Top 10 essays analyzing the short story “Two children” by Thach Lam the best

Along with his two older brothers, Nhat Linh and Hoang Dao, Thach Lam made great contributions to the two newspapers Phong Hoa, Today, the mouthpiece of the Tu Tu Van Doan group, right from September 9 and the following years. there. Thach Lam once stated about his conception of literary creation: “For me, literature is not a way to bring readers escapism or forgetting; on the contrary, literature is a noble and powerful weapon with which we can both denounce and change a world that is false and cruel, and at the same time make people’s hearts more pure and richer.” . His works, especially his short stories, faithfully reflect that concept of composition.

Many stories are in the stream of realist and critical thinking, describing the miserable and hard lives of poor people in both rural and urban areas. Readers can’t help but sigh in sympathy when reading the short stories The Mother’s House, Hunger, Thirty Night… There are stories that reflect the simple, poetic and compassionate everyday life of which Two Children is a story. representative.

Night in a market street in a small district. Sisters An and Lien replace their mother to sell crop products at the market. That day, the market was closed, but the two sisters still did not clear the goods. The two sisters sat in front of the shop to observe the market street at night. There are only a few people left in the market who are preparing to leave, some poor children collect garbage, Ms. Ti cleans up water to sell, an old lady buys wine at Uncle Sieu’s pho shop, and her husband and her husband sing in troupes… The two sisters tried to stay awake to wait for the trip. The train passed by, bringing a little light back from the bustling Hanoi… An was drunk, Lien also came to me and lay down and entered the solitude and darkness of the district town.

The plot is almost nothing interesting. The main characters of the story are two sisters Lien and An. All the so-called activities of the market street from afternoon until late at night are captured by the two sisters’ eyes. From those quiet eyes, Thach Lam describes the scene of the market street in the afternoon, evening in chronological order, and the daily work of people living on the market.

First of all, the picture of dimensional space. The picture opens with the sound of “the sound of empty drums on the hut of a small district, one by one to call the afternoon”. It is a beautiful poem that cannot be found in a painting by any painter no matter how talented he is. I thought that the sound of the empty drum was felt by everything in the natural world, so it was pulled back in sequence in front of the two sisters’ eyes. The background of the afternoon painting is covered by “the West, red like a burning fire and pink clouds like a dying coal”.

That fiery red color that already has a gray-white shadow will gradually change to a clockwise depth. It can be called the color of time. On that blue background, “The bamboo range in front of the village is black and clearly cut in the sky”. Added a dash of the opposite color. The color “black again” is also the color of the transition from the green of bamboo…

The sound of drums that did not score one by one drew “the sound of frogs croaking in the fields brought in by the gentle wind”. That is the background scene, the distant scene of “One afternoon as smooth as a lullaby” as the tone of the text describes it. Van Thach Lam is rich in poetry, which is obvious at first.

And closer is the scene “all the houses are on”. From those lights, readers can guess the poor and the rich; The “hanging light in Uncle Pho My’s house, the green light in the customer’s shop” is definitely brighter than the “American lamp in Mr. Cuu’s house”, the light in Lien’s sister’s shop. The clever and subtle thing in Thach Lam’s description is that “these light sources are all shining on the street, making the sand sparkle in places and the road is more bumpy because of the small stones one side is light and the other side is dark”.

Without a meticulous, sophisticated look, there would be no such blurred colors in the picture of the night town. It would be lacking if not to mention more “There are only half and a half garbage left on the land, grapefruit peel, market peel, longan leaf and sugar cane leaf. A humid smell rises, the heat of the day and the smell of dust are so familiar, making Lien sisters think it is the unique smell of the land and of this homeland. The painting of a small district market town at night has more of the flavor of the homeland, in those sentences, in addition to the descriptive function, it also has the function of evoking a passionate and deep affection of the writer who does not take literature as entertainment.

And of course, the picture of the district market at night includes people, people who have a quiet life, busy about food and poverty. It was “the little boy who carried the fire and carried two chairs on his back in the alley; Ti, her mother, followed, wearing a cot full and carrying countless pieces of furniture: all her shops.

Except for the poor children at the edge of the market who are stooping to explore and pick up what is still usable left by the vendors, except for the crazy old lady Thi who has an alcohol addiction, perhaps Ms. are the poorest in this small district. Looking at her shop, she knew: tools for selling fresh tea and a pipe smoker.

Through Thach Lam’s pen, she makes a living by catching crabs to catch shrimp during the day, and at night, she sells water and waterpipe tobacco to “a few rice-hands or truck drivers, sometimes a few soldiers or family members are left with extra money. call the feet of shrimp nests” excitedly dropped in for a drink. A moment later, there was another noodle shop of Uncle Sieu, “Uncle… put a load of pho on the street. Uncle bent down to rekindle the fire, blowing into the bamboo pipe. The immense shadow fell to the ground in an area…”.

Then there was “addition of the family of uncle Xam sitting on a mat, a white iron basin in front of him, but he did not sing because he did not have guests to listen to”… The extra character added some employees in the shops to pick up the owner. in the province. Those people signaled the coming train.

Thach Lam only describes the work of those characters, the natural dialogues between them. But from there, readers can recognize each human’s fate in the common denominator of poverty, and social reality under the colonial feudal system. Where is Mrs. Thi’s family? Why is she crazy and addicted to alcohol? The story does not describe, but the reader can feel the unfortunate fate of a wife and mother through her wandering life.

Are you crazy from a shock of grief, perhaps great, and you borrow alcohol to forget about your unhappy life? And that uncle’s family, the property only has a mat and a leather brass bowl, a lute and a voice still lying in the throat because of the absence of guests. His whole family lived off that toolkit, and on the kindness of passersby.

How about the life of your husband and wife, what about the life of “the boy crawled to the ground, outside the mat, playing with dirty garbage buried in the sand by the roadside”? Even the life of Ms. Ti’s family, those poor children, what will happen in the future? The writer has summarized the fate of people living in the middle of the night market with a short sentence “So many people in the dark expect something bright for their daily poverty”.

A gentle sentence, as well as the sentences describing what the other characters are, nothing is hostile, condemning but still has the power to denounce, and moreover, a wish for change. poor people reduce their suffering, so that the society will not have children who go to collect garbage, crazy old women who go begging, and there will be no more families like Uncle Xam’s family.

