Straw house refers to a special building in Yau Ma Tei, and all buildings in Yau Ma Tei Primary School are straw houses. It is more symbolic to use thatched cottage as the title. It symbolizes that childhood, that history. One cannot live without history. People grow up in history, with the imprint of history. Because of this, Cao Wenxuan specifically stated in the postscript that although he wrote about the past, he can still touch the children now, and the human core has not changed.
Although we are talking about children, adults will be moved. Because the universal pursuit of beauty will not change, the connotation of beauty that can touch children can also touch us, and we who used to be children will be narrow-minded, jealous, understand, support, leave, miss all of us, and shed tears when reading.
There are stories about mulberry bullying the crane and forcing the crane to fight in mulberry's house, stories about mulberry and the orphan paper moon who are curious and cherish their feelings, and stories about adults. However, the story of adults is told from the perspective of Sang Sang, a child. This is a love story between teacher Jiang, the class teacher of Sang Sang, and Baique, a beautiful girl in Yau Ma Tei.
From sang sang's point of view, they have been sending messages through him, and then they stopped sending them. Baique Ling was supposed to get married, but she didn't, but Teacher Jiang also got married. The two continued to send letters through Sangsang as usual until the case was committed. There are no more details in the book, such as why Baique broke up with Mr. Jiang and why he should consider the documents in the town. From the phenomenon observed by Sang Sang, I saw subtle changes in mood and realistic considerations. Sang Sang doesn't understand all this.
When I was a child, I couldn't understand the things of adults, but I kept observing them, just like Sang Sang did to Teacher Jiang and the white finch. Sang Sang's perspective brought me back to my childhood. I remember when I was at school, I left early. A charming aunt in our girls' building and a man who is good at hitting on girls in our boys' building are together at first, and their faces are always shining. Later, her aunt seldom laughed, and the man stopped looking for her. Later, her aunt didn't show up for many days and heard that she was in hospital. At that time, Xiaomei was also speculating about these things, hoping to enter this world to find out.
At that time, I was full of hope for everything, with hazy and beautiful hopes. When I really enter the adult world, I will remember what I saw when I was a child. I seem to understand something, but I hope I still don't.
In addition to children's harmless slapstick, a corner of the adult world, there is also an unharmonious story in the book, which is about grandma Qin. Times have changed. In the torrent of construction and education, and in the vigorous voice that primary schools must be built in Yau Ma Tei, a sad voice has always echoed over the school: "This land is mine!" In order to build a school, the local government used the land that Grandma Qin regarded as her own. When she appeared at the school gate and said this to the children, the children could not understand the difficult years she had gone through, and she could no longer stand upright, white-haired and helpless.
The present story blends with the past story. However, people in the past can't know their feelings in past stories. Yau Ma Tei Primary School is advancing in the torrent of the times, but it has left people's sadness and hope in the past forever.
After grandma Qin's thatched cottage was stripped, she was carried to her new home, sneaked back to school again and again, and was carried out again and again. Until the end, people were tired of her. Grandma Qin began to build a temporary nest with grass and branches at school. Grandma Qin is wronged, but to others, she is just a mental derangement.
Times have changed and no one cares about her dreams. And this dream has been urging her in her heart. It was a dream of her and her dead husband when they were young. Watching the wheat waves in the fields and sleeping together in the severe winter made their hearts burn with enthusiasm. This dream is about land, wheat waves and home. This image makes grandma Qin want to stop, and she is dead against reality again and again.
Grandma Qin's ending is happy. She inadvertently saved a primary school student and released the goodwill of the whole village. Since then, their interaction has changed greatly. It can be said that the incident of primary school students falling into the water aroused people's happiness. People often choose good or evil in an instant. After all, most of us are neither gods nor demons. We just adjust ourselves to the environment.
This may also be the author's idealized side. Perhaps the author couldn't bear to see grandma Qin's tragic ending, so he arranged a lively and warm ending for her.
This book also reminds me of myself as a child occasionally. At that time, I also had Sangsang's tricks, the sensitivity of the crane and Du Xiaokang's heartfelt self-esteem. At that time, I looked at the affairs of adults, just as Sang Sang looked at Teacher Jiang and White Bird. I'm curious, I don't know, I want to know. I went home and thought hard, but I couldn't think of anything. I wanted to grow up then. I thought growing up was just getting bigger, but growing up meant leaving a lot of things behind and never picking them up again.
After the age of 30, due to work needs, I read more books on popular science, law and cognition. My mind is full of knowledge and truth, but it is increasingly lacking in nutrition. Because of poverty, I can no longer feel the delicate mood before.
Because of this, I was even more depressed when I read the childlike interest in The Straw House. When we grow up, time urges us forward, and life becomes realistic and sharp. There is no longer a fairy tale kingdom in the white clouds, and what falls is no longer tears, but water droplets formed by rising water vapor; Sleep every day, and the next day will be nothing new. Like yesterday, there will be no illusions and surprises.
Although life is dull, it is also grateful and stable. Because when I grow up, I find that life is not always full of goodwill, and I can be grateful as usual when I wake up the next day. Fairy tales and fantasies only bring disappointment again and again, and the world has never been slightly reduced.
When it comes to fairy tales and fantasies, grass houses should not be one of them. More importantly, Cao Wenxuan makes no secret of the tragic elements of life and people's helplessness in the face of fate in his works, although the author gives a kind ending to each story. However, in reality, in our view, childhood and everything related to it are as far away as fairy tales.