Experiencing The Beauty Within Loneliness

Loneliness, instead of void or boredom, should be calm and even state, returning to self. From the childhood to now, loneliness has been the shadow of Pai Hsien-Yung. His short stories and he gave a perfect note to the true meaning of loneliness. From his lonely experience, he tasted the grief of his fate, which was the source of arousing his writing. He took his works as a means to get his miserable ideas off his chest, as well as an exploration to the meaning and value of his life. This paper comes from his personal experience and short stories, analyzing the loneliness in his works and himself to the extent of three aspects.Chapter One: Source of Loneliness. Firstly, the loneliness was given a usual explanation, which was a right location. Then, through the personal reason and social background, the paper gives a deep analysis to the lonely writer. In childhood, the sickness gave the first taste to loneliness, which let Pai Hsien-Yung generate a feeling of cannot express himself. Later, much lamentation followed his parents'death, and he rebirth from the ash. His nature of loneliness came into being. On the other hand, he also felt the pressure of his homosexuality status from social recognition. And with the impact of Wang Guoxiang's sickness and death, his loneliness showed particularity. From the social background, the island of Taiwan underwent a lot of frustration. The sharp political confrontation made the blood relationship far apart from each other. The geographic solitary and social isolation gave a strong impact to Pai Hsien-Yung's loneliness. As well, long drifting abroad deepened his loneliness because he was alone in foreign countries made him feel a cultural solitude. More and more experience of loneliness made Pai Hsien-Yung isolated in emotion as well as social contact, which are from individual consciousness to independent personality. To be a true loner, his loneliness showed endless charisma with the glamour of human nature of the true, the good and the beautiful. His feeling aroused echo in the readers' hearts, and the readers evoked sense of beauty and cannot help admiring Pai Hsien-Yung.Chapter Two: Lonely Self-expression. In this chapter, it started from the analysis of Pai Hsien-Yung's novel in earlier days, especially the ingrainedness of lonely atmosphere and the shape of loner image. Section one focuses on expression of loneliness through external environment, such as the sadness and beautifulness of night and moon, as well as dullsville of burning sun and storm. Within this unique beauty of natural environment, his works showed the lonely character and noble quality, which aroused the readers'sense of beauty to loneliness. Section Two focuses on classifying and analyzing the female loner who pursues the true, the good and the beautiful, as well as the male loner who cherishes the memory of past, and the lost youth loner. It showed that loneliness was connected with beauty and both loneliness and beauty are a whole entirety existed. The sense of beauty comes after the loneliness.Chapter Three: Deep Experience of Loneliness. with the same method to chapter two, chapter three focuses on analysis of Pai Hsien-Yung's short stories in the later days, especially from two points of environment and characters. Section one: Complicated and confused society. Pai Hsien-Yung started to convert from description of nature to portray of social environment, which showed the general orientation of the times and culture. Therefore, it showed the irreversible situation and subject to no individual will. The whole world of sadness and group loneliness emerged. Section two: The drifting New Yorker and lonely Taibei Jen. It's classified as five types of facing no choice in crossroads of life by New Yorker, like a ghost missing the native land in dream, a numb person facing the reality indifferently, there goes the lonely ghost in the times, and a hero in his extremity. Through analysis to the five classified persons, it showed the lost youth went abroad to avoid the nation chaos and pursue the truth, as well as the vast faces in troubled times in island. The works in later days showed pai Hisen-Yung's thinking to nation and history, as well we the exploration to the meaning of life. Chapter Four: the Expression Art of Loneliness. From section one to section four, the readers listened a true voice from the island and other countries, with feature of reference from western Modernist literature and Chinese tradition novel. Pai Hsien-Yung using his proficient skills and slow pace, composed a melody of Times change and lonely Chinese leaving hometown. During his recognition, accumulation, enrich the meaning and development of loneliness, Pai Hsien-Yung finished the exploration of the meaning of life, and returning the loneliness to self, making it a unique realm of life, i.e. silence, distantness, dolefulness, beautifulness, respectfulness, esteem, freedom and wisdom.