Analyzing the portrayal of nature and humanity in the excerpt The Boatman of the Da River

Prompt: Analyze the portrayal of nature and humanity in the excerpt The Boatman of the Da River

Outline and sample analysis of nature and human imagery in the excerpt The Boatman of the Da River

I. Outline Analysis of nature and human imagery in the excerpt The Boatman of the Da River

1. Introduction

- Introduction of the author and the work.
- Introduction of the issue to be analyzed.

>> Explore 5 ways to craft a captivating introduction for The Boatman of the Da River here

2. Body

a. The imagery of the Da River:

* Grandeur and fierceness:
- The imagery is striking in the upper reaches with 'the scene of rocks standing along the riverbank', 'only at noon does the sun appear', 'the river's edge is as sharp as a razor', 'deer and tigers once crossed to the other bank', ...
- Menacing sounds:
+ At the Hát Loóng rapids 'the wind howls incessantly all year round'.
+ At Tà Mường Vát under Sơn La, the water 'breathes and sounds like a spouting sewer, water bubbling up as if oil had just been poured in', at times it 'sounds like accusation, then like pleading, then like mockery, a snarling voice'.

- Water attractions:
+ 'resembling a concrete well dropped into the river to prepare for building a bridge foundation'.
+ Bearing unique and exquisite beauty, yet with the powerful movement and the river's personality, these are dreadful traps.

* Truly picturesque and sentimental beauty:
- From high above, it twists and turns like a long, winding rope connecting the entire Northwest land.
- Upon closer inspection, the Da River carries the grace and allure of a famous seductive beauty, enticing with its flow.
- Its beauty is diverse, radiant with colors according to each season of the year.

b. Human imagery:

* Appearance, personality:
- He is an old man of perhaps seventy, nameless, ageless, daily toiling to earn a living on the fierce, treacherous river.
- His appearance bears the mark of someone deeply connected to the riverside forest, full of hardships.

* Beauty in the labor of the old man during the process of conquering the rivers and streams:
- The old man emerges as an artist, very serious and meticulous with his work with all passion, with his entire life.
- As a strategist, a skilled warrior, knowing oneself and the enemy, a hundred battles, a hundred victories.
+ The old man confidently grasps the tactics, the laws of counterattack of the 'river deity, stone deity' 'knows the laws of counterattack of the rocks at this pass'.
+ Despite the pain of 'his face contorted', he still 'suppresses the wound, clasps the helm tightly with his legs', 'gives short, concise commands' to the assistant boatmen to quickly pass the first pass, straight into the second pass.
+ As they approach the subsequent passes, the situation becomes more dire, the odds of survival outnumber the odds of death, but the old man is a seasoned veteran, always calm. Indeed, he always accurately chooses where the gate of life is, then firmly grips the helm and sails through all the humiliation and rage of the river, drifting down to the peaceful lower reaches.
 

3. Conclusion

Express general feelings. You can refer to Conclusion of the Boatman of the Da River if you are stuck for ideas on how to write your conclusion.

II. Sample essay Analyzing the portrayal of nature and humanity in the excerpt The Boatman of the Da River

Tip Creative methods for analyzing prose, poetry, innovatively

Nguyễn Tuân (1910-1987), is one of the most outstanding and prominent writers of modern Vietnamese literature with a large and valuable body of work, deeply ingrained in people's hearts due to his sophisticated, unique, and talented style. Following the August revolution and the positive changes in the country, Nguyễn Tuân embarked on a journey of exploration, breaking away from the confines of Hanoi to find his own creative inspiration, fully appreciating the country's beauty and people's essence. One of his notable and successful works after these real-life journeys is The Boatman of the Da River. In just a short excerpt from the work titled The Boatman of the Da River, we can see the author's extraordinary writing prowess, as he delicately perceives the imagery of nature and humanity, rich in sculptural, vivid images, combining sculpture, painting, and cinematography within the same subject.