At that time, the characters created a scene of market activities in the night, silently and shakingly in the presence of the two children, the two sisters Lien and An, the main characters in the story. Once, the two sisters lived with their parents in Hanoi, used to be led “to go out to the lake, drink red and blue glasses of cold water”, meaning that the two sisters lived in the town of flower lights festival. But why come to this district town? Just because “Teacher Lien lost his job”, the whole family had to come here, rent this little stall and leave it to Lien to take care of it. The main job of the Lien sisters is to sell and look after the goods, and sleep on the spot.

Of course, An is young, her soul is still naive. Seeing the “children gather on the sidewalk, laughing and talking happily” An also wanted to join them to play. With more people going to the night market, I’m happier. That is the innocent and hyperactive young mentality, the age when eating and sleeping still has the presence of instinct. When describing the character’s psychology, Thach Lam did not forget that, nor did he forget the essence of family education in his person.

Although he wanted to join the group to have fun with the children, An did not dare, because he was afraid of his mother. Always calling “sister” and calling “em” in every sentence is also more clear about the educational nature of a good family. Waiting for the train, An was very sleepy. When I’m sleepy, I just lie down on the cot, put my head on my sister’s lap and sleep, but still tell me: “The train comes, I wake you up”. And that day, when the train passed and disappeared behind the bamboo trees, An said to her: “The train is not crowded today, sister”, and then urged her to go to sleep.

Sitting awake waiting for the train, before going to sleep, tell her to remember to wake up to watch the train pass. That is the child’s interest and curiosity, but not necessarily a deep sense of his memories and life circuTaxances. After the train was gone, An went back to sleep again. Maybe a few decades later, nights waiting for the train like this are both a memory and remind me of a certain sense of society at that time, but at that time, for me, waiting for the train was just a curious habit. and is fun in the small district town.

In contrast to me, Lien was more understanding, was assigned by her mother to take care of the crop shop, not yet fully managed, but entered the management of money goods and especially had to interact with many people. In the work we see in Lien Lien careful and orderly. Through Thach Lam’s pen, Lien proved to be adept in trading. The day was over, “Lien counted the boxes of pipe tobacco, and packed the boxes of soap bars.

The rest, just mumbling to calculate the goods.” Checking the remaining goods before checking the money sold during the day is the experience of the person who knows the business. When she felt that it was too hot in the shop, she couldn’t sit and add money, “The interlock quickly returned the money with a lock she wore on the silver chain at her waist”. All of them showed Lien’s caution, even when selling alcohol to Mrs. Thi a bit crazy.

But more precious than the above qualities of Lien is compassion, friendship with the poor and honest. Looking at the poor children stooping to collect trash, “Lien… was moved with compassion, but she herself did not have money to give them”. That’s right, although selling goods, the money is managed by her mother, Lien has no rights; Again, Lien’s father is unemployed. Even when I heard the smell of Pho from Uncle Sieu’s house spreading everywhere, Lien craved it very much, but did not dare to eat it because she did not have her own money.

Just look at the way of speaking and treatment through Thach Lam’s sentences, Lien loves you very much. She is always small, and obedient to me. The images “An lay down with her head on her lap”, “Lien lightly fanned An, smoothed her hair …”, “She bent down to help me into the row …” have highlighted that precious virtue. In the private world, Thach Lam meticulously describes Lien’s mood, when the day is coming to an end, the night is coming, and trying to stay awake waiting for the train to pass. That is the mood of sadness, regret, knowing how to find joy, finding hope even for a moment – in the midst of life with no way out.

At the beginning of the short story, Thach Lam describes Lien’s sadness before the afternoon is about to end with sentences like being completely integrated into the character: “Lien sat quietly beside some black powder; Her eyes gradually filled with darkness and the sadness of the countryside afternoon seeped into her innocent soul: Lien didn’t know why, but she felt a deep sadness before the hour of the end of the day.

Writing like that, but actually Lien understood why she was sad, nostalgic sadness. Two images: one of the past when she was still in Hanoi, and the other of the present image in the district town that night, explained Lien’s sadness. “Lien recalls that when in Hanoi, she only enjoyed delicious and strange gifts…, just a bright and sparkling area. Hanoi has so many lights! Since Lien’s family moved here…, every night, Lien and I have to sit on a bamboo cot under the oak tree …” looking at the flickering lights of Sister Ti, Uncle Sieu, and the family of the troubadour. day.

Night after night, the life of the small district town can only be, roundabout, monotonous, poor. Lien looked at them, “so many people in the dark expect something bright to take care of themselves, find ways to struggle to live and hope. Ti’s shop selling green tea, Uncle Sieu’s pho shop has a light not far away.

There was a time when the two sisters Lien raised their eyes to look up at the stars… but “The vastness of the universe seemed to the hearts of the two children as full of secrets and strangeness and tiring their minds, so it only took a moment or two. I look down at the ground again..” and when I looked at the ground, I could only see the flickering lights of Uncle Sieu’s house, of Sister Ti’s in the middle of the night, I was very familiar with Lien, she was no longer afraid of it. At night, the road to the river is deep, the road through the market to home, the alleys to the village are even darker …”.

The river is obviously dark and deadlocked, putting people in a bored and restless mood. Such a day, and such days: such a night and such nights: a small light in contrast to the silent enveloping darkness, there is only and only the train that passes here for a moment. regretful vivid picture: “Lien and I tried to stay awake for another reason, because we wanted to see the train, which was the last activity of the night”. And finally the ship arrived. Lien woke me up. Baby An rubbed her eyes to wake up so she could see the ship clearly.

The train has brightly lit carriages, people are ridiculous on the luxury cars. The two sisters stood up to see clearly, and then “looked at the dot of the green light hanging on the last car, far away and disappeared behind the bamboo grove”. That’s all! The train carrying the urban light kept running on the track accidentally, leaving the district town with darkness at night, leaving “the uncle and his wife fell asleep on the mat from ever before”, leaving a girl “Lien follow me” Dreaming of distant Hanoi, Hanoi is bright and cheerful. The ship seemed to have brought a bit of another world through.

A different world, for Lien, different from the lights of Sister Ti’s lamp and Uncle Sieu’s fire…”. That was another excuse for the Lien sisters waiting for the train, an image that was in stark contrast to the reality of the district town where Lien’s family was living, as well as many other districts in this country in the years before 1945.

