Chapter 26 Analysis of "Corrosion"

Originally titled "Structure of Corrosion", it is one of the representative works of Seiichi Morimura, a famous writer of reasoning novels of contemporary Japanese neo-socialism. After being published from 1971 to 1972, it received attention both inside and outside the literary world and won the Award of the Mystery Writers Association. It came out as a single book in 1974, and became a popular bestseller with twenty-five consecutive editions until May 1978.This work not only made the author who became famous in the literary world in the late 1960s become the "standard bearer" of the New Socialist School, but also became one of the representative works of this school.Major themes with practical significance, exquisite and novel artistic concepts, ups and downs and peculiar storylines, vivid characterizations, fascinating scenery descriptions, and interesting logical reasoning have won this work praise from readers.

The 1960s was a period of rapid economic growth in Japan. With the huge changes in the industrial and economic structures, the competition in the industrial and commercial circles and the annexation of small and medium-sized enterprises by monopoly consortiums were unprecedentedly fierce. , Fraud for personal gain is heard from time to time.In the midst of "economic prosperity" contradictions arose.It truly reflects the social problems in Japan during this period. It is a work with profound ideological significance.It is profound because this work reveals that Japan's social structure is a "corroded structure", which is a major issue related to the life and destiny of hundreds of millions of Japanese people.The author portrays three types of characters in this work, and its central theme is displayed through the thoughts, behaviors and encounters of these three types of characters.

The first category of characters is composed of high-level social figures such as the great politician Natori Ryutaro, the capitalist Dokiya Sadahiko, and the agent of the monopoly consortium and the big capitalist Honda Yoshikazu.Natori Ryutaro is the most thoroughly exposed image of a corrupter by the author. Natori Ryutaro is a bureaucratic and ambitious politician who climbs up according to the promotion plan. He has already climbed to the position of a congressman, a leader of the ruling party, and a faction leader. He is about to climb to the throne of the next president and become the ruling Prime Minister of Yipin.He drew a conclusion from the officialdom, which is also his creed: If you want to be promoted, you must have money as a pillar.Therefore, he will do whatever it takes to grab the money.

The author vividly and vividly describes the ugly faces of such ambitious politicians through plots such as marrying a wife, marrying a daughter, and killing a son-in-law, as well as a series of behind-the-scenes activities. Another representative character among Corruptors is Tsukiya Sadahiko.Although he is a conceited and energetic person, he tried to turn around the crisis of Dokiya Industrial Co., Ltd. quickly by entering into the National Defense Agency as a royal arms dealer and Shinwa Steel Corporation as a distributor. As a result, the crisis was not only unavoidable, but Instead, he took his own life.The competition between Dokiya Industrial Co., Ltd. and Shinwa Corporation is a microcosm of the competition between thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises and the revived monopoly consortium during the period of rapid economic growth in Japan.It vividly illustrates that the competition between a medium-sized enterprise such as Earthenware House Company and a powerful monopoly capital is no different from a small fish competing for food in front of the mouth of a whale, and it is doomed to be swallowed by itself.

Nakahashi, an official of the National Defense Agency, and Matsuo, an employee of the Heping Political and Economic News Agency, are two typical images of being corrupted and tools of the corrupting person. They are the second type of characters in the work. From these people, we can clearly see that there is no friendship, love, or parent-child relationship among the upper-class figures in capitalist society. Instead, they are sinister, cruel, cruel, intriguing, and mercenary, and they use each other as a tool to achieve their own goals.Ryutaro Natori opposed the relationship between his own daughter and his adopted son, not out of ethics, but because he regarded his own daughter as a commodity that can only be sold at a high price; the marriage between Dokiya Sadahiko and Dongzi was not out of true love, but to make full use of "" "Old Taishan", a powerful politician; the reason why Tuqiwu spared no expense in bribing Zhongqiao was to ask Zhongqiao to open a way for him to become a businessman of the National Defense Agency.Of course, the use value of any commodity is limited.Matsuo and Nakahashi, the two servants and minions who killed Dokiya and Umura, and made great contributions to the annexation of Dokiya Industrial Company, lost their use value and were kicked away "like a pair of old straw sandals".In capitalist society, money is like a huge magnet that attracts people, corrodes people's souls, dominates people's actions, and becomes the yardstick for people to measure the value of actions.Indeed, between them, "except for the naked interest, except for the ruthless 'cash transaction', there is no other relationship" ("Communist Manifesto").

On the other hand, the author emphatically portrays the images of the three resisters with sympathy and admiration. The upright, young and promising atomic energy scientist Masao Amamura is a person who devotes himself to scientific research and wholeheartedly wants to use science to benefit mankind.He is unwilling to use his huge scientific research achievements as commodities to trade with capitalists, and he is even more opposed to making murderous weapons.He cleans himself up and resists corruption.However, in a capitalist society, an honest scientist is just a "laying chicken" who can only lay eggs, and "has no right to ask what kind of dishes are made with the eggs laid."Without freedom, there is no autonomy.There is a deep contradiction between their ideals and this social reality, and they can neither get along with this dirty society, but they can't get rid of it, which leads to his tragic ending.

