Childhood" and its sequels "In the World" and "My University" together form a trilogy of Gorky's autobiographical novels, of which "Childhood" is the first. This novel describes the author's childhood life before he was 10 years old. It narrates the protagonist's growth and life process, and describes the suffocating and narrow world full of terrible scenes. When Alyosha was four years old, his father died, so he lived a poor and difficult life with his grandfather and grandmother. My grandfather has a contradictory and complex character. He has a kind side in his heart, but his greed for money has corrupted his soul. In this cold world, only his grandmother protected and cared for him, gave him infinite warmth and love, and gave him useful teachings.
Summary of the work
When Alyosha (Gorky in childhood) was very young, his father fell ill and died, and his mother took him back to his grandparents' house.
The arrival of Alyosha's mother caused a fight between his uncle Mikhail and his brother-in-law Yakov. They were afraid that their mother would come to ask for dowry, so they broke up and broke into a fight. Alyosha initially realized the atmosphere of mutual hatred permeating his grandfather's house. The uncle teased the old tailor Grigory and asked his nephew to put a hot thimble in Grigory's hand. Unexpectedly, the grandfather accidentally put it on, and the grandfather whipped his grandson. Alyosha was severely beaten by his grandfather for putting the tablecloth in the dye bucket. During the beating, everyone was gloating about his misfortune. Even his mother was afraid of grandpa and did not dare to stop him. Only grandma protected Alyosha. Liao Sha. After beating Alyosha, his grandfather came to see him and told him about the time when he was a tracker on the Volga River when he was young. Alyosha felt that his grandfather grew up quickly like a cloud, from a skinny little old man. Become the strong man in the fairy tale. After being beaten, Alyosha met the young man Gypsy, who became Alyosha's best friend. Every time Alyosha was beaten, he always stretched out his arms to block him. Every Saturday, he took Alyosha to play various games. He is good at dancing and dreams of having a good voice. Alyosha loved him very much, but he was forced by his two uncles to carry a load-bearing oak cross to the cemetery. After tripping in the middle, he was crushed by the cross and died of excessive blood loss.
After the death of Gypsy, Alyosha became even more attached to his grandmother. Before going to bed, he played a joke on his grandma, who told him the story of God and the little devil. Grandma is Alyosha’s favorite person.
“Before grandma arrived, I seemed to be sleeping, as if hiding in the darkness. Her appearance woke me up and made me see the light. She connected everything around me and weaved it all into Colorful lace pattern. She quickly became my lifelong friend, the most caring person to me, and the most precious person to me because of her selfless love for the world. This kind of love makes me feel fulfilled and makes me full of strength in difficult years." Grandma knew countless stories, poems, legends, and fairy tales, and Alyosha was fascinated by them. One night, there was a sudden fire at home. The family was panicked, but grandma was very brave. She covered her head with an empty bag and a horse quilt on her body. She rushed into the fire without fear and took out a bucket. A large bottle filled with sulfate, and calmly directed others to put out the fire. After the fire, she endured great pain to deliver the baby.
As soon as spring began, the uncles separated their families. Grandpa bought himself a new house, and Alyosha still lived with his grandparents. This was a slow-paced day, and the only people Alyosha came into contact with were his grandparents. Grandma told him about her life experience. My grandmother was also an orphan, and my mother was impoverished and disabled. In order to survive, my grandmother wandered around and begged with her mother, and later relied on my grandmother's lace weaving to make a living. My grandfather also talked about getting along with French soldiers when he was a child. During this time, my grandfather began to teach Alyosha how to read. Grandpa's old illness relapsed and he beat his grandmother. Alyosha felt unbearable.
The peaceful days were soon broken. The two uncles teamed up to make trouble at their grandparents' house in order to divide their property. Especially the uncle Mikhail, who made trouble when he was drunk and stayed around the house all night. Going around, bringing in help to pull out marlin bushes and sour chestnut trees, trashing bathrooms and breaking glass. Once he smashed the door with a thick wooden root, my grandfather gathered two tenants and the wife of the hotel owner to deal with him. In order to help his son, his grandmother's arm was broken by his uncle. Alyosha hated his uncle extremely.