Or in other words, it is the image that so many people in the dark expect something bright” like Lien’s mood when lying down next to her to find sleep: “Lien finds herself living in the midst of so many things. as far away as Ti’s small lamp, only illuminating a small area”. That’s it, the other world, the happiness they can’t achieve is every night she stays up to wait for that train to pass so that they can feel more deeply the miserable poverty of their lives.

The romantic and lyrical writing style is not only for describing love between couples, but can still be used to describe the reality of human life, such as Thach Lam’s short story Two Children. Despite having a simple plot, there are no characters that create intense and harsh drama like the short stories of Nam Cao, Nguyen Tuan, etc. to attract and attract readers, but with a gentle, descriptive writing style. subtly the psychological characteristics of each character, distilled in each scene…

Thach Lam is really a writer who writes with all his heart in front of natural scenes and people with poor fates and poor lives. There are no denunciation sentences but still contain the nature of denouncing the injustice of the old government in creating a gap in life between urban and rural areas.

The writer has really merged his soul into the quiet lives of the poor countryside with the goal of pushing back the “false and cruel world” into the past so that the fire of hope can light up in his life. “so many people in the dark expect something bright for their daily poverty,” as he wrote in this famous short story.

Twenty years have passed, readers still have not forgotten a humble, slow, very kind figure, taking very light steps into the modern Vietnamese literary village, bringing with them pages of passionate poetry. As Nguyen Tuan said, “Thach Lam’s compositions bring something light, fragrant and cool”. We encounter those emotions not only in “Under the shadow of the orchid”, “The cold wind at the beginning of the season” or “The crop girl”, “Two children” once again lead us into the world of children with emotions. soft, sad.

Coming to “Two Children”, we are first imbued with the picture of nature and human life in the district through the keen eyes of little Lien – the main character in the story. The picture of nature is encapsulated in the words “smooth” and “sad”. There’s the sound of the drums that don’t beat in the distance, the sound of frogs croaking to evoke the stillness of a countryside, the sound of mosquitoes humming boldly, highlighting poverty.

The space is opened by the “flaming red” color of the West, the “pink light” color of the clouds, the “dark black” color of the village bamboo. There is a bit of peace, quiet, but also a lot of dreary, sad, it brings us into a space that is half strange, half familiar, half rural, half awake, with gentle emotions.

The district town is expanded according to the space of a dead market: “Everyone has returned and the noise has also disappeared. On the ground, only trash remains, grapefruit peel, market peel, longan leaf and sugarcane leaf.” No longer is “the fisherman’s village fish market”, the afternoon market is sparsely populated, without the hustle and bustle, highlighting the decline.

Appearing on the scene of a dying afternoon, a dead market are the lives of people. Not the farmers chased by high taxes, heavy money, as in the work of Ngo Tat To, Nam Cao. Not the Western-educated mandarins, the country girl lived comfortably under the blue smoke in the afternoon like in the works of Nhat Linh and Hoang Dao. The human part that Thach Lam cares about is the nameless little human life, living and dying in a dark, dark society.

Thach Lam wrote about them with all his nostalgia fluttering from his “sincerity”. These are the poor children “crouching down” to pick up the remaining bamboo sticks on the market floor, the mother and daughter of Ti with a shop that sells little but cleans every night, and Mrs. Thi with her voice. Smiling horribly, walking into the dark, it was Uncle Sieu with a burden of pho with few people coming in to eat, and Uncle Xam’s family with the sound of the lute quivering in the night.

They are all small human beings, living day by day in the stagnation around on the “smooth pond of life”. Writing about these unnamed human lives, Thach Lam expressed a deep concern about the lives of the two children. In the middle of the age when innocence should not be over, Lien and An had to take care of their family life.

Two sisters look after the goods to help their mother in a small booth rented by the old lady, separated by a bamboo screen with log paper. The food is just a few black paint balls or a few bars of soap. The hardships are over, but what makes us more sad is that the spiritual life of those two children seems to be gradually stagnating. They have to shut themselves up in the dark space of the town every day, pledge their youth and youth, and may never know the distant world out there.

But as a person who “loves and respects life”, Thach Lam will never stop at reflecting the reality of life no matter how real that reality is. Trying to find out and understand the hidden gems hidden in each person, deepening “the beauty where no one expected”, that’s what Thach Lam always wanted to do. It is said that Thach Lam was born to neutralize two creative tendencies, perhaps that is most clearly shown in the beauty of little Lien’s soul written by the writer with romantic inspiration.

In the middle of a poor, shabby town, still light up the sensitive emotions of a little girl who can vibrate before nature. Lien heard the sound of the afternoon falling, but her heart said to herself: “Afternoon, it’s afternoon. On a calm afternoon like a lullaby”, she saw the peace there, and felt her whole heart “sorrowful before the hour of the end of the day”. Hear the smell of moisture rising from the market floor and think that it is “the smell of the land, of this homeland”.

In the dying life, how many people feel from “a summer night as smooth as velvet” the wind ripples, cools the soul, who cares about the eagle flowers falling gently on their shoulders one by one? Yet the testimonies of a young soul have called for all of these emotions: both fluttering before the gentle beauty, and a fleeting sadness before the peace and quiet.

Not only has a keen soul, there is also a deep compassion in Lien, a warm sympathy for the small human lives around her. Life is not better than them, but not because of that, Lien closes her compassion for poor children, or reduces her concern for Ti’s mother and daughter. She is also not afraid to fill a glass of wine for Mrs. Thi, not to be indifferent to Uncle Sieu’s pho burden and Uncle Xam’s family. Is the touching and tolerance for those around him the sympathy and love that Thach Lam has indirectly conveyed through his character?

Sincerely, lovingly and constantly believing, Thach Lam also sees in the other children a constant aspiration that they rekindle in their deadlocked lives. During his lifetime, Thach Lam once thought: “After all, everyone suffers in life. People suffer in one way, others in another.

The secret is knowing how to find joy in suffering.” The two children found their own joy in the times when they went upstream of their minds, back to the past, endlessly in the happy days in Hanoi where they used to play, drink cold red blue water glasses. Or the times when they look up at the starry sky, looking for the Milky Way and the duck following Mr. Shen Nong, that’s when they let their hearts be quiet with their dreams.

