumes Xu Sanguan's body and takes away his energy, but it also makes Xu Sanguan mature and makes Xu Sanguan's family stable and happy. Back to reality, in fact, Xu Sanguan is also one of us ordinary people, maybe you and I are both. In this era, we are selling time and consuming our bodies every day. In fact, we are all looking forward to our parents' expectations, to getting married and having children, and to the education and health of our children. Most of us are selling blood, which is just a way for us to face suffering alive, and it is not shameful. The village where Xu Sanguan was born has been selling blood for generations, and even people think that the blood seller is a healthy and valuable candidate. This absurd setting seems so real now, and such villages abound in reality.
Is Xu Sanguan a happy person? If we only look at his experience, according to the standards of mainstream society, maybe not. His wife turned him green and gave birth to a child. He has neither money nor power, even a little stupid. Looks like that idiot in your village.
However, when Xu Sanguan's family sat around the kang, listening to Xu Sanguan cooking with his mouth, and when Xu Sanguan took up a joy and walked to the Victory Hotel together, Xu Sanguan belittled himself in his family's criticism for maintaining Xu Yulan. In a series of moments, Xu Sanguan and his family had real and warm happiness.
Many people equate success with happiness. They think that achieving a certain goal is the premise of happiness, such as being admitted to a university in the college entrance examination, buying a house and car after work, winning an award after being a parent and so on. There is no right or wrong definition of success or goal setting, but are you happy when you reach this goal? In fact, everyone has the right and opportunity to taste happiness, whether it is successful or not, not to mention that success has various definitions.
As an ordinary person, our life is dull or full of suffering, and happiness and warmth are often mixed. Great happiness is rare in life, and the price of coming back is huge. This feeling is generally direct and can give you a short-term satisfaction, but it will pass quickly and has no aftertaste value. Happiness is a feeling, and it is often not a grand feeling. An action, a word, a look may be a happy moment in life. This kind of happiness is very soft. When you enjoy it, it will moisten your heart. When I recall it later, I often smile and then relive it in my heart.
I think that when Xu Sanguan is dying, when he looks back on his life, he will feel that this life is happy.
Many people say that Xu Sanguan is optimistic. In my opinion, Xu Sanguan's optimism is only a choice for the bottom people to face suffering, and it is the instinct of these people living in this era. Yu Hua showed a great wisdom in Xu Sanguan, that is, the ability to be optimistic and have fun in hardships. This ability broke out in Xu through, which made Xu through look like a fool. We need this kind of stupidity. Smart people will choose when to be stupid. Success in life is only temporary, and failure is the main theme, but how to face failure divides people into different paths. Roman Roland said that there is only one true heroism in this world, and that is to recognize the truth of life and still love him.
When a pair of poor young lovers are thinking about what to do if they win the first prize in the lottery in the park, I think they are happy with the silver moonlight and noisy square dance music.
Yu Hua is good at describing the stories of the people in the middle and lower classes with cruel history in easy-to-understand language, which can easily make readers feel * * * or pity. Xu Sanguan's selling blood runs through the book in an absurd way, but this absurdity is not as unconstrained as Garcia Marquez's, and it is more easily accepted by ordinary readers, which may be one of the reasons why Yu Hua's novels have such a wide audience.
In the story of Xu Sanguan selling blood, Xu Sanguan faced all kinds of hardships in life, and did not let fate kill him, nor did he sit still. But selling blood to deal with all kinds of unpredictable disasters. This may be the way for us ordinary people to survive. He married his daughter-in-law by selling blood, repaid the medical expenses needed by his son to hurt people, and helped the whole family through the famine. Therefore, selling blood gave Xu Sanguan the strength to fight against suffering and fate, and it also became the simplest and quickest way for him to realize his self-worth. Although Xu Sanguan is just an ordinary person who pursues the safety and food and clothing of his family, he saved and supported the whole family in his own way and found his own way of survival and value. As long as we live, we will struggle with all kinds of sufferings and difficulties and shoulder the responsibilities entrusted to us by life. Many unexpected intangible sufferings have exerted great pressure on our individual lives, and we are constantly struggling because of the cherish of life and the desire to "live". In the struggle of death and staying away from the brink of death, our survival potential is constantly stimulated. Through the description of the characters in the novel, the author constantly guides us to find a philosophy of survival against suffering. When suffering comes, we should learn to overcome and deal with it, and actively seek the meaning of our existence.