Appreciation of foreign fairy tales "[English] Mary Norton's" Little People under the Floor (Excerpt) "

Appreciation of foreign fairy tales "[English] Mary Norton's" Little People under the Floor (Excerpt) "

Mary Norton [UK]

Chapter 15

That night, while Aglietti was lying flat under the ceiling of the cigar box, Hermione and Bode talked for hours. They were talking in the living room and kitchen, and finally she heard them talking in the bedroom. She heard drawers opened and closed, doors creaked and boxes were pulled out from under the bed. "What are they doing?" She thought, "What will happen next?" She lay motionless in her soft little bed, surrounded by familiar things: her scenic stamps of Rio Harbor, the silver pig she took off her lovely bracelet, she sometimes wore a tortoiseshell ring as a crown, and most importantly, a group of beautiful women blew their horns over their quiet city. She doesn't want to lose them. She lay quietly in bed, and it suddenly occurred to her, but at the same time she wanted something else, adventurous but safe-that's exactly what she wanted. However, this is exactly what you can't get. The constant banging and buzzing explained this to her.

Emily is really on pins and needles: opening and closing drawers can't be quiet. After Bird went to bed, she decided to curl her hair. "Well, Emily," Bode lay there in his pajamas and objected anxiously, "it's completely unnecessary. Who will look at you? "

"That's why," Hermione said, looking for curly paper in the drawer. "At this time no one can say for certain. I don't want others to see me like this, "she said excitedly, turning the drawer upside down and bending down to pick up what spilled from it." "My hair is so messy!"

She finally went to bed and looked like a strange person who lost the battle. Bode sighed, rolled over and closed his eyes.

Emily lay there looking at the oil lamp for a long time. The oil lamp is a silver cover of a perfume bottle with a small wick floating on it. She doesn't want to blow it out. There is movement in the kitchen upstairs. There should be no movement at this late hour-the family should have gone to bed a long time ago. At the same time, the uneven curly hair pressed on her neck, which made her very uncomfortable. She looked at the familiar room like ariatti (she knew the bags, boxes and cabinets were too full) and thought, "What will happen now? Maybe nothing will happen, the child may be right, we are fooling around; After all this trouble, the boy may just be a guest. Maybe so, "Emily thought. "He will leave again soon," she told herself in a trance. "That's it."

Later (this is what she realized later), she must be asleep, because she seems to be crossing the Parkin River; It's late at night, the wind is blowing, and the pasture looks steep; She was climbing along the high ridge of the gas pipe and slipped on the wet grass. Emily only felt that the tree was swaying and the branches were shaking against the sky. Then (many weeks later, she told them), there was a sound of trees breaking. ...

Emily woke up with a start. She saw her room again, and the oil lamp was flashing, but she felt something strange at once: she felt a strange wind, and her mouth was dry and full of sand. Then she looked at the ceiling. "Bode!" With a scream, she grabbed him by the shoulder.

Bode rolled over and sat up. They stared at the ceiling at the same time: the whole ceiling was tilted, and one side had left the wall-so the wind blew-and a strange thing stabbed into the room, only a foot away from the foot of the bed: it was a big gray steel bar with a flat and bright end.

"This is a screwdriver," said Bode.

They stared at it, froze and could not move. For a long time, nothing happened. Then the giant slowly swayed and shrank upward, until finally, only the flat and sharp pole end stopped on their ceiling. Hermione heard the sound of the floor rubbing, and someone suddenly gasped. "Oh, my knee," the sermon shouted. "Oh, my feeling ..." Just then, I heard a bang, and their whole roof flew away, and it fell with a bang and was out of sight.

Now Hermione shouted. This is a real emergency call, loud and sharp, from her heart; Then let out a cry, and she seemed to settle down, looking curiously at the shiny big gap. She saw another ceiling above, hanging high above their heads, as if it were higher than the sky; There is a ham and two strings of onions hanging on it. Ariatti appeared at the door, scared and trembling, and grabbed her robe. Bode patted Hermione on the back. "It's over," he said. "That's enough." Hermione suddenly became quiet.