But perhaps the most complete desire, the most complete dream, the two children sent both to the train. Not only the two sisters, but “so many people in the dark look forward to something brighter for their poor lives”, and perhaps the train is the most powerful source of light.

The train – the last activity of a day – in the eyes of Lien and the people in the district is the motivation for them to try to cling to this life. The train appeared, starting with Uncle Sieu’s shout: “The light is out there”. The train brought bright light, bustling sound, not stagnant like the space of a district town, not creeping like Miss Ti’s lamp or Uncle Sieu’s fire.

The sisters tried to stay awake waiting for the train, not to sell a few items, but to be immersed in the strongest emotions of a “distant Hanoi, bright, cheerful and noisy Hanoi”. That Hanoi used to be filled with fond memories of a time when the family was still well off, that Hanoi in the minds of the two children was a region of endless beauty and immense joy.

Because of that, the train is both like a flash of light to bring the two sisters back to the past, and like a ray of light that lights up the future. But looking at it from a certain angle, is it not the train itself that highlights the deadlocked life of the farmers, when the greatest joy of their day is just waiting for the train, nothing more can be done to escape from the air? The stagnant gas kept embracing it. Through this, the writer wants to send a message: It is necessary to change society so that these anonymous people do not have to live meaninglessly.

Fascinating us in the fairy tale is not only by its profound ideological content, passionate humane feelings, but also by the artistic elements of Thach Lam style. Without building a superficial plot or a unique and thrilling situation, “Two Children” is just like a “loving lyric poem” with interwoven mood lines, small details, enough evocative enough. afterimages in the hearts of readers.

The situation Thach Lam built is not a cognitive situation, an action situation, but a mood situation – the lines of mood follow the wording and spread evenly on the page. The character is therefore also a mood character. Lien appears as a girl with vague and fragile emotions, not complicated psychological lines like Nam Cao’s character. Therefore, the voice is just a whispering voice, the language is passionate and poetic, carrying the right “organ” of Thach Lam.

True art is art for people, for life, true art is art that knows how to take materials from life and people to weave profound pages in thought, unique in physical form. presently. Once again Thach Lam has done that through “Two children”. Thach Lam is forever the most loved and respected writer in the Vietnamese modern literary village.

Thach Lam is one of the most unique writers in Vietnamese poetry. Thach Lam’s story does not have a plot, but through the world of emotions and moods of the characters, his work still exudes love, a natural poetic quality that is earnest and emotional.

Through his works, he expressed his sympathy and pity for the lives and lives of poor people. “Two Children” is one of those works! With his sensitivity, Thach Lam has painted a picture of a district town in “Two Children” – a picture with the lives of people in flood, with dark, monotonous lives in the middle of life.

“Two children” tells about the lives of two sisters Lien in a poor district street, with miserable lives before the August Revolution. Through it, Thach Lam wants to express his respect for the small wishes of poor workers in a poor small town, in a cramped and cramped society.

The picture of the district town was erected at the beginning of the story, with simple, gentle but no less fanciful strokes. Thach Lam has mobilized all his senses: sight, hearing and touch to create a scene of a typical district town of Vietnamese society during the French colonial period.

The painting of a district town begins with the scene of nature at dusk through the narration and mood development of the character Lien, which begins with the images and sounds of nature and the dying market.

The picture of nature in the late afternoon is evoked by the image of the evening sky: “The West is as red as a burning fire and the pink clouds are like a dying coal”. A brilliant afternoon scene, stunningly beautiful, bringing in it the soul of the homeland.

And in that scene, it is indispensable to hear the sound of “empty drums” echoing evenly into the space that is gradually entering silence, and in it is the sound of “frogs croaking in the fields with the gentle wind” and ” The sound of mosquitoes buzzing”, all blend together to create a familiar sound, evoking the quiet beauty of a “calm afternoon” home afternoon.

The beautiful natural picture of the homeland, still retains the poetic features, bearing the soul of the country. However, every word, every word in that scene brings a quiet dullness, decay to dreary. That dreamlike sunset scene was like the last bright moment, flashing and then suddenly fading, sad to the heart. Then familiar sounds such as “empty drums”, “frogs, mosquitoes” evoke regularity, sadness, monotony, and blandness.

Next, the natural scene in the afternoon is the image of a rural market at the end of the day. The image of the countryside markets always reminds people of the bustle and bustle with the bustling atmosphere with the beauty of the homeland, but the image of the market here is a market that has ended when “The market meets in the middle of the city”. It’s been a long time since people have returned and all the noise has disappeared” and “on the ground there is only garbage, grapefruit peel, market peel, longan leaf and sugarcane leaf”.

That scene evoked a dreary, dreary district in the eyes of our readers. And not only that, it also evokes the poverty of a rural life. While the image of a rural market is perhaps the most disturbing image of an area, here, it evokes a dreary, depressing sadness.

Prominent in the natural image of the district is the mood of Lien – one of the residents of this poor district. Covering her mood was a deep sadness from her sensitive and pure soul. She has a deep attachment to her homeland, but she can still smell the smell of her homeland, the most characteristic smell of this poor district town “a damp smell rising, the heat of The day is mixed with the familiar smell of sand, making women think of the unique smell of the land and of this homeland.

Lien’s mood, as well as the image of this poor district, was quiet and sad. It is the sadness of a young girl, sensitive to the surrounding emotions, vague and fragile, but deeply penetrating “the sadness of the countryside seeps into her innocent soul”, “I see sad heart before the hour of the end of the day”.

Lien’s sadness is also Thach Lam’s sadness in front of contemporary society, a society where time seems to freeze into a moment, not changing, and dreary to the point of mourning. The picture of that district town not only shows up with a fiery but sad sunset, but also shows up in the lives of people in the district – the dead lives.

The first encounter is the image of children appearing in the district streets. Not the image of children playing, playfully running and jumping on the green grass of the park, but the image of “poor children at the edge of the market crouching on the ground, walking and exploring” on the background. the “dead market” of that district town.

Life is too busy, poverty has pushed lives to perish, children have to live on piles of rubbish left behind after the market, have to sow hope “pick up bamboo sticks, bamboo sticks or whatever. something usable left by the vendors” on the trash heap of the dead market.

Their lives, their futures are so dark, so deadlocked. And the character Lien herself also feels compassion for those fates, but “she herself has nothing to give them”. Lien sympathizes but is helpless and that is also the feeling that Thach Lam has for the poor workers.

