Chapter 28 show and tell

"Son, you're too emotional. You've thrown your heart and soul at this young lady. If God calls her back one day, I'm afraid you won't let her go willingly. Listen, believe me, as a Christian, you can't be so absorbed in anyone or anything in the world that, whatever way God may call him back, he will obey with heart and without regret." At this moment someone hastily broke in and announced to Mr. Adams, His youngest son fell into the water and died.Adams was silent for a moment, then beat his chest and feet in the room, mourning the loss of his son.Joseph was as heartbroken as the pastor, but he quickly calmed down and tried his best to comfort the pastor.He comforted him with what the pastor taught him, whether in private or in public, because the pastor hated the word lust the most, and he always taught everyone to use reason and grace to overcome them.However, at this moment, none of these words could be heard. "My boy, my boy," he said, "don't talk nonsense. It might be more bearable with some other boy. My innocent little fellow, my heart and consolation in my old age, poor little thing." , just walked into life and passed away. He was the sweetest, least mischievous kid who ever lived and never pissed me off. I gave him his first lesson on Origin of Life just this morning. Yes, This is the book. But, poor boy, it is of no use to you now. He has a good chance of becoming the greatest scholar, and the pride of the religious world. Such gifts and qualities at such a young age, I It's the first time I've seen you!" said Mrs. Adams, after a faint, and when she woke up from Fanny's arms, "he's still the prettiest boy." "Poor little Jack, Daddy will never see you again." right?" the pastor cried. "Yes, indeed," said Joseph, "but he has gone to a better place. You will meet there then, and you will never be apart again." He didn't listen to it either, because he was just blindly immersed in grief and didn't pay attention to anything else, tears dripping down his chest.Finally, he yelled, "Baby, where are you?" And he rushed out in a mixture of surprise and joy, and he saw his own child, running towards him alive and well despite being wet from head to toe .Readers, I really hope you understand him.

Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews (1742) The language of the novel is constantly alternating between showing us what happened and telling us what happened.Pure display is a direct quote from the words of the characters.The words of the characters accurately reflect the event, because the event is a speech act here.A pure narrative is an author's overview.The author's accurate and abstract language obliterates the individuality of characters and actions.Therefore, a novel written purely in general terms is difficult to read.However, overviews have their own unique uses.For example, it can speed up the narrative and make the reader skip over details that aren't or are too interesting.If you are too interested in details, you will inevitably linger and linger, thus distracting your attention from the whole.This is not difficult to see in the works of Henry Fielding.At the time of Fielding's creation, the writing technique of free indirect speech (see Section 9 for details) had not yet appeared.The characteristic of this technique is to integrate the author's language and the character's language into one.In his novels, however, the line between the two languages ​​is sharply drawn.

A benevolent, charismatic man and a great comic character, the Reverend Abraham Adams is arguably one of the most haunting characters in English fiction because he is constantly caught up in contradictions.The world in his mind is always very different from the real world.In his mind, everyone should be as selfless as he is, and only benefit others; but in reality, there are opportunists who are not beneficial to others, only selfish.What he said was far from what he did.What he preached was Christian doctrine and asceticism, what he practiced was human instinct and nature.The sharp contrast between fantasy and reality makes him an eternal comic figure, a sympathetic comic figure, because even if his judgment is not sure, his heart is also impartial.This contrasting writing technique was borrowed by Fielding from Cervantes' "Don Quixote", and Fielding made no secret of it.

In the above excerpt, Pastor Adams is teaching the protagonist Joseph, who is eager to marry his long-lost sweetheart Fanny who is in danger.Adams delivered a long "sermon" to the young man, admonishing him to turn away from lust and to trust in God.He takes Abraham in the Old Testament as an example.Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God when God called him.His sermons were recorded verbatim, or "described."Adams always declared that they should always make sacrifices in peace, according to the will of God.These claims of his have been brutally tested. "At this moment, someone rushed in and informed Mr. Adams that his youngest son fell into the water and died." This is the most typical summary. The word "announcement" seems very formal and cold in this sentence.Moreover, the author did not state who the "someone" refers to.The grief of the father who lost his beloved son, Joseph tried to comfort, these are also written in a general way.However, Adams' refusal to listen to Joseph's reassurance was "exhibitive", or the full text was recorded: "Son, child, don't say useless things...", thus highlighting the strong contrast between his words and deeds.

Fielding played a dangerous game here.On the one hand, we see this contradiction as a common feature of comic characters; on the other hand, the death of a child is anything but ridiculous.Abraham Adams shares the same name with the biblical character Abraham, however, he failed to show devotion to God like Abraham.People can't help laughing at him; however, his painful situation and the sorrow of losing his son make people want to laugh and stop.At this point, people will hesitate and be at a loss. However, Fielding paved a way for the characters and readers to "survive a desperate situation".After describing the pain of the Adamses and how Joseph's reassurance was ineffective, Adams discovered that his son had not drowned.Soon, Adams regained his energy and preached to Joseph again, saying how Christians should obey God's will.

For the survival of the child, the author wrote like this. "People who come here to deliver the news are a little bit in a hurry. People do that sometimes, and I don't think it's all good intentions: when you see a child in the water, instead of trying to save it, you go straight to the father and report the bad news. ;He himself thought that everything was irreparable, but in fact he gave up the chance to save others. This explanation seems to be justified. On the one hand, it is because the whole novel is full of a series of stupid and despicable behaviors. It's just one example. On the other hand, someone came to report the incident as soon as the incident happened. If the image of the reporter can be richer, and the words describing the accident are directly transcribed, the rhythm of this scene will be more "lifelike". "Lifelike", but its emotional effect will be completely different. The scene of the drowning of the child will make the reader greatly saddened, and the comedy of the novel will also disappear. When the truth is revealed, as readers, we will inevitably be disappointed. The author's sense of being fooled. However, Fielding avoids these undesirable effects by generalizing and not embellishing.