Chapter 13 The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish

"The Fisherman and His Wife" is one of the most widely circulated stories.Pushkin's long narrative poem "The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish" is a rewriting of it, or it can be regarded as another version of this fairy tale. Most of them are collected among the people, and the stories spread among the people may have various versions beyond the boundaries of a nation or a country.Pushkin's "The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish" and Green's "The Fisherman and His Wife" are basically the same on the whole, although there are some differences in details.

As the structuralist scholar Levi Strauss said, no matter how many different versions there are of myths (and of course fairy tales like this), they are essentially the same.Among all literary forms, only myths (and of course fairy tales) are not lost in translation. Let's first briefly describe Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish". The fisherman and his wife live in a broken thatched tent by the sea, and their life is very poor. The fisherman goes to the seaside to fish every day for a living. From morning to night, he cast the net again and again, the net failed, and finally caught a small goldfish.The little goldfish begged the fisherman hard, as long as he was released back into the sea, he would satisfy all the fisherman's demands.The fisherman released the little goldfish back into the sea without asking anything, and went home with an empty net.

His wife was sitting in front of the shabby hut washing clothes in a broken wooden basin. When she saw the fisherman returning empty-handed, she asked why there was nothing.The fisherman told how he caught the little goldfish and released it back into the sea.After hearing this, the old woman reprimanded him and said: Why don't you ask him for a new wooden basin?Our laundry tub is broken.The next day, the fisherman came to the beach and called for the little goldfish.The little goldfish swims out of the sea.The fisherman said to him: My wife asked me for a washing tub.The little goldfish replied: You go back, you will have a new tub.

When the fisherman came home, the old woman was sitting in front of a brand new washtub, washing her clothes.Seeing the fisherman coming back, not only was she not satisfied with getting the wooden basin, but she continued to reprimand: You didn't see that our little thatched cottage is broken and broken, you should ask him for a better one.The next day, the fisherman came to the beach to call for the little goldfish. After the little goldfish swam out of the sea, the fisherman told the little goldfish the new request of the old woman.After listening to the fisherman's story, the little goldfish said: You go back, you will have a good house.

When the fisherman returned home after fishing, he saw that the old woman was already living in a brand new big house.But the old woman is not satisfied: why can't we live in a palace?You go back and tell the little goldfish, I want to be the king.The fisherman had no choice but came to the sea to call for the little goldfish.The fisherman told him that the old woman was going to be king and live in a palace.The little goldfish wagged its tail and said: You go back, you will have a palace. When the fisherman came home, the old woman had become a king and lived in a splendid palace.However, she is still not satisfied: I still want to be a high-ranking empress.The fisherman had to come to the beach again under the old woman's reprimand. After listening to the fisherman's words, the little goldfish replied: "Okay, you can go back, she has become a queen now."

When the fisherman returned home, the old woman had become a queen, sitting on a high throne in the majestic palace.However, the old woman was still not satisfied, and reprimanded the fisherman: "Go back to the beach quickly and tell the little goldfish that I want to be the queen of the sea, and I want the little goldfish to serve me every day and obey my orders."The fisherman reluctantly returned to the sea.At this time, the sea was covered with dark clouds and the waves were rolling. After a long call, the little goldfish emerged from the sea.The fisherman said: The old woman wants to be the queen of the sea, and she also wants the little goldfish to serve her every day and obey her orders.

This time, the little goldfish didn't say anything, just swiped its tail and sank into the deep sea. The fisherman came back from the sea.The resplendent palace disappeared without a trace, and in front of it was the dilapidated hut that had been lived in for many years, and the old woman was still sitting in front of the hut, washing clothes in a broken wooden basin. After reading this melancholy and meaningful fairy tale, many readers will feel emotional. In the great melancholy of life, the first sentence they sigh may be: one should not be too greedy.When adults tell this story to children, the children will also be educated about abstaining from greed.

Delving deeper into the power of this fairy tale, we first found that it did trigger a deep inner conflict in people on the point of quitting greed. In this world, everyone is "greedy" by nature.To put it more grandly, it means to seek endlessly, to keep exploring, to never be satisfied, and to yearn for progress.No one is willing to stay on the existing achievements, however, many people may fail because of excessive goals and excessive desires.Such lessons abound. Everyone may often be in a contradiction: this is the contradiction between infinite pursuit and limited possibility, the contradiction between infinite desire and limited power, and the contradiction between subjectivity and objectivity.

