The miserable fate of those who sowed evil in the land reform is still spreading: Doi Cu went to the South, was recruited, and was killed by our special forces; Doi Dinh and his wife and children went begging and then fled to the new economic zone of Lam Dong, continuing to pursue the illusory dream of Dai Dong camp; Doi Boi was abandoned by his wife and children, and was forced to pump tires on the sidewalk... The tragedy of the land reform in a certain commune ended happily. The characters Cu, Boi, and Dinh, in some ways, can also be considered tragic characters. Their tragedy stemmed from their personal desires for power. This caused them to slide into degeneration and lead to a painful ending.
The above tragedies have shown that: there was a time when we were too rigid, not paying attention to people as a value, a normal person with simple desires. People became a part of the collective, with the duty to sacrifice and obey the collective. This type of character deeply demonstrates the need to re-understand history. The tragic fate of individuals has brought us lessons in how to perceive and treat people.
3.1.2 Personal tragedy
It is not only historical circumstances that bring tragedy to people. In life, with many complex relationships with many contradictions and paradoxes, it is inevitable that people fall into tragedy. Among them, there are tragedies caused by evil, but there are also tragedies created by people themselves.
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In Ta Duy Anh's novels, people rarely appear to be completely happy. The writer pays much attention to human suffering and unfortunate lives. People in Ta Duy Anh's novels are always drowned in hatred. This is where suffering and crime are born. In the small Dong village, hatred surrounds the fate of Lao Kho, Lao Tu, Tu Voc, Hai Duy and Tam. The hatred from one generation to the next cannot be resolved. It is Lao Kho who effectively builds his own suffering . His name is his nature, the offspring of the machine that he is the cause of creating, so that later it will crush him. When " he began to rummage through his memories, he pulled out a string of people who ate porridge and kicked the bowl, those who betrayed their teachers, those who slandered others, those who ruined their livelihoods
of the old man, those who talk like Buddha, those who have a snake's heart" and lament " Why are there so many people who harm people?" , he did not know that his life was fading away with those thoughts. The longer the list of hatred, the shorter his life became. Hatred gives birth to tragedy. Ta Duy Anh often talks about human death. From the unjust death of creatures who have never been human to people whose hands are stained with blood. Most of Ta Duy Anh's characters who still have a bit of sanity are in a situation where they have no other choice but to commit suicide, because this is the only meaningful thing they can do - Dr. N. has only done one meaningful thing in his life: commit suicide!
There is also the tragedy of people succumbing to circumstances, to evil and bad things. The type of characters who become the tragedy of evil and bad things can be seen in The Circle of Betrayal, Life is so long, Three times and once (Chu Lai). They are soldiers who want to live honestly, do not succumb to money and power, do not follow the bad guys, and are determined to fight to the end for what is right. In Three times and once (Chu Lai), the main character is Sau Nguyen - a kind commander. Sau Nguyen's tragedy is described in his relationship with Nam Thanh, his former comrade - a wicked and scheming person. In every situation, Sau Nguyen is the one who forgives. The first time Nam Thanh calls for help, Sau Nguyen forgives. The second time Nam Thanh steals Sau Nguyen's most beloved person, he also forgives. Twenty years later, Nam Thanh commits many crimes by trickery, trampling on everyone, but he still forgives. Sau Nguyen could have killed Nam Thanh many times, but because of his humanity, he spared him. It was because of his humanity that Sau Nguyen had a tragic ending, which was death. To highlight the uncompromising battle between good and evil, Chu Lai often put characters in fierce, intense conflicts. In that series of conflicts, evil appeared extremely sophisticated and vicious. The theme of tragic characters was continued by Chu Lai in Cuoc Doi Long . To harm Vu Nguyen, Dang Dien used all kinds of tricks and schemes, even pretending to be humane and hypocritical at times. He sought out powerful people like Ba Vinh, people in a weak position like Doan Thanh, people with conditions to commit crimes like Hung Tien Outpost... to form a devilish alliance.
As a result, Vu Nguyen was thrown into prison. Thanks to the efforts of his friends and comrades, especially Ha Thuong, Vu Nguyen was cleared of the charges. But the day he returned was also the day Vu Nguyen passed away in his lover's arms due to a relapse of his heart disease.
Not only Chu Lai, Ma Van Khang is also a person who pursues the type of character crushed by evil. This type of character in Ma Van Khang's novels is often educated intellectuals, rich in self-respect, nurturing noble aspirations such as Tu, Thuat ( Wedding without a marriage certificate ), Khiem, Hoan ( Against the flood ) .
