Reflections after reading "White Deer Plain": Character Analysis - Bai Xiaowen (Part 1)

I recently watched the TV series version of "White Deer Plain", and "checked" some of the plots by finding the original version of the novel through WeChat Reading.

The first time I watched "White Deer Plain" was in high school. At that time, mobile phones were not yet popular. Schools in the town could only go out after school. There was a small bookstore opposite the school gate. A deposit of a few yuan, fifty cents was enough. Borrow a book and read it all day. At that time, I read several works that won the Contradictory Literature Award, including "White Deer Plain". At that time, I was reading the book in a hurry because I was rushing for time. One of the plots that left a deep impression on me was the scene where Tian Xiaoe was found dead in a cave dwelling. The description was very graphic, as if it was happening right in front of my eyes. It was tragic and shocking.

In the TV series, Tian Xiao'e played by Li Qin and Zhang Yuqi in the movie version have two different styles, but they both perform part of the tragic characteristics of the character in the original work.

In the novel, another female tragic image is Lu Zhaopeng’s wife, the eldest daughter of the Leng family, and the third female tragic image is Bai Xiaowen’s wife.

Among the tragic images of men, the most prominent one is Bai Xiaowen. Strictly speaking, Hei Wa is not a tragic character. Hei Wa finally achieved a "balance" between himself and the environment. Although he was harmed by Bai Xiaowen in the end, he was self-satisfied in his heart.

The actors in the TV series successfully portrayed the character of Bai Xiaowen, especially when his father Bai Jiaxuan deceived him into his home and asked Lu Zhaopeng to arrest him, "In this life, in this life... …” Repeated several times, this scene is particularly pitiful.

This article’s review or after-reading review mainly wants to analyze the character of Bai Xiaowen.

To analyze Bai Xiaowen, we have to talk about his "father" Bai Jiaxuan first. There is a very meaningful dialogue scene in the play.

After Bai Xiaowen became an officer of the security regiment in the county town, he returned to the village. Through self-criticism and self-examination, he gained the approval of his father Bai Jiaxuan and was allowed to enter the "ancestral hall." Later that night, Bai Jiaxuan took him to the cave where Tian Xiao'e died tragically. There was a tower built by Bai Jiaxuan with money and manpower in order to "suppress" Tian Xiao'e who was already dead - just to appease people's hearts. Bai Xiaowen cried and fainted in front of the tower because his father told him that this woman was pregnant with his child and "dead to death". (In the novel, he dug up the mound of soil in front of the ruined cave dwelling alone, entered the cave dwelling through the skylight, cried and fainted next to Tian Xiao'e's body, no one knew, and then came out alone the next day to reseal the skylight. )

The so-called "killing people to kill people", Bai Jiaxuan is an incarnation of the feudal ethics that suppressed and restrained human nature in the past society, and is a very typical character. There are positive parts in him, but the novel also successfully portrays the complexity of this character.

The next day, Bai Xiaowen was about to get up and return to the county town. At this time in the TV series, Bai Xiaowen was "heart-broken" by his father the night before, his face was pale, and there was a numb smile on his face that went against his will. Bai Jiaxuan stopped him and said, "You should go back to the village to farm. You are not an official." Bai Xiaowen asked his father "Why", Bai Jiaxuan replied "You are too good at pretending", Bai Xiaowen said " Da, you've been a clan leader all your life, haven't you been pretending to be an official? You have to pretend to be with the people above you, but you also have to pretend with the people below." Bai Jiaxuan said again, "I was just pretending to show others, what about you? ? Don’t pretend that you’re gone until the end.”

This conversation actually has several meanings:

Bai Xiaowen has had “high expectations” from his father since he was a child and was trained to be very obedient. , honest, full of benevolence, justice and morality. The novel describes several things about this man when he was a child and some plots about how he didn’t understand the affairs of men and women after he got married, which is enough to show that after Bai Xiaowen grew up and married a wife at the age of sixteen, he was a "selfless" who had not gained true self-understanding and understanding. Growing people.

Bai Xiaowen did not develop in the direction set by Bai Jiaxuan. Bai Jiaxuan believed that his "nature" was such that he would lose himself as an official and even go astray to harm the people.

Because Bai Xiaowen imitated his father's words and deeds since he was a child, he regarded his father as a role model, but it was difficult to get his father's approval. Always wanted to prove myself. In the end it developed into an obsession.