Introduction of Christopher Hein, the author of German literature, and his strange friends

Introduction of Christopher Hein, the author of German literature, and his strange friends | Summary | Appreciation of Works

Author's brief introduction Christopher Hain was born in a small village in Silesia (present-day Poland) on April 8, 1944. Hein spent his childhood and primary school days in Baddeben near Leipzig, the main industrial and commercial city in the German Democratic Republic. Because he was born in a pastor's family, he didn't have the opportunity to study in a liberal arts middle school in GDR. So he went to a middle school in West Berlin from 1958 and returned to GDR from 1960. After graduating from high school, Maine has been engaged in various occupations for many years. He worked as an installer, bookstore clerk, restaurant waiter, reporter, supporting actor and assistant director. Hein studied philosophy and logic in Leipzig and East Berlin1967-1971. After graduating from college, he became a drama director, and after 1974, he became a drama writer at the People's Stage Theatre in Berlin. After 1979, Christopher Hain made a living by writing and became a professional writer. Christopher Hein is one of the most famous middle-aged writers in contemporary GDR. Full of deep feelings for the people and a high sense of responsibility for social life, Heine liked and began to practice drama writing since childhood. His dramatic works mainly include Hungry Hennak (1974), Rotherhill or What to Do (1974), krom Weir (1980), A Salon (1980) and adaptations. After the performance of The True Story of Ah Q, it aroused enthusiastic response and serious thinking from Berlin audience. Hein insists that "the spirit of Ah Q is one of the characteristics of human society." In addition, Hein also translated the works of Moliere and Raassina. Strange Friends is a novel published by Heine in 1982. Due to its warm welcome in the Federal Republic of Germany, this work was renamed Dragon Blood and published again. During his many years of creative career, Christopher Hein won the Heinrich Mann Literature Award from the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the German Democratic Republic in 1982, and the West Berlin Critics Literature Award in 1983.

Claudia, a 39-year-old female doctor, works in Elliot Hospital in East Berlin. She lives alone in an unknown high-rise building, leads a dull career, has no pursuit in thought and leads a bleak life. She and her husband Sinatra have different tastes, so they divorced. Sinatra is a doctor in charge of a hospital. After the divorce, Claudia suppressed all kinds of surging feelings and spent her time unmoved. By chance, she met Henry in the elevator. Henry is an architect. He lives on the same floor as Claudia. That night, Henry came to see Claudia. The lack of feelings and hunger and thirst prompted the two to inexplicably start living together. Henry is married. His wife and two children live in Dresden, far from Berlin. Henry and his wife are separated, and their feelings are dull. He goes home every two or three weeks. His wife has a boyfriend in Dresden. They live together as a couple. Henry accepted this situation, "just for the children", so he didn't divorce his wife. After entering Henry's life, Claudia was not attached to him. They meet once or twice a week, sometimes they go out for dinner and sometimes they go out to take pictures. Claudia likes taking photos and developing, mainly taking landscape photos. She often chooses some ruins and small trees and weeds near the border as the shooting targets, because nature is not artificial like people, does not pose, and leaves a modified image. Besides, Claudia doesn't want to interfere in other people's lives and fix the living in a photo. She doesn't want to get involved in other people's lives because there are many problems in life. Everyone has countless problems and troubles, including her elderly parents and her sister who has become a teacher. Claudia's father stubbornly cares about politics and a country in Africa and asks people "how to understand China". He regards this enthusiasm as the morality of life. Besides, he is a grumpy character. He once lost the position of factory section chief because of slapping his apprentice in the face and retired at home early. Claudia's mother is a nagging woman. She wants to be integrated into Claudia's life all her life. She is worried about her father's infirmity and personal life behind him. Claudia's sister is a strong woman who bullies her husband. At Christmas, she abandoned her daughter and husband, but her divorced husband Sinatra came to her parents' house and planned to get married and live together in the future, which undoubtedly cast a shadow of disharmony on the festive atmosphere of Christmas. Of course, life still has a lot to remember. Henry went to visit Claudia, who is on holiday by the sea. The quiet seaside left many footprints of their lives. However, in childhood, Claudia brewed a cup of bitter wine that was hard to swallow. She swears and is nervous, and she doesn't know what to do. She has a close relationship with Katrina, a high school classmate. They agree with each other and have the same hairstyle, vowing to stick to the pure friendship with fate. When she graduated from high school, Katrina could not enter the senior high school in the county because of her family background and personal beliefs. Katrina didn't want to join a youth organization, so she got help from the head teacher. Because youth organizations are peacekeeping organizations, being unwilling to join them is tantamount to inciting war. Simple logical reasoning upset Katrina. Claudia took part in the class to help Katrina, and now she is allowed to go to the county to attend high school. At this time, she stood up and made a speech, in which she laughed at Katrina without naming her name. Catalina was so angry that she walked up to her and gave her a slap in the face. This slap in the face declared the bankruptcy and end of their years of friendship. This slap in the face also left Claudia with unforgettable regret and pain, which made her realize many truths and lessons. Henry, who likes to drive fast, is also blindly looking for a real life. He hates the monotonous lifestyle and thinks it's better to "shoot him in the head" than to live like that. But in an unintentional dispute, he was knocked to the ground by a young man of 17 years old and died. Henry is dead. Strangely, it didn't cause much stir in Claudia's heart. She even considered whether to attend Henry's funeral. Claudia is strange to everything and finds it incredible. Therefore, although she lived with Henry for a while, he was still just a "strange friend" and they were still like neighbors. Of course, the life in the neighborhood is also vividly described, especially the lonely Mrs. Rupert Laichter, who has no children, lives alone and keeps a flock of birds to express her loneliness. One morning, Claudia was stunned by the chirping birds. When she asked the building manager to open Mrs Ruperecht's door, she saw the old lady sitting in a chair, staring at the door with her eyes open, but she had been dead for three days. Life is like a show in front of us, which makes Claudia bathe in a pool of blood. Claudia is neither lucky nor unlucky. Everything she lived and needed to pursue has come true. She is satisfied, but she is not satisfied. After Henry died, Claudia's life went back to the past.

