Chapter 12 The Social Irony and Symbolic Implications of "Autumn Thoughts"

"Autumn Thoughts" is the shortest one in the book, the full text is only about 4,000 words.This novel is not only short in words, but also small in scale and action. The whole story is just a small slice of the protagonist's daily life and her moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. However, this "pocket" short story, like the other ones, has the consistent characteristics of the whole, both vivid social realism and profound symbolic meaning. "Autumn Thoughts" is also an article with strong social satire in the novel. The deduction of the plot and action takes about less than half an hour.The protagonist is Mrs. Hua, an upper-class lady, the widow of a great general during the Anti-Japanese War.General Hua apparently died of throat cancer in Nanjing one autumn after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and before the fall of the mainland.After withdrawing to Taiwan, Mrs. Hua lived in Taipei and still lived a wealthy and luxurious life.She has a daughter who lives in a foreign country and is apparently married with a child.Mrs. Hua often plays mahjong with a few high-class adults who are similar to her age.One of them, Ambassador Wan's wife, since her husband will soon be sent to Japan, is very diligent in learning Japanese and imitating the manners and customs of the Japanese.Mrs. Hua couldn't help dealing with her socially, but she harbored contempt and jealousy towards her in her heart.

At the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Hua is preparing for an appointment to play mahjong in Wan Mansion.The young beautician, Ms. Lin, has finished her face and is carefully trimming her fingernails.The two chatted casually, and Ms. Lin praised Mrs. Hua's beautiful skin enviously, and told her quietly that Mrs. Wan had a face-lifting cosmetic operation not long ago, but the result was not very successful. Recently, her forehead has loosened a bit.She also said that Mrs. Wan put on ointment under the eyes to cover up the bags under her eyes.The two talked and laughed.They compared the royal blue silk cheongsam and emerald jewelry Mrs. Hua was going to wear, carefully considered and chose the color of nail polish.Not long after, Mansion Wan called to urge Mrs. Hua to dress neatly, and looked at the mirror again. She felt that her hair was combed too tightly, so Ms. Lin used a comb with a pointed handle to comb her tall concubine bun. Suddenly Mrs. Hua saw Ms. Lin rummaging through the hair on her right temple in the mirror, so she suddenly realized that white hair appeared on her head again.Ms. Lin combed her hair several times to hide the gray hair inside so that it would not be exposed before she walked out of the room and went to take her private car.

In the garden, when she was walking towards the gate, she suddenly smelled a cold fragrance in a cool autumn wind, which came from dozens of "handfuls of snow" blooming in the east corner of the wall. "A Handful of Snow" is the top-grade white chrysanthemum, but it is very delicate, and it is not easy to raise it in Taiwan.It was planted last year, but almost all withered. Mrs. Hua asked the gardener to apply chicken feather ashes for a spring, and then it came back to life. Suddenly, it was white and downy, and it bloomed very prosperously. Mrs. Wan once asked her for advice because she learned flower arranging from the Japanese. A few cutting pots.Mrs. Hua was extremely unwilling to give these noble white chrysanthemums to her, but because Mrs. Wan's mouth was very mean, she was afraid of being laughed at by her, so she reluctantly picked a few. When she pushed some branches and leaves away with her hands, she suddenly saw, Under the cover of flowers, many flower buds have rotted and died, and the cold fragrance is mixed with a stench of rotting flowers and plants.This fishy smell reminded her of the scene before her husband died of illness, because at that time, the three "handfuls of snow" sticking on the table beside his bed also gave off the same smell.The three big white chrysanthemums were picked from the garden of their Nanjing residence, and there were more than a hundred chrysanthemums planted at that time.Mrs. Hua especially remembered that in the year of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the "handful of snow" bloomed most lushly.That year, when her husband led the army into the city of Nanjing, the people were crying and laughing, and warmly welcomed them.The incomparably handsome General Hua walked her into the garden with his arms, and toasted a glass of wine to her lips very tenderly in front of the "handful of snow" that was turning over like white waves.

The servant reported that the car had left.Mrs. Hua went to the gate, and before leaving, she asked Huang Youxin, an old gardener, to trim the remaining buds of "a handful of snow". The above is the outline of the plot of "Autumn Thoughts". The structure of this novel can be divided into three sections.The first section is the longest, accounting for more than half of the full text, mainly composed of the dialogue between Mrs. Hua and Miss Lin.The second section accounts for one-third of the full text, and there is only one paragraph in total. The content is Mrs. Hua's momentary feelings when facing "a handful of snow" in the garden.The third section is the shortest, only seven lines, and it is mainly a dialogue or two between Mrs. Hua and the old gardener.

