I am a cat.

The novel I am a Cat is Natsume Sasaki's masterpiece. This work was written in September 1904- 1906 and serialized in Du Fu Magazine 1905- 1. Soon, the first, second and third volumes were published.

I'm a Cat is a novel written by Natsume Soseki to vent his years of anguish and anger. It vividly reflects the thoughts and life of the middle and small bourgeoisie in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century and sharply exposes and criticizes the "civilized" capitalist society in Meiji period.

This work has a wide range of reflections and rich and complicated contents. This work has no complete story. The narrator takes the cat as the story, and through its feelings and experiences, describes the mediocre and trivial life of its owner-poor teacher, Misha of bad karma and his family, and he often talks about the past and discusses the boring world now with friends such as Mi Ting, John, Dongfeng and Du Xian, mocking the secular world and writing poems. The work is also cleverly written into the entanglement caused by the marriage of Miss Jintian next door, and runs through it. In order to choose a son-in-law, Jintian's wife, a capitalist, went to Kusami's house to inquire about the bachelor of science. Misha was a little arrogant and ignored her, so she attracted the wanton persecution of Jintian and his wife: first, she instructed a group of people to abuse and abuse; Then instigate the bitter novice monk's colleagues to retaliate; Later, the naughty students who bribed the Luo Yun Pavilion made him fidgety; Finally, he complained that Misha's former classmates suggested and threatened him.

Around the storm caused by Miss Jintian's marriage, the novel effectively exposes the bourgeoisie and criticizes the social money worship. Master Jintian is a "vicious, greedy and heartless" big capitalist, who started from usury and owns a lot of property. His "magnificent mansion" is in sharp contrast with the bitter Misha's "dark cave". The "secret" of his wealth is to "master three shortcomings", namely, lack of sense of justice, lack of human feelings and lack of sense of shame. "Keep your nose and eyes on the money" and "You can do anything as long as you can make money". Money is more important than life. Jintian became a famous figure in society by relying on his own financial resources. He is rich and tyrannical. The hero, Kumisha, is poor and honest. He has never known him since he taught for ten years. He was just unkind to his wife, so he made a scene again and again, which caused Kumisha to suffer serious physical and mental injuries. The urchin who bought the Luo Yun Pavilion made Kumisha fidgety, but he proudly said ... this guy ... will surrender in the near future. "A pair of treacherous fierce hateful faces exposed. So even "cats" think Jintian is "the worst human being".

Suzuki Fujishiro, a petty capitalist in the author's works, also has the ugly essence of seeking profit at the expense of others. His outlook on life is "If you want to be a capitalist, you have to be a big capitalist." The different personalities of Suzuki and Jintian are "round to oil". "He believes that if a person's career can go on without hard thinking and argumentation, that is the ultimate happiness of life." After Suzuki graduated, it was this "happiness" that made him successful. He brought a gold watch and became "Master Jintian's arm". Although he is a student, he only cares about money and worships it. He is willing to be master Jintian's lackey and has no feeling of being a schoolmate. He came to Kumisha's house twice and worked as a spy in Jintian. Suzuki is a typical visual villain.

In modern Japanese society, money rules everything, and Master Jintian is the "uncrowned king" of society. He has the ability to tell people that "people are born to be human and die to be human". "Cat" hit the nail on the head and said, "I understand now that it is really money that makes everything move. Except for capitalists, no one else can fully understand the function of money and exert its power flexibly. " Show the author's deep hatred for money, power and capitalists.

The work also strongly criticized the police system, a violent tool of the Meiji government. The petty-bourgeois intellectuals described by the author have great contempt for the police and reconnaissance. Misha, who bears a grudge, rebuked "detectives are the same kind of people as thieves and robbers, and they stink." Through their discussion, the author reveals the reactionary nature of ignoring human life, that is, the police system suppresses the people and deprives them of their freedom of speech and thought. Detectives "will make every effort to find evidence" and "they even make up stories about Luo Zhi and frame good people". Through them, the author points out that the real sinner is the police and the real madman is the detective. Bitter Misha asked, "What is a good citizen who pays for a person and convicts his employer?" Mi Ting further criticized the police system with anecdotes about the future: "At that time, the police would patrol the streets with sticks and kill the citizens of the world like wild dogs." Modern Japan is a country full of militarism. It widely distributes spies and police, curbs people's actions and imprisons people's thoughts. The reactionary rule of the government is extremely dark. The novel points the finger at the dictatorship tool police system that maintains the exploitation system of landlords and capitalists, deeply criticizes its reactionary nature of killing people, and shows the author's progressive ideological tendency.