Next, the image of the children is the image of Miss Ti’s life. She appeared in the darkening space of the district town with the image of “wearing a cot on her head and carrying a lot of furniture in her hands”. Sister Ti is also a poor laborer in that dark district town.

Every day, during the day, “she goes to find crabs to catch shrimp”, at night, she opens a water shop “from dusk until night” just to add a few odd coins but also “doesn’t earn much”. Her body is like an image of a stork wading along the riverbank, wading early in the morning, a typical image of a working woman: “Storm diving in the desert”.

And her shop is also small, as skinny as herself, because “all her shops” are all things she can carry, wear, carry, carry. That shop only sells green tea and cigarettes for “some rice or truck drivers who sometimes lose a soldier in the district or a teacher’s family member who goes to call the shrimp nest”. Her customers are just people who have a life like her, a life like hers.

They are also only excited to enter her shop, so knowing that her shop doesn’t make much profit. Therefore, responding to Lien’s inquiry was just a lament: “Wow, sooner or later, there’s nothing to lose”. Is that a sigh for her deadlocked life, a sigh of boredom because life is so monotonous, just hanging around, with no future light – a meaningless life.

Not only the fate of Ms. Ti, of the rice-handlers, but also the life of An and Lien’s sisters is also a dead life in this district. The series of days of life and death of Lien’s family began with the event when “Mr. Lien lost his job”, it was this that pushed the family into a deadlock. No longer able to stay in the bustling streets of Hanoi, Lien’s family moved back to their hometown to find a way to break the impasse.

Returning to her hometown, Lien’s mother became a grocery store, while Lien’s sisters were assigned to take care of “a small booth rented from an old lady”. That tiny grocery store only has a few matches, a few bars of soap, a little wine, etc. But the customer only buys “half a bar of soap”. It was that tiny stall that made an impression in the eyes of readers of the poverty in the district and the stalemate of Lien’s family.

However, no matter how much you try, the deadlock is still a deadlock when “every day selling doesn’t work”, life has no hope. The life of Lien’s family, Lien’s sisters are still around, monotonous, still the rhythm of “move out in the morning, move in at night”, “every day, at dusk, Lien’s mother stops by to visit every other day. time”. All that the Lien sisters are living is not a little childish joy but a suffocating, cramped life, even the innocence of children is gone.

Lien sympathizes and feels sorry for the fate of Sister Ti, for the poor and dark life of a person in the same situation. However, when picturing her family’s life, Lien also felt sorry for herself, she felt sorry for the deadlock of her family, her father, her mother’s flood, and felt sorry for the loss of her life. the bondage of herself and her brother when having to go through the meaningless days of life. That mood of hers shows up through each of Thach Lam’s compassionate and pitiful words.

Not only that, those dead lives are also reflected in the images of Uncle Sieu, Uncle Xam, and Thi crazy. Just a fleeting moment, the images of those lives also make us unforgettable.

The image of Uncle Sieu appeared with a burden of pho on his shoulder, with a heavy burden in the middle of the night. Your noodle soup is “a luxury gift with a lot of money” that few people can buy. That’s why, your pho in this district town is always empty. Every day is a monotonous chorus, in the evening, the fire is lit, and at night, it is carried to the village. Uncle Sieu’s life is also monotonous, boring, repetitive like the life of Ti and Lien’s sisters.

In addition, the image of Uncle Xam’s family living on the mat, they are also dead people in this district. Uncle Xam’s family makes a living by doing street singing, asking for food, not having a house to shelter from the sun and rain, only taking temporary shelter under bridges and sidewalks as a place to rest. His property is only a tattered mat, a gourd and an iron brass, that’s all his family has.

However, the image that is most deeply engraved in the reader’s heart is the image of “a boy crawling to the ground, outside of the mat, playing with dirty rubbish buried in the sand by the roadside”. The child – future generations are crawling out of the shadows, but they can’t escape the life of poverty, the dark life that surrounds his family.

Finally, there is a picture of the crazy old woman Thi, an alcoholic. He is the symbol of a dying human life when approaching the end of life, still dreary and decaying like that. Closing the picture of people in the district is the image of the crazy old lady “walking into the dark” with “happy laughter”. It was a creepy laugh for a dying life, a dying life in this poor district.

The whole picture of the district town appears through Lien’s eyes, from the dreary afternoon scene to the dark, dark lives and plight. Those are sad lives with physical tragedies, poverty and spiritual tragedies of people who live their whole lives with monotonous, boring, stuffy, cramped, meaningless lives. . Their lives are so dark that there is no light of the future.

That picture is seen through the eyes of Lien – a young girl, with an innocent, sensitive, pure soul, who is in the same situation with those people. Behind Lien is the soul of a petty bourgeois writer who is using his love and contemplation to mix with the other workers’ souls to sympathize and grieve for their fate.

Thach Lam writes about the working poor, but he does not delve into their poverty but delves into the spiritual tragedy of people who are living a languid, meaningless life. Understanding those emotional tragedies full of suffering, has Thach Lam awakened to his personal sense, aware of the human right to life, that’s why he felt sorry for the meaningless lives. there? And perhaps it is thanks to this that the depth of the humanitarian meaning for the work that Thach Lam wants to convey.

The picture of a poor district town closes with a dark night space when darkness covers. It was “a summer night as smooth as velvet and with a cool breeze”, “in the dome of the sky, thousands of stars compete with each other, sometimes in the light of the flying fireflies, is it on the ground or in the branches of the trees? “.

How glorious and glorious that night was! In the sky with thousands of sparkling stars, so beautiful, the ground is covered with darkness “all dark, the road is deep to the river, the road through the market to home, the entrance to the village is even more difficult. darker”. The darkness was thick, occupying the small district street. Is this also a metaphor for society under the French colonial period – a dark society, no light can pass through, bondage, suffocation, poverty.

Living in that society are people like light beads, light spots, light slits, glimmers, small, creeping, flickering. The character Lien or Thach Lam himself is sad before that dark life, with no light in the future. There are thousands of beautiful stars in the sky, but to Lien, it’s just a “deep, vast universe”, “full of mysteries”, as well as the old joys that can no longer come true. . Therefore, Lien “looks down at the ground”, “at the intimate halo around the flickering lamp on the stall of Ms. Ti”. Because that halo is close to Lien, because it is like her own meaningless, blurred life.