In terms of narrative method and narrative point of view, the first section and the third section belong to the same category.The author is completely objective, and describes her or her (him) audible dialogues and external forms and actions from outside the characters in the novel.In other words, the author adopts an objective and realistic approach.But in the section sandwiched in the novel, the narrative point of view and method are very different. The author mainly uses the "stream of consciousness" technique to drill into the thinking of the protagonist, Mrs. Hua, and describe her subjective feelings that are not expressed externally from her inner consciousness. .This section, 1,400 characters, is not divided into sections at all, but a thick and solid piece. The subjective feelings of this large group of protagonists are triggered by the "handful of snow" in full bloom in the garden, and only last or be contained in the A very short moment (the time to pick a few flowers), but it has dominated her long life for decades.

The rather strong social satire in this novel mainly exists in the author's objective and realistic part.In this part, the author keeps a long distance from the protagonist of the novel, so we also look at the characters in the novel from a purely objective and rational perspective, analyze their words and actions rationally, and criticize their shortcomings intellectually. In this way, the novel has the effect of social satire.As for the subjective narrative of the "stream of consciousness" section, it can be said to be the author's annotation and interpretation of the protagonist's words and deeds.Since the author completely adopts Mrs. Hua's point of view here, many emotional factors are involved in the narrative.This feeling, of course, is Mrs. Hua's feeling, not necessarily the feeling of the author and the reader.However, we are inevitably affected by the narrative point of view and the author's sympathetic tone, and we feel that it is no longer easy to look on the protagonist coldly and criticize her right and wrong.Of course, there is still a considerable amount of social satire in this subjective narrative.But the main target of the satire is no longer Mrs. Hua, but Wan Lu Ruzhu, whom Mrs. Hua despises.

Now let's start from the beginning and talk about the social criticism and satire in "Autumn Thoughts". The most obvious and objective social irony, of course, is that Mrs. Hua, a high-class lady, is still hiding in a rich and luxurious comfort zone, playing mahjong, and concentrating all her energy on " Beauty” is such a superficial matter.Maintaining the beauty of appearance is what they care most about, and it can be said to be the only thing they care about.When you are young, if you are naturally beautiful, this is of course easy.But after being far away from youth, if you want to keep your beauty, you have to use some artificial methods to save it, or ask a beautician to trim your face and eyebrows; or Mrs. Wan, use blue and green eye circle ointment to cover the bags under the eyes.These women don't have to worry about the lack of material life, the only worry is getting old and losing their beauty.So when Mrs. Hua learned that a few strands of white hair had grown on her head again, she would be so shocked that her voice would tremble, as if the end was approaching.

Mrs. Hua went to the Wan Mansion for an appointment, but it was just to play mahjong with a few wives.But she was so meticulous in making up and dressing up as if she was going to participate in a world beauty pageant.First go to "Bai Le Mei" to do hair, comb into a towering chaise longue.Then hire a beautician, Ms. Lin, to come to the house to do her face, trim her eyebrows, and trim her fingernails.And carefully consider the color of nail polish to match the jade jewelry and royal blue silk cheongsam.She can't tolerate small flaws, and if her hair is combed a little tight, it doesn't look good, and Ms. Lin has to pick it out for her.

And Miss Lin, a young beautician, is another typical character in society—that is, a typical person who likes to flatter and please the upper class.With an "envious expression on her face", she praised the beauty of Mrs. Hua's skin "as if appreciating a work of art", "holding" Mrs. Hua's hand, and sighed: "I have never seen anyone born like this." Good skin color!" Mrs. Hua's skin color is beautiful, which is probably true.But Miss Lin's tone and attitude could not escape the suspicion of flattery.Clever Ms. Lin must have sensed Mrs. Hua's jealousy towards Mrs. Wan, so she "smiled a little bit" and secretly told Mrs. Hua that Mrs. Wan had undergone face-lifting surgery, but recently her face has loosened up again. She went to make a face for Mrs. Wan, and Mrs. Wan always lost her temper.Both of them laughed.Later, Ms. Lin mentioned that "Madam Wan has bags under her eyes, which cannot be covered without eye circle cream", and the two laughed again.We have no doubt that Miss Lin likes Mrs. Hua more than Mrs. Wan.But we can't help but wonder if she said something different when she went to Wan mansion to make face for Mrs. Wan.