What followed was another monotonous day. Grandma prayed every day, and Grandpa prayed every day. Alyosha believed that his grandmother’s God was kind and compassionate, but his grandfather’s God was distant and intimidating. Alyosha liked his grandmother's God but hated his grandfather's God. He deliberately caught his grandfather's mistakes in praying to tease him. During this period, Alyosha often fought with children on the street because he could not tolerate the pranks these children made. At this time, Grigory, an old craftsman who had worked for his grandfather all his life, was fired by his uncle because of his blindness and became a beggar. Alyosha felt embarrassed about this.
Grandpa suddenly sold his original house and bought a house elsewhere. Alyosha met many people here. There was a tenant nicknamed "The Busty Guy", Uncle Peter who disguised himself as a coachman and robbed the church, and the three children of Ovsyaniko's family. Alyosha established friendship with all of them, but his relationship with "The Good Guy" was the closest.
"Good thing" is a pharmacist who is busy doing experiments all day long. He has a thorough understanding of life. He often guides Alyosha to observe the details of life and teaches him the principles of life. "In my opinion, there is nothing noteworthy in the yard. But with his gentle push or a few words of guidance, everything I see is different, as if these things have a unique meaning, so It left a very deep impression on me." But the "good guy" was eventually driven away by his grandfather because he was not understood by the people around him. Alyosha was very angry but had no choice.
In the midst of boredom, my mother came back. After staying in several cities for a long time and giving birth to a child, she was desperate and returned to her grandfather's house. She began to teach Alyosha how to read and asked him to recite many poems. My grandfather forced my mother to remarry, and my mother resisted desperately. My grandfather was extremely angry and turned his anger on my grandmother. He beat her severely and inserted hairpins deeply into her scalp. Alyosha avenged his grandmother and cut into pieces the statue of his grandfather’s favorite saint.
Alyosha was sent to school by his mother, but soon he was forced to stay home due to chickenpox. Worried about her mother's marriage, her grandmother started drinking and told Alyosha about the past events between her father and mother. Soon, my mother fell in love with a surveying student and insisted on marrying him. Alyosha didn't like his stepfather and his new grandmother, and he didn't want his mother to remarry, but there was nothing he could do. After his mother remarried, Alyosha continued to live with his grandparents. He began to grow up and gained his own self-confidence. Alyosha returned to school, but the teacher did not like him, and only the bishop appreciated him. He was beaten by his mother for taking a ruble to buy a fairy tale book. The stepfather was very bad to his mother and kicked her. Alyosha fought hard with his stepfather and was sent back to his grandfather's house.
My grandfather went bankrupt, and Alyosha and his grandmother depended on each other. After passing the third-grade exam, he stopped going to school and began to support himself. He made many friends, and they helped each other, picking up rags and tearing wood together. In August, my mother passed away. Grandpa said that Alyosha was not a medal and should not hang around his neck all the time. So Alyosha went to the world and went out to make a living.
