The Railway In Snow Country

Yasunari Kawabata(1899-1972)was the second Asian and the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.As one of his award-winning works,Snow Country has become the focus of Yasunari Kawabata’s literature researchers at home and abroad since its publication.The content of the novel seems to be far from reality,but it contains profound social and epochal characteristics.This paper combines the novel with the historical context,combed the historical background of the novel,analyzed the role of railway,a representative product of modern civilization,in the plot structure design and character image shaping of the novel,excavated the historical direction and cultural symbolism given to it by Yasunari Kawabata,and explored the social and cultural significance of Snow Country.The text is divided into four chapters.The first chapter analyzes the historical direction of railway.The first section summarizes the life and literary experience of Yasunari Kawabata before he wrote Snow Country,and interprets the influence of Kawabata’s railway complex on his literary career.The second section combs the creation process of "Snow Country" and analyzes the important role of railway in it.Yasunari Kawabata took the train to the place where the novel was written for many times during the fourteen years of his novel writing,and wrote the railway into the novel,which implicitly showed the time and place of the story to the readers,thus helping the readers to analyze the profound connotations contained in the novel in combination with the historical background.The second chapter analyzes the role of railway in the plot structure design of the novel.In the first section,the railway plays a series role in the structural design of the novel by combing the comparative relationship between the number of appearances of the railway in the novel and the sections of the novel.At the same time,the railway is also one of the key points to interpret the internal structure of the work.The second section analyzes the role of railway in setting suspense and adjusting the development degree of contradictions and conflicts in the plot design of novels.Yasunari Kawabata makes the plot development of novels more relaxed with the help of railway,and achieves the balance between story and hazy beauty.The third chapter analyzes the role of railway in character shaping.Railway is not only a means of transportation for the characters in the novel,but also a representative product of modern civilization,which promotes the development of Japanese society and changes the fate of the characters at the same time.This chapter makes a comparative analysis between Youko and Komako,Shimamura and Yukuo,and interprets the rich connotation of the characters through the railway.The first section analyzes the railway and the different meanings of Tokyo represented by the railway to the two girls,so as to interpret the comparison between them.The second section discusses the completely different attitudes and choices of Shimamura and yukuo towards traditional village and modern city,and analyzes the characteristics of The Times in the images of these two characters.The changes of Shimamura images contain Yasunari Kawabata’s thoughts on modern society.The fourth chapter explores the symbolic significance of railway culture.The first section,through the analysis of the characters and details of the novel,illustrates the spiritual crisis brought by the railway era to the Japanese people in the 20 th century.Japanese people are obsessed with the huge economic benefits and social changes brought by railway transportation,and believe that railway will lead them to the road of human progress.However,the progress brought by railway is a kind of materialized progress.In this deformed view of progress,time has also become a tool for people to pursue wealth.Limited material wealth is fought over by unlimited desire for material possession.The whole society is filled with a sense of time is not for me,and people’s life becomes increasingly tense with the rapid railway traffic.However,with the rapid development of society,people are also faced with the spiritual emptiness and panic of lack of belonging.The second section discusses the devouring of modern civilization to traditional civilization reflected in the novel through the specific analysis of railway segments.As a symbol of modern civilization,the change and erosion of railway to the Snow Country symbolizes the opposition of two civilizations and the decline of traditional civilization.However,Yasunari Kawabata did not feel depressed about this situation,but placed his own good expectations for the traditional civilization and the Japanese people in his works,hoping that readers could feel the heart of Japan in Snow Country.