What is the main story of "I Am a Cat"?

"I Am Hunting" is a famous work by Japanese writer Natsume Soseki. It was written between 1905 and 1906. It is the most popular work among Soseki's all creations and has the greatest social influence.

Natsume Soseki, born in 1867 and died in 1916, is a famous writer in the history of modern Japanese literature and an outstanding representative of modern Japanese literature.

When "I Am Cat" came out, more than 30 years had passed since the Meiji Restoration. During this period, a coalition power of the landowners and bourgeoisie with the emperor as the center was established. This regime oppressed and exploited the people at home and suppressed the "freedom and civil rights movement"; it launched a war of aggression abroad, plundered a large amount of reparations, and plundered a large amount of property.

Through these criminal activities, the emperor's autocratic regime has been further consolidated and strengthened. The pockets of the landlords and capitalists have become increasingly bulging, while the working people have become increasingly poor. As a sober-minded intellectual, Soseki lived in this environment. Although it was impossible for him to see the full picture and essence of history, he did feel that there were various problems in this society. In a broad sense, his novel is mainly aimed at various ills of Japanese society.

"I Am Cat" has two obvious characteristics in terms of art form: First, it uses a cat's eyes to observe the world and unfold the story. This cat lived in Kusami's house for two years from its birth to its final drowning. The humorous and interesting stories written in the novel are all based on what it saw and heard; secondly, it does not have a storyline like ordinary novels. The author himself said that this work has neither plot nor structure, and is as headless and tailless as a sea cucumber. Of course, writing about people through the eyes of a cat is not necessarily a great creation, and having no storyline is not necessarily a specialty. However, the vision of the Japanese literary world at that time was narrow, and the characters in the works were limited to ordinary citizens. The themes did not include love between men and women and human entanglements. There seemed to be nothing to write about. In this case, "I Am Cat" adopts a novel form. The content of the description is not only beyond ordinary love and human relationships, but also looks down at the selfish society, laughs at the ugliness in it, and exposes the filth in it. It becomes A new creation.

Almost all the scenes in the novel are concentrated in the home of the protagonist Kusami. Kusama and his classmates, friends, students and other middle-aged and young intellectuals tell jokes, tell stories, talk, laugh and curse, criticize society and criticize life in Kusami's living room, which constitutes the main content of the novel. In terms of plot, the only thing that can be considered is the conflict between the Kushami family and their neighbor Kaneda's family. Kaneda's conspiracy and tricks angered the Kushami, and the Kushami fought back with violence. By the end of the novel, the storm gradually subsided, and Kusami's life returned to its original state; Kusami's cat was also bored, so he secretly drank beer, fell into the water tank, and drowned. .

Kushami is a middle school English teacher. He is honest and upright, thinks he is noble, and does not seek prosperity. He lives in a simple house and leads a life of poverty. He has a strong hatred for the rich and powerful in society, and is deeply aware of the bad phenomena in the world. disdain. At the same time, he has a bad temper, lacks methods, and does not know how to deal with the environment. He often gets angry over trivial matters, making himself very distressed. Not to mention the larger dark forces, just a capitalist who performed some tricks made him miserable. The so-called struggle he carried out did not harm the other party at all, but only made him intolerable.

It can be seen that the character of Kusama is complex and contradictory, with both a noble side and a petty side; a cute side and a ridiculous side. The author's attitude towards him is also complex and subtle, with both deep sympathy and good-natured sarcasm.

The author hates all the darkness and evil in Meiji society, and his satire is bitter. His writing mainly focuses on the following aspects:

First, he outlines the ugly face of capitalists. The novel does not describe the "career" of the capitalist Jin Il positively, but uses a cartoon style to vilify his appearance, outlines his ugliness through the despicable means he played on the novice monks, and pointedly pointed out that the characteristic of these people is that they are proficient in the "three "Lack" means lack of justice, lack of human feelings, and lack of integrity.

The second is to expose the essence of officials, detectives and other tools of bourgeois rule. The novel points out that officials rely on the power given to them by the people to show off their power and are very arrogant; detectives can do anything, but they are actually the same as thieves and robbers, and they are extremely smelly.

The third is to satirize the foreign aggression and expansion policy pursued by the ruling class. In order to launch a war of aggression, the authorities vigorously advocated the so-called Yamato soul. Kusama wrote a short article, mocking it, pointing out that although everyone shouted, no one could tell what the Yamato soul was. It was always ethereal, like a tengu.

The fourth is to ridicule the indifferent and hypocritical relationship between people under the capitalist system. The novel points out that in this society, frowning, crying, and sighing for others are by no means a natural attitude, but a hypocritical performance. To be fair, it is also a painstaking art.

The fifth is to point out the impasse facing this society. The novel writes that this society is so bad that it is hopeless; people can no longer live, they can only think about death and try to commit suicide.

It can be seen from the above aspects. The novel has considerable breadth and depth in exposing the darkness and evil of Meiji society.

The artistic style of this novel is characterized by humor and irony throughout. Observing life through the eyes of a cat and criticizing life through the language of cats gives people a sense of humor; coupled with a large number of absurd jokes, interesting stories, amazing witticisms and exaggerated descriptions, they form a series of interesting pictures. Awesome, funny pictures. However, although they are all humorous and satirical, the attitudes are also different due to different targets. For example, in both writings about people's faces, the satire on Kusama's pockmarks is lighter; while on the noses of the Kaneda couple, the satire is much more pungent. Although it is all humor and satire, as the story develops, the attitude changes. If it was a joke at first, then it became more and more sad and desolate later on.