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A Study of Xiángzi's Servility Revealed in “Rickshaw Boy” - Centering on the perspective of N. Berdyaev's 『Slavery and Freedom』

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2009, (19), pp.224-242
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2009..19.016
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Published : February 28, 2009

kang yun hyung 1

1전북대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

In his novel 『Rickshaw Boy』, Lǎoshe (老舍 (1899~1966): A Chinese novelist / play writer) describes a contradictory society encroaching upon a man. Lǎoshe places the cause of the main character Xiángzi's misfortune on individualism and the structural contraction of the society, which neglects the lives of people in the lower classes. However, he does not present specific breakthroughs for the cause. Is a human a slave or free being? It is never easy to answer this question since human being can be a slave or be free by himself or herself. If Xiángzi was in different circumstances, could he be free? What if he got a rickshaw that he always had wanted to have? Yet, the answers to these questions are already exhibited in the novel. The result is the same. Considering this, N. Berdyaev's『Slavery and Freedom』suggests a considerable number of points. And here is the reason why it can not be determined that Xiángzi's life, in Lǎoshe's novel『Rickshaw Boy』, was like that of a slave resulted from the contradictory society of those times or was a destruction caused by individualism. The main character of 『Rickshaw Boy』, Xiángzi, had many chances to choose and he did make a choice by his own free will whenever he faced one. Yet, the reason for the failure of the choices he made was the different servilities that existed inside him. Servility is presented in the properties that we each possess or the sexual seduction; it is also exhibited in individuality that is hiding inside human beings. Xiángzi, in the novel, seemed to make an attempt to free himself from all that subdued him, yet he could not do so ultimately. The freedom comes when one acknowledges his or her personality and tries not to lose his or her life from outer thing. This study intends to point out that Xiángzi was doomed to be a loser because of his servility within; he was already a slave to himself before being affected by the contradictory society. Such phenomenon could be due to the servility of Xiángzi but also to that of inside all human beings.

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