At this moment, a huge face appeared between them and the distant ceiling. It shook and smiled at them, which was terrible: there was silence and Hermione sat straight with her mouth wide open. "Is this your mother?" After a while, a surprised voice asked. Ariatti whispered outside the door, "Yes."

This is the boy.

Bode got out of bed and stood by the bed, shaking even in his pajamas. "Come down," he said to his family. "You can't stay in bed."

But Hermione didn't move. She is wearing old pajamas with patches on her back. Nothing can move her. Anger rose slowly from Hermione's heart: she was seen holding a curling iron. Bode has raised his hand to her. She remembers only once in her life. She left the food for dinner to wash the next morning and put it on the kitchen table for people to see!

She looked at the boy-he was just a child. "Put it back!" She said, "Put it back at once!" Her eyes sparkled and her curly hair seemed to tremble.

The boy knelt down. The huge face approached slowly, but Hermione didn't blink. She saw his lower lip, pink and plump-like ariatti's extremely enlarged lips-and she saw it trembling slightly. "But I have something for you," he said.

Hermione's expression did not change, and Aglietti shouted to him from the door where she was staying, "What have you got?"

The boy turned his backhand to get something, being careful not to let it turn aside-he was holding a wooden thing on their heads. "That's it," he stuck out his tongue, panting and carefully put it in their hole: this is the toy sideboard, a complete set of tableware. It has two drawers, and below it is a cabinet. He put it at the foot of his bed at home. Aglietti walked around it, trying to see it clearly.

"Oh," she cried abstractedly, "Look, Mom!"

Emily glanced at the sideboard-it was made of black oak with flowers painted on it-and then she quickly turned away. "Yes," she said coldly, "it's very beautiful."

There was a moment of silence, and no one knew how to speak.

"The lower cabinet door can really be opened," the boy finally said. His big hand reached between them and smelled of shower gel. Ariatti leaned against the wall, and Baird said excitedly, "OK?"

"Yes," Hermione agreed after a while. "I feel really good."

Baird took a long breath-when the giant hand retracted, he spit it out.

"By the way, dear," he comforted her, "you always wanted something like this!"

"Yes," Emily said, still sitting straight, her hands clasped on her knees. "Thank you very much. "Now," she continued coldly, "would you please put the roof back?"

"Wait a minute." The boy pleaded with her. He turned his backhand behind him to get something, and then reached down. Then, in the empty space next to the sideboard, he put down a small toy chair, which is Victorian style and covered with red velvet. "Oh!" Ariatti cried again, and Baird said shyly, "Just give it to me."

"Sit and watch." The boy asked him, and Baird gave him an excited look. "Sit down!" Ariatti said that Baird then sat down-wearing his pajamas, showing his bare feet. "Great." After a while, he said.

"You can put it next to the fireplace in the living room," ariatti shouted. "It will look good on red blotting paper."

"Let's try." The boy said that the big hand reached down again. Baird jumped up in time, and Red Velvet's chair held the sideboard when it shook above their heads. The chair may be in the next room. Ariatti ran out of the door and looked down the aisle. "Oh," she shouted to her parents outside, "come and see. It looks great! "

But Bode and Hermione didn't move. The boy leaned over them, panting. They can see the button in the middle of his pajamas. He seems to be looking at the next room.

"What's in that mustard bottle?" He asked.

"Coal," ariatti's voice said, "I helped borrow this new carpet. This is the watch I told you about, and these paintings ... "

"I can buy you more beautiful stamps than these," said the boy. "I have some nice commemorative stamps."

"Look," it's ariatti's voice again, and Baird can't help but grab Hermione's hand. "These are my books ..."

When the giant's hand reached out to Aglietti again, Hermione grasped Bode's hand tightly. "Don't ring," Bode said quietly. "Sit still …" The boy seems to be touching those books.

