葡萄如何愤怒?
- 看《愤怒的葡萄》(Grapes of Wrath)
《愤怒的葡萄》本来是美国小说家约翰•斯塔贝克的长篇小说。如果一定要归类的话,这部小说应该属于批判现实主义作品。小说描述的是20世纪三十年代大萧条时期农民在生死线上挣扎的故事。约德从牢里释放回来,恰逢家里正被逼得滚出家园,计划到遥远的加州去谋生。一家男女老少十一口乘上破旧的福特汽车,摇摇晃晃向西而去……
斯塔贝克因为这部小说而声名鹊起,先是获得普利策奖,之后又获得诺贝尔文学奖。
1940年,著名导演约翰•福特把这部巨著成功搬上了银幕,亨利•方达出演约得一角。这部影片不输原著,获得奥斯卡七项提名,最终获得两项大奖。在七十年代,又入列美国史上十佳影片。奖获到这份上,不把这部影片冠以经典,就说不过去了。
那时彩色片还没有问世,这部作品是以黑白面世的。这种悲剧,以黑白来表现最合适不过。我们说日子好说生活幸福说某事物漂亮,一般就会说“五彩缤纷”,故而,现在用彩色来拍摄悲剧,其实是很不协调的。
剧中的几个主要人物表演都很本色。我之所谓本色,不是指演员自己的性格本色,而是指演员贴切地演绎了剧中人物的性格、秉性和命运。隐忍和见义勇为同样在约德身上显示出来,并很好的解释了他必然的悲剧命运。他的父亲和他的母亲活脱脱就是那个阶层里一对患难与共的老夫老妻,迷惘、焦虑又无可奈何的眼神让人不能不投以极大的同情。
在生死线上挣扎的草民面对着死亡,不是太介意。不是说他们无畏,而是说他们的生存已经是死亡的前戏,或者说他们的生存就是一种死亡状态。所以,在滚滚尘土里,向希望的西方伸延的旅程其实就是走向地狱的路。年迈的祖父率先中风而亡,年迈的祖母也随后告别人世。但一家人并没有嚎啕大哭。他们在黑夜里把祖父草率而平静地安葬在路边。祖母的下葬甚至都不值得去费周章。当警长的手电筒光打到祖母睁开的双眼的时候,她没有瞑目,也没有反应。这种死亡是震惊的,却又如此不值一提,悲剧意义因而凸显。
二十世纪三十年代的美国农民如果要以约德为缩影的话,当然是很悲惨的,不过这种悲惨得看放在什么参照系里来表达。同样是逃荒,他们可以借助汽车(虽然汽车很破很旧很惨不忍睹),他们没有衣衫褴褛,也没有沿街乞讨。如果把他们放在第三世界这个更大的参照系里去比较,那么,他们的悲剧意义就不再那样沉重。
造物主创造的东西都是有目的的,葡萄是为了给鸟啄食的。后来,人加入了分而食之的队伍,葡萄于是就愤怒了,乃至把脸庞都气得发青了,身躯都气得扭曲了。这就有了青色的葡萄,有了藤状般的葡萄树。斯塔贝克把这部小说命名为《葡萄的愤怒》,用意何在?这既是原作的意义所在,也是据此改编的电影的意义所在。葡萄是农民的对应吗?葡萄的愤怒跟农民的愤怒相似吗?姑且以这两个思考题为这篇读后感作结。
你不同凡响!
和文章一个观点不同的是,于我,好生活是黑白而精致的,彩色一般和粗燥以及各种复杂高度起伏的东西联系在一起,并非好生活。
《愤怒的葡萄》不是葡萄愤怒了,而是说愤怒结出了葡萄。比如“恶之花”,这是“怒之果”。
While writing the novel at his home, 16250 Greenwood Lane, in what is now Monte Sereno, California, Steinbeck had unusual difficulty devising a title. "The Grapes of Wrath", suggested by his wife, Carol Steinbeck, was deemed more suitable than anything the author could come up with. The title is a reference to lyrics from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", by Julia Ward Howe:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
These lyrics refer, in turn, to the biblical passage Revelation 14:19-20, an apocalyptic appeal to divine justice and deliverance from oppression in the final judgment.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
The phrase also appears at the end of chapter 25 in The Grapes of Wrath which describes the purposeful destruction of food to keep the price high:
...and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
As might be expected, the image invoked by the title serves as a crucial symbol in the development of both the plot and the novel's greater thematic concerns: from the terrible winepress of Dust Bowl oppression will come terrible wrath but also the deliverance of workers through their cooperation, which is hinted at but does not materialize within the novel.