The work also describes the intellectuals in Meiji period, headed by the protagonist Kusama, who are simple and kind, despise the secular world and do not agree with corrupt social customs. The poor teacher suffered Misha's "hatred of capitalists since his school days". He cursed Jintian, "What a thing!" He threw Suzuki's business card "and was sentenced to life imprisonment in that stinking place (toilet)" and his hatred for money and capitalists was even "stubborn". Fan Guan, an aesthete, is smart and sharp-edged. Whenever he gets a chance, he mocks Jintian and Suzuki and puts them in an awkward position. John, a bachelor of science, doesn't advocate fashion, and he didn't become the son-in-law of the rich Jintianjia. They are dissatisfied with the reality, expose the shortcomings of the times, and dig at the secular. In their sharp and sarcastic language, they also expressed the resentment of the people in the dark. However, they have various weaknesses and even bad tendencies. Kumisha is a stupid, weak, incompetent and ignorant world. Although he had a "dignified" posture in the struggle with Jintian, "he became a silver gun when confronting him." Pavilion is frivolous and lies, cynical, often mysterious and grandstanding. Philosopher Du Xian preached "practice" and taught everyone "complete consciousness", which is actually a poison that poisons people's body and mind. Their greatest weakness is that they have no ambition and do nothing; Although he pretends to be lofty, he leads a dull and vulgar life. In order to seek spiritual stimulation and fill the emptiness of life, they show off their knowledge, pretend to be elegant and laugh at the secular. Their contradictory living conditions and personality characteristics are typical portrayal of middle and small bourgeois intellectuals who were dissatisfied with the upper rulers and did not communicate with the people at that time. The author comes from this class and is familiar with their living habits and psychological characteristics, so he truly reproduces their lives in his works, effectively whipping and laughing at their weaknesses. Behind this bitter irony, there is also the author's anguish and sadness. The author said, "I laugh at myself more than at them. Laughing and swearing like me, the aftertaste is bitter. "

In addition to what was revealed and described above, the work also criticized the officials and education system at that time, especially the fashion of chasing money and harming others and benefiting themselves at that time. Besides, I also wrote about the miserable life of ordinary working people who are in a precarious situation and betray their children because of such a dirty society. It can be said that I am a cat is a satirical novel with broad vision, profound description and critical spirit in modern Japanese literature.

However, it should also be noted that there are still many ideological limitations in the works. The image of "cat" shows that the author stands on the position of petty bourgeoisie and exposes and criticizes modern Japanese civilization with the ideological weapon of "freedom, equality and fraternity" in the West and Confucianism and Zen in the East. The work accuses capitalists, policemen and detectives of meanness and shame because they are uneducated and have humble occupations, which is an abstract view of human nature. The works also spread pessimistic and world-weary thoughts. The epitaph written by Kumisha for his friend said: "Born in space, studied space and died in space. Empty also, between also, alas natural lay! " This is the nihilistic thought of Zen. The description of the working people in the works shows the author's class prejudice. In the eyes of Kumisha and cats, ordinary drivers are as humble as Jintian, Suzuki and detective, and they are all snobs. Especially in the ridicule and satire of Japanese women, the author's backward thoughts are clearly reflected.

I am a cat is a novel with a unique form of critical realism. The "I"-"cat" in the novel is a fictional and unique artistic image, which has both animal habits and human ideology. In this novel, "cat" is a narrator, a judge, a complete image, and plays a variety of roles. The novel takes "I" (cat) as the narrative mode, and the content consists of "I" observation and comments. The birth of "I" began; "I" fell into the water tank and drowned because of drinking beer, and the novel ended immediately. There is no complete and tortuous plot in the work, and there is no rigorous structure like ordinary novels. As the preface of the first edition of the work said: "I am a cat, like a sea cucumber, and it is not easy to tell which is the head and which is the tail, so I can be cut off and terminated anytime and anywhere."

I'm a cat and I'm also famous for satirical novels. The author inherits the tradition of Japanese humorous literature and western European satirical literature, and is good at exposing and criticizing by using humorous and satirical methods. His description is both exaggerated and delicate, and his language is humorous and interesting. The description of the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Jintian is exaggerated to achieve ironic effect. Mrs. Jintian's nose is "surprisingly big, as if being forcibly grabbed by someone else's nose and placed in the middle of her face"; Jintian, on the other hand, has a low nose and a flat face. This exaggeration and contrast highlighted the ugliness of their faces and also received a funny effect. The author is also good at receiving critical results with abrupt and funny methods. This is a kind of "nonsense, can make people believe" and "cause funny beauty" exhibition hall boasting how an Italian painter painted nature, starting with sketching. Misha, who was in pain, believed this and began to follow the book. Later, Mi Ting said that he made it up. It was a joke. This not only makes people laugh, but also makes people feel cynical, teasing others, stupid and dull, and makes people realize the emptiness and boredom of life. The language of all works is humorous and witty, and the author's wit and wit are everywhere.

The author of "I am a cat" is good at it, with fluent narration and self-sufficiency, which shows the author's superb artistic attainments. However, it also has the shortcomings of loose structure, complicated content, more discussion and greasy and vulgar description. Despite these shortcomings, this can't hide them. I am a cat and can be said to be a model of satirical literature in modern Japanese literature.