"Childhood" is the first part of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy. It mainly describes Alyosha's childhood. The other two parts of the trilogy, "In the World" and "My University", mainly describe Alyosha's childhood. Describe Alyosha's teenage experience. In order to give readers a complete understanding of Alyosha's growth process, here is a brief introduction to the content of the last two works. "In the World" depicts Alyosha's experience of entering the society and going out to make a living at the age of 11. He suffered a lot in life, worked in all kinds of labor, was bullied, insulted, fooled, even beaten and framed, experienced the hardships at the bottom of social life, and realized the ugliness of human nature. However, the kindness of his grandmother, the integrity of the chef, and the erudition of Queen Magol made him see the bright side of life. His interactions with cultural relic appraisers, stokers, carpenters and others also made him feel the multifaceted and complex nature of human nature. He loved books and took every opportunity to read the books he could come across, and suffered all kinds of hardships for this. "My University" describes his activities and growth experience in Kazan. At the age of 16, he came to Kazan with the desire to go to university, but his dream could not be realized. The slums and docks of Kazan became his social university. He had nowhere to stay and shared a bed with others. Worked everywhere in docks, bakeries, and grocery stores. Later, his thoughts changed due to contact with college and middle school students, members of secret societies and revolutionaries who had returned from exile in Siberia. He read revolutionary democratic and Marxist works until he participated in revolutionary activities. Under the guidance of revolutionaries, he got rid of the spiritual crisis of suicide. The four years in Kazan made him make great progress in thinking, knowledge, and social experience.
3. Ideological content
In 1914, the Russian writer Thoreau Gub wrote in "A Writer's Diary" about Gorky's autobiographical novel trilogy: "I read it while It's a pity. I can't help but think of Leo Tolstoy's fragrant childhood. On the contrary, here is fighting, fighting, whipping... It is a kind of sadism that is psychologically incomprehensible. What is described throughout "Childhood" is a rich, colorful, bizarre and indescribable life. That life seemed like a tragic fairy tale told by a kind and extremely honest genius. In that dark life, there are too many cruel social things.
When a child did something wrong, he had to take off his pants and was beaten; father and son and brothers fought and fought to separate the family, and even beat their heads to blood; the grandmother did nothing wrong and could not escape the fist of the grandfather. Beating and kicking; Uncle Mikhail used a red-hot thimble to tease the old craftsman Grigory for fun; the mother knelt on the ground and begged her stepfather not to fool around outside, but the stepfather kicked her hard in the chest with his booted feet. ; Grigory worked for his grandfather all his life, but when he lost his sight and lost the ability to work, he was kicked out of the dyeing shop and wandered the streets begging for a living; his grandfather not only cruelly exploited the workers, but also disowned his relatives. When he and his wife were making tea together, , the tea leaves should also be counted carefully in the palm of your hand, for fear that you will suffer a loss. Finally, he kicked his wife and grandson out of the house and left them to fend for themselves. But despite the many unbearable tragedies and scandals described in the work, the whole work still radiates the brilliance of optimism like sunshine through clouds. The protagonist Alyosha was not overwhelmed by the hardship, pain and humiliation of life. He was full of confidence, struggled hard, broke through all kinds of obstacles and misfortunes, and constantly explored new life. This optimistic spirit gave the work a positive ideological content. color.
The author Gorky also repeatedly stated in "Childhood": "Whenever I recall the depressing, dirty and barbaric life in Russia, I often ask myself: Is it necessary to write about such ugly behavior? Every time I cherish the fullest hope Answer yourself with confidence: It is necessary! Because this is the living ugly reality of life. This reality still exists. To change this reality, we must clear it from people's memories and hearts, and from our heavy and dirty lives. "I describe this kind of ugly behavior in real life for a more positive reason: although these ugly behaviors are disgusting and make us feel depressed; although they have killed countless people. Beautiful souls, but the Russian mind is still so healthy and young, it is overcoming and finally able to overcome this ugly behavior. "Our life is very wonderful, although there is all kinds of shamelessness in our lives." It is a fertile soil of scum, but this soil will eventually grow excellent, healthy and creative forces, grow good and humane things, and they will continue to inspire us with the undying hope of building a bright new humane life. "This aspect shows Gorky's aesthetic principles: writers do not have to avoid any scandal in life, but the purpose is to awaken people's attention so as to completely eliminate it, and firmly believe that human society has a self-regulating mechanism of truth, goodness and beauty. On the other hand, it also shows that Gorky’s purpose in writing about his tragic childhood experience is not to show people how worthy of sympathy and pity he is, nor is it simply to recall his childhood life, but to use his own childhood experience to tell readers that no matter what How harsh the environment is and how difficult life is. There are always some kind and beautiful people. As long as they have a positive heart, they can cultivate a healthy and upright mind in a dirty environment. Therefore, we say that the ideological content of the book is positive rather than decadent.
