If you had such a little friend in your childhood: red hair, freckles on your face, a nose like a mound dug by a mole, endless dirt in your ears, a circle of old dirt around your neck, a bad smell on your body, and walking like a camel.
Will you play with such a little friend and make friends with him? The answer is self-evident.
This child is the little hero carrot beard in French writer Jules Leonard's autobiographical novel carrot beard.
Carrot Beard is a classic novel written by Jules Leonard at the age of 30 for his beloved two children. This work was later adapted into a script and made into a movie, which was well received by the audience at that time.
In fact, strictly speaking, this book is not a novel, but can only be called "novel prose". It is dozens of childhood stories recorded by the author in a concise and cool way, cleverly connected together with the spiritual growth of the little hero as a clue. Readers will not feel abrupt when reading any story.
This is the most healing realistic children's novel I have seen recently, because each of us will see our childhood hurt more or less from this novel. After all, each of our childhood is not as beautiful as warm memories, and this novel just tears the poetic coat of rural life to pieces from the perspective of children. However, the author's purpose in writing this novel does not stop there. He showed us a deeper meaning.
Let me analyze the relationship between the little hero and others one by one:
1. The relationship between children and mothers: humble desire for maternal love is not allowed.
Bing Xin, a famous Chinese children's literature writer, once wrote a poem praising maternal love:
If only everyone could enjoy such maternal love! Unfortunately, not all mothers in the world are the naked shadows of their children in the sky, and some are even children's nightmares. Mrs Lepic, the mother of carrot and beard, is such a mother.
Mrs Lepic is a strict Christian. She has three children, the eldest son Felix, the daughter Ernesto and the youngest son Carrot Beard. Under her discipline, the eldest son and daughter are good-looking, sensible and obedient, and don't make trouble at home. The youngest son is a thorn in the side. The mother gave all her love to her clever eldest son and daughter, leaving only humiliation, scolding and corporal punishment for her youngest son.
From beginning to end, the book didn't say what the real name of this little son, nicknamed carrot beard, was, that is to say, the child's real name was never called at home, and the mother was extremely unfair and emotionally neglected to this child.
At first, the story about mother was like this. Mother ordered the timid carrot to close the henhouse at night, and made it a must-do for the carrot beard every day. Followed by carrots, whiskers were pinched by their mothers when they snored at night, saying it was a nightmare; Carrots have to wet the bed, and their mothers cheat them into drinking their own urine, and their brothers and sisters make fun of them. Mother decides what carrots to eat according to her own preferences. She asked the carrot to give the leftover watermelon skin to the rabbit. The carrot that didn't eat watermelon had to steal the watermelon skin from the rabbit's nest.
Carrot beard is used to these things. He didn't show strong resistance. Probably he has been numb to his mother's long-term cold violence. He dare not put his hand in his pocket or whistle in front of his mother. As soon as her face changed, he was frightened, and even offered to let her hit her when she did something wrong.
To this end, carrots must vent their accumulated resentment on helpless animals around them. He once smashed a mole's head and killed a cat that had just been fed with a shotgun. These bloody scenes are frightening to watch, and even feel that the child is completely destroyed.
However, even so, when her father asked her for some bread at dinner and ignored her, he felt sorry for his mother. On another occasion, due to carelessness, he let the hook hanging on his body pierce his mother's hand and almost cut off the bone before taking it off. When he was about to be beaten by his mother, her mother forgave him for some reason, which moved him to tears.
Carrot beard humbly longed for maternal love, but his mother let him down again and again. His heart is like a leaf in a storm. "The storm crumpled, rubbed, squeezed and contracted his heart." He even hid in the closet and sighed, "It's a pity that not everyone can be an orphan."
Finally one day, he began to rebel against his mother. He told his father that he didn't like his mother anymore, and told him not to go home to school during the summer vacation, or to leave home to make a living. Unexpectedly, my father said, "Do you think I like her?" Later, my father also threw a long list of life truths, which made him move:
"I advise you to be patient and strong. When you grow up, you can be free. Temper and temperament don't get along, you can break up with us and start your own business. But before that, you should try to get the upper hand, restrain your sensitivity and observe others, those who live with you; You will find it very interesting, and I promise you will get unexpected comfort from it. "
2. The relationship between the child and the father: we can talk about it, but we are not intimate.
Mr Lepic, the father of carrot and beard, was like the father of an ordinary family at that time. He works hard for his family's livelihood, has a bad temper and is strict with his children. Father didn't seriously ignore the emotion of carrot and beard like mother did. He often takes his two sons swimming and hunting to cultivate their brave temperament as boys. He can encourage carrots to keep getting high marks in their compositions, but when carrots have to kill one of the two woodchucks, he blames him for not killing both of them.
