Heavenly elite

Author: (English) Archer (Archer/J) / Wang Labao
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: In the 1940s in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, Susan gave birth to her twins, Nate and Peter, successfully. Meanwhile, the wealthy Ruth also entered the hospital. Ruth was an older mother, and this time it was her last chance to have her own children, but her male infant died a few hours after a normal birth. The nurse took Peter from the adjacent bed, and fate cruelly separated the two brothers. Years later, the two brothers became Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, becoming rivals. Can Nate and Fletcher recognize each other? Who will ultimately win the election? Today, humans live in an era of cultural consumption. It is not clear when it started, but not only film and television art, but even more traditional literature has been thrown into the consumer market as goods to be sold, so the category of literature now has the name "popular fiction." In today's book market, the vast readership has made popular fiction deeply favored. Popular fiction writers are often famous overnight because of one or two works and become stars of the masses. In today's UK, the writer Jeffrey Archer, with a life experience almost as legendary as a legend, can be counted as an undeniable star. He has written more than ten novels, almost every one of which has sold throughout the English-speaking world, bringing him huge economic benefits and creative reputation. By 2000, the total sales of Archer's novels worldwide had exceeded 120 million copies. Such sales performance made Archer an author full of expectations from publishers and readers around the world. Published in 2002, "The Pride of Man" is one of Archer's recent works. Part of the content of this book was written in prison. Outside the high walls, Archer's political reputation fell to his lowest point in life. On the one hand, his lifetime noble title was stripped away; on the other hand, many mass media regarded him as a "political rogue," and the British BBC company even decided to bring his life story to the stage, mocking and attacking his life's misdeeds. However, this book completed under extremely difficult circumstances, "The Pride of Man," was published and created a sales record of 250,000 copies in one edition, once again adding new weight to his creative reputation. Although there were also criticisms of this new work among readers, most critics still affirmed the author's unique talent in writing popular fiction. They believed that Archer was indeed a superior novelist, and it was not difficult to judge from the content of the novel that Archer was a master of storytelling. Except for some minor flaws, "The Pride of Man" is very interesting to read, with a full plot full of twists and turns that grips the reader and leaves them breathless. Some even believe that this novel set against the backdrop of American society in the latter half of the 20th century not only tells a specific personal story but also comprehensively records the American national culture in a period of transformation, and in this sense, the work can be called a "great American national history novel." "The Pride of Man" can be considered a work written in a closed state, but as a popular fiction writer, Archer in prison may not be as great as people imagine. His novels also do not intend to disguise themselves as a serious "great American national history novel." "The Pride of Man" tells a story with a strong allegorical meaning: a pair of twins born into an ordinary American middle-class family are separated within hours of being born and grow up in different environments, striving on their respective life paths, and ultimately meet in a gubernatorial election representing different parties. The protagonists, Nate and Fletcher, were both born on May 11, 1949, after World War II. Since then, the two should have witnessed the economic prosperity of the 1950s in the United States, experienced the Vietnam War and civil rights movement in the 1960s, experienced the social changes in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, and actively participated in the overseas expansion process of the United States at the end of the century. It is worth noting that, except for the Vietnam War, the novel rarely mentions the above historical events in the United States. Regarding the black civil rights movement, the author only briefly mentions Fletcher defending a black man in court. Regarding the women's liberation movement, we vaguely read that Fletcher's brother-in-law left him because his wife pursued more freedom. Regarding the gay liberation movement, the novel briefly mentions Fletcher discovering that a colleague was fired for being gay when he worked at Alexander Dubois & Bell in New York. Regarding the expansion of U.S. power globally in the 1990s, the novel has hardly mentioned it at all. Obviously, while narrating the various twists and turns experienced by these twin brothers, the author did not intend to show the changes that took place in American society in the latter half of the 20th century. These changes may have provided a background for the growth of his characters, but they were not the object he wanted to narrate, because writing about the times and society was not his interest. Therefore, whenever