Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo'

Topic: Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo'

Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo'
 

I. Outline: Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo' (Standard)

- Introduction to Nam Cao
- Introduction to the work 'Chí Phèo' and the tear image of him

2. Main Body

- Tears in literary works:
+ Tears: Concrete product of emotions, reflecting human feelings.
+ Human emotions at the peak of emotion (sadness, joy): bursting into tears, shedding tears.
+ Encountering many characters with different characteristic personalities shedding tears like that...(Continued)

>> See detailed Outline: Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo' here

II. Sample Essay: Appreciation of the tear image of Chí Phèo in the short story 'Chí Phèo' (Standard)

Nam Cao stands out as a prominent writer in Vietnamese realistic literature. He often writes about the poor people and intellectuals in the old society. It was a society of the years before the August Revolution, when righteous people had to endure the habits, oppressions, and injustices of the henchmen, the authorities, of the backward feudal customs, binding people to degenerate, distort, become rogues in society. Exemplifying this is the character Chí Phèo in his work of the same name. The work has left us with many reflections on the fate of a person. The tear image of Chí Phèo - the tear of the demon of Vũ Đại village at that time is perhaps the image that makes us agonize, ponder more than anything else.

The work tells about Chí Phèo - a person without parents, from a gentle young man, falsely accused and imprisoned. After being released from prison, he becomes a rogue, the wicked demon of Vũ Đại village, specializing in begging and wandering in intoxication. However, in the end, as his conscience gradually awakens, he returns to his original human nature when he gets into his mother's womb and seeks to have a normal life like everyone else. Each segment in the story haunts readers endlessly, yet perhaps the heaviest haunting for us readers is the image of his tears - the demon of Vũ Đại village, even though they appear only a few times.

Tears are meant to express emotions reaching a climax, bursting out, materializing. It is the specific product of human emotions. Tears can flow when one is overwhelmed with joy, extreme sadness, pain, or anger... Crying occurs when one's emotions reach their highest peak. Throughout Vietnamese literary works, we encounter many tears shed by characters. Looking through works of realistic literature, we encounter tears of joy, overflowing happiness in 'The Wife Picker' by Kim Lân, encounter fake tears in 'Happiness in a Bereaved Family' - an excerpt from the satirical realistic work 'Số đỏ' by Vũ Trọng Phụng,... And even in Nam Cao's work, we also encounter a tear of agonizing pain, that is the tear of sorrow of Lão Hạc - a poor farmer when he sells his mentally disabled son, his close friend of his life - cậu Vàng. These tears bring us different emotions, there is pain, but there are also sarcastic laughs. However, it is only through the tears of Chí Phèo that one truly sees the difference, fully feels the bitterness, the pain of a person being pushed to the brink, wanting to return to being human when his conscience awakens but cannot. Perhaps, the tears that flowed from Chí Phèo contain both happiness when his righteousness returns? Or is it just tears of sorrow for his tragic fate?

Tears are an expression of human emotions. So, were Chí Phèo's tears then the tears of human nature?

Upon careful reading of the work, one may realize that Chí Phèo cried, shed tears twice, once when 'he felt his eyes moist' and once when 'he covered his face and cried bitterly'. Among those, there was a tear named happiness of Chí Phèo.

Chí Phèo was born as a loner. He was born 'beside an abandoned brick kiln', no one knew who his parents were 'only heaven knows! He doesn't know, nor does anyone in Vũ Đại village know'. He grew up like that and then worked for Bá Kiến. It seemed like his life was flowing quietly until he was jealous of Bá Kiến and then pushed into prison. Seven or eight years after his release, he went from a gentle young man to a completely different, 'horribly ugly' rogue. Gradually, step by step, he turned into a demon, being driven away and shunned by the whole village. He wandered in drunkenness to curse, to cut faces, to beg in that village. Until he met Thị Nở on the way home one drunken night. Her sudden appearance surprised him, her care for him warmed a person who had long been seen as a demon devoid of humanity. That hot onion porridge not only relieved his fatigue but also awakened, stirred his heart. Faced with Thị Nở's care, Chí Phèo was truly touched, shaken 'For this is the first time he has been given by a woman', because from then on he only knew how to live in loneliness, with the disdain of the world, living by 'threats or robberies'. Thị Nở's action awakened the part of the human being hidden within him. A Chí Phèo who seemed to be emotionally numb, no longer capable of love, could still be moved like this, those were a series of emotions he had never had in his life. And for the first time after his birth cry, tears of happiness flowed lightly from Chí Phèo, 'This boy is very surprised. After the surprise, he felt his eyes moist.' Those sudden tears that burst from Chí Phèo were both tears of happiness and tears of awakening conscience. He held 'the steaming bowl of porridge, in a daze', yes, his life had only now realized what confusion was. Because the inherent righteousness in him had returned after being buried for years. It was awakened by the care of one person for another, it made him feel he was still a human, treated like a human. The inherent goodness returned, he again had emotions, feeling like a human, after years of being suppressed by society, pushed down into the dark mud.