In politics, any revolution, any cause, any force, any group, or any action has an infinitely expanding "greed" and strives for what it can get.However, once the goal exceeds the limit and the greed is too large, it will inevitably lead to failure.The overall political collapse caused by excessively high goals has often occurred in history. The same is true in the military.In any war, there is the problem of estimating the balance of power between the two sides.It is the "greed" that every conductor has to make full use of his own strength to strive for the greatest possible victory.If you are conservative, you may lose the results you can get; however, if your ambition exceeds the limit, you may lose all the victories you have already achieved.

In the diplomatic struggle, every political leader is constantly speculating about our relationship with the other side.All diplomatic struggles and bilateral negotiations are a process of bargaining.If the asking price is low, the results that could have been lost will undoubtedly be lost.If the asking price is too high, the existing achievements may be wasted. Economically, every economic entity is under the impulse of unlimited expansion. At this time, grasping the boundaries of desire and power is undoubtedly the number one wisdom.Talented entrepreneurs can miraculously expand their scale in bold plans, leaving those mediocre in the dust.But there is often only one step between genius and failure, and quite a few huge economic entities have fallen into the abyss of collapse in the large-scale development of excessive ambition.

In almost every field of social life, there are such contradictory choices: what are the requirements that one should make, and what are the limits of one's goals? For a stock speculator, it is undoubtedly the most beneficial to hold on to the highest point when the stock is rising and then sell it. However, many people often feel guilty for not selling in time when the stock has passed the highest point and suddenly fell sharply. regret but too late. In gambling, a gambler who has lost his mind always wants to keep winning and win more.Sure enough, he is winning more and more, just like the fisherman's wife is getting more and more; however, when his actions exceed a certain limit, he will take a sharp turn for the worse, losing again and again until he loses all his money.That is a worse ending than the fisherman's wife. The fisherman's wife can return to live in front of the small thatched cottage and the broken wooden basin; while the gambler who loses completely may lose everything, and the only way left is to jump off the building . Pursuit vs. possible conflict is a conflict that happens to everyone.What is the upper limit of a reasonable goal is a test of everyone's wisdom. From all fields of politics, economy, culture, and social life, to every game people play, there is almost a set of reward and punishment mechanisms to temper people's hearts. In table tennis, the closer the ball is to the boundary, the more likely it is to pose a threat to the opponent, and it is easier to score. The edge ball is almost sure to win.However, as long as it goes beyond the slightest bit, the side kick will become an out-of-bounds ball, and the point will be lost instead. Winning or losing a ball may not matter, but if an out-of-bounds behavior causes a complete collapse of a multinational company, a person's life-long efforts are wasted, and a career turns from a brilliant victory to a tragic failure, it will definitely touch the hearts of the people. popular. There is a profound truth in the story of a fisherman and his wife who were too greedy to catch anything. The fisherman who saved the goldfish but asked for nothing may be commendable; his wife initially had requirements for life, which may be in line with human nature.However, it may be admirable when this kind of request ends up in vain because it exceeds the reasonable limit.After the old couple went through a period of vigor and rapid progress, the brilliance they had obtained in the past disappeared and they returned to the dilapidated hut, which undoubtedly made people feel the desolation and helplessness of spending their dying years. At this time, when the old woman sat in front of the broken tub to wash her clothes, she naturally didn't ask any more, and everything passed like a dream.The fisherman returns with his old fishing net every day, and there is no future worth looking forward to.They will toil day after day in poverty until the end of their days. Everyone is striving endlessly, everyone has a "greed", everyone has more or less had the dream of a fisherman's wife, and even the fisherman did not reject his dream of his wife.Because of this, the story of the fisherman and the goldfish can be Can touch the hearts of readers. The story of the fisherman and the goldfish symbolizes a major law of human society, that no behavior should exceed the reasonable limit. This can even be said to be the first law in the world. Although the power of this fairy tale is the unique power of asking for the truth that cannot be limited, however, the power of this story to hit the heart is far more than this.There is deep symbolism in the relationship between the fisherman, the old woman, and the goldfish. Undoubtedly, the fisherman is the protagonist in the story, and "The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish" makes readers feel sympathy for the fisherman and hatred for the old woman. Following this obvious emotional tendency, going deeper like analyzing a dream, we found that there is also a husband and wife relationship implied in the story. This is a relationship between husband and wife that men are unwilling to be in. First of all, we see that in this kind of husband-wife relationship, men are cowardly, obedient, hardworking, and even submissive, while women are domineering, domineering, greedy, and bossy. This type of couple relationship is by no means uncommon.The most superficial reason for its formation may be due to the innate personalities of the husband and wife.When a cowardly man marries a strong woman, the woman is often domineering and the man is submissive.In such a family, the woman is naturally the ruler. Then, we see that the direct result of this personality difference