The work mainly creates two types of characters, and the author expresses his love and hatred for them through the narration of these two types of characters. There are two major types of characters: one is the selfish and cruel person represented by the grandfather, and the other is the upright and kind-hearted person represented by the grandmother. Grandpa is a person that Alyosha hates very much. Whether it is the description of his appearance or the engraving of his inner world, there is always the author's bitter irony in it. He is short and skinny, only as tall as his grandmother's shoulders. He walks with fast and thin steps. He is selfish, cruel, savage and rough. He beats and curses people at every turn. Even if he encounters something unsatisfactory, he will have a hysterical attack. In order to maintain his shaky status as a small business owner and his disintegrated family, he cruelly abused his workers and even disowned his relatives. He drove out the old craftsman Grigory who had worked for him all his life and married him, his wife who had lived with him all his life. She also needs to fend for herself. When you are rich, you are domineering and arbitrary. After going bankrupt, he became even more greedy and stingy, with a bad character. Physically bankrupt and completely mentally ruined. Although there is still a glimmer of humanity in this philistine man, for example, when he was young, he worked as a tracker on the Volga River, experienced poverty and a heavy life, and was a fighter and warrior in life. When he told Alyosha about his experience at that time, he showed a sincere and excited expression. Another example is that he told Alyosha to read, which also reflects his love for Alyosha. But all this cannot conceal his overall human cruelty and selfishness. Alyosha hated his grandfather's various bad behaviors, especially when his grandfather beat his kind-hearted grandmother for no reason. He was extremely angry and took revenge on his grandfather. This kind of disgust and anger also exists in the author's heart. Through the description of Alyosha's resistance to his grandfather, he expresses the author's contempt, disgust, and denial of the kind of people represented by his grandfather. It also expresses the author's contempt for the filthy bourgeoisie. , the negation of dirty and bad character. Contrary to his dislike of people like his grandfather, the author expresses his love and admiration for the working people represented by his grandmother through his memories of his grandmother and others. Grandma is kind and kind. She loves her relatives, neighbors and everyone. She willingly takes on all the pressures in life without complaining. The hardships of life, the beatings of her husband, and the disobedience of her son... could not extinguish the light of kindness deep in her heart. She is a working woman full of life and poetry. She is good at singing and dancing, and is good at telling all kinds of legends, fairy tales and folk stories. She is also a brave person. When the workshop caught fire, everyone was panicked. Only she rushed into the fire and grabbed a bucket of sulfate the size of a bucket. Therefore, although she has the shortcomings of obedience and patience towards evil forces and blind faith in God, this does not affect her overall brilliance as a human being. People who are similar to my grandmother include the young man Gypsy and the tenant "Haoer". The young man, Gypsy, was an abandoned baby and was adopted by his grandmother. When he grew up, he became his grandfather's employee. He was hardworking, capable and extremely powerful. Although he was treated like a cow and horse by his grandfather and uncle, he was still kind and optimistic. Compared with the young man Ci Gang, the tenant "Xiao Shier" is an adult with a thorough understanding and perception of life. He is one of the countless outstanding figures in the motherland, with far-reaching vision. He taught Alyosha to observe and discover life carefully, and taught him to pay attention to skills in everything he does. These people are all liked and respected by Alyosha. They have an important influence on the formation of Alyosha's outlook on life, and they positively arouse Alyosha's passionate yearning for life. These people opened their hearts to Alyosha to varying degrees and helped him understand that besides scandals, there are also healthy and creative things in life.
