"I am a cat" by Japanese writer Soseki Natsume

The writer Natsume Soseki was a Japanese writer, current affairs critic, and English scholar from the Meiji to Taisho period. He was active in the literary world from the late Meiji to the early Taisho period. He is also considered to be one of the greatest writers in modern Japanese literature . Known as a great national writer", his representative works include " I Am a Cat ", " Young Master ", " Sanshiro ", " Heart ", " Light and Darkness " and so on. As a representative of the writers of the Meiji period, he is listed as a figure on the 1,000 yen note. He created "I Am a Cat", a critical realism novel full of artistic charm. This work has a wide range of reflections, rich and complex content. It does not have a complete storyline, but is based on the uniqueness of a spiritual animal. From the perspective of "Kinda's son-in-law" as a clue, he observes and maps the psychological state of the real society, exposes the current situation of Japan's real society with spicy and ironic language, and eloquently mocks and ridicules the ugly aspects of society since the Meiji Restoration. , its extraordinary writing style has aroused social sensation and attention, giving people deep thinking and enlightenment.

1. Interpretation of "I Am a Cat" from a Narrative Perspective

The work "I Am a Cat" adopts the method of first-person narration to present a picture of all living beings in Japan's Meiji Restoration era, which brings people an intuitive aesthetic effect and shortens the relationship between readers and the work. distance. From a personal perspective, this work uses the unnamed cat in "Our Family" as the narrator and perceiver to lead people into the novel, and is more objective and effective in shaping the complete image of the characters. For example, in the eyes of cats, Hanyue is a character who is knowledgeable and thoughtful but full of helplessness and mediocrity. The Kunovia is a conservative, self-righteous, cynical, and pretentious figure.

In the works, the cat without a name also makes emotional reactions and moral evaluations, which makes the novel carry a political and lyrical flavor. What the cat saw and heard about himself caused a lot of discussion and criticism. The sharpness of his words and the irony of his words became a major style and feature of the novel, and he also listed the accumulated habits and inferiority of various human beings. Human arrogance and ignorance. The work also quotes a lot of the dialogue between cats and humans. From another narrative perspective, it enhances people's sense of presence and better compensates for the limited perspective of the characters. At the same time, it also takes the harmony and opposition between cats and humans as the theme, and reflects and satirizes the numbness, pedanticness and ignorance of humans, as if the cat is a wise man, but the human is a ridiculous clown.

At the same time, with the help of this puppet-style narrative structure, the author speaks freely and unscrupulously, giving this cat's eyes the qualities of being able to talk and think, and also proficient in knowledge, profound wisdom, and humorous acumen. In this unusual cat's eye, the reader's interest is greatly aroused, and under this counterintuitive perspective, a dramatic experience is inspired. People can see through it at a glance, find it funny, and be more able to Deeply understand the deep meaning of the work. In addition, in this spiritual cat's eye perspective, a defamiliarization effect can also be produced, that is, people can conduct aesthetics under this novel perspective, experience the power of turning habitual knowledge into new knowledge, and turning corruption into magical power. From the perspective of Maoyan, he pointed out the current shortcomings, ridiculed human beings, and mocked, satirized, condemned and lashed out at the ugliness of society, which enhanced people's cognition and understanding of human society, and made people wake up and recover from the indifference and numbness of life. uplifting.

2. The artistic features and language description of "I Am a Cat"

1. Use unique and extraordinary artistic techniques to reveal themes and portray characters. The novel "I Am a Cat" is narrated through cat's eyes, showing a new perspective and giving people a novel experience and feeling. Under the omniscient perspective of this cat's eye, the first character narrates, observes one's own species, and gazes at human society. The content is rich and complex, and achieves peculiar artistic and aesthetic effects.

In this novel, the cat without a name is like a philosopher who sees into society and conveys various voices. For example: when describing Kunovia and his friends, he used sarcasm and ridicule to describe the strong contrast between Kunovic's tyranny at home and his cowardice in the face of the police. Tears were drenched in the mocking narrative. This special perspective shows the human intrigue and struggle for power and profit to the fullest, revealing a ridiculous, pathetic, despicable, and abominable emotion and attitude. In the home of the Kusamaras, different characters and personalities are displayed. Such as: honest and kind, cynical bitter novices, obsessed with aesthetic research, Miting, vassal and poetic Dongfeng, Jintian's first-class money worship and greedy nature, ugly social injustice, etc., are all exposed in Maoyan.

2. The way of humor and ridicule. The novel "I Am a Cat" fully embodies the author's traditional Sinology thought and spirit of Soseki Natsume's love for Sinology. He integrates the Eastern traditional Sinology thought with the ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity advocated by the Western society, and engraves the Japanese society in transition. Class imprints in the process.

In order to find a breakthrough in the disgust of the real society, the author relies on the novel "I Am a Cat" to achieve an exaggerated and deformed description of the character's behavior with profound and changeable satire and humorous words. For example, when Mi Ting was eating in a restaurant, he deliberately changed the order of "beef and potatoes" and called it "potato beef". It also uses the irony of creating words to describe the image of the characters. For example, "mouth and tongue" is a made-up word. Using delicate and humorous sentences, it highlights the vulgar and ugly face of the novice Kusama, which makes people deeply comprehend the character and heart of the characters, and hooks the malpractices in Japan's real society.

3, a large number of irony use. The use of a large number of irony is a major feature of this novel. The author uses various forms of irony, and deliberately reverses the words of honor, modesty, politeness, etc., and uses irony and contrast to fully expose the reality. The society's right and wrong are reversed, and the black and white are mixed, and the cat's eye is used to attack the dark, upside-down and cruel Japanese society. Moreover, in the eyes of cats, it expresses the irony of the money worship of social existence with words of sufficient wisdom, which is full of life philosophy and implication, and has rich and profound connotations.

Epilogue

The novel "I Am a Cat" written by Japanese writer Natsume Soseki has a broad vision, rich content, complex and profound, and reveals a mockery and criticism of Japan's real society between the lines. From the perspective of a cat without a name, the work begins with the first Narrated by person, perfectly grasps the world and all beings under different scenes, observes and stares at the world and human beings from the perspective of an animal, and criticizes and criticizes the absurdity and injustice of human society. Under the use of expression and language, the author expresses the author's sober cognition and criticism of Japan's materialistic society.

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