In Madam Hua's heart, she was obviously jealous of Madam Wan.There are many reasons.The first is the jealousy of upper-class women based on vanity.From the first sentence of the novel, we can get a glimpse of Mrs. Hua's mentality: "Miss Lin, tell the truth, Madam Wan or me, who can stand up to it?" In Madam Hua's heart, of course she knew that Madam Wan's appearance was not as good as hers.But she still needs the approval and affirmation of others again and again to strengthen her self-confidence and satisfy her vanity.She told the maid, A-Lian, not to tell Madam Wan that Miss Lin was doing her beauty treatment when she called back, it was also an expression of her vanity.She doesn't want others, especially Mrs. Wan, to know that her beauty is "dressed up" with her heart.

The second reason why she hates Madam Wan is that Madam Wan speaks very harshly, she once made fun of her in front of others and called her "Modern Grandma".We can imagine the stimulating reaction caused by this kind of teasing to Mrs. Hua, who is afraid of aging like death and fears that her beauty will fade. We inferred the above two reasons from the first section of the novel, that is, the dialogue between Mrs. Hua and Ms. Lin. However, the most fundamental and potential reason why Mrs. Hua hates Mrs. Wan, we have to wait until we have read the long "stream of consciousness" narrative in the middle of the novel to understand.From this conscious photography of Mrs. Hua's past background, we know that her beloved late husband was once a great anti-Japanese hero.Anti-Japanese General.An eternal memory cherished in her heart is the great and moving scene when General Hua led the army into Nanjing after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.This glorious memory has melted into her soul, so any event or trend that contradicts the meaning of this memory will be stubbornly rejected by her heart.The complacent attitude that Mrs. Wan showed because her husband was going to be sent to Japan, her admiration for Japan's material life and prosperous society, her eager imitation of Japanese customs and language, and her "Oriental accent" all over her, Both are completely opposite in meaning to the glorious deeds of General Hua who led the national army to defeat the Japanese invaders in order to maintain the dignity of the Republic of China.This is the most deep-rooted reason why Mrs. Hua hates Mrs. Wan.Of course, jealousy may also be mingled with this jealousy, because Mrs. Wan's husband is still alive and well, and his career is flourishing, while the once vigorous General Hua has long passed away and been forgotten by the world. Any "stream of consciousness" narration must of course use the subjective point of view of the characters in the novel, and as I said, the author's point of view does not have to match the point of view of the characters in the novel.However, in the long "stream of consciousness" narrative in the middle of "Autumn Thoughts", we can feel that the author's views are roughly consistent with Mrs. Hua's from the author's obvious sympathy or "tone".Therefore, Mrs. Hua's contempt and criticism of Mrs. Wan also become the author's contempt and criticism of Mrs. Wan (and people like her who sell their dignity to flatter foreigners or the world).In addition, the author also borrows Mrs. Hua's ideological point of view to express his own feelings about the impermanence of the world and the unpredictable ups and downs: not long ago, the Republic of China was a glorious victorious country.Japan is a humble and humiliated defeated country.But today, how different the international situation is! There is one point in the novel that is particularly ironic.Although Mrs. Hua despises and hates Mrs. Wan in her heart, she is unwilling to give her the "handful of snow" in every possible way, thinking: "Could it be possible for her to take these extremely noble 'handfuls of snow' and spoil them casually?" But in the end she still insisted She cut off a lot of branches, "a bunch of white clusters of 'handfuls of snow' on her chest", and brought them to Wan's mansion for Mrs. Wan to put in a pot for appreciation.Probably, in order to avoid being made fun of by others, even our Mrs. Hua has to sacrifice her dignity from time to time, and wrong herself to deal with the world! Mrs. Hua's embarrassing situation actually reflects the predicament our traditional society and culture are in today.This involves the themes and symbolic meanings hidden under the surface of social realism in the novel "Autumn Thoughts". If we only read the first half of the novel, that is, the dialogue between Mrs. Hua and Ms. Lin, we will naturally classify Mrs. Hua and Mrs. Wan as the same type, and we will naturally look at the criticism with a mocking eye following the author's objective and isolated tone. Such a high society lady.But when we read the protagonist's "stream of consciousness" narration, we suddenly found that these two women are no longer the same kind, but have a distinction between refined and vulgar, a world of difference.So we realized that the author originally intended to use Mrs. Hua to imply the nobility and excellence of character, and use her to symbolize our country and our traditional social culture.Madam Wan is also used as a metaphor for vulgarity and vulgarity, and she is used to symbolize the world, the industrial and commercial society, and technological civilization.Moreover, the author did not start to have this intention from the subjective narrative in the middle, but laid a lot