Extra credits——TIAN XIAOYU

                                                      Sociology in Living

                                                                                                                                             2022075141

                                                                                                                                          TIAN XIAOYU

Living is a novel written by Chinese writer Yu Hua.Describes the protagonist Fu Gui's long life, each relative gradually leaves his life, experiences a lot of painful separation, in the life's last description of their own.Many sociological aspects can be found in this novel, and if you read this novel from a sociological perspective, you will feel differently:

Real-life speech communication is a kind of purposeful speech act, we learned in class, it is carried out to achieve a certain communication.People use language to communicate always on certain occasions, on certain subjects, for certain purposes to certain objects.Because of the different communication situations, participants in speech communication display themselves differently in order to achieve the desired communication goal.This is also easily found in novels.

To the main character's performance: the novel text through the first person narration, the main character and different people dialogue, show different personality characteristics.

At the beginning of the novel, young Fu Gui wanders around in the image of a bad man, disrespecting his father and unfaithful to his wife.His appearance was that he was dressed in silk and had expensive jewelry at home, which was the highest rank in the family.He doesn't care about other people's feelings, he only cares about his own happiness, so his character shows extravagance and waste.His behavior is to ride on other people's backs gambling.He making his family sad.

When he failed to gamble, he lost all his fortune and sold his house,  his father died of anger, and his wife left him.He felt more pain and guilt, and the state he showed was sad and apologetic.So he swore to his wife.His clothes were turned into coarse cloth, and the family's precious jewelry was sold.He changed himself of his former insolence.The former rich became the indebted poor overnight and lost all their possessions. His transition from high to low made him seem more humble.

When Fu Gui became a father, he wanted to support his family with his own hands and lead a real life of family reunion. Fugui's social status changed.His appearance became a simple farmer, no longer pursuing his own pleasures, and began to work hard for his family.He learned to care for his wife and children.He became a real father.

At last, when he was old and his daughter was dead, he began to lay his hopes on his son. When his wife and his mother dead one by one and his hopes faded away. He gradually accepted everything and became a common old man, telling these stories calmly.Through such sociology activities, the whole novel embodies the vivid personality changes of the characters.It is the complex social relationship between Fu Gui and his parents, wife, children and other characters, which provides a platform for the effective expression of the characters' verbal communication.

The other characters in the novel also embody the social orientation characteristics, the most impressive is Chun Sheng. Chun Sheng at the beginning of the story is just a small character, he to live to see the face of things, when facing the rich he smiles, nods and bows, make the rich happy he can earn more money.Later, he became the county governor through his own efforts, but because his wife had difficulty giving birth, he needed a blood transfusion, indirectly killing rich and noble children.Eventually he committed suicide because he was oppressed.

Several of the main characters in Living have different ways of living. Fu Gui started by living for himself, then for survival and family, and finally for living. Jia Zhen lives for her children.Er Xi lives for his wife.And Chun Sheng, live for dignity.

Dignity, respect. One is to gain respect from others, the other is to respect oneself. Chun Sheng’s suicide should have been caused by his unfulfilled need for respect.

Most of the time, the need to meet first from the lowest level of demand, if the lower level of demand is not met, it is not easy to go to the higher level of demand.The need to live in spring is to be respected. Fu Gui's need to live varies from age to age. There is a need for safety, a need for physiology (eating, drinking, sleeping, etc), and a need for social interaction.

Chun Sheng lives, he lives for dignity.He was a county magistrate and a high-ranking official.and ended up with all sorts of insults.The contrast was too great to bear, and finally chose to give up his own life.He probably valued dignity above life.

Living is also a book that describes the social context.In the background of China's big times, a small person, everything in life has the helplessness of the times.The lives of ordinary people are labelled differently by the changing circumstances of the great age.

Before Fu Gui went bankrupt, there were many rich people in China who controlled the land and the poor, who had to work for the rich if they wanted food.Fortune's label is the rich.

Then Fu Gui went bankrupt and caught up with China's reform. The former landlords disappeared and "fight with landlords" became popular. Fu Gui became a lowly man.Under the development of the times, the workers have become the objects of praise, making money by their own labor is something to show off, so the wealth of work has returned to high status and other changes.

Finally, there is a lot of sociology in this book, and there is a lot worth studying.