is that, facing the outside world, men are cowardly and dare not ask for it, and women often become the promoters of asking for it from the outside world. It seems that in many families, although the husband earns money to support the family, once he asks the world for what he should have, he often appears very cowardly, but the wife often plays the role of doing my part.Differences in personality lead to differences in behavior and attitude, and differences in behavior and attitude further develop the pattern of domineering women and submissive men in family life. Next, we see that a man's timid and submissive position in the family is often associated with his low social status.Even in a family where the man farms and the woman weaves, if a man fails to fulfill the task of farming and supporting the family, he will be unable to hold his head up before his wife. When the fisherman returned from the beach empty-handed, he would definitely not be able to stand up in front of the old woman who was sitting in front of the wooden basin washing clothes and doing housework.This kind of husband and wife relationship where the man is cowardly and submissive and the woman is domineering is often due to the man's indebtedness. In human society, marriage is a contractual relationship, which requires equal contributions and contributions to the family.When a man does not contribute enough, he feels guilty in front of a woman.A fisherman who often returns home with an empty net must humble himself in front of his wife. Next, we will see that in this kind of family relationship where the wife is strong and the husband is weak, there is also an imbalance in the sexual relationship. When a man owes a woman because of his sexual weakness, he will be afraid of his wife and become a submissive husband.When a wife harbors deep sexual dissatisfaction with her husband, she expresses it in other ways. In human history, men's sexual inadequacy is often hidden under the surface life, and the wife's sexual dissatisfaction cannot be resorted to words.In many cases, the husband's debt and the wife's dissatisfaction are things that the husband and wife are not aware of throughout their lives.As a result, the husband's indebtedness is transformed into submissiveness to his wife, and the wife's dissatisfaction is transformed into demands and tyranny in other aspects. When the fisherman's wife repeatedly asked the fisherman to ask for goldfish, it actually expressed his wife's sexual dissatisfaction in a metaphorical way. However, to reiterate here, "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish" is a man's story.In this story, we see sympathy for the husband and condemnation for the wife. This is a man's revenge on a woman, and this is a man's discrimination against a woman. When a man is not only afraid but also dissatisfied with a woman's domineering, he will have a dream and realize his revenge in the dream.In the dream, the man is kind, contributes enough to his wife, and satisfies her various unsatisfied desires; while the wife is greedy and should be condemned.This dream releases the guilt of the husband and avenges the dissatisfaction with the wife. This fairy tale is a dream of such a man. The derogatory description of the wife's cruelty is often an expression of men's fear and dissatisfaction with women in art. Of course, if we explore the personalities of men who are born cowardly and afraid of women, in addition to various practical reasons after marriage, there are often historical reasons that he has had since childhood. It is difficult for boys who have not received love from their fathers and mothers since childhood, especially boys who have not received love from their mothers, to develop self-confidence in front of women.They either lowered their eyebrows and listened to their father's beating and scolding, or they were submissive under their mother's scolding.The frosty attitude of their parents became a deep imprint of their childhood, and they naturally formed a cowardly character. Cowardly character is especially manifested in the treatment of the opposite sex. If he meets a strong wife again, he will naturally repeat the story of the fisherman and his wife. Whether it is the historical reasons of childhood or various practical reasons after marriage, we can see that a man who is afraid of his wife like a fisherman has a strong desire to please his own woman in his heart. This kind of complex caused by innate cowardice and indebtedness to his wife, which is eager to humble and please women, we can call it "fisherman's complex". The "fisherman complex" often powerfully dominates some men's lives. The relationship between the fisherman and the goldfish is another relationship we want to explore.We want to see the relationship of human beings in the real world in this seemingly completely fantasy relationship. When the little goldfish is jumping in the fisherman's net and begging for mercy, when the little goldfish swims out of the sea to listen to the fisherman's appeal again and again, when he comforts the fisherman again and again: Go back, the old woman's request will be fulfilled .The goldfish we saw was actually a cute little boy. Ask many readers, male or female, and after reflection, most will agree with this statement. Going deeper into the experience, we found that the relationship between a fisherman and a goldfish is like a father and a son. It could well be a little boy rescued by the fisherman and grow up; The son was born, the mother was very cruel, but the father took care of him in every possible way. After the son grew up, he left the family and went to the society alone; Growing up, once the old woman knew about this relationship, she started a crazy blackmail. No matter what the situation is, when the fisherman calls for the little goldfish on the beach, when he states the old woman's request very embarrassingly, hoping to get the little goldfish's help, we see a typical "father's begging". This is a forced, helpless, and sympathetic begging; it is also a begging that responds to requests within certain limits. Carefully recall the dialogue between the fisherman standing on the beach and the little goldfish, and you will be able to deeply understand the power of the relationship of "father begging to