The hero of the novel Honest Man began to believe in Bongro's optimistic philosophy: everything in this world is perfect, but the cruel social reality shattered his dream. The novel focuses on the experiences of "honest people" and their various encounters, aiming to expose the tyranny of feudal monarchs, the hypocrisy and oppression of the Catholic Church in fooling people, the disasters brought to the people by the war, their sympathy for their tragic fate, and their innocence and ignorance.
The main target of honest man's attack is Leibniz's optimism theory. According to this theory, the world people live in is the best of all possible worlds. Even if God didn't create a perfect world, the existence of local "bitterness" and "evil" is necessary and an indispensable link in the causal chain. They exist to realize the "great goodness" and "dzogchen" of the universe. Humans feel sorry for the fate of themselves and others, just because the world is narrow-minded and short-sighted, and they can only see their own world. If we can look at everything in the universe, the world is a perfect and harmonious whole, and everything is perfect. This theory is very comforting to the unfortunate people, and it conforms to the Catholic "God is omniscient and omnipotent, and manages everything with his wisdom and love." Everything in the world is arranged by God. There is often great goodness in small evils and sufferings. Therefore, this theory was widely followed in France in the18th century.
The adventure plot in The Honest Man is integrated with his philosophical tendency. The characters, stories and backgrounds in the works are all fictional, even absurd. However, there are serious thoughts and profound philosophies hidden in absurdity. It is through absurd stories and characters that the author exposed the French feudal society in the18th century in broad daylight, and lashed out at the greed of officials, the hypocrisy of church people and the cruel persecution of free ideas by the Inquisition. In Lisbon, three-quarters of the cities were destroyed by the earthquake. In order to prevent the city from being destroyed, the Inquisition will burn people alive with slow fire in solemn ceremonies, saying that this is the secret to prevent earthquakes. As a result, the church arrested two Portuguese people and burned them alive because they "threw away the ham cooked together when eating chicken". On the grassland of Paraguay, the girl fell in love with the monkey, and two naked girls flirted with the monkey. This is absurd, but it contains strong realistic pertinence. Through ridicule, philosophy and one-liners with thorns, the declining feudal society was mercilessly exposed and criticized.
"Honest people" and their companions finally found a home in productive labor. They abandon blindly optimistic philosophy, resist pessimistic preaching, and firmly believe that creative labor is the only way to treat mental trauma and improve people's lives. Today, this bourgeois scientific conclusion has many drawbacks, because it is impossible to completely eradicate the evil roots of human society. However, the author can take labor as the destination, which embodies the pragmatic and enterprising spirit of the emerging bourgeoisie. It reflects the highest achievement of enlightenment thinkers in the18th century and is a new way for Voltaire to change reality and transform society. storyline
The story of the combination of virtual and real. In Voltaire's philosophical novels, most of them take the roaming experience of the protagonist as the clue, and organize the plot by filing levels and big stories and short stories. The story is complete, the concept of time and space is clear, and it is full of many virtual scenes that are half-god, half-man, seemingly true and false, and strange and unpredictable.
Voltaire's skill lies in virtual reality. Virtual, just the text of the novel. Truth is its soul. Even in those absurd and incredible plots, there is great realistic pertinence.
In the work Honest Man, the famous philosopher Bongro was quickly crippled by sexually transmitted diseases and became a poor beggar with only one ear and one eye and a crooked mouth and black teeth. It turns out that Bongs's virus was infected by the maid Bacardi. Bacardi's illness "was sent by a Franciscan priest. The priest's illness was attributed to an old countess, the old countess to a cavalry captain, the cavalry captain to a marquise, and the marquise to an attendant, an attendant of a Jesuit priest." This series of dirty "genealogy" is obviously an absurd picture fabricated by the author, but it really exposes the inside story of promiscuity in the aristocratic upper class and summarizes the ugly nature of the declining class.
Voltaire is not an ordinary mirror, but a refracting prism. Through the uneven mirror, people see a fantastic and illusory world, and there are real shadows of social life in every corner of it.
On the battlefield in Morocco, the lucky soldier was so hungry that he ate human flesh and cut off half a live donkey to satisfy his hunger. In ancient Persia, Chadiger's wife even wanted to cut off her husband's nose to treat her new lover. This kind of plot is shocking, fascinating, thought-provoking and suddenly enlightened.
Voltaire didn't want readers to believe the truth of his plot, but tried to make readers understand the author's inner profound meaning through absurd fictional scenes, turning some ridiculous jokes into cynical spears and rising to a new philosophical height. This is Voltaire's real kung fu in weaving stories with virtual theory and music.
Narrative skills
The third-person narrative technique is adopted throughout Honest Man. This technique is not only convenient for telling the story in the tone of a third party, but also allows readers to look at the philosophy reflected between the lines of the story coldly from the perspective of a bystander, and then seriously think about the problems about life in reading.