"What books are these?" He asked, Aglietti cited a series of titles.

"Bode," Hermione whispered, "I want to call out ..."

"Don't call," bode also whispered, "you must not call. Stop screaming. "

"I feel like I'm going to scream." Homili said.

Bode looked very upset. "Hold your breath," he said. "Count to ten."

The boy said to ariatti, "Why can't you read it to me?"

"I can read," ariatti said, "but I prefer to read something new."

"But you didn't come." The boy complained.

"I know," said ariatti, "but I will come."

"Bode," Hermione said quietly, "did you hear that? Did you hear what she said? "

"Yes, yes," Bode said quietly. "Don't ring ..."

"Do you want to see the storage room?" Ariatti then suggested that Hermione immediately put her hand over her mouth, as if to stop herself from screaming.

Bode looked up at the boy. "Hello," he shouted, trying to get his attention. The boy looked down at him. "Now put the roof back," Bode begged him, trying to make his voice sound serious. "We are very cold."

"all right." The boy agreed, but seemed a little hesitant. He reached for the boards they used as the roof. "Do you want me to nail it for you?" He asked, and they saw him pick up the hammer that was dangling over their heads. It looks really dangerous.

"Sure, please nail it for us." Bode said angrily.

"I mean," the boy said, "I still have something upstairs ..."

Bode didn't seem to know that Hermione nudged him. "Ask him," she whispered. "What are they?"

"What are these things?" Bode asked.

"It belongs to the old toy house, on the top floor of the cabinet next to the fireplace in the classroom."

"I haven't seen any dollhouses." Bode said.

"It's in the cupboard," said the boy. "It's too high for you to see-you have to climb some lower shelves to reach it."

"What's in the dollhouse?" Ariatti asked in the living room.

"Oh, everything," the boy told her. "Carpets, beds with mattresses, a bird in a birdcage-of course this is not true-and all kinds of pots, several tables, five gold-plated chairs, a pot of palm trees, a pot of cake made of gypsum, a fake leg of lamb ..."

Emily leaned over to Bode. "Tell him to sew it up gently first," she whispered. Baird looked at her, and she twisted her hands and nodded hard.

Bode turned to the boy. "Well," he said, "you nail it for us, but only a little. I think you know what I mean. Just nail a nail everywhere ... "(translated by Ren Rongrong)

The Little Man under the Floor is a fairy tale written by Mary Norton, a British children's literature writer, in 1952. In the same year, he won the Carnegie Children's Literature Award and 1960 won the lewis carroll Book Award.

The little person in this fairy tale lives in a neglected corner of the house. They take the name of their place of residence as their surnames, such as "the butler who fell into the water", "the ancient pianist", "the mantelpiece" and "Master Zhong" who is the protagonist of the novel. They make a living by taking all kinds of food and daily necessities from human beings (they call them "children") and call this behavior "borrowing". The protagonist Ariaetti is the only adopted daughter of the watchmaker. When she was born, all their neighbors were forced to move out of the big house, leaving only their lonely family. Aglietti lived under the kitchen floor for many years. The only way to know the outside world is the ventilation hole in the corner. The "sky" she saw was "dark brown with cracks on it" By chance, she followed her father Bode to the field to learn to "borrow" things, and met a little boy in this family who happened to be ill-the nephew of his mistress Sophie menstruation. Through him, she learned a lot about things outside and found that the original appearance of the world was far from what they imagined. The little boy brought a lot of toy furniture from "upstairs", which made the Zhong family live more and more comfortably. But one day, all this was discovered by the housekeeper, and the little boy was sent away, and the Zhong family was also facing a disaster. At the end of the novel, Mrs Mei, the narrator of the story, tells us that the Zhong family had a narrow escape, probably went to the pasture, met their neighbors and lived together, and ariatti finally came to the wilderness she longed for.

