May Fourth Literature Movement. Essays and Sketches -- Student Reading Classics

Author: Mao Dun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Mao Dun's essays reflect the era while also transcending it. His early essays are often short, using small snippets of life to symbolize the anxieties of the times. He uses his writing to depict social life in a realistic manner, with meticulous observation of life. The social scenes captured in his sketches are rich and diverse, full of characteristics of the era. Mao Dun's essays also possess a "Lu Xun style." Many of his essays and miscellany reflect the era while also transcending it. His early essays are often short, using small fragments of life to symbolize the anxieties of the times, such as Duty, The Rainbow, Knocking on the Door, The Bean Curd Seller's Whistle, and Dream Under the Severe Frost. They are concise yet profound, provoking deep thought. Later, his perspective suddenly broadened, the "color of pessimism and despair" disappeared, replaced by "the spirit of rebirth" and "steadfast courage" to face reality, calling for the arrival of "the thunderstorm." Works like Before the Thunderstorm, Twilight, Footprints on the Beach, and The Sky Window all use rich, symbolic imagery to reveal that he had moved beyond melancholy, filled with optimistic faith and hope. He even expressed a greater fondness for Before the Thunderstorm and Footprints on the Beach than for later works like Ode to the White Poplar and Talk of Scenery. The uplifting tone of Before the Thunderstorm reminds people of Maxim Gorky's The Seagull—"Thunder! Thunder! Faster! Louder! Let the thunderstorm wash away this dirty, stuffy world and leave behind a clean, refreshing one!"