As a good literature teacher, loved by many generations of students, Tu's life was " a jar of spoiled pickles ". Or as Thuat said, Tu was " a good book misplaced, a failed wedding, an unfinished party ". Because they did not agree with the dishonest actions of Duong and Cam - ignorant, evil people - Tu, Thuat (a math teacher "with a head equal to two PhDs combined") and Mr. Thong were tortured with extremely despicable tricks. Thuat and Mr. Thong caught Cam correcting the exam to improve their grades, but he turned black into white, accused the two of them of entering the office without permission and made a report. His brazenness shocked Mr. Thong, who had to be taken to the emergency room. In the confrontation with evil, no one was left unscathed. Mr. Thong was speechless, Tu's health was so poor that he had to be hospitalized, and Thuat suffered from mental illness and had to be treated. Tu himself had to endure many more misfortunes: Duong and Cam, in the name of the Party and in the name of his profession, concluded that Tu was not worthy of standing on the podium. In addition, Tu's wife betrayed him, and his family life was difficult. It can be said that the entire book echoes the author's urgent and responsible questions: Why do people with both heart and talent have to suffer so many hardships? Why can evil prevail so blatantly?
Another tragedy that is also quite successfully recreated in Upstream is the tragedy of Khiem and Hoan. Khiem is a talented and erudite intellectual, loved by his friends. Khiem always helps others sincerely, without hesitation or calculation. Thanks to him, Lieu's entry into the Party was smooth. He also always cares for and protects Ti Hoi... But the very people he supports are the ones who betray him.
They joined forces with Pho - a man of low character and meanness - to crush Khiem. Family tragedy and betrayal made Khiem depressed and sick.
As analyzed above, the path leading to the character's tragedy may be due to circumstances, or may be due to evil. However, the tragedy also partly lies in people who lack courage and cannot overcome themselves. When discussing the character Giang Minh Sai in Thoi xa vanh , we analyzed the circumstances that have distorted this character's life. But on his part, Sai himself always lives passively. Even when he left Tuyet to marry Chau, Sai fell into a vicious circle: " Many times I feel like I am no longer myself ". Breaking up with Chau, Sai bitterly realized a truth: " At the age of forty, I do not know what I am to decide my own fate ".
In Duong Huong's "The Wharf Without a Husband" , Van is also a tragic character. Secretly in love with Nhan, but because of the family curse, Van had to keep that love silent in his heart. But the most painful thing is that, when he knew that Hanh's daughter was his own, Van still insisted on advising Hanh to return to Nghia. Van's advice to Hanh to return to Nghia stemmed from the fact that he was too afraid that people would know the truth. When he knew that Hanh intended not to leave Van, Van went to the river to commit suicide. Van's death shows that this character did not have the courage to "cross the curse" to receive happiness.
Thus, the tragic inspiration imbued with humanity in the novels of the renovation period is like a source of beautiful and deeply sad light. That source of light is directed towards and converges in the character type "Tragic Man". From the tragedy of heroes in specific forms of historical tragedy to the tragedy of small, ordinary people in private tragedy with a multifaceted, unpredictable, reasonable and unreasonable, right and wrong human fate... All are messy and chaotic like the real life around us. And that is truly life.
3.2 Degenerate characters
Degeneration: “the phenomenon of human degeneration into evil” [78, p. 907]. The appearance of this type of character is based on the change in people's concept of human beings.
Literature in the renovation period. Characters before 1975 often had no movement in terms of personality: always good people or forever bad people. The tendency of literature to reflect on the good side of society, ideal people with inspiration to praise. Therefore, we see people in a simple way. Entering the renovation period, facing great changes in life, people are placed in many choices. In those choices, they face the risk of being corrupted by many reasons. This further proves the existence of mysteries and complexities in each person, the chaos of life that writers must be alert and honest to be able to discover and express.
3.2.1 Characters corrupted by environment and circumstances
Degeneration is a phenomenon that easily occurs at times of social transition. In the history of literature from 1930 to 1945, there have been degenerate characters such as: Chi Pheo, Binh Tu, Nam Tho, Ho in the works of Nam Cao; Xuan Toc Do in the novels of Vu Trong Phung... They are people who are degenerated by circumstances. But the nature of their degeneration is often explained by the need to survive. In general, the level of degeneration of those characters is often simple and easy to see. In the literature of renovation, changes in life with temptations easily cause people to degenerate (characters in the novels of Ma Van Khang, Duong Huong, Nguyen Khac Truong, Chu Lai, To Hoai...). And in the chaos of life, the level of expression of degeneration by circumstances is also deeper. War is an environment that is often mentioned with the risk of degenerating people. It is not by chance that novels of the renovation period have a branch called "post-war novels". War, for any Vietnamese, whether they participated in the war or not, left a heavy and haunting impression. Works such as The Far Away Time (Le Luu), The Wharf Without a Husband (Duong Huong), The Sorrow of War (Bao Ninh), and The Beggar of the Past (Chu Lai) are truly a re-awareness of war in which there exists a reality: Humans are degenerated. That degeneracy is expressed in the aspect: people are increasingly moving away from their good nature, away from the quality of honest people. The degeneracy of these characters has a tragic color. They are more pitiful than worthy.
blame
The Sorrow of War (Bao Ninh) is the most profound work about war up to this point. Reading the work, we are reminded of the short story Life After Death (Tim O'Brien) - a work by an American writer about the war in Vietnam. War with all its brutality has destroyed the human soul. The soldiers in the work see death calmly, even laugh with the corpses. For Kien in The Sorrow of War ( Bao Ninh), war is an indelible memory of the terrible things to people. In his dreams, Kien still remembers "executing" the spies. Not listening to their begging, not needing the information they promised to provide, Kien had only one decision: to let the four of them share a hole dug by themselves, despite the dissuasion of his comrades. " A fierce, burning anger rose up in his heart, burning him, tearing him apart.