of foreshadowing as early as the beginning of the novel.First of all, the surnames of the two ladies are suggestive. The word "Hua" describes the beauty of "quality"; the word "Wan" describes the amount of "quantity". Hua reminds people of "China"; Wan reminds people of "Wan Guo".Mrs. Hua's skin color is extremely beautiful, and her hands look like "a work of art".Her delicate skin is due to her natural beauty, not because of the artificial maintenance of the cosmetics on the dressing table.The jewelry she wears is the most beautiful jade, and the hairstyle she combs is a towering "chaise bun".In short, Mrs. Hua's appearance is a sign of natural elegance.On the contrary, Mrs. Wan's skin was rough, and after undergoing face-lifting surgery, it immediately loosened up again.She likes to wear heavy makeup, "blue, green, eye circle ointment like that".This kind of appearance and dress gives people a sense of vulgarity. In addition, she imitates the Japanese, "even walking, sifting a pot of tea, but also bending over and bowing like a bow", and she yearns for Japanese things wholeheartedly, and envies Tokyo. The prosperity after the war, all these clearly show Mrs. Wan's utilitarian concept and mesmerizing attitude. In this way, the symbolic meaning of Mrs. Hua's hatred for Mrs. Wan is not difficult to understand.Our spiritual culture accumulated over five thousand years certainly cannot forgive Western utilitarian concepts.We pay attention to the traditional society of human warmth, of course we cannot help but despise the mechanized industrial society which is popular in the world today. When we understand this point, Mrs. Hua's wholehearted desire to preserve her beauty has a deeper meaning of sympathy and pity.And when we saw her, we had to wrong ourselves, reluctantly pinched down the extremely noble "handful of snow", and let Mrs. Wan play with it, how could we not feel unbearable bitterness in our hearts! "A Handful of Snow", as far as the structure of the novel is concerned, is the axis and transition hub of Mrs. Hua's consciousness association.But as far as the significance of the novel is concerned, it is the main image of the story of "Autumn Thoughts". "A bouquet of snow" is a metaphor for Mrs. Hua and the flower person; the symbolic role of flowers is equivalent to the symbolic role of Mrs. Hua, and it also alludes to our country and traditional social culture.When Mrs. Wan, who represents the "present world", teased: "Are your chrysanthemums really that noble?" The meaning given by the author obviously does not only refer to chrysanthemums, but extends to Mrs. Hua, our country, and our traditional social culture. "A handful of snow" is the "extremely noble" and "top grade" white chrysanthemum.It exudes a pleasing cold fragrance, and the flowers are white and pure, "in clusters, in clusters, they all spit out fist-sized crystal balls, and the fluffy white ones really look like snowflakes that just fell."It's a pity that "it's just too delicate". In Taiwan, where the climate and soil quality are obviously not suitable, "it almost died after planting it. She asked the gardener to apply chicken feather ash for a spring before she came back to life. Unexpectedly, all of a sudden , it bloomed so prosperously."But is it really "so prosperous"?Are these dozens of white chrysanthemums that have been artificially cultivated really comparable to the hundreds of "handfuls of snow" that "turned over like a sea of ​​snow with white waves rushing" in Nanjing gardens? Although the scale is smaller, it seems to be comparable.But what is the truth?When Mrs. Hua thought it was blooming, she pushed aside some branches and leaves with her hands to pick a few. Under that patch of flowers, she suddenly saw that many flower buds had rotted and died, some were withered and black, with white mold on them, hanging on the branches, like rotten steamed buns, some just After wilting, the petals were like yellow rust, and some rotten bracts were covered with chrysanthemum tigers, gnawing at the flower heart, and the yellow turbid juice continuously flowed out from the flower heart.A gust of wind passed by, and Mrs. Hua smelled the pungent stench of rotting flowers and plants in the cold fragrance of chrysanthemums. This sudden discovery aroused her instant comprehension, just as earlier when she was complacently admiring her beauty, Miss Lin's rummaging through her white hair aroused her same comprehension.The spontaneous appearance made her realize that old age is approaching, and the discovery of rotten flower buds made her smell the breath of death.In this way, the author naturally reminded Mrs. Hua of the "pungent stench of rotting flowers and plants" to the corruption and death of her husband who was once full of vitality.It is worth noting that Mrs. Hua's white hair appears on her "right" temple.The "handful of snow" that is prosperous on the outside and rotten on the inside is planted in the "east" corner of the wall.And Mrs. Hua smelled a cold fragrance in the garden, which came from behind, so she "turned back and stung".These subsections, which seem to be written by the author, are very suggestive when you think about it. Another symbol of irony in the novel is the towering chaise bun on Mrs. Hua's head. "Miss Lin, look, I really don't like it," Mrs. Hua sat in front of the dressing table, turned her head in front of the mirror, her brows frowned, "I'm going to Bailemei today, I That number thirteen is sick again, it was done for me by a novice, and he combed all the hair to