There are many fantasy literary works about villains, but they are usually regarded as an interesting and strange image. The villain in The Little Man under the Floor contains more meanings. They probably came from a simple inspiration at first: "The factory produces pins endlessly, and people buy pins every day, but just when you want to use them, they are gone." Where are they all? Where did they go when they were needed? "So Norton showed us a panoramic view of the lives of these frightened little people.

Although these little people live on human beings, they are arrogant and regard human beings as the lower animals they serve. Because of the limited living space, they don't know much about themselves and human beings and are afraid of outdoor activities. However, although they are countless times smaller than people in size, they are no different from people in mind. All the joys and sorrows, advantages and disadvantages, dreams and dissatisfaction of these little people described by the author are actually taken from human beings themselves. The author himself often uses some meaningful descriptions to imply the connection between villains and human beings, such as: "They are very sensitive and conceited and think they own the whole world" and "They are so scared that they are so small"-these descriptions are enough to produce a subtle pun between fantasy and reality, which makes readers smile. At the end of the novel, Mrs May added, "There are dangers everywhere, but they are not more dangerous than us. At least they don't have a war. What about the early immigrants in America? What about those who build farms on the edge of African wildlife areas and Indian jungles? " This is another hint-in the novel, a little boy has 10 thousand times more knowledge than a villain who borrows things. However, further down, human beings are often as small as villains who borrow things, and the world is unknown to human beings. Therefore, the shortcomings of the villain's arrogance, vanity and shortsightedness, although making people laugh, make people feel real and amiable.

There is only one main narrator in this story, and that is Mrs May. Through Mrs. Mei's mouth, the author enveloped the story with a warm and sympathetic atmosphere. She satirizes the innate defects of human beings, sympathizes with people who have to bear such defects, and appreciates that people may eventually accept their own defects and have ideals for freedom-just like George W. ariatti. This is first manifested in the author's description of each character in the book. When she wrote about drinking wine at night, Bode talked to Aunt Sophie on her bedside table. Her brushwork was really interesting. When she wrote that Hermione recalled the past and spoke ill of her loved ones, she was not only sarcastic, but also made readers feel that she was just a kind, nagging and short-sighted stupid woman and could be forgiven. When she wrote that the little boy and the borrower were forcibly separated, she wrote: "He climbed into bed and cried because of the cold sheets." The little boy and Ariati experienced a disaster together-the author expressed it as a painful experience in the process of growing up, the first hope and loss in life.

The great confusion of the whole human existence overlaps with the little confusion of two children. Longing for freedom, but afraid of freedom; Dissatisfied with reality and unwilling to accept the truth. As a fantasy literary work, The Little Man Downstairs is very interesting at first. At the same time, the story it tells, the past it cherishes, the tenderness it conveys and the courage it appreciates greatly enrich the story itself, making it a work that adults and children can never get tired of reading. Between sharp satire and affectionate humor, Mary Norton's satire and love are actually the same thing, that is, the real life that everyone is taking seriously.

The selected chapter 15 can be said to be the most violent paragraph in the whole story. A family of three who borrowed things finally clashed with the little boy. Since then, the story has entered a gripping * * *. In this wonderful confrontation, each character's personality has been fully displayed: the little boy's curiosity, Aglietti's dream-filled, Bode's caution, Homili's nervousness, making people laugh nervously. If readers have some sympathy for the characters in this story and their future destiny, it is from the narrative of this chapter. Both the plot and the emotional tone are a turning point.

The most striking thing in this chapter should be the performance of Amelia's mother, Homili. Her psychological activities, language and actions, as well as the sharp change of her views on the little boy and her helpless adaptation to the discovered situation, vividly reflect the personality characteristics of an ordinary little person: she can never have a complete and correct understanding of the severe life, but she can always recover from depression quickly. This funny and compassionate character, this timid, vain, ignorant and optimistic character, is described by the author in a lively and tolerant style, which is memorable to read.

(JOE)