Appreciation of "Before the Thunderstorm"

Author: Geng Hongyan

Mao Dun

I got up early in the morning and walked to the small stone bridge. Touching the bridge stone, it seemed to be a little warm. There was not a breath of wind all day yesterday. There was thunder for a while in the evening, but there was no wind. The night was more boring than the day. At dawn, there were still two or three people lying on the bridge. Maybe it was them who trapped the stones and made them hot again.

There is a gray curtain in the sky. Can't see the sun. However, the power of the sun seems to penetrate the gray curtain and hit your head directly.

There was not even a drop of water in the river, and the soil in the center of the river cracked like a turtle shell. There have long been countless small ditches in the fields - some are more than two feet wide. Can you say they don't look like ditches? The pale soil is as dry and hard as cement. It seems that after a night they have not finished exhaling the hot breath they sucked in during the day, and there seems to be something like white smoke rising up from their long and flat mouths.

People standing on the bridge will have all the pores in their bodies closed, and their hearts will feel heavy, as if they are about to vomit something.

On this morning, the gray curtain in the sky was open, without any holes or movement. Maybe there was a lot of wind outside the curtain, but we, who were covered in the curtain, threw the chicken feathers off the bridge, but we didn't see it fluttering and pacing. It's like living in a big tube with the air taken out. The person opens his arms and takes a deep breath, but what he breathes in is only a hot and stuffy feeling.

Sweat, just get out, get out, but it's like glue, the glue makes your whole body uncomfortable, like a shell.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the fish, which was about to mature, opened its mouth. Suddenly, the gray curtain of the sky cracked! It was literally a crack! It was like a bright knife edge cutting across the curtain. However, after it was crossed, the curtain closed again, just like before it was crossed, not a breath of wind could get through. After a while, the sky flashed, and the gray curtain cracked again. But what's the use?

It's like there's a giant hand holding a shining sword outside, trying to break through the gray curtain. It seems that the giant is roaring and getting angry, getting tighter and tighter, flashing and flashing. The light of the broadsword flashed across the sky, rumbling, and the angry roar of the giant came from outside the curtain!

The sudden flash and roar were gone, and there was still an airtight gray curtain!

The air is twice as stuffy as before! The curtain is twice as thick as before! The sky is twice as dark!

You would guess that the giant outside the curtain is wiping his sweat and taking a breath; You can be sure that he will attack again. You waited impatiently, waiting for the flash of lightning and the rumbling roar that broke through the gray curtain.

But you waited, waited, and then flies came. They fly out from dirty places, buzz around you, and sting you, coating your skin with a glue-like coating. The golden fly that looks like an official wearing a red hat has just come out of the manure pit to eat, and it specially chooses to squat on the tip of your nose.

Mosquitoes are also waiting. Humming hummingly, like an old monk reciting sutras, or an old scholar reading ancient prose. Flies give you infectious diseases, but mosquitoes want to drink your blood!

You jump up and swoop around with a cattail leaf fan, but you drive away the ones on one side, and a large group takes advantage of the opportunity to attack on the other side. You shout loudly, but they only answer you with hum, hum, hum!

But the cicadas on the treetops outside are singing loudly: "I'm going to die! I'm going to die!"

You have lost all your sweat, your mouth is as dry as burning, and your hands are soft. You will feel that the end of the world will not be worse than this!

However, there is a sudden flash of lightning, and the light is shining. It was bright in every corner of the room. The giant outside the curtain suddenly tore the gray curtain to pieces! Boom, boom, boom, he shouted in victory. Hu - Hu - the wind that had been blocking the curtain for two whole days came at full speed! The cicadas silenced, the flies fled, the mosquitoes hid, and the human body felt as if a layer of shell had been peeled off.

Huo! Huo! Huo! The giant’s sword light was flying in the sky.

Boom, boom, boom, faster! Louder!

Let the thunderstorm wash out a clean and cool world!

Mao Dun 30 The lyrical short chapter of the 1920s swept away the depressed and confused tone of the late 1920s, and replaced it with fresh vitality, wise and clear thinking, and cheerful and optimistic fighting feelings. "Before the Thunderstorm", "Dusk" and "Footprints on the Beach" are representatives of this type of works.