The perspective of telling honest stories focuses on honest people, and the relationship between honest people and Miss Gu Neigong is the main line that affects the development of other plots. Where honest people go, the story leads. This third-person narrative technique makes readers look at the world coldly and see the stupidity of "honest man" from all his experiences. The cruelty and indifference of the society in which "honest people" live, and the understanding of the conclusion that "life should be happy through labor" is natural and logical.
Narrative characteristics
The narrative of The Honest Man has two main characteristics.
On the one hand, the narrative speed of Honest Man is amazing: unprovoked murder, absurd war, human sacrifice, poisoning, disembowelling, prostitution, gang rape, dismemberment, beheading, hanging, cannibalism and fraud. All the sufferings in the world seem to add up to less than a few hours of narration in the article. Voltaire, with his mythical brushwork, drives all the characters in the story to undergo purgatory-like tempering, and the scene of suffering is like a picture in a stream of consciousness movie.
On the other hand, honest people approach "zero writing". Narrators and characters are always extremely objective and calm when telling stories of suffering, without any emotion. The novel describes the war like this: "First, the artillery knocked down about 6,000 troops on each side. For the best of the world, the artillery platoon swept away 9000 to 10000 bad people who defiled the ground. The bayonet fully explained the cause of death of thousands of people. " This game-like pen and ink completely dispelled the justice of war. Another example is Gunegon's account of family disaster: "They (Bulgarian soldiers) rubbed my father and brother's necks and cut my mother into pieces. A Bulgarian who was six feet tall raped me when he saw that I was in a coma because of the tragic death of my parents. That Man Zi stabbed my right armpit and still has a scar. " . Gunigon doesn't seem to be telling his own suffering, but telling a story or hearing. The world of "honest people" is like a slaughterhouse. Man is both a butcher and a butcher. Of course, there is no warmth in the slaughterhouse.
This objective and calm narrative shows the numbness of human mind. Voltaire had a magic weapon to deal with this numbness-humor. There are countless jokes hidden in honest people. Laughter is a kind of correction, intimidating people through humiliation and bringing them back to normal track. Laughter contains a variety of complex meanings, such as happiness, exhortation, irony, eliminating tension, dispelling depression and so on.
Metaphorical symbol
There is a plot in the novel The Honest Man: On their way to Lisbon with Jacques the Baptist, the Honest Man and Ben Gross experienced storms, shipwrecks and earthquakes. Storms, shipwrecks and earthquakes are all natural phenomena that nature cannot predict and avoid. The author skillfully uses these metaphors to symbolize the gradual decline of autocratic feudal monarchs, the final disintegration of hypocritical Catholic churches and the gradual awakening of people fooled by them. The awakening of consciousness did not fall from the sky. Naive people will gradually wake up after experiencing all kinds of deception and witnessing all kinds of ugly faces of the hypocritical Catholic church. Among them, the beautiful and luxurious castle where the barons lived in the novel symbolizes the feudal monarchy, and the destruction of the castle indicates the disintegration and ultimate subversion of the feudal monarchy.
In the novel Honest Man, a "perfect" Huang Jinguo is written. In Huang Jinguo, people regard gold as dirt, everyone is equal, there is only one religion, there is no monk, everyone is a priest, and everyone has the same opinion, so there is no monk to argue, manage, play tricks and burn people with different opinions.
"Huang Jinguo"-this fairyland-like paradise, what "honest people" see here, "nothing is actually unpleasant". People wear "clothes embroidered with gold and silver", eat "rare treasures" and live in houses "like European palaces". In Huang Jinguo, stone is gold. People are not dominated by money and do not associate with neighboring countries. They have a "wise king", no religious fanaticism, no persecution by priests, no courts and prisons, and the people live a free and happy life.
Science Museum: A 100-mile-long corridor filled with various mathematical and physical instruments. When the "honest man" offered to leave Huang Jinguo, the king immediately ordered an engineer to build a machine to carry him to the top of the mountain and then send him abroad. "Honest people" praised this: "This is probably a perfect paradise."
Mythical image
In the novel "Honest Man", it was written many times that "Honest Man" came back from the dead, and borrowed the mythical means of bringing back the dead four times to complete the reproduction of the theme of the work. First, the "honest man" once again met Bongro, who had already been hanged, but now he has become a beggar. Second, under the introduction of the old woman, the "honest man" got to know his sweetheart, Miss Gunigon. Third, the "honest man" met the baron's son who was killed by Bulgarian soldiers, that is, Miss Gunegon's brother, and he became the commander. Fourth, the "honest man" once again met Miss Gunigon's brother who was killed by herself but became a rower.
"Huang Jinguo" occupies a small space in the novel "Honest Man", but it is very eye-catching. Huang Jinguo is a clear world in a turbid world; It is a small oasis in the vast desert. The author's views on philosophy, politics, morality and religion are positively expressed through the description of "Huang Jinguo".