- Shut up?- He roared, and roughly pressed the muzzle of the submachine gun close to Cu's mouth- If you want to confess to them, stand in line with them. I'll take you down too. You too... right ?" [54]
People are not only corrupted by war. In life, for each person, circumstances have a certain meaning and sometimes it causes corruption.
Finding the Character (Ta Duy Anh) has created characters who turned themselves into slaves of ugliness and evil. That is "Mrs. Cuc" - originally a " dreamy and idealistic " girl, with a handsome lover, but at the age of 14, she went to the street to work as a maid, was raped by her boss, " was thrown from one guy to another " and from there lost faith in life and became a prostitute and an " ugly and ridiculous " brothel owner . Thao Mien - an innocent angel girl, also because she witnessed her mother having an affair with a well-digger, lost faith, causing her to decide to sell her soul to the devil, then entered a brothel, becoming a " high-class prostitute, only paired with those who had ears and eyes, considered money as a clam shell" . In A Wedding Without a Marriage Certificate (Ma Van Khang), the originally obedient female student Trinh, because of illness, abandonment, poverty... suddenly became ruthless, snatching to take revenge on life. Just because of being too arbitrary and principled
According to his father, Nui ( Waves at the bottom of the river , Le Luu) from a good, intelligent, studious boy, but because of his mother's early death, worrying about his younger siblings, Nui became a thief. With a lot of help from good people, Nui became a good person again, but no, once again, because of his unclean background, he was pushed back to the path of crime. Time passed, it seemed like Nui had shaken off his gangster life and returned to an honest life, but Nui's theft a year before once again put him in prison. Through Nui's story, the writer wants to talk about a reality: a life without love and affection will also become an environment that causes people to degenerate. It raises the question "living in life requires a heart" (Trinh Cong Son).
In this aspect, the characters are also pushed by circumstances, taking revenge on life with a loose, cruel lifestyle... They are pitiful and also hateful. In these works, the writer wants us to look at the environment around us: we need to have a sober attitude. However, the struggle between good and evil in each person is always fierce and persistent. It is also a never-ending war. Humans always have the potential risk of being degraded, of losing themselves.
3.2.2. Characters corrupted by themselves
If people who are corrupted by circumstances more or less evoke pity, characters who are corrupted by their own needs bring contempt and indignation. These characters appeared in the open-door period and continue to exist today.
At the beginning of the renovation period, the market economy was really attractive to many people. Money became a measure of society. Many " people are becoming mean and mediocre because of material benefits " (Ma Van Khang). With a soft, gentle, but fierce voice, Ma Van Khang wrote about the negative aspects of society to emphasize the magic of money that has strongly damaged people's will, emotions and personality. Ma Van Khang affirmed: "A pragmatic lifestyle runs
"Following money is a germ-filled situation that makes people infected with an inhuman disease" ( The season of falling leaves in the garden ).
The Season of Falling Leaves in the Garden (Ma Van Khang) mentions another alarming reality of society in the transitional period: many people have a selfish lifestyle, only know how to pursue personal desires, pursue money, escape from tradition, break all social moral standards... All of these things are destroying all family relationships every day, every hour. In Mr. Bang's family, there appear two rebellious people who want to throw everything away, completely denying all traditional moral standards, Cu and Ly. Cu is inherently a person "who already has the seeds of corruption in him". All the advice and teachings of his parents towards Cu are just "hypocritical" actions. In Cu's heart, "morality is considered a meaningless zero", so even though he is scolded, beaten, and threatened in many ways, Cu still remains the same. When he joined the army, Cu always wrote letters home complaining about his hardships to "strip" more money from his parents. Cu considered the important matter of “a hundred years” as just a “trivial matter of life”. Moreover, after leaving a naive girl with two children, Cu abandoned his responsibility as a husband and father and persuaded another woman to run away from her husband and cross the border with him. Cu’s ending was death in a foreign land and late regret. In addition to the character Cu, in the work, Ly is a complex character with a personality and a rich inner life that the author vividly portrayed. Researcher Van Thanh had the following assessment of Ly: “ This character has many innovative features in the author’s writing style. She is a beautiful, sharp, resourceful woman but uneducated. When she was young, a dreamy young woman, she married a gentle soldier. Proud of her husband’s bravery in battle, she was faithful to him throughout the fierce years of the resistance war against the US, and raised her children alone. But she was a person who loved power, wanted to order others, dared to take the lead, considered herself superior, and liked to dress up and pursue a luxurious life " [62, p. 159]. The skillful flattery and sophistication in the playboy tricks of the degenerate, flirtatious, rich and scheming head of the supplies department pushed Ly from being unable to control material temptations to falling and being corrupted. Ly's nature was that of a person who loved power, wanted to order others, considered herself