However, 'happiness is short-lived' so Chí Phèo was once again pushed down into a dark mud puddle. This time he cried again, but it wasn't tears of happiness anymore, but tears of extreme pain.

Thị Nở was originally a foolish woman, but it was she who gave Chí Phèo feelings of love, happiness, and for the first time in his life, he dreamed of returning to a 'flat, friendly society of righteous people'. It was a dream of returning to being human, of integrating into society for a demon, a dream of being 'cleared the way' by a woman named Thị Nở. However, just because of the prejudices of society, his tiny dream couldn't come true. Thị Nở rejected Chí Phèo's love 'Thị put her hands on her hips, raised her face high, and pouted her lips, pouring out all the words of the old woman onto him. Thị patted her butt and walked away'. A woman over fifty, unmarried, also stopped her granddaughter, 'who would ever marry a fatherless man', she said to Thị, and Thị said to Chí Phèo. It was a real blow to the newly returned consciousness of Chí, he had just thought of opening the way, of returning to being human, and was pushed down again by society's prejudices. And for the first time in his life, we saw Chí Phèo cry, truly cry: 'he covered his face and cried bitterly'. If the tear of happiness was just 'moist eyes' then this tear is truly haunting.

That tear is the ultimate agony when the last straw, the final path leading him back to being a human, is severed, ended. He mourns before his extreme tragedy, the tragedy of being denied the right to be human.

If before, before meeting Thị Nở, he was a demon hated by the whole village, always drunk then when Thị arrived, she saved his soul, from a demon back to being human. But now, Thị herself is the one pushing him into the abyss, the abyss only because of the customs, prejudices of society. For the first time, he understood. Chí Phèo's emotional development is complex, 'he pondered for a moment and seemed to understand, he suddenly stiffened', 'he was shocked' and finally his tears fell 'he covered his face and cried bitterly'.

He turns to alcohol again to forget, to regain the strength to become a demon like before. However, the awakened conscience within him does not allow him to do so, so 'the more he drinks, the more sober he becomes', 'the alcohol fumes don't swirl, he just smells the onion porridge fumes'. The painful truth is being revealed before him, wanting to become human but the only path is cut off. Now he just wants to 'go to that whore Nở's house. Go to kill her whole family, kill that old hag of hers', but deep down, his conscience does not allow him to do so. He is disappointed, pushed to the extreme of pain, and his tears are truly the tears of a human.

If before, he was always lost in drunkenness, never heard the sounds of life. Until he met Thị Nở, he woke up and suddenly heard the peaceful sounds of everyday life 'the birds chirping outside are so cheerful! There are laughter and chatter of people going to the market. The fishing boat tapping against the boat chasing fish', those lively, peaceful sounds 'never missed any day' but 'only now he hears them'. At that moment, he truly felt the beauty around him, the happiness he had. However, that happiness came too fast, too rushed, he only had time to enjoy it for a moment, as a human, how could he endure without bursting into tears?

That tear of Chí Phèo's 'bitterly' is not just of a man in agony for being rejected by his lover, not just of a lonely, miserable wanderer who found warmth only to have it taken away, but also the tear of a person pushed to the very wall of suffering, darkness, wanting to be human again but denied that right.

Chí Phèo becomes the epitome, the representation of the bottom layer of society, lonely, lost, longing for love, longing for a happy, peaceful life, longing to be a good person. However, the society full of cruel prejudices, full of pressures from the powerful, has pushed him to degenerate, to become a rogue, unable to achieve that, hence he cries out. It's a tear demanding the right to live, to be a true human.

Nam Cao is extremely talented in the art of character analysis. He embodies each of his characters, to live, to feel, to describe their pain, their suffering vividly. Every tear in his characters is a tear of a life full of tragedy like Old Hạc, like the writer Hộ (Life Surplus), ... The tears of the characters in his works are rich in meaning, they have contributed to highlighting the ideas and themes he wants to convey.

The details of Chí Phèo's tear not only make readers ponder over his tragic fate but also haunt them to the very core about his life. Nam Cao has constructed the image of a Chí Phèo who not only knows how to curse, to beg like a demon but also has very ordinary, very human emotions. Through that image, he wants to show the dark side of society, condemning the ruthless society that pushes people to the extreme of suffering, to degenerate, to become rogues. At the same time, he also affirms the belief in the good souls of them, even if buried under, the human nature will always remain, just needing someone to find, to awaken them.