"Before the Thunderstorm" was originally published in September 1930. In April of that year, Mao Dun, who was living in Tokyo, Japan, after painful reflection, finally put aside the fog of depression, returned to his motherland, and once again devoted himself to the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle as a warrior. It was China's darkest era. The Kuomintang reactionaries implemented fascist tyranny internally and frantically encircled and suppressed the revolutionary forces militarily, politically, and culturally. They compromised and retreated externally, causing the Japanese invaders to take advantage of the opportunity and advance step by step. China is simply a hell on earth. However, "the underground fire is moving", the storm is brewing, and the revolutionary forces are developing inexorably. In the harsh political climate, the author is like a bird that is sensitive to wind and rain, calling for the coming of thunderstorms. "Before the Thunderstorm" is a war song that the author sings with passion to welcome the thunderstorm in the "scorching heat".

The work uses symbolic techniques to describe the hot and depressing feeling before the thunderstorm, and uses what it sees and feels to symbolize the social conditions at that time. While exposing the high-pressure rule of the Kuomintang, it shows the desperate struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, and confidently predicts the bright future of the revolution's victory. .

The work uses symbolism as the main artistic technique, using "grey curtain" to symbolize the rule of darkness, "flies" and "mosquitoes" to symbolize the ruler's accomplices, and "cicada" to symbolize all kinds of speculators. , the "giant outside the curtain" symbolizes the revolutionary forces, and the arrival of the thunderstorm symbolizes the rise of the revolutionary revolution. The combination of these symbolic images forms a magnificent artistic conception, full of the vision and brilliance of revolutionary idealism. The full text is naturally divided into four parts.

The first part describes the unbearable dryness and heat before the thunderstorm. The author started writing early in the morning, using the heat of the bridge stones to set off the sultry weather. Then he opened his eyes again: the riverbed was cracked, the cracked ditches in the fields were like "long flat mouths" blowing out white smoke, and people were so dry that their pores were blocked and they were vomiting. This multi-angle rendering of dry and hot weather is precisely to symbolize the harsh social reality.

The second part focuses on the desperate struggle between the two forces before the thunderstorm. The author writes in chronological order from early morning to morning, and from morning to three o'clock in the afternoon. The "gray curtain" covers the sky more tightly, and people feel like they live in "a big tube with the air taken out". Sweat turns into glue, which entangles people "like a fish about to explode."

At this moment when life was about to suffocate, the "giant" holding a knife appeared outside the curtain! Carrying lightning and thunder, it struggled to cut through the "gray curtain". However, the curtain quickly closed again, split again, and closed again! Here, what a thrilling scene the work shows in front of the readers! The two forces are fighting fiercely, and it is difficult to tell who wins and who loses.

Just when people were waiting for the giant to attack again, a group of ugly "flies" and blood-sucking "mosquitoes" came. They had a premonition that disaster was coming, so they swooped out to help the evildoers. The author paints the abominable faces of these accomplices and gangsters in a spicy way. The cicadas were singing high-pitched tunes on the treetops, seemingly unable to bear the dullness, but when the thunderstorm really came, they were frightened again.

The sky has become doubly dull, the "curtain" has become twice as thick, and the evil forces have become rampant to the extreme!

In the last part, the author uses romantic imagination and full political enthusiasm , depicting a shocking and magnificent picture! Light and darkness entered hand-to-hand combat, and the giant's sword light was seen flying "huohuo", and "there was a fierce flash of lightning", and the giant outside the curtain "suddenly threw away the gray curtain" "Tear it to pieces"! Suddenly, there are thunderstorms and heavy rains, symbolizing the unstoppable power of revolution and reminding people of the imminent reality of a violent social revolution. Finally, the author shouted: "Let the thunderstorm wash out a clean and cool world!" The idea of ​​the work is sublimated to a radiant artistic realm, and the full text is concluded with a high-power note

The work is not only successful He carefully uses symbolic techniques to create the artistic conception and image of the poem, and uses colorful metaphors and personifications to enhance the expressive power of the language. This is a high-spirited political lyric. Its soul-shaking poetry inspires people to move toward the light with confidence.