What should I do? Literature and Life —— Reading Chernyshev's Prison Novel What to Do

-Reading Chernyshev's prison novel "What to Do"

Zhang Jiayan

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Chernyshev wrote several outstanding figures in his prison novel What to Do. I borrowed this book by accident when I was an educated youth. I can't remember the names of those characters in the novel, but their noble, selfless and generous characters will never forget me. For example, one of the husband and wife respects each other in the same enterprise, and the piano and musical instruments are in harmony. Later, a good friend appeared in their life. The wife found that her true love turned out to be this friend. She was so upset about it that she even took the initiative to talk to her husband about her feelings. The friend also found himself in love with her, and the sense of morality prompted him to adopt the attitude of sacrificing love to maintain friendship: from visiting every day to visiting every other day, and then gradually reducing it to three, four and five days, until visiting once a week, and naturally disappearing at a friend's house. This situation made her husband see it and prompted him to do some introspection. Finally, he decided that his relationship with his wife was not true love, and true love belonged to his wife and that good friend. If only true love is moral, then it goes without saying who is more moral, yourself or that good friend. Who is more noble, yourself or that friend? It is also self-evident. He realized that it was quite painful, but after the pain, he didn't feel jealous or jealous, but took an extreme measure: "suicide" in order to fulfill his wife and that good friend. He left his wife a will before he died, asking her to live with that good friend after he died. Then, this gentleman committed suicide by jumping into the river on a stormy night. His wife and friends read his suicide note and witnessed his legacy. They are heartbroken, and they still can't extricate themselves from their grief for months and don't want to be together. Until then, what about the real hero in the novel? That much younger friend, a lone ranger named "Rakhmetov", appeared. Rakhmetov sharply ridiculed them for failing to live up to the "entrustment of the deceased" and being bad to the living, but still immersed in sadness. Finally, Rakhmetov showed his killer: he let Vera (I remembered his wife's name at the moment) talk to him alone in his room late at night. After Vera sat down, he took out a piece of paper and waved it in front of her eyes. The tearful Vera glanced at the paper, jumped up and grabbed it-she saw her husband's handwriting-but the paper had been taken back by Rakhmetov. Vera was so anxious that Rakhmetov told her to sit still. Then take out the paper and let Vera use her eyes instead of her hands. Vera wrote down almost every word when she read it over and over again. Rakhmetov immediately lit a match and burned the paper without leaving any clues. It turned out that after the husband committed suicide, he found their respected young friend Rakhmetov and asked him to mediate. Rakhmetov asked him to leave this note and told Vera that he was not dead, but had gone far away and would never come back. He will have a good life. He wants Vera and her lover to listen to Rakhmetov's persuasion and rearrange their new lives.

Rachmetov began a serious conversation with Vera.

In our opinion, are the three characters in What to Do perfect enough? Author Chernyshevski thinks that although these figures are good, they are still not outstanding. He used a metaphor: these people are just a few "bungalows". If you think they are unattainable, it is because you are still living in "hell". Chernyshevski said that the purpose of describing these "bungalows" was only to set off the majestic "palace" figures. His What to Do only shows "a corner of the palace"-Rakhmetov. According to Chernyshevski, people like Rakhmetov have just appeared in Russia under the czar, but only a few people, even Chernyshevski, have only seen seven.

Friends who are interested in Rachmetov's thrilling personality, will, wisdom and what he has done can try to find and borrow the book What to Do. In literary works, the problem of "what to do" is seriously put forward through the "triangle" love relationship, which is also manifested in modern and contemporary literature in China. The huge gap between China literature and Russian literature is so obvious even compared with this classic work What to Do: in terms of character setting and plot arrangement, the hero's moral sentiment, spiritual realm and ideological strength, especially the upward and transcendental intention shown in the whole work, the masterpiece of China's famous modern revolutionary writer "Under the Roof of Shanghai" and the famous scar novel "What should I do" by contemporary writers are all better than cars.

Judging from the character setting, China's "triangle relationship" is flat, while Che's character relationship was established because he attracted a Rachmetov in the "triangle". In other words, Xia and Chen only show a "triangle" in the relationship between characters, while the car shows a "triangle". In particular, the creation and solution of the "triangle contradiction" by Che, as a foil to the leader Rakhmetov, strongly shows a spiritual character and a strong intention to transcend in his works. Judging from the plot arrangement, the "combination of the two" in Xia and Chen's works was actually carried out without one of them, so the most fundamental thing in the "triangle relationship"-love was not touched. It attributed the cause of the triangular relationship to a specific era and a specific society, and their triangular relationship only showed shallow sociality and politics. Moreover, the contingency of the plot-rather "coincidence" is too dramatic. From the perspective of solving problems, the characters in Xia and Chen's novels are at a loss when faced with the problem of "how to do it", and only stay at the level of "asking questions".

However, in what to do, the "triangle plot" naturally occurs and inevitably develops. It not only puts forward the problem of "1 how to do it", but also solves the problem of "how to do it" from two levels. The first level is the thought and behavior of the three parties in the "triangle relationship". It solves the "how to do" in love entanglements; The second level is "What should I do with Russian life?" After introducing the central hero rakhmetov. The problem is that Russian life must undergo a great revolution on the basis of love and marriage, so this is also a higher level problem. The novel also clearly points to the solution by describing the words and deeds of Rakhmetov-style Russian contemporary heroes. Even at the first level, China literature, which only stays in sociality, contingency and quietness, is not as good as "what to do" that expresses humanity, inevitability and movement. As for the personality spirit, ideological realm and will quality shown by those "bungalow-style" characters or "palace-corner" characters in What to Do, they make the characters in China literature look pale and powerless.

Let's talk about reading. Whether an ordinary person or a revolutionary studies should be a reference for his ideological character and spiritual level. Needless to say, China's literary works mentioned above did not introduce this formulation. I remember there was a reading detail in the novel What to Do: When Rakhmetov visited the study of the Villa couple, he took out one book after another from the bookshelf and said, Well, this kind of book can only be used as a cushion, this kind of book can only be used as a cushion, and this kind of book can be used as a pillow. ..... These books are very mediocre, mediocre, mediocre ... These books have been read, read, read ... Finally, he finally found a book to read, just sat down, absorbed and read with relish.

Written in 1998