In the excerpt, the imagery of the Da River is very impressive. First, in the preface, the phrase 'Chúng thủy giai đông tẩu, đà giang độc bắc lưu. Đẹp vậy thay tiếng hát trên dòng sông' evokes the most common imagery of a river in the northern forests, firstly the unusual flow, while all the rivers in Vietnam flow eastward, the Da River alone chooses to flow westward, unique and solitary. Perhaps this difference in the river has brought many emotions to the author because Nguyễn Tuân is also an author with a unique pen, unlike any other in Vietnamese literature. Therefore, when perceiving and observing the Da River, Nguyễn Tuân has seen many new things. The Da River not only embodies the majestic and fierce beauty characteristic of the Northwest forest but also carries within it rare, sentimental picturesque beauty. Therefore, borrowing the line 'beautiful as the singing on the river' from a foreign author to express this is entirely reasonable.

First encountering the wild, fierce aspect, under Nguyễn Tuân's pen, the Da River appears like a living organism with vitality and strong characteristics. It brings readers impressive images in the upper reaches 'the scene of rocks standing along the riverbank', 'only at noon does the sun appear', 'the river's edge is as sharp as a razor', 'deer and tigers once crossed to the other bank', even though 'it's summer but it feels cold'. This stretch of the Da River has a mysterious, profound, unpredictable appearance, with a feeling that it is coldly observing and harboring some dreadful plot, exerting invisible pressure on passersby and boats. Besides the rugged, majestic images, the Da River is also portrayed through terrifying sounds, with each stretch of river changing its tone, making people cautious and fearful. For instance, the Hát Loóng rapids is a scene of a river 'stretching for miles, water rushing over rocks, rocks breaking waves, waves breaking wind, the wind's roar howling like it's demanding debts from any boatman of the Da River passing through'. The 'howling' sound is like the eerie swaying of a monster lurking in the depths, ready to pounce on its prey at any time. Then, at Tà Mường Vát under Sơn La, there are deep water attractions, water pouring in 'breathes and sounds like a spouting sewer, water bubbling up as if oil had just been poured in', incredibly dangerous. Or there are stretches that sound bizarre, chilling with the voice 'sounds like accusation, then like pleading, then like mockery, a snarling voice', making those rowing through here even more fearful and vigilant, many times over. Finally, at the waterfall, it seems like a giant beast struggling and writhing in rage and pain, or trance, the water there has the sound of 'roaring like the sound of a thousand dream buffaloes mingling amidst bamboo forests, sounding like firecrackers, forests and bulls roaring together with burnt skin burning...'. Despite being the sound of terrifying water, Nguyễn Tuân uses the terrifying explosion of fire to illustrate, there is something contrary, yet it is very true to the angry, fierce, and impulsive nature of the river, leaving a deep impression on the reader. From the sounds that Nguyễn Tuân has racked his brains using all the most talented, unique vocabulary, we see the river emerge with the appearance of a giant aquatic monster, seemingly sealed in this Northwest forest for thousands of years, becoming even more convoluted and irritating to all those who appear free to want to swim against it. Perhaps it feels that it is a mockery, or it is hungry, so it wants to catch all the boats passing by to satisfy its hunger and thirst for example.

Besides the fierce images and terrifying sounds, the Da River also has an interesting specialty and is also the fear of most boatmen on that river, namely the legendary water suction. Through the eyes of a talented painter and a cinematographer, the water suctions in Nguyen Tuan's essays appear with unique and rich associations. It 'resembles a concrete well dropped into the river to prepare for bridge piers', but it is a special well 'with a surface made entirely of the river's blue water, like a thick cast glass, a block of thick blue crystal', in the middle of the river it resembles a 'giant crystal cup', and 'From the bottom sucking water, looking up at the wall sucking the river surface to a column of water several spans high',... It is clear that the water suctions in Nguyen Tuan's writing first carry within them unique, beautiful, and fresh beauty, but with the strong movement and the personality of the river, these are terrifying traps. For the inexperienced, they will perish here. Nguyen Tuan himself has lived a rebellious life, with an artist's blood, so he even imagined a dangerous scenario when a photographer sat in a boat and both he and the boat, and the camera fell into the water vortex and captured priceless footage of the spinning moment like a swizzle stick. Reading it makes one truly admire the imaginative talent, the flexible use of words, and the unexpected boldness of Nguyen Tuan.