However, my father is the only person carrot can talk to at home. During the boarding period when carrot is going to school, the communication between father and son through letters is even smoother than face-to-face communication. However, my father was like a serious teacher from beginning to end. When father came to see him at school, he was not used to making out with him. He wanted his father to care for him like a brother, but he avoided him on the grounds that he had a pen in his ear.
To this end, carrot must vent his anger on an innocent proctor. Because the invigilator cares too much about Marceau, a red-faced classmate, he treats Marceau better than others. Carrot beard feels unfair and jealous. He told the headmaster that the relationship between the proctor and Martha was abnormal, which led to the dismissal of the proctor. When the invigilator left school, carrot had to cut his face with glass, wipe his blood on his face and shout at the invigilator, "Who told you to kiss him instead of me?" You see, I have a red face, too, as long as I want to be called red. "
Psychologically, this is called projection. Carrot must project his desire for his father's care on the proctor. He dared to play tricks on the proctor, but he dared not play tricks on his father. He has been longing for his father's love! His mother let him down. Without his father's love, he would fall into despair. There is also a place at the back of the book that carrot was reprimanded by his father after he had to express his strange personal thoughts with his father's encouragement, and he actually had the idea of suicide.
Fortunately, he later told his father the idea of suicide, and his father's words gave him strength: "Do you think that death just seduced you?" Just thinking that I will corrupt you. "
From this point of view, the father of carrot beard is still qualified in parent-child relationship. Although he didn't give carrot beard enough love, he at least gave carrot beard the strength to grow.
3. The relationship between children and godfather: intimacy, fortress of love
It is mentioned in this book that there is little interaction between carrots and brothers and sisters, probably because brothers and sisters are more favored and get more care and toys, and carrots are naturally separated from them because of jealousy. Carrots must be closer to them than maid Agate and Mathilde, the little girl next door. From his conversation with Agate, we can see that the Lepic family is polite and indifferent on the surface, but they have their own ideas and lack communication with each other.
The warmth that carrots couldn't feel in Native House was made up by an outsider. This man is the godfather of carrot beard, a lonely old man with a bad temper. Strangely, the godfather likes nobody but carrot whiskers. The godfather once said to the carrot beard, "If I had a monkey (like you) when I was a child, I would lick its ass."
Carrots must go to the godfather's house for dinner every once in a while, go fishing with him, or watch him dig in the grape fields. He lives in the godfather's house and is very happy to sleep together without his mother. He confided his mother's partiality to the godfather, who advised him not to lie to upset his mother in the future. In order to make him happy, the godfather got up in the middle of the night to accompany him to pick plums with bugs and eat plums with bugs for him.
Here, the godfather acts as a psychological counselor. Godfather's love for carrot whiskers is extremely pure. Because of early negligence, carrot beard fell into the spring and almost drowned, and still regrets insomnia. He built a fortress of love for the loveless carrot beard. Carrot beard can shelter from the wind and rain here, find lost love and learn to love. He said to the godfather, "I like you, my old godfather;" But if you give up smoking, I will like you better. "
There are always people like the old godfather who are not related to us by blood, but teach us how to love with their pure love. If you don't intend to love and be loved, the whole journey of life will be meaningless. Just like the toy porcelain rabbit in Edward's Wonderful Journey, it tells us that even if we lose love, we will learn to love again.
Going back to the book "Carrot Beard", if we only look at the suffering of the little hero at home, then we will feel desperate for the whole life. However, no matter how desperate life is, we can find the strength to grow. Just like the author Jules Leonard himself, I guess the most important reason for him to write this book is to sort out and let go of his childhood pain and make the rest of his life more relaxed and happy, which is also a cure. In fact, each of us will suffer all kinds of pain on the road of life, but in the end we can find a way to cure the pain and grow into the kind of person we dream of becoming.
Please believe that your self-healing ability is far stronger than you think.