The first is the change of social environment. Cui Cui was born in Tea Cave, a small mountain town in western Hunan, with simple folk customs, simple human feelings and valuing righteousness over profit. "Everything is always so quiet, and all people pass by in this unspeakable simple loneliness every day." Even prostitutes in the diaojiao building on River Street still maintain a certain "seriousness of life". However, after all, this place is not a "paradise" in the primitive wilderness, and "some diners produced by developed business in metropolis" have begun to settle here. The "modern" invasion has impacted the simple folk customs that have not been polluted by money and interests. Cui Cui was deeply impressed by this, and the concept of "modernity" quietly took root in her mind. When her love with Nuosong was directly confronted by the intervention of the group's general daughter, she felt the terrible power of money for the first time. "He is not an idiot. Don't run the mill. Do you want to ferry? " The villagers' discussion about whether to send her or the ordinary daughter in the group, whether to choose the ferry or the cotton mill, is based on money (the income of the cotton mill is worth ten long-term workers a year), which makes her "small mind" full of unclear things. The eighth time, she sang indifferently: "Bai Feng set the tiger to bite, not others, Miss Tuan came first." ..... The elder sister wears a pair of gold hair clips, the second sister wears a pair of silver hair clips, and only my third sister wears nothing. She wears bean sprouts in her ears all year round. "This is obviously her subconscious resistance to the supremacy of money. This is the first social lesson on Cui Cui's growing road.
The second is the change of grandpa's thought. Simple, generous, enthusiastic, generous grandfather and old cow protect calves, so that Cui Cui can grow up carefree, happy and healthy without the care of his parents. As Cui Cui grew up, her grandfather began to be "a little worried and heavy-hearted". There are two reasons: First, the growth of Cui Cui directly reminds him of the tragedy of Cui Cui's mother, and he is afraid that Cui Cui will repeat the same mistakes; Second, Cui Cui people have grown up and proved that they are really old. We must give Cui Cui to a reliable person. These heavy worries weighed heavily on my grandfather's mind, forcing Cui Cui to start thinking about her future. The seventh chapter of the novel writes: "I think far and a lot." But I don't know what to think. " Grandfather didn't understand Cui Cui's idea. When he chose to be a lifelong supporter of Cui Cui, he proposed the way of riding by car and horse. Go on road trip took an arranged marriage, that is, looking for a matchmaker to propose marriage, and everything was decided by both parents; Walking on the road refers to the primitive free marriage, courting each other by singing, and everything is decided by both men and women. The old man chose to take the main road by car, but after Cui Cui refused (my grandfather still respected Cui Cui's wishes and didn't put forward any proposal), he knew that riding the main road was no match for Nopai, so he avoided getting into the water and was drowned on the beach, which led to tragedy. During the whole tragedy, Cui Cui only vaguely felt the change of her grandfather's thought. Because of the shackles of traditional cultural concepts, she can't tell herself that she loves her parents, not her elders. After that, although "everything remains the same, it seems that there is an invisible gap somewhere in life that can never be filled." It was not until his grandfather died suddenly that he learned the whole story from Yang. However, it was in this psychological confrontation and friction with his grandfather that Cui Cui gradually matured. This is the second lesson of Cui Cui's growing up.
The third is the change of Cui Cui itself. Naive and simple Cui Cui "grew up in windy days" and "naturally grew up to educate her", which made her "never worry, never get angry" and lived alone with her grandfather, ferry and yellow dog all day long. At this point, her ego is in a state of ignorance. In other words, she never realized herself. Cui Cui's awakening of self-consciousness stems from her love seed. Two years ago, she met her parents at Duanniu Festival. The article wrote: "But another thing, which belongs to her grandfather, kept Cui Cui silent for one night." Ambiguous love made her realize her existence for the first time. Beauvoir, a pioneer of the western feminist movement, once pointed out that in a society centered on male consciousness, women should establish the so-called ideal paradigm of women based on the needs of society (men) in the process of growing up, so that women can internalize the requirements of society and men into their own choices, and internalize the repression of the outside world and culture into their own repression. Therefore, once women wake up, the object of their resistance is not external oppression, but the struggle between women and themselves. After Cui Cui realized herself, she began to struggle with herself. There are two most remarkable manifestations here: first, Cui Cui likes to send away her ego, but she internalizes social morality and ethical norms into internal qualities, but desperately suppresses her feelings (society thinks she can't express herself) and doesn't give herself a chance to fully express herself, which leads her to cry for no reason. Why is there something missing in the mature life? In this way, the release of self can only be achieved through dreams. In the eighteenth chapter of the novel, it is especially written that Cui Cui was carried away by the singing of the mountain birds in her sleep. Her dreams are often absurd, but she "often gets surprises and joy from this secret". Second, in the face of God's protection, Cui Cui, who is also well versed in social operation norms, dare not express his opinions in words (refused). All the so-called "good" qualities in her (imposed on her by society) have a strong conflict with herself, leading to the idea that she can only escape. "I want to go to Taoyuan County to cross Dongting Lake by boat, so that my grandfather can call me all over the city and light lanterns and torches to find me." But she immediately realized that if she did, grandpa would kill her with a knife! The change of self broke Cui Cui's simple and happy life and brought her endless sadness, troubles and pain. However, it was this change that made Cui Cui really mature and began to look at the world from the perspective of an adult.
Cui Cui's growth has great consistency with the growth of the protagonist shown in other Bildungsroman novels, that is, the process of growth is the process of showing the paradox of life, that is, the process of showing the pain of life, or growth itself is paradox and pain. Cui Cui gradually matured due to the invasion of "modern" ideas, the weight of his grandfather's subtle worries and the awakening of self-awareness, which was an annoying and painful process. The change of its objective environment affects the change of its subjective consciousness, prompting it to grow painfully in its own changes. It can be seen that Shen Congwen adopted a dynamic and gradual method to shape the image of Cui Cui in Border Town.