But the Da River not only bears the appearance of a fearless warrior, with only muscular strength, hot temperament, anger, or showing off water suctions to show dominance. It also appears with the appearance of a cunning, cunning villain, has mastered many tactics, traps, and only waits for unlucky prey, fools to plunge in. An old, experienced river, wandering in strange lands for thousands of years, then arriving at Muong Te, Lai Chau to seek asylum, cannot be a gentle newcomer. Perhaps it has learned from the cultural background of your country many tactics of Sun Tzu, then brought them back to the Vietnamese territory for display. The soldiers, the henchmen of the Da River are the rocks with 'twisted', 'wrinkled', 'twisted' appearances, standing, lying, sitting spread out across the river. They have laid out fortifications like that for thousands of years, dressed in all kinds of appearances, some demand to fight with chest armor, some pretend to be indifferent, some just line up horizontally looking simple but any boat passing through here with a flaw knows their hands immediately. Even more terrifying, the Da River uses tactics of the 'god of the river and the god of stone' to set up a 'stone double trap' with three gates full of danger, the later gates compared to the previous gates have more birth gates than death gates, narrow living paths, nine streams of death, one stream of life, challenging all boatmen on this river. It is not understood whether the Da River is angry because of some hereditary enmity with humans here or simply because it has been fierce since its inception but it has a cunning, deceptive appearance like that.

However, the Da River's hot temper, rage also becomes gentle when it returns to the lower reaches of the river. Here the river suddenly reveals truly romantic, sentimental beauty, touching the hearts of many artists including Nguyen Tuan. Looking down from high above, it twists and turns like a long, dense thread connecting the entire Northwest strip. Closer, the Da River carries the demeanor, the appearance of a seductive beauty, attractive with the flowing stream 'flowing long, flowing long like a strand of sentimental hair, the head and feet of hair hidden in the clouds of the Northwest sky blooming Ban flowers, Gao flowers in February and the billowing smoke of Mèo mountain burnt spring paddy'. Then it also appears with rich, vibrant colors according to each season of the year 'Spring the Da River green as emerald The Da River is not the green color of duckweed of the Gâm River, Lô River', while 'Autumn Da River water lolling ripe red like a person's face bruised from alcohol, lolling the angry red color in an irritable person every autumn'. Nguyen Tuan has a deep sympathy with the river so he also feels like meeting an old friend, an old friend he doesn't know from when with the feeling of a 'March sunshine color', in the famous verse 'Yen hoa tam nguyet ha Yangzhou' by Ly Bach. Then sometimes fondly remembering like 'a lover unknown' with beaches of raspberry, cornfields, deer herds,... many emotions.

Alongside the wild and majestic images of nature, the image of boatmen on the river becomes even more prominent and enticing. One might easily conjure up the image of a sturdy young man, muscles bulging, abundant strength, gripping the oar tightly like a heroic knight amidst the majestic mountains and forests of the Northwest. However, the human portrayed in Nguyen Tuan's pen does not have the flashy beauty like that; the author focuses on an old boatman considered the 'golden essence of the Northwest'. He is an old man in his seventies, nameless, ageless, daily toiling to eke out a living on the fierce, treacherous river. He has a demeanor imbued with the breath of a person attached to the forest and water, full of hardships with hands 'rough like a hoe, feet bent like clamps gripping an imaginary steering wheel, voice roaring like the Da River flood, eyes squinting as if looking toward a distant shore,...'. Yet from that ordinary appearance, Nguyen Tuan subtly explores the many hidden beauties in the old man, the artistic talent in labor, and the beauty of a hero in the battle, conquering nature to secure his livelihood. For the old man, rowing on the Da River is not simply for sustenance but seems to have become a passion, a fervent desire to conquer fiercely to satisfy the warrior spirit, the passion for this highly risky profession of his. He is a daring, courageous person, daring to think and act, seemingly stimulated by the difficulties, dangers of the river, which further stirs the fighting spirit within him. People try to avoid the dangers in life but for the old man, it's the opposite; he honestly expresses that: 'Running a boat on a river without waterfalls is easy to learn, but legs and arms get sleepy', he prefers the thrill, the excitement on the water even more. Therefore, throughout his life, the old man has crossed the Da River many times, even hundreds of times, of which he must have driven the boat himself up to 60 times. And naturally, each trip is always a valuable experience that sometimes the old man has to trade with sweat and health. The Da River has left many 'brown marks' on him, which Nguyen Tuan jokingly likened to 'superb labor medals' marking the brave battles of the old man on the battlefield of rivers and lakes. Until today, thanks to his many adventures, the old man at his rare old age remains strong and sturdy like a revered warrior with many merits, at the same time achieving the supreme level of an artist in his own battle and labor.