On "cold Night" In-law Description Of The Relationship And Its Social And Cultural Connotation

CHILLY NIGHT, Ba Jin's another successful saga novel, again draws on its sources from the household life following THE TRIOLOGY OF RIPTIDE. The writer approaches the story by adopting the female images. Through the artistic portrayal of the two female characters Mother Wang and Zeng Shusheng and the vivid depiction of the relationship between this pair of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, the writer conveys the message of socio-cultural reflection to readers for rumination.The writer's concern for the two women's life experience and frame of mentality is realized by juxtaposing two complex female personae Mother Wang, a combination of a mother-in-law, a mother, a woman and a parochial figure and Zeng Shusheng, a half-traditional half-modern character. The subtlety and intricacy of their interaction reveal the writer's probe into the multi-facet socio-cultural connotation. Ba Jin's exhaustive and critical exploration to the cause of the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law eclipses his contemporaries in term of profundity on the similar subject. Owing to the masterful exhibition of the theme, CHILLY NIGHT is greatly enhanced as its motif and art are concerned, therefore to give the deserved attention on the liaison women inBa Jin's CHILLY NIHGT is essential for the understanding of his status on the Chinese literature pedestal and his process of maturity in his career.