The Comparative Study Of Rickshaw Boy And L'assommoir

Standing in the literature of the world,“Rickshaw Boy” and “L'Assommoir” are masterpieces of Lao She and Emile Zola,respectively.Despite the different geographical and cultural background of the works,the tragic fate of characters,the theme and artistic technique are still comparable.In terms of character,This paper compares the same life track and different processes of degeneration and attitude between Xiang Zi and Gervaise;As for the theme,Lao She and Emile Zola had much in common in understanding the influence of society and city,However,they had different thinking of the traditional or modern civilization;In the aspect of artistic technique,two authors both described the real environment.They didn't only use the refined and vulgar language,but also described things from inside to outside,respectively.Through the comparison of the similarities and differences of the above three aspects,we analyse Lao She and Emile Zola's similar experiences in early years,Chinese “ethical standard” and Western “individual standard” and the literary trend of “Realism” and “Naturalism”.We explore the above three reasons to dig out the deep meaning of history and culture.The purpose is not to distinguish the merits between the two works,but I hope we can deeply understand the meaning of the tragedy,grasp the historical and cultural connotation behind the literary works and explore the common rules of the development of literature.