death!" Mrs. Hua's veteran who knows how to make "Guifei bun" and "comb" her hair is "No. 13" and always gets sick.Baibai has a set of incomparably beautiful craftsmanship, but because of his obsession and frailty, it is of no avail in the end.The other "novice" was in good health and able to do things, but unfortunately he didn't have the artistic skills to do the "chaise bun", so he "combed all of Mrs. Hua's hair to death".The author hints in this way: Just as "noble concubine" has no place in today's civilian society, the beauty of nature and art must probably have to be wronged and dismissed in this modern world of scientific mechanization! And Mrs. Hua's once powerful general husband also alluded to it, which is obvious.His home is located in Nanjing.The most glorious day of his life, the day when he returned to Nanjing after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.But good times don't last long, and bad luck comes frequently.After eight years of hard work during the Anti-Japanese War, he thought he could enjoy a peaceful life, but he suffered unprecedented catastrophe and was poisoned by cancer, which corroded his vigorous and healthy body in just a few years.The death of General Hua was of course the author's intentional arrangement. China's chastity has been raped and destroyed by Western forces.This extremely bitter pill of reality is something that some Chinese living in Taiwan cannot swallow no matter what.So they use various methods to avoid facing the reality, or anesthetize themselves by playing mahjong, or cling to the illusion that "the present" is still "the past", and seek comfort and meaning of life in self-deception.Mrs. Hua refuses to face the fact that she has become a grandmother, but indulges in the fantasy that she is still a noble concubine and beautiful woman, which is of course a metaphor of the author.What a gap between illusion and reality, between appearance and content!Just like the "Handful of Snow" in Mrs. Hua's garden, it looks like it is in full bloom, but there are many rotten flower buds hidden under the branches and leaves.This inconsistency between the outside and the inside, the big difference between the image and the entity, is the author's metaphorical social satire in this novel, but it is also a point that the author places special sympathy on. The discovery of white hair and rotten flower buds triggered Mrs. Hua's awareness for a moment.But this awareness did not come from her intentional exploration of the truth of reality, but it suddenly grabbed her when she was completely unprepared.The consequences of this realization only made her very unhappy for a while, but did not make her rationally walk out of the snare of self-deception.It seems that instead, she will quickly reorganize and fix this shaken phantom, but she will probably be more careful in the future, and climb a little tighter, so as not to suddenly suffer a shock from reality at an unexpected moment. Great.She never gives up.She still has to embrace her fantasy to survive.She still wants to dream of her royal concubine in this filthy real world.It doesn't matter how long the dream lasts.She can't let the "law of nature" deprive her of her sweet dreams: if age can't keep her beauty, she can still rely on the beautician's grooming to create a beautiful image; Rotten and dead, she can also rely on the old gardener's pruning to create a flourishing image. However, the illusion without substance will become more and more difficult to maintain day by day. Mrs. Hua's white hair today "only has one or two strands"; Miss Lin brushes it a few times, "it won't be visible", but what about tomorrow?What about the day after tomorrow?Spontaneity will only increase, and reality will only become more and more pressing.No matter how carefully Mrs. Hua avoids it, the cruel reality will continue to "stimulate the soul" like Mrs. Wan.One point worth pondering: Mrs. Hua called Mrs. Wan and other grandparents "mahjong masters".The word "fine", as well as words such as "come to urge the soul again", "come to catch me every day, really teach them can't stand it", all vaguely imply that Mrs. Hua (and the social culture she symbolizes) suffered from bad luck. Because of the entanglement of demons, he was involuntarily dragged in the direction completely opposite to his own intention.In this way, we noticed that what Mrs. Hua did was always contrary to her wish: she didn't want to give Mrs. Wan a "handful of snow", but in the end she picked it up and took it to Wan's mansion.She didn't like artificial make-up, so she hired Miss Lin to come to her home to do her beauty.She didn't want to be entangled by "mahjong masters", so she went to Wan Mansion to play mahjong.She didn't want the "novice" to make the imperial concubine bun, but he still did it.She didn't want to be enlightened, but in the end she suddenly had an understanding. Of course, the thing that is most contrary to her will and the most out of her control is that she does not want to grow old or die, but she has to approach the end of old age and death day by day. And when Mrs. Hua finally dies of old age, who can or is willing to inherit her dream?Her daughter, who lives in a foreign country and encourages her to make up in every possible way, has of course been cut off from her mother long ago.Once Mrs. Hua dies of old age, the era she represents, the era she tried to grasp in the torrent of time, will also come to an end.Even the remnants of memory will gradually become blurred and finally disappear completely.