Yucun's death shows that the social system dominated by ambitious politicians and profit-seeking capitalists cannot allow an honest scientist to survive and contribute his ingenuity.Yucun's tragedy is not just his personal tragedy, but a social tragedy. The author's Kumiko and Omachi are a pair of impressive characters.The author shows the central theme of the work more prominently through the encounter between the two of them in the process of searching for Yucun and their various encounters. Kumiko is a typical image of ordinary Japanese women.She is beautiful in appearance and even more beautiful in heart.From the day she got married, she gave her husband a holy heart.She actively supports her husband to immerse himself in scientific research, and wants to spend a happy life with him in peace.But her husband's disappearance was like a thunderbolt from the blue sky, waking her up from the dream of happiness, and the peaceful life suddenly turned into a storm.After her husband disappeared, the clutches of politicians and capitalists vying to seize Yucun's scientific research achievements came to her again.She saw the darkness and cruelty of this society in this tragic experience.At the same time, in the process of finding her husband, she sadly realizes that she is Dongzi's "stand-in".This made her suffer another blow, and she was inevitably discouraged on the road of life.

Kumiko and Air Force pilot Omachi meet while searching for Amamura's whereabouts.Omachi has a noble character and loves to help others.The two were in love with each other, and finally had a sincere and pure love, and with a vision of a beautiful and happy life, they agreed for a lifetime-to get married after finding out the whereabouts of Yucun.But Kumiko never expected that just as the truth about Amamura's disappearance and the earthenware house's murder was about to come to light, Omachi was shot and killed himself in order to save Fuyuko and Matsuo.This is undoubtedly a fatal blow to Kumiko.She finally realized that it was this "world of fog" that took her life.In fact, "it's not fog, but something moldy and rotting there."The pure and kind Kumiko spent her life in this "corroded structure". "Whether Yucun and Dongzi, earthenware house and Matsuo are all members of this corroded structure, they are intertwined and connected together", they are rolling, corroding and destroying each other.What kind of world is this, what kind of world!The pure Kumiko had to leave this evil society with grief and indignation.

Amamura was killed, Dokiya Sadahiko was killed, Matsuo and Kumiko committed suicide, Omachi was shot and killed, and Nakahashi and Toko were imprisoned.Through the tragic ending of these people, the author tells people that in this society, not only the kind-hearted, honest and righteous people at the lower level cannot survive, but also small and medium-sized capitalists, small and medium-sized bureaucrats, and scientists who are just and full of good ideals will inevitably become big. A stepping stone and victim for politicians and big capitalists to get promoted and get rich.It shows that this society is heaven for the upper class figures of the ruling class such as Ryutaro Natoro and Yoshikazu Honda, but it is hell for the people of the ruled class.As the targets, Dongzi and Nakahashi were arrested and brought to justice in the name of the murderer, but the real culprit who planned the murder was at large.

This work tells readers that the social structure dominated by the combination of ambitious politicians and big capitalists is dark and corrupt, and it is it that is corrupting people's souls and bringing endless disasters and countless tragedies to people .The author uses the artistic technique of logical reasoning to uncover all kinds of shady scenes of a highly materialistic society, and finally makes readers realize that a free society is not free, and the spirit of a highly materialistic society is not civilized. The plot arrangement of this work is tortuous and changeable, complicated but not chaotic.It begins with the climbing of the earthenware house and Yucun together, and it is divided into two clues. The first part describes the contradiction between Yucun's scientific research ideals and social reality, the disappearance and the search process; go through.The two lines are connected by the love entanglement of Dongzi's "substitute" love.In the end, it returns to the cloudy and misty old valley at the beginning of the story. The truth of the case is revealed and Kumiko dies in love as the ending, skillfully forming an organic whole.

This work is good at portraying characters.Sometimes I use meticulous painting techniques to draw meticulously; sometimes I use freehand brushwork techniques to grasp the characteristics and outline them with a few strokes.Psychological description and action description are used alternately.The vivid images of various characters are vivid and vivid on the paper.And especially good at portraying characters through dialogue.For example, when the "behind-the-scenes military strategist" named Long Tailong and the "behind-the-scenes emperor" Honda Yoshikazu hid in a restaurant, toasting to congratulate the victory of "killing the son-in-law and seizing the property", they only used a few words to make their treacherous and insidious mouths play tricks. Dangerous, vividly outlined. The author himself is a mountaineering enthusiast, and he observes the changes of the four seasons of the mountain scenery in detail. The scenery of the Japanese Alps described in this book is full of beauty, real and moving, and gives people a sense of being there. In short, no matter in terms of its ideological or artistic quality, it is a work with distinctive characteristics.It gets rid of the old framework of reasoning for reasoning, purely "solving puzzles", "fighting wits", and pursuing thrills and magic, and attaches importance to the sociality and reality of the subject matter of the novel.Through typical events, using reasoning techniques, it deeply analyzes the thoughts and behaviors of various classes, criticizes the dark phenomena of society, and lashes out the ugly soul, with a strong spirit of criticizing reality. . What this work shows is the life scene during the period of rapid economic growth in Japan, and the atmosphere of the times is very strong.It is helpful for readers to understand the contemporary Japanese society. This work also has some shortcomings.Although the author raised the key issue of "corroded structure" in the broad field of social life, he did not point out the way to solve social contradictions, showing the power to solve social contradictions.