A Brief Analysis of the Roots of Suffering in To Live

Abstract

To Live is an outstanding novel written by Yu Hua . It mainly tells the story of the protagonist Xu Fugui and his relatives and friends who struggle to survive.Look at it from a broad perspective,the background of the story is from China’s land revolution to the household contract responsibility system in the decades between.Although the novel is called To Live, Xu Fugui’s relatives and friends all died early, leaving him alone.From the horizontal perspective, the novel describes the whole life experience of Xu Fugui: from rich to poor, from having family to being alone, from strong to weak.This paper analyzes the roots of Xu Fugui’s suffering from both internal and external facets: losing all his possessions is the internal cause; Constantly changing social environment is the external cause. This paper analyzes the external roots of suffering from four facets: Age of root, Social root, The economic root, Concept of root. Although Xu Fugui went through an ocean of ups and downs, he did not lose his courage to life, he bravely survived.