_西游记_和_哈克贝利_费恩历险记_的主题比较_

Chapter5 Comparison on Social Significances

5.1Both Works Revealing the Social Realities

5.1.1 The Social Evils in Both Adventures

The two works reveal social evils through the protagonists’ adventures. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the calm, clear and exuberant life on the Mississippi River and the mundane, stiff and hypocritical life on the bank form a sharp contrast: the freedom and coziness on the raft, while the rushing about and worries on the bank; Huck and Jim, though with different social status and races, share both true friendship and hardships on the way of escape, while on the bank there are frauds and combats for the racial, positional, commercial interest, and so forth. By the contrast in the course of adventures, the author highlights the evils of the so called civilized society, which is represented by the bank life, such as the apartness, the cheating of each other, the extortion, the tussle between the gangsters, the combat between the feuds, the local villain’s killing of the innocent, and the troublesome hooligans. In doing so, the social panorama appears vividly in front of the reader by the switching back and forth between the river life and the bank life by Huck and Jim. Similarly, on the journey for the Scriptures, the Scriptures group，share weal and woe together by going through innumerable trials and hardships, treading all over the countless mountains and rivers, and dealing with people from all walks of life. The kings who extort excessive taxes and levies, the emperors who hanker after the beauty and flesh, the fatuous Sovran who believes the evil spirit’s lies to eat the children’s heart, the flunkies ploting a murder of their masters, the illicit sexual relations, the small tricks, the thuggee, the old monk who covets cassock and commits murder, the malicious White Skeleton, the evil fairy，Fairy the Apricot who is outstanding in both respects of talent and beauty, the spoony and beautiful Queen of the Women Kingdom. In a word, the various evils, both human and unhuman, indicate the fact that the society of the middle and late Ming Dynasty is gradually declining.

5.1.2 Adventures of Monkey King and Huck

While indicating the social evils just like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Journey to the West reveals the corruption of the upper-class society through many details. All the way to the West, those evils or spirits who can survive the Monkey King’s as-you-will gold-banded cudgel, must have ties of kinship or friendship with the heavenly gods, or be mounts of some certain Bodhisattvas or gods, or simply have some connections with the Heaven. Such examples are too numerous to mention one by one. For instance, more than one Bodhisattva’s mounts go to the low world to do evil, harming the local residents, while the Monkey King is about to execute them on the spot, the mounts’ owners just come in time to reoccupy them. The Big-Bingy Buddha’s Weasel Spirit sets a false the Buddhist Palace, named as the Thunder Temple, to fool the Scriptures group and even makes the Monkey King blind, but is still saved by its master as the Monkey King wants to finish his life. The Heavenly King Li’s honorary daughter, the White-Colored Mouse Spirit, raises the devil in the endlessly deep-down hole and harbors evil intention for Sanzang, but is finally condoned for her adoptive father’s account. Even more ridiculous, some evil spirits who cause disturbances, not only escapes the punishment, but gets promotion on the contrary. Such as the Bear Spirit who steals the cassock, is assigned to the South Sea to look after the bamboo forest; the little Immortal, the Red Child, who uses his Samadhi Fire and burns the Monkey King badly, is assigned around the Bodhisattva .All these positions are actually equal to the advanced civil servant today. This kind of nepotism, together with the traditional virtues of Chinese people, has passed from generation to generation. Even just under the Lord Buddha’s nose, there exists the phenomenon of abusing one’s power for personal gains, receiving bribes. For example, the Buddhist saints around the Lord Buddha ask the Scriptures group for bribes before giving them the true Holy Scriptures.

5.2 Both Works Implicit on Political Malpractices

5.2.1 Against Feudality vs. against Slavery