Xiao Hong: The World Outside The Door And The Life Inside The Window

Ge Haowen, the American Sinologist, when commenting"Xiao Hong and her literary talent"in his"The Review of Xiao Hong's biography", has the following remarks,"In her works, we can hardly find traces which help us understand her motivations, habits and methods of writing. (It, however, occasionally emerges in her letters or records of conversations). It is even impossible for herself to utter those factors which trigger her inspirations, create types of literature and influence her outwardly leading to various kinds of achievements."When scrutinizing Xiao Hong's works, we'll find the images of doors and windows appearing frequently, which can be considered as a ghost of trace appearing in a flash in the writer'creation process. The author of this thesis paper tries to discover"the trace of the writer's habits and means of writing"with the guidance of this phenomenon and further explore the untouched territory of the writer's heart. Therefore, this thesis starts from the metaphor of the door and the window and thereby analyzes the two kinds of images together with the writer's psychology. Door symbolizes houses and homesteads and represents the classes of the rich and the poor. It is a symbol of a subject which exceeds itself and enters the highest reality. Window experiences a process from the practical to the aesthetical. It is a symbol of the mean of observation and apperception of a subject. In Xiao Hong's works, doors and windows in the first place demonstrate to people the times and the society, the ways of the world and life. The injustices of the society, the huge gaps between the rich and the poor, the depression of classes, the peril of the nation, the adversity of the people and the destiny of the women and the children are all reflected in Xiao Hong's each door and every window. Simultaneously, the images of doors and windows are also closely related to the author's life experience. Both of them contain a home allegory. From the children in and out of door to woman leaning against the door and to traveling woman who seek the spiritual door, Xiao Hong, by employing the image of doors, expresses her desire to the home. However, the doors of in both real world and spiritual world are closed one by another. The door separates Xiao Hong from the world while the small window becomes a channel connecting herself to the world. By listening through and looking out of the window, she manages to control the world outside it and thereby creates for people a unique artistic space with solitary feelings. The author's choice of the window is also closely related to her desire of a home. However, she was weak, sick, poor, cold, disordered, lonely and female, and those factors make her repeated choices of the image of the window. By the analysis of the images of doors and windows, we find that the world outside the door and the life inside the window compose her psychological world of her life and the desire of communication and intention of escape, which rest at the very bottom of her heart, go through the very beginning to the end.