Chapter 38 postscript

The content of the book was written until Janney's death in December 1967. This is a fairly complete story.The book was published in 1970, translated and published in thirty-three languages.The print run of more than 20 million copies is of course an encouragement to the author, but it may also become a temptation.So by 1977, Siegel published it again.The protagonist is still the same Oliver, Oliver Barrett Fourth, who lives alone in New York with the pain of losing his wife. Without love, the story is of course not good-looking and cannot attract readers.The author designed a new love story in the new work, which is also reasonable, and there is nothing to be deeply responsible for.The heroine is easy to handle, and brand new characters appear on the stage, which can be created by the author as he wishes.But Oliver is in trouble. The relationship between him and Jenny is too deep, and the pain in the heart cannot be healed for a while, which prompts the author to do his best and mobilize all means to connect the stories with the main line of love reluctantly. Psychiatrists and doctors were invited out.The success of this marriage is of course a suspense for the readers, but the greater suspense is, what is the root cause of this constant failure.The new heroine, Marcie, doesn't have as many "thorns" as Jenny, and she gets along with Oliver in everything, and is so accommodating in every way, but Oliver just can't hear the word "marriage", and feels hairy when he hears these two words .Facts have proved: Gianni is unhappy, afraid of being deceived, the two rarely get along together, and they always fail to talk about ideas. These are not the decisive reasons.The decisive reason is that Oliver sees the shadow of his disgraceful ancestor in this strong woman.In Oliver's own words, she forced Oliver to "join that hateful elite group in today's society."Oliver expressed his way of life with decisive words to Marcie on the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong: "I don't have the ability to change the world at all, but I don't have to join forces with others." This marriage is bound to end in failure.

However, after careful investigation, Oliver's own changes in the past few years after he left school and set foot in society are quite intriguing.The rebellious nature of his student days had its limits; when he became a lawyer, he thought he was doing a great job, taking on cases related to major "civil rights" issues, and avenging the wrongdoings of many "wronged buns". After seeking justice, he went to Harlem to do his duty to help the blacks in the lawsuit, and also participated in the demonstration movement against the Vietnam War. He became the so-called "activist" in the eyes of his father, but it was a concentrated expression of everything he wanted to oppose back then. ——The image of his father in his mind has changed, and this change is 180 degrees!There may be two reasons why the years have blunted the edges and corners of the youth, but the more important factor is probably the influence of the social environment at that time.From the 1960s to the 1970s, a group of young people who were originally dissatisfied with reality and just wanted to vent as much as possible gradually entered middle age and began to yearn for a more stable life. The employment problem became a major concern for them.At this time, the father Oliver saw completely lost the shadow of their disgraceful ancestors, because he solved the employment problem for so many people.In Oliver's opinion, he must have ceased to be a member of "that damned elite group."In the end, Oliver actually let go of the lawyer who had done a good job, and willingly took over his father's class.This, I am afraid, is unexpected by many readers.

The author has created quite a lot in recent years. In addition to the several works mentioned above, he has published "Doctor" and "Return to Yiji" one after another, and the length of each is getting bigger. comfortable October 1996