Analysis of Female Love Tragedy in Xiao Hong's March in a Small Town

Abstract

In the 20th century, China was in the midst of a great social change, and the old and new cultures collided fiercely. Xiao Hong's March in a Small Town vividly demonstrates the destiny of women in this context, and profoundly reveals the predicament of women's survival under the intertwining of feudal traditions and modern civilization. This paper studies the performance of female love tragedy and its reasons in Xiao Hong's March in a Small Town. It is found that the tragedy of love presents multiple manifestations such as the tragedy of character, social tragedy and the tragedy of fate. The root causes of the tragedy include the bondage of feudal tradition; the conflict between old and new ideas; and the limitation of individual character. Aunt Cui's tragedy is typical, deeply reflecting the plight of women in the intertwining of old and new cultures, and embodying Xiao Hong's profound insight into women's destiny and humanistic concern. Aunt Cui's fate epitomizes the female group in the gap between the old and new cultures. Through this tragedy, Xiao Hong not only shows the loss of female subjectivity in a specific era, but also inquires about the killing of human nature by feudal ethics through her literary writing, and her profound insights into the fate of women are still inspirational to the contemporary society's reflections on gender equality and liberation of ideas.