son" that touches people's hearts.The father is old, and the father is in debt to his wife. The only thing he can beg for in this world is his son.The son is the last line of support for the father. In the reader's mind, the little goldfish is sympathetic.He seems to have great powers, but in this story, he is a cute and young image. The analysis of fairy tales must not start from any abstract concept, but from the reading emotion it triggers.Analyzing all the emotions of the reading, we can discover the true symbols of all the story elements in the fairy tale. The little goldfish is actually a lovely little son. When he initially satisfied the fisherman's request for a wooden basin and a house, it seemed easy to be accepted; and when he was forced to satisfy the fisherman's wife's request to be king and queen again and again , we all felt he was being blackmailed. This is a little boy who wants to repay his father's favor. This is a little boy who tried his best to repay his father's kindness in spite of the difficulties. To put it more comprehensively, the little goldfish faced two people, the fisherman and the old woman.This symbolizes a son's attempt to satisfy his parents with his repeated acts of gratitude.He gave his best. This is a deep and powerful complex hidden in the son's heart.No matter what the reason for this complex is, we can call it the "little goldfish complex". In real life, not many sons have a "little goldfish complex"; however, this complex is often stronger. Sons with a "little goldfish complex" are always working hard to do something for their parents, hoping to get their parents' satisfaction. From the perspective of psychological origin, this may be due to the thought of repaying gratitude to parents and the psychology of being indebted to parents. If we look deeper, we also find an opposite and deeper root.The reason why a son has a "little goldfish complex" is not because of the kindness of his parents, but because he was neglected or even abandoned by his parents since he was a child.The reason why he has been dedicated to his parents after he grew up is just to win the position he never got in front of his parents. If your parents never liked you in the past, then I hope they will like you today.If parents have never been satisfied with themselves in the past, then, I hope they are satisfied today.If parents have neglected themselves, then they should no longer ignore them today. In those families with many brothers and sisters, if a son (or a daughter) is not valued by his parents among many children since he was a child, if he is a child among brothers and sisters who is ignored or even rejected by his parents, then, in some In some cases, he will plant resentment towards his parents in his heart, and this resentment will make him resentful towards his parents all his life; while in some cases, he will instead form a typical "little goldfish complex".When the little boy (or girl) grows up, he will be more diligent in showing filial piety to his parents than his brothers and sisters. The "little goldfish complex" will become a powerful psychological motivation. It is also possible that the parents are not very appreciative at the beginning, and he will insist on it again and again. He hopes that the parents will be satisfied and that he will do better and better. Before the parents realize that he is the best child, he can Bear the burden of humiliation and keep doing it. If his parents finally realize this, are satisfied with him, and treat him as the best child, he will be very happy , and then you will gain mental peace. Some people may not be able to get the satisfaction of their parents in the end, nor can they wash away the grievance of falling out of favor in front of their parents since they were young. Then, they can only sink into the deep sea silently like the little goldfish in the story. The fisherman's wife is another type.Facing the world and her husband, she always blamed others and kept demanding.This kind of demand is often manifested as insatiable greed. She did this not only because of her husband's incompetence in real life and his indebtedness to his wife, but also because of her own social and family experience since she was a child. No matter what specific reasons come together, the fisherman's wife must have lived in this complex all her life: dissatisfied with her husband, dissatisfied with her family, dissatisfied with life, and always feeling owed.We can call this complex the "fisherman's wife complex". Such a complex will also become the core psychological force that dominates some women in life. In "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Goldfish", probably all people, whether men or women, initially feel sympathy for the fisherman and disgust for his wife. Yet it is not a sin to demand from life; nor is it a sin to be dissatisfied with an incompetent husband;This may be the desire deep in everyone's heart.It's just that the desire cannot exceed the limit in action. Once the limit is exceeded, it becomes stupid and will be punished. When the punishment falls on the greedy fisherman's wife, the reader may even develop a faint sympathy for the old woman.It was sympathy for a woman who returned to misery after wishful thinking for a while.It is fair to say that her suffering was related to men. After examining the change of emotion towards the greedy old woman from disgust to pity, we then thought that this fairy tale is a man's dream.It shows the logic of men's thoughts and feelings everywhere. This logic is to take revenge on the woman and forgive the woman. First of all, it compensates the husband’s indebtedness by constantly satisfying the wife’s demands; then, he retaliates the bullied husband by criticizing the woman’s greed; finally, he expresses forgiveness for the woman with the ending of the same poverty and dependence. A cowardly man like a fisherman who owes a debt to a woman and is bullied by a woman finally realizes all the wishes hidden in his heart with "The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish". The fisherman, the fisherman's wife and the little goldfish are all sympathetic characters. The fisherman's complex, the fisherman's wife's complex, and the little goldfish's complex are all complexes that make us regret.