The author wrote in the work: "In my childhood, I imagined myself as a beehive, where some ordinary and ordinary people, like bees, send the honey of their knowledge and thoughts about life. Everyone does his or her best. This kind of honey is often dirty and bitter, but all this knowledge is still honey." Therefore, Gorky showed his love and praise for these people in his works, through Alyosha. His enthusiasm for interacting with them praised them.
The work also exposes the reality of society at that time through the description of Alyosha's childhood experience. At that time, Russian society was in the 1870s-1890s, which was the eve of the Russian Revolution. The entire society was under the rule of the Tsar, and the people were displaced. Stealing has become a custom among the villagers and is no longer considered a sin. It is almost the only way to make a living for the half-starved and half-fed citizens. Children have no money to go to school and are forced to live on the streets, picking up rags for a living. Broadly speaking, it is this social environment in which the people have no means of livelihood that caused Alyosha's personal tragedy.
4. Artistic Characteristics
Gorky is an outstanding representative of Russian socialist realism. In his creation, he adheres to the principles of realism and attaches great importance to the authenticity of description and the accuracy of details. . In 1937, when Gorky responded to the Leningrad Writers Publishing House’s question about what kind of materials he “uses (autobiographical, book, observation and records)” for creation, he said: “I mainly use autobiographical materials, but I put myself in the position of an eyewitness to the incident, and avoided coming forward as a party involved, in order not to hinder myself as a narrator of life. "The work "Childhood" follows such a realistic creation principle. The objective description of Alyosha's life experience, on the one hand, describes the process of Alyosha's character formation, on the other hand, it extensively depicts Russian social life in the 1870s and 1890s, exposing the darkness and evil of Tsarist Russia's autocratic system. It reflects the vulgar selfishness and emptiness of the small bourgeoisie. The whole article particularly vividly expresses the conflict between two forces: on the one hand, the dark, cruel and barbaric habits of the small townsfolk, and on the other hand, the outstanding spiritual power of the Russian people - purity of heart, strong will, sympathy for the weak, and love of justice. , full of fantasy, longing for a bright, happy and reasonable life, and working tirelessly to realize it. All these contents are expressed through objective and calm realist descriptions and narrations. What is described in the book are realistic real-life scenes. The characters’ language, actions, and objective environment are all consistent with real life. consistent. This is completely different from the creative approach of some of his earlier romantic works such as "Song of Petrel". "Song of Haiyan" is filled with the spirit of romanticism, showing readers a magnificent picture of the heroic struggle between the revolutionary people and the reactionary forces on the eve of the revolutionary storm: on the vast sea, dark clouds are gathered by strong winds, and thunder rumbles , the angry sea set off huge waves and rushed high into the sky, fighting fiercely with them; the flying petrel shouted loudly as a victorious prophet: "Let the storm come more violently!" This work is different from "Childhood". The author did not describe real life truthfully, but used symbolism to express strong subjective feelings through exaggerated descriptions of the majestic natural phenomena.
In "Childhood", Gorky also successfully used a variety of artistic techniques to create a series of lifelike characters under the guidance of realist creation principles. The cruel, selfish, insidious and irritable grandfather, the uncle who is greedy for money, the cold and ruthless mother, the kind and kind grandmother, the happy and capable Gypsy, the hard-working and capable old craftsman Grigory, and the cheerful and lovely nanny Yevgenia. Among the creation of these characters, grandma and grandpa left the most profound impression on readers. The image of grandmother is one of the most distinctive and poetic images of women in the history of Russian literature. She is a symbol of the great mother and a symbol of Russian suffering life. She likes to sing, tell stories, and dance. She is loving, kind, and strong, and can attract people to her even in very noisy and chaotic situations, adding a joyful atmosphere to a hard and suffocating life. In the book, Gorky comprehensively portrays her image through her appearance description, language, actions and quoting a large number of folk songs, fairy tales, stories and other forms.
Gorky described her appearance like this: "Grandma talks like singing, which is very beautiful. Every word she says is like a blooming flower, gentle, fresh, fresh and easy.