The picture in the district town when the day is over that Thach Lam erected is a miniature image of the whole Vietnamese society in the days of French colonialism. It is a cramped, suffocating, dark society to the extreme, where poverty keeps clinging to the dead, dreary human lives.

The art that Thach Lam uses are realistic materials that he himself experienced. Mixed in reality is romantic inspiration for each natural scene, for each character image to create a deep symbolic meaning.

The picture of the poor district is depicted according to the movement of time from dusk to dawn and step by step the mood of Lien’s character. Through the vague, delicate and fragile vibrations of a young, sensitive soul, Thach Lam has reconstructed a picture of his homeland with all the beauty of the homeland and at the same time conveyed in it his love. love the motherland, the country, send in the lives of the dying people in the streets and districts the sadness and deep sympathy. And deep down is the sense of criticism of the colonial society of a petty bourgeoisie, which has failed to guarantee human life and right to life.

Thach Lam – a typical writer for romantic literature. However, the romance in his writing is very strange and unique: it comes from reality, is delicate, gentle and goes deep into people’s hearts. That’s the positive romance, the beautiful romance. The short story “Two children” drawn from the book “Sunny in the garden” is an example. A touching story about poor people and poor children in a small district town with gentle and delicate lyrics expressing compassion for the simple and touching memories and dreams of children in the street. poor district in the past.

The story of Two Children is described by the author in the order of space and time. That space is from when the sun begins to set the scene has color thanks to it then turns dark, and the chronological sequence from sunset to night. The story begins with the image of a district town at sunset, described by the author in sentences with a slow and leisurely rhythm, along with sounds and images signaling the end of a day through the sound of a drum. Image: “The West is as red as a burning fire and the clouds are pink like a dying coal. The row of village bamboos in front of the village is blackened and clearly cut in the sky.”

It was a quiet afternoon, the space was so quiet that even the cry of the frogs could be heard from the distant fields echoing with the blowing wind: “One afternoon as calm as lullabies, echoing the sound of frogs chirping. shivering in the fields with the gentle wind blowing in”. The scene of the district town in the late afternoon is also described specifically, vividly and sexy under the eyes of two children. That is the scene of the empty market, deserted when the market has long since ended “all the people have returned and the noise has also disappeared”.

Through the image of the dead market, it has partly exposed the poverty and shabby life of the town and district. After the market meeting ended, everyone left and at that time there was only “garbage, remove pomelos, peels, longan leaves and sugarcane leaves”. At the same time, the sunset scene in the district town is also described through the writer’s delicate sense of smell: “a damp smell rises, the heat of the day and the smell of dust are so familiar, making women think of their own smell. land, of this homeland”. Through all the above sounds and images, a picture of a poor, sad but romantic district has been painted.

The sky turned dark: “In the shop of the Lien sisters, the sound of mosquitoes buzzed. Lien suddenly felt the sadness of the dying day seep into her soul as she sat next to the black paintballs, her eyes gradually filled with darkness. The light of the sun weakens and then disappears, and nocturnal animals appear, which are flying mosquitoes and humming sounds. The whole scene was gradually covered in black as darkness approached.

It makes the street scene become sad and dark. The whole street was engulfed in black, the light only appeared in a few places, but they were weak and dimly illuminating a narrow area like an oil lamp from the Lien sisters’ shop, the light from a portable fire. Pho Sieu and the American lamp of Ti’s mother and daughter shine from the restaurant or the light radiates from the train carriages when a train passes through the district, but it seems that it is a different world. A large space where the district town has only a few small and weak points of light evokes a picture of a poor district and tinged with sadness.

The picture of the district town is also vividly depicted with the daily life of the people of the district – people who live a life of poverty, hard work, and flood in their livelihoods such as children picking up trash, mother and daughter. Ti, Uncle Pho Sieu, Uncle Xam and his wife, Mrs. Thi crazy and the main characters of the short story are sisters Lien and An.

After the afternoon market ended, the darkness did not fall, but dark lives appeared. First of all, there are some poor children living near the market: “fighting to pick up all that can be used, a bamboo stick, a bamboo stick or anything that can be used”. It is their miserable life with things that people have thrown away.

Next is Ti’s mother and daughter, every day until this hour, her mother and daughter wear a cot to carry a fire to clean the goods, “day, she went to find crabs to catch shrimp; I don’t clean this shop until the evening” with very simple and popular items such as fresh tea, waterpipe tobacco, so the customers of her shop are just rice cooks, truck drivers, soldiers in the district or people. teacher’s house, teacher only.

Life is so hard, but at least her mother and daughter have a permanent place to sell tools, although they only have “only a bamboo cot, a few chairs, and a few cups” but compared to Uncle Xam and his wife. still seems to be luckier. Uncle Xam and his wife, who were blind, and their child were crawling in the sand and were struggling to make a living with only a broken pot and a broken pot.

The daily life of the husband and wife and their young child depends on the kindness and generosity of others. Whatever they give, they eat. Therefore, many days without asking for anything and no one to show mercy, many of my family’s mouths have to go hungry. In addition to characters like Ti’s mother and daughter, Uncle Xam and his wife and a few children scavenging Thach Lam also sketched another character, Mrs. Thi.

The mysterious life scene of old lady Thi, a slightly crazy old lady. She went to Lien’s sister’s shop with the familiar laughter of customers, bought quail wine, praised Lien for filling it up, then tilted her head back to drink it all, staggered away, slipped into the dark and “the laughter of customers gradually diminished”. Another character that is also mentioned when talking about the life of the people in the district is Pho Sieu. Your image appears with a creaking load of goods, one side is a row of coal stoves and the other is a charcoal stove.

Thach Lam has shown mercy, kindness and a human heart to two children, that is, the character Lien and baby An. Two sisters Lien moved from Hanoi to live in this district town since Lien’s father lost his job. Lien’s mother rented a small shop near the station to sell crop products and gave this job to the two sisters.

Every day, according to her mother, Lien often closes the door late because: “My mother told me to stay up until the train passed, maybe someone from the train came down to buy goods. The two sisters sat on the cot in front of the porch and waited.” That’s why, every day at dusk, they would sit on the bed together and wait for the train to pass. When looking at the light of the train, the two sisters recalled the time they lived in Hanoi, those were the days of a full and happy life of Lien’s family.