Appreciation of Works "Strange Friends" is a social novel that sensationalized the European literary world. After the release of 1982, it immediately aroused enthusiastic response. Both sides of the border believe that the novel faithfully reflects their own actual situation. Critics believe that Strange Friends is a program of social psychological analysis, and readers feel that the novel truly describes the alienation history of interpersonal social life and reflects the indifference and emptiness of European social life. The novel depicts a peaceful society, in which Claudia, a 39-year-old female doctor, leads a free life. Professionally, she is respected by her colleagues Even if there are some contradictions, they are properly solved by reasonable means with the help of the attending doctor. Claudia doesn't feel a little short of money in her life. Whether for daily needs or for holidays, she bought generously according to the needs of custom and paid off the debt. In her spare time, Claudia will go out to take photos or go to the seaside for a holiday, constantly changing her lifestyle. Claudia is really satisfied. But the author not only left her a set of stills of life here, but also went deep into the hero's heart with sharp brushstrokes, reaching back and forth and analyzing the restless inner world behind the hero's quiet life. Claudia suffered two setbacks in her life. Once in middle school, because of competing for high school places, she involuntarily betrayed her long-term friendship with Katrina and laughed at Katrina's backwardness. Katrina gave her a slap in the face. Years later, Claudia, the hero, still feels hot on her face. However, this slap in the face can't repay the emotional debt she owes in her heart; Another setback was Claudia's divorce from her husband Sinatra. Her husband is also a doctor and had an affair in his life. However, the real reason for their divorce is not that Sinatra is unfaithful to love, but that Sinatra is hypocritical and unfaithful to life. These two setbacks deprived Claudia of any illusions about life and left her in an emotional crisis of idleness. Claudia built layers of dams on the periphery of life to maintain the wounds of her heart. This is her ethical world and moral world, and also has her values of dealing with people. Claudia, facing the age of no doubt, is constantly purifying herself in this atmosphere, getting farther and farther away from this strange material world, seeking the value of life and the quality of life in confusion and hardship. In the novel Strange Friends, Christopher Hayne involved nine different families in the form of panoramic photography, showing the grass-roots life of society from many angles and depicting the depression and loss of a generation of middle-aged people in detail. The title of the novel "Strange Friends" is the emphasis and summary of this ambivalence. Strange Friends consists of Claudia's association, memory and inner monologue. The author gradually unfolds the story in the parallel and alternating psychological activities of the protagonist, and the time mainly revolves around whether Claudia will attend the funeral after Henry's death. However, these moments are like a prism, reflecting Claudia's 39-year life, involving the life and thoughts of Claudia's parents' generation. In addition, they also wrote about the pursuit and ignorance of a generation around the age of 20. An accidental fight, a random miss, will end a living person. Man, how can we improve ourselves and reach a higher level? Both the author and the reader are faced with new problems in life. Christopher Heine, on the other hand, extracted materials from the life world that people turned a blind eye to, and made valuable contributions to German literature with the creative technique of socialist realism.