"Gourmet" is not a so-called major theme or a masterpiece that reflects historical struggles, but people can hear the footsteps of history and deeply feel the pulse of historical development. Zhu Zhizhi has been busy all his life with how to eat and how to make himself satisfied with what he eats throughout the day. In the old days, he lived on the real estate left by his ancestors. Times have changed, and he can only seek to eat enough and have some fun. Later, he was able to transform from an ignorant eater into a social celebrity "gourmet". Gao Xiaoting devoted himself to serving the people, but his simple "popularization" led to the impoverishment of people's lives. He originally thought that this was just to interfere with Zhu Ziye's extravagant life, but in fact it went against the will of the people and razed Suzhou's unique folk culture to the ground. This in itself was a political mistake, and even the people expressed disapproval of him. It is only when he has learned from many years of experience to use complex and multi-layered methods to meet the needs of the people that the solution to the problem will be revealed. The author focuses on the "macro" and writes on the "micro". This novel, which on the surface talks about "eating", embodies profound thoughts in a lot of colorful descriptions of eating and drinking. In "eating", he discovers A history of people and society, it cleverly allows readers to use a special "window" as an observation point to overview the dangers of "left" infantilism and pragmatism that cannot be underestimated in more than thirty years of work. Art It comprehensively summarizes the experiences and lessons of several historical stages since the founding of the People's Republic of China, closely connects "little ordinary things" with the political pulse of the entire country, has universal social significance, and prompts readers to "think deeply".
"Gourmet" is profound and rich in meaning. It mainly discusses cultural issues, but it is not limited to exploring cultural issues. Although the novel mainly describes the history, life encounters and spiritual outlook of a person who specializes in tasting delicious food, it does not just describe "eating" as a life phenomenon or physiological need, but mainly describes "eating". Describe it as a specific cultural form and explore its social and historical significance. The writer thinks about the entire cultural issue through the description of a specific cultural form of "food", and embodies his understanding and evaluation of culture through the two opposing yet unified images of Zhu Ziye and Gao Xiaoting. Zhu Ziye embodies elegant culture, but this elegance is based on a lifestyle of exploitation; Gao Xiaoting is a self-reliant worker, but he has shown a certain degree of ignorance. The unity of the affirmed factors in these two characters - the unity of elegant cultural form and sound way of life, is the ideal life. Narrative Technique
"Gourmet" takes the tortuous development of the characters' fate as the main line, interweaving Zhu Ziye's repeated process of eating and not eating, and Gao Xiaoting's process of opposing food to paying attention to food. Narrative art The language draws on the artistic techniques of traditional scripts and Suzhou Pingtan. It is rich in local color and exudes the flavor of urban folk customs. It pays attention to the subtlety and rationality of the psychological changes of the characters. It writes about the many changes in the relationship between Gao Xiaoting and Zhu Zhizhi, and the changes in his attitude towards Zhu Zhizhi from disgust to slight sympathy and even vigilance. It is both detailed and reasonable and dramatic, and is greatly influenced by the art of Pingtan. The structure is also derived from the storybook. The tone of the novel is slow and leisurely. Even when it is about the "Cultural Revolution", the mainstream ideological discourse is not popular.
Character creation
The writer chooses a sophisticated angle of expression, closely follows the relationship between the characters, arranges the plot and organizes the materials, thus avoiding a flat description of the characters' words and deeds, but going straight to the heart. , tearing straight to the soul, vividly highlighting the characters' distinctive personality. The work does not completely portray the capitalist widow Zhu Ziye as an idle, lazy scoundrel, but respects history while remaining true to the complexity of the character. Zhu Ziye is infatuated with the "gourmet" free life, but he is also compassionate: he has never really embarrassed "me" and his mother, who are living together, and often gives "me" small change and says, "I will buy meat for grandma for you." " so that I would not be too embarrassed; during the public-private partnership, "my" reform measures angered Zhu Ziye, and he actually contradicted the powerful "me" face to face, although he was ultimately frightened by "my" "revolutionary talk" Retreating is enough to show his childishness and simplicity.
When creating characters, "Gourmet" focuses on the whole, rather than always focusing on one character for multi-layered and multi-faceted character exploration. The writer uses scattered perspective. Zhu Zhizhi is the origin and twist point of the plot of the whole work, but it is not always the only central position. As the plot unfolds, the center of the novel keeps moving, sometimes it is Zhu Zhizhi, sometimes it is Gao Xiaoting, Sometimes it's Bao Kunnian, and finally Kong Bixia, which forms the network structure of the work. In this overall structure, Zhu Zhi's position and the various complex and subtle relationships between points ultimately complete the image of this character. As a person who embodies "eating", Zhu Ziye does not have much value in himself, but once he is in the overall relationship, his unique and slightly comedic fate ups and downs create a strange... Artistic utility. Before liberation, he was generally respected by society as a wealthy eater; after liberation, he became a "trash" because of eating and was ruthlessly ridiculed by society; finally, because of eating, he suddenly became a "waste" It is regarded as a "wonderful item" by some people.
In this confusing and topsy-turvy world, Zhu Zhizhi's character is static and lacks variability. He passively accepts social punishments and rewards, neglect and hospitality, which not only reflects some twists and turns of history, but also the character himself. It is also full of sense of existence. The horizontal development of Zhu Ziye's personal life experience in the novel, although it is outside the theme of the work, constitutes the vividness of this character. Surrounding this character, the work is interspersed with a large number of descriptions of the world and people's customs, making the work interesting and aesthetically arousing readers' excitement.
Humorous style
The description of the preparation and eating methods of Suzhou cuisine in "Gourmet" is written in a calm and clear style, the tone is relaxed and leisurely, and the meaning is subtle and trivial, rendering a kind of light humor. atmosphere of. The author's techniques are various. Typical descriptions, exaggerating the irrational factors in life phenomena, and true psychological revelations, showing the simplicity and naivety of the characters are the main techniques to create humorous effects. For example, Gao Xiaoting once had a wrong understanding of the material needs of the people, so much so that when he saw a colorful restaurant, he imagined that the match girl died in front of the window of the restaurant. This true psychological description vividly shows Gao Xiaoting's The naivety and simplicity of youth have obvious humorous effects. In addition, the writer adds some argumentative factors in the process of narration and description, but it is not a matter-of-fact reasoning, but a sideways humor, which further highlights the sense of humor in the work. For example, after explaining Zhu Ziye's hobby of eating "Tou Noodles", he followed it with a serious comment: "The art of eating is the same as other arts. It must firmly grasp the relationship between time and space." This seems to be Zhu Ziye's hobby. Looking for a theoretical basis for his eccentricities, he actually blends Zhuang's humor with Zhu Ziye's, and wittyly pokes fun at Zhu Ziye's boring bad habits.