Lien and An are both young girls but have had to live in a poor district with hard-working people who are struggling day by day and hour by hour to make a living. district street. But with his kind heart, rich in love, Thach Lam has blown into that picture romance, hope in life through the characters Lien and An.

With a description of the innocent and dreamy souls of the two sisters, Lien while waiting for the train to return. They are always eager to sit on the cot waiting for the train to pass. In their thoughts and imaginations, life on the train must be very fun, very happy and it is like a different world, different from the life that the Lien sisters and the people of the district are living – a life. life in poverty and squalor.

They dream, yearn to one day get on the train and go to a happy place where they can drink the red and green water they dream of. Therefore, the two sisters were very eager to wait for the train, then watched and watched until the train was far away before they cleared the goods.

That’s when the guard drum also made a short sound and immediately fell into the darkness. At this time, the rice shops at the station were also silent, as dark as the street. The train with bright lights passed, then the dark night surrounded, the night of the countryside, the vast and silent fields. The sisters also fell into a quiet and dark sleep, but always hoped and dreamed of a bright and beautiful life.

Thach Lam’s Two Children is one of his famous short stories. In this work, Thach Lam did not write about those who belong to the cruel ruling class who only know how to exploit, or those who only lament their fate, but with a gentle voice he wrote about the reality of the picture of space and life. the lives of people living in poor districts.

Through the characters Lien and An, the author has shown love, kindness and compassion for the poor people who have to live hard in a cramped and boring life by sowing faith and hope for a new life. Happy life, a bright future.

Referring to Thach Lam is referring to a great writer of Vietnamese romantic literature in the period 1930-1945. His work mainly exploits the character’s inner world with fragile and ambiguous emotions. Writer Nguyen Tuan, when commenting on Thach Lam, once wrote: “The feelings of writer Thach Lam often stem from his sincere feelings towards people in the poor class. Thach Lam is a writer who always cherishes life and appreciates the lives of people around him. The short story “Two children” is the most typical example of Thach Lam’s artistic style.

“Two Children” is drawn from the collection of short stories “Sunny in the Garden” (1938). The main characters of the work are sisters Lien and An. Due to a family incident, the two children followed their mother to their mother’s hometown in a poor district. Every day, the two sisters, Lien and An, take care of a small shop with a few packs of cigarettes, a few bars of soap, etc., and wait for the train to pass through the district. Through Lien’s innocent eyes, life in the district is real and lively.

It is a dark color in a tight, cramped space with slow, lifeless and poor people. The short story shows Thach Lam’s sincere sympathy for the lives of poverty, hidden in the dark, languid streets before the revolution and his respect for small and simple wishes. their earnestness.

As mentioned, making the short story “Two Children” is the scene of the end of the day and the end of life. At the beginning of the story, striking the reader’s senses is a dark, gloomy and gloomy scene. The time depicted in the work is short, everything can take place from evening to night. The sunset scene, first of all through the eyes of the artist, still has an extremely peaceful, idyllic and poetic beauty. “The West is as red as a burning fire and the clouds are rosy like a dying coal.

The row of village bamboos in front of them were blackened and clearly cut into the sky. Afternoon, afternoon. One afternoon as calm as a lullaby, echoing the sound of frogs croaking in the fields brought in by the gentle wind. However, that picture is beautiful, but hidden behind it is a sadness that the artist has intentionally covered up with brilliant colors. Some people have commented that Thach Lam’s literature is both realistic and romantic. That completely stands when put into the short story “Two Children”. Because hidden behind many layers of words, what Thach Lam conveys is that a dark, tired life surrounds people.

The place where the Lien sisters live is a poor district town and in fact it is a small shack market. “The market has been meeting in the middle of the city for a long time. The people have all returned and the noise is also gone. On the land, there is only garbage, grapefruit peel, market skin, longan leaves and bagasse. A damp smell rises, the heat of the day and the smell of dust are so familiar, making the sisters think that it is the unique smell of this land and of this homeland. Just looking at the remains of the market is enough to see how miserable life here is.

Vendors come home late and talk to each other for a few sentences as if to give each other the boring lives of living. The children of the poor family are living on the scraps of the poor village market. They “crouched down on the ground to search. They pick up bamboo sticks or any other usable things left by the vendors.” This is the fullest embodiment of misery. All seem to be trying to live and hope, but the effort is too much and the hope is too fragile.

Prominent on the background of the ruined, lonely scene of the district town is the image of the lives of people dying, hanging around, trapped with no way out. It was the uncle and his wife with the mournful sound of the lute, on the tattered mat, the son crawled to the ground outside the mat, playing to pick up dirty garbage. That is the mother and daughter of Ti, who hunts for crabs to catch snails, comes back to clean the roadside stalls in the evening, “I don’t earn much, but every afternoon I clean the goods, from dusk until night”.

It was Pho Sieu with the burden of goods, which is a luxury gift for the people of the town and district, the crazy alcoholic Thi, the poor children and the two sisters, Lien… wear and tear, people mingle with the darkness like wobbly, fragile shadows that are drifting through time. That life is regular, monotonous, repetitive, boring for the people of the district. They are all expecting something fresh to blow into their lives.

The lines of sound, light, and people of the district painting seem to be disjointed, but it resonates in a system of melancholy, contemplation, and sadness. The added point to that life is the oil lamp and the darkness covered, the more praising the poor to the point of pity.

The scene of the end of the day is described as gloomy and cramped with the lives of the dead. And, the dull, dark as if being raised many times when Thach Lam describes the street scene at night. In the work, there are more than twenty times the word “dark” is repeated. “The streets and alleys gradually filled with darkness”, “all dark, the road leading to the river, the way home through the market, the alleys to the village even darker”, “night in the city”. , silent and full of darkness.

Darkness covers everything, permeates the work, creating a dark picture, a stagnant space, evoking a feeling of suffocation. Darkness is depicted in many different states, present from beginning to end of the work. Suggesting the reader to see a deadlocked life, around the district people in particular and the people before the August revolution in general. It is also a symbol of hopeless moods, melancholy in the mind of a human life.

