Interpretation of Zhang Ling's Aftershock

The book Aftershock contains three novellas: Aftershock, Walking North and Empty Nest.

1, aftershock

Aftershocks were made into Tangshan earthquake by Xiaogang Feng. In the process of reading this novel, people, especially the protagonist "Xiao Deng", came to mind from time to time because they were tired of the film, which made them feel the role image of the film in my impression.

Due to the special natural disaster background of Tangshan Earthquake, the main characters in Tangshan Earthquake all showed tortuous life experiences, "completely different" personalities and changeable psychology, all of which indicated that these characters were inevitably full of tragic life colors and also captured the readers' sympathy from the beginning.

Xiao Deng, who was stubborn since childhood, retaliated because his mother gave up the decision to save his brother, and gambled on this tone with her whole life, so that every stage of her life was very tangled and unhappy. At her adoptive parents' home and in college, she went out with Yang Yang and immigrated to Canada. This "entanglement" continued to enter her marriage and relationship with her daughter. Because I have been unable to reconcile with the past, I was firmly bound by the resentment of that year. Finally, I couldn't bear it, and finally I was admitted to the hospital because of serious anxiety, insomnia and depression.

This is a human tragedy caused by natural disasters.

Fortunately, the author finally used the pen of compassion to let Xiao Deng, who cooperated with the doctor's treatment, set foot on the plane to go back to China to find his mother and brother, and summon up courage to face the unavoidable affection and past events. Xiao Deng finally "opened the window" and turned a new page in his life. The author gave this sad figure a layer of light, which made readers have a warm hope while hiding the volume.

The novel tells the story in the form of a time diary. The plot jumps between the past and the present and runs through the protagonist's life trajectory. This narrative way is very consistent with the expression of the film. I saw this scene change in the movie Tangshan Earthquake.

The story begins with Xiao Deng's admission to hospital in Toronto. From the questions of nurses and doctors, Xiao Deng unfolded the past pages, and finally Xiao Deng decided to face the past. Author Zhang Ling restored the whole story like a jigsaw puzzle.

I was deeply impressed by Xiao Deng's unusual stubbornness in the novel. As the author said, after the natural disaster, everyone stood up in various ways. After the earthquake, Xiao Deng came back from the dead, struggled to get up from the mud, tore off his schoolbag and threw it far away. When she waddled away from home, she chose a "no" posture to stand up.

This also doomed her to bear heavy shackles all her life.

I think Xiaogang Feng adapted this novel into a movie because he took a fancy to the special background of Tangshan earthquake. The characters hit by the disaster, the embarrassing special fate and the paranoid personality can all capture the psychology of the audience and have the effect of making people cry. The film has made many changes, and many plots are different from the original. Xiao Deng's treatment in a Canadian hospital as an adult was completely abandoned. On the day of the earthquake, Xiao Deng's family activities were also revised, and the activities of characters in many scenes were also adjusted.

In my opinion, the biggest highlight of this novel is the special plot, which wins by twists and turns. Tangshan earthquake, once in a hundred years. After such an earthquake, how was Xiao Deng, a stubborn and strong girl, trapped by fate and how did she fight to the end? This suspense has attracted readers' sympathy and kept reading highly concerned.

Vibration is everywhere. Natural disasters and hardships of life have shaken a mother and a woman, cruel reality and indifferent human nature have shaken Xiao Deng's childhood, the kindness of adoptive parents and the death of adoptive mothers have shaken Xiao Deng's growth, and immigrants have shaken marriage and family. Author Zhang Ling also experienced various "aftershocks" after the earthquake. It seems that after the natural disaster, everyone treats these "aftershocks" around them in different ways.

A great earthquake in Tangshan caused great damage, and for many people, it was irreparable. What the injured can do is to forgive, lick the wound and move on.

2. "Go North"

"To the North" made me feel the story about the "eagle" struggling to fly and falling for freedom in the vast and desolate land of northern Canada.

The northern complex of the protagonist "China and Vietnam" reminds me of The Call of the Wild. What makes a China man who used to live a well-behaved life give up his decadent marriage and step-by-step life and firmly move towards the distant north?

What made Dawa in Tibet leave her hometown and go to endless fate without returning? Do you want to break the spell of fate, or are you confused by the illusion of love? What made Dawa face all the hardships given to her by fate and hold up a sky for her son Neil with her weak arms?

North, what's in the north?

A man from the south of China seeks a decent life in Toronto by his own ability; A Tibetan woman from western China defected to a Canadian who promised her. Neither the hero nor the heroine in the novel is a native of northern Canada, but they are uprooted. One is summoned by the ghost of the North, and the other is drawn by the fate of life. In a cold land completely different from their previous lives, they stood in the wind and stopped to take root.

In that strange and pure north, why are their fates linked, and how did they finally establish a lifelong contract because of Neil?

In their souls, one is the yearning for freedom, and the other is the struggle against fate. No matter whether the final outcome is a commemoration of life or a sacred responsibility, I think this is the northern spirit of the author Zhang Ling.

3. Empty nest

Zhang Ling said that compared with the first two novels, Empty Nest was unexpectedly favored by readers. After reading it, I know why.

Earthlings, there are earthlings in this novel. To be exact, the novel shows a strong breath of humanistic life. The home of empty nesters, the emotional story of ordinary people, brings readers a curse.

Beijing, elderly intellectuals, elderly widowers; Nanny, economic development brings destruction to marriage in rural background; Immigration and foreign countries make it impossible for children to take care of their parents. Class differences and realistic needs, the compromise between ideal love and reality, the ups and downs of life on the seesaw, greedy eyes and unpredictable unknowns, these contradictions and conflicts are vividly presented in this novel.

So the story is good.

Many plots are full of pictures, which make people imagine vivid life scenes. We all seem to have experienced and witnessed these scenes; Own, others' yearning for a better life has been replaced by a chicken-feather disorder and chaos, and it has become an iron-cold reality, with hard work and loss; There is resistance and compromise; There are benefits and warmth.

The different fates of different characters are connected by the same or different needs, intertwined and pushed forward by the river of fate.

Zhang Ling said that when she wrote this novel, she gave up the pursuit of literary talent, and writing was a dull and calm vacuum. I think her mentality stems from her own personal experience (the real experience of parents hiring a nanny and the guilt that she can't take care of her parents), so she writes as kindly and naturally as telling her own story. What I feel in the novel is actually the author's emotional attachment to his parents, and it is a simple family confession.

The portrayal of nanny Chunzhi is very successful, and the plump and vivid image is ready to come. Know what you want, what you can give, don't cry, don't complain, and don't be arrogant. This is an independent, intelligent, affectionate and righteous woman who has experienced the blow of marriage and self-reliance in the city.

The character image of "father" is credible. We feel as if there is such an old man around us: kind, approachable, hardworking all his life, aloof from the world, but brave enough to fight against his old fate and finally get what he wants.

My daughter Tian Tian makes me feel real, too. As an immigrant and a woman, I feel the same way about Tian Tian's experience and emotional experience. Her struggle, unwillingness and compromise for love, marriage and parents made me scream.

The relationship between Tian Tian and Qin Yang is full of twists and turns. The process of Tian Tian's emotional change towards Qin Yang is very attractive, and the progress of the relationship conforms to the identity and logic of the characters.

The author said that this is a novel about loneliness. In the face of loneliness, everyone has their own coping style. Perhaps, love is the best way to fight loneliness. However, in real life, high-profile love is often sung as a karaoke style.

The ending is still "everyone is happy." Perhaps, a more appropriate wording should be "draw a full stop, everyone has his own home."

It has nothing to do with sadness and joy, and this is the best ending in life.