the novel touches on the large-scale background of American society in which the characters live, it tends to gloss over it, and the great social changes are consciously excluded from the novel, leaving only the story of two modern twin brothers. In the history of Western fiction, works written around the separation and reunion of twin brothers have a long history. Since the Romantic literary movement, the question of what kind of relationship exists between twin brothers has always troubled novelists in various countries, from early Gothic novels to popular fiction in the 20th century, novels about twin brothers have formed their own tradition. A common theme in such works is that twins with extremely similar appearances have an indescribable complex connection. Under this theme, some works focus on the story of twin brothers who become mortal enemies after years of separation, while others tell the story of two twin brothers who, after years of separation, reunite and fight against the same enemy. The novel "The Pride of Man" goes beyond the traditional twin brother novel because the author here tells the story of fraternal twins who are separated. In other words, the twin brothers in the work are not identical twins like those in most popular fiction, as there is almost no resemblance in appearance. On the other hand, it largely integrates the above two situations, creating a modern twin brother story with a strong allegorical meaning. It is called allegorical because the novel seems to have no intention of describing in detail the story of the separated and reunited twin brothers in a realistic way, but instead expresses his understanding of life and the world through a rough narrative. The work does not portray the appearance and character of the protagonists, nor does it explain the actions of the protagonists at different stages in a logical way. The novel uses "The Pride of Man" to describe these separated and reunited twin brothers, not only to show the life experiences of fraternal twins who are separated by chance, but it seems that the author also intends to show the unpredictability of life and the unpredictability of fate: although Nate and Fletcher, these twin brothers, have experienced separation, they have been protected by fate. They are the pride of heaven, the favorites of fate. The arrangement of fate for life is an eternal theme in popular fiction. "The Pride of Man" uses the story of twin brothers familiar to Westerners to express this theme and chooses "votes plus stocks" as the main experience of the protagonists to develop the plot. At the beginning of the novel, when the twin brothers' father learned that his wife had given birth to twins, he said excitedly that this would at least "solve a problem," that is, one brother could be a Republican and the other a Democrat. Unintentionally, a casual joke became a prophecy. After that, these twin brothers seemed to be under a kind of curse, separation could not break the arrangement of fate for them, and several years later, Fletcher and Nate became Democratic and Republican candidates for governor. In this novel, the author spends a lot of describing the political campaigns of the two twin brothers at different levels, focusing on portraying the protagonists' experiences with the unpredictable fate in the political game. At the same time, the novel also focuses on showing Nate's ups and downs in the business world. Although Nate has studied at the Harvard Business School and has a wife who is a statistics professor, he has faced the villains arranged by fate for most of his life. If he does not defeat the latter, he is always at risk of being submerged in the business world. In the fight with Elliot, Nate lost his son and was almost destroyed with him. Fortunately, fate had eyes and allowed his twin brother to defend him in court, barely saving him. Fate is always kind to those who move forward bravely. The worldview reflected in "The Pride of Man" is positive. To convey this worldview, the author places the entire story in the United States, which has always valued individual struggle, so the novel inevitably echoes the "American Dream" tradition in traditional American novels. "The Pride of Man" adopts a narrative structure almost like the Bible to show the twin brothers' journey to success, giving the novel a stronger allegorical meaning. The book is divided into seven parts, each with a title from one of the books of the Bible. They are in order: Genesis (Genesis), Exodus (Exodus), Chronicles (Chronicles), Acts (Acts), Judges (Judges), Revelation (Revelation), and Numbers (Numbers). The title "The Pride of Man" is often used in the United States to describe the situation where several presidents of the same family succeed one another. The twin brothers in this novel were born into an ordinary family, but after being separated, they have been tempered through life and have become candidates for governor. The author hints at the end of the novel that these two may eventually meet again in a presidential election. As an allegorical popular fiction, "The Pride of Man" superficially tells a prominent phenomenon in American society and politics, but in fact, the novel uses the specific time and space background of the United States in the 20th century to tell a broader life allegory. This allegory starts with the topic of "fate" but does not fall into the cliché of lamenting the unfairness of fate, but instead gives all readers a positive and uplifting hope for success. As a popular fiction writer, Archer does not give readers dry moral lessons. He does not claim to be morally high, because he is more concerned with how to tell a story that ordinary people can easily accept and enjoy, so that more people will read his works. The author of "The Pride of Man" expresses a clear positive attitude towards life and fate. Although the work narrates a thrilling battle between good and evil, the lives and fates of the protagonists become full of hardships because of the existence of evil, but life is full of hope for every innocent person. The author completely integrates his positive attitude towards life into his narrative. Archer claims that his favorite writers include Fitzgerald, Maupassant, Maum, O. Henry, and Munro, especially the strong storytelling in their works. He tries to imitate them in his own writing. To achieve this storytelling, his novels often write about politics, murder, sex, and international conflicts. To win readers, his writing uses all popular elements to tell the optimistic life story in his mind. From "The Pride of Man," readers can see that Archer's efforts are successful. "The Pride of Man" takes a simple story of a battle between good and evil as the main narrative thread. Although there are many characters involved, there are only three main characters, in addition to the twin brothers introduced above, the third key character is the villain, Elliot. Between these three characters, represented by the twin brothers as justice and Elliot as evil, a life-and-death struggle is carried out. As the embodiment of evil, Elliot is clever and proud, and he immediately gives people a sense of cold wind when he appears. He was in the same school as Nate. He first defeated Nate in the student union election in high school by means of cunning, then used his position to plagiarize Nate's homework, so that the latter could not realize his dream of going to Yale University. In college, he deceived Nate's girlfriend, Lubka, with sweet words, gaining her trust and love. Nate returned to campus injured from the Vietnam War, and helied about him, slandered him, and won the election for student union president again through illegal means after graduation. After working, he took advantage of his family connections to bully Fletcher and other colleagues working in the same company. Although he resigned and returned to his hometown because of embezzlement, his nature did not change. When he faced Nate, who had become the general manager of Russell Bank, and Fletcher, who had become a state senator, he first tried to incite another bank to merge with Russell Bank, then actively planned to run for the Republican gubernatorial candidate against Nate, and finally, after using all his schemes, he ended up losing his life. The novel does not directly describe such a vile character, but portrays him through his words and deeds. The entire novel is permeated with a sense of terror because of the constant activity of this evil black hand, ready to attack the protagonists at any time, making it impossible for readers to let go. If "The Pride of Man" has created the "worst villain in modern literary history," then the work has also portrayed many upright, kind-hearted "good people." It is precisely these good people who work together to keep the sunshine of life from being obscured. Nate has lamented several times that he is lucky to have met the wealthy Tom family. Tom's great-grandfather was a traditional and honest banker who successfully founded Russell Bank. He was sincere in his dealings and even more generous to Nate. During his studies, Nate went to his house to stay many times. After graduating from college, when he decided to try his hand in the foreign exchange market, this kind and generous old man did not hesitate to generously support him. Later, Nate resigned from a bank in New York after failing, and he handed over the bank he had operated for decades to him in a way that was hard to believe. Fletcher's father-in-law, Harry, is another moving "good person" in this novel. This old man participated in World War II when he was young and was elected a state senator after returning home. When Fletcher was in high school, he and Harry's son were in the same class, so they knew each other. Harry liked Fletcher, encouraged him to inherit his career, and led Fletcher into politics step by step, guiding him with his life experience and political wisdom, helping him smoothly navigate the rapids and shoals of his political career. This old man had no ambitions, only a firm belief in serving the voters and the community wholeheartedly. He believed in Fletcher's talent and hoped he could run for governor. After his death, his voters expressed deep sorrow for him with deep feelings. "The Pride of Man" is divided into seven parts and 54 chapters, with a complete structure and strong readability. The novel uses two narrative threads that cross and jump to tell the story. In the first half of the novel, the two threads respectively narrate the story of a pair of separated brothers, and in the second half, the two main threads gradually approach each other and eventually merge into one main thread. This arrangement is just right.