This is a growing history of Philip, the hero of the novel. From his birth to his thirties, it is an autobiographical novel. Philip's personality is somewhat similar to that of Mao Mu. He is introverted. When Mao Mu was 8 years old, he was placed in foster care with a priest's uncle because of his mother's death. Because of the defect of stuttering, his shyness and solitude have increased. In the novel, the defect of the protagonist Philip is changed to limping, and the image of his uncle is selfish, dull and eccentric. Aunt is a generous and soft-hearted person who has been serving her husband all her life.
Mao Mu, 17 years old, went to Germany and spent a year in Heidelberg University. Against his uncle's wishes, he entered Oxford University and became a priest. Knowing both drama and art, after quitting his accounting job, he decided to enter medical college as a lifelong student. Although he is qualified as a doctor, he has never practiced medicine. Take the road of writing and roam the world.
This is different from the road that Philip, the protagonist in the novel, finally chose. He finally chose a seaside fishing village town, lived with Sally, became a doctor and gave up his dream of roaming the world.
The novel The Chains of Human Nature is like a diary, with more than 400,000 words in total. It describes the shy hero Philip who finally finds himself in life and realizes the meaning of life after all kinds of baptism.
Philip experienced the shackles of life from the aspects of body, family, lust, money, religion and the meaning of life. The book also unties these shackles step by step along Philip's growth track, and finally makes him grow up and realize the meaning of life.
Philip's parents died when he was very young, so he had to be put in foster care at his uncle's house. Because his uncle is strict and rigid, he seldom feels the warmth of his family and the lack of maternal love, which makes his character very fragile.
His deformed left foot made him the object of ridicule and teasing by primary school students. Although the results are excellent, they still can't make up for the mental trauma. Even when he became a medical student in adulthood and had his left foot re-operated, he still felt that sense of shame.
Lust is the main content of the book, which deeply depicts a man's psychology. Philip has been in contact with several women, among which Mildred is the one who makes him crazy, but this woman is just a green tea bitch. Although this woman is only interested in his money, she has been taking advantage of him. Abandoned him and ran away with another man. Abandoned by other men, she returned to him and finally became a prostitute. Philip has been helping her, but she has no gratitude.
When I first saw this story, I was really indignant at the protagonist Philip. I have a crush on such a woman and ignore other good women around me. Although he is maturing step by step, his feelings for Mildred have changed from infatuation to possession, to pure help, and finally to sympathy and release. I have to say that the transformation of this road is the noble sublimation of his own soul. Finally, he chose Sally, an excellent woman, as his wife.
My uncle is a priest, and he has always expected Philip to be a priest. Only when he was young, he prayed to God to cure his deformed foot and prayed devoutly, but to no avail. Let him down and get rid of the bondage of religion.
Philip in the book lost all his property because he failed to invest in stocks during World War II, and even gave up his studies and became an apprentice in a clothing store. This period of time was his poorest, which made him reflect on how profligate he had been before and spent a lot of wealth on Mildred. Let him feel the pain of money shackles, but he is still lucky. His old friend Artel helped him and made him feel the warmth of his family. His uncle's death left him a fortune so that he could start his studies again.
At the end and beginning of the novel, the poet Cronshaw gave Philip a dirty Persian carpet. This is a symbol of his search for the meaning of life. After witnessing the death of some relatives and friends around him, Philip realized the meaning of carpet. Life is meaningless. A person's life is just a pattern, and the pattern on it is just everyone's different circumstances and experiences. Thinking like this, he was relieved and looked down on his misfortune.
At the end of the novel, Philip chose to marry Sally at the age of 30, settled on an island and became a country gentleman. This is also the end and stability of his confused life when he was young.
In fact, you can browse this book quickly. When Mao Mu projects his memories and emotions on the protagonist Philip, there will be many lengthy descriptions of his psychological activities. It also makes people really realize the protagonist's ambivalence and human weakness. In fact, he didn't know what he really wanted to pursue all the way, just walked all the way, unconstrained style. Choose an unsuitable priest and go to Heidelberg to study. I chose to give up my stable accounting job and go to Paris to study painting. Finally, I gave up painting and chose to be a doctor. Finally, I found my own value in the doctor's work.