Not only the space, the scenery, the life of the residents in the district is also covered with darkness. They operate and make a living in the dark. In the evening, Ti’s mother and daughter cleared the water. At night, Pho Sieu appeared. In the dark, his family sang Xam for food. When the darkness is over, the crazy old lady comes to buy wine and drink and then “walks into the dark”. And Lien and An every night sit quietly watching the district town and waiting for the train. Life repeats monotonous, dull with familiar movements, expected thoughts like every day. Together, they expect “something bright for everyday poverty”.

In that pitch-black darkness, the image of an oil lamp was mentioned more than ten times as a faint hope that Thach Lam wanted to plant in people’s hearts. It is “the flickering lamp on the stall of Ms. Ti”, “the lamp of Lien, the lamp is turned small, sparsely, each light shines through the bamboo”. Everything is not bright enough, not enough to break the night, but on the contrary, it makes the night even more immense, the more it praises the decay, loneliness, and sadness.

The oil lamp, on the other hand, is also a symbol of a small, meaningless, wobbly life. A life languishing in the vast darkness of the old society, no happiness, no future, life like dust. That life is more and more burdened on the shoulders of every person in the district. The whole picture is dark. The light particles of the oil lamp spilled out just like holes in an all-black picture, even more tragic and dark.

In the whole work, the character that Thach Lam pays the most attention to is Lien. Although Lien is just a young girl growing up, she has genuine, beautiful thoughts and feelings that are worthy of respect. Here, before the dark, cramped scene in the district town, Lien’s mood also became sad and thoughtful. Lien recalls the beautiful days in Hanoi, “a bright and sparkling area”. At that time, “Lien’s mother had a lot of money – she could go to the lakeside to drink red and blue glasses of cold water”.

It is a life different from the dark, cramped life in the district town. However, with the current life, Lien’s feelings are sad but familiar and close. Lien does not hate or reject the present life. Lien and An quietly looked at the stars, quietly observed what was happening in the district and felt sympathy, sharing with the small lives living in the dark of poverty, stagnation in the dark. their darkness.

A little light of the lamps may not be enough to dispel the dark, gloomy, roundabouts of life. However, Thach Lam did not extinguish the hope of those miserable people. He brought them joy, greater hope even though it was only for a moment, it was a brightly lit night train. The night train through the district town was the only joy of the day for Lien sisters and the residents of the district.

It brings a different world: strange light, excited sounds, noisy guests… and contrasts with the dull rhythm of the district town. The train back from Hanoi was full of childhood memories of the two sisters, carrying a single light, like a shuttle that pierced the night, even for a moment it was enough to dispel the dim light in the place. district street. Waiting for the train became a need like the daily food and drink of the Lien sisters.

Waiting for the train is not for the trivial purpose of waiting for customers to buy goods, but for many other purposes. Lien hopes to see something different from the life that the two sisters are living. The ship brought a memory, awakening the happy, fulfilling memory her sisters had once lived. The train also helped Lien see more clearly the stagnation of life covered in the humble, poor darkness of his life.

It can be said that Lien is a person rich in love, filial piety and courage. Sadness and darkness filled Lien’s eyes, but in her soul there was still room for a wish, a night’s wait. She is the only person in the district who knows the conscious dream of life. She was tired of waiting.

In the work, the image of the night train is a symbol with deep meaning. It is representative of a world worth living with richness and brilliance. It contrasts with the languid, poor, dark and mundane life of the people of the town and district.

Through Lien’s mood, the author wants to shake up those who are bored, living around, and directing them to a better future. That is the human value of this short story. Besides, the train is also a symbol for a vibrant, bustling, fun and modern life. Even for a moment, it also brought the whole town out of the stagnant, hidden, deadlocked life.

To make the work successful, besides the profound content value, it is impossible not to mention the artistic talent of Thach Lam. The plot is simple, prominent are the flowing mood lines, the emotions, the feeling of fragility and ambiguity in the character’s soul. Reading “Two Children”, readers can fully realize that the story has almost no plot, all are simply pieces of emotions, details, and small events that are put together through thoughts. , feelings of the character Lien.

The contrasting style is also considered a success of Thach Lam in the story-telling process. It is the contrast between the dense darkness and the flickering kerosene lamps, the contrast between the dreary, dreary life of the people in the district and the noisy and vibrant life on the night train. With this opposition, Thach Lam aims to emphasize and highlight the dark, cramped and hopeless life of the residents in the district.

Besides, we can also easily realize the ability to vividly describe the subtle changes of the scene from darkness to light and the mood of people, especially the character Lien. It can be sadness, sympathy or regret… all are subtle and consistent with the development of the story. In addition, it is also possible to mention the language system rich in images, symbols and whispering tones, imbued with deep lyrical poetry. All have contributed to the quality of Thach Lam’s writing, unique and attractive.

In short, the short story “Two Children” is a voice of compassion for the lives of the poor and destitute, living around a deadlock, without light, without future, life like dust in a poor district before the revolution. August network. Through those lives, Thach Lam revived the fates of a time, they were not exactly the lives of oppressed and exploited people, but from their life Thach Lam evoked the reader’s sympathy, respect and desire. their better lives. Therefore, the work has both realistic value and profound humanitarian value.

In the self-help group, Thach Lam lived the shortest life, writing the least, but his works lived forever with time. Thach Lam’s short stories, despite going through many hardships, still retain their value and are found by many readers with a respectful passion. Two children printed in the book Sunshine in the Garden (1938) the attraction of the story is not only in the art of depicting the delicate psychology of the characters, in the immense kindness in the gentle and quiet voice, but especially in the The pen depicts a picture of a poor district and Lien’s mood.

Taking the dying day as the background and the darkness as the main color, Thach Lam has portrayed a picture of a poor district town. The story unfolds at the end of the day. The sound of drums does not score every hour on a poor district hut, the sound of frogs croaking, the sound of mosquitoes buzzing, every sound seems to be trying to be quieter and sparser. That sound or the remnants of the end of the day, it calls the time to call the afternoon with slow beats. Is it still the stagnant rhythm of life in the district town here?

The point of view for the distant sound is the west burning red like fire, pink clouds and rows of village bamboo clearly cut in the sky. That image seemed to herald a fall of the impending doomsday. The mellow sentences with slow rhythms, rich in musical images and delicate flexibility, depict a familiar rural picture, but with a hint of wistful sadness. Each sentence as a simple, unfussy style evokes the soul of the landscape, the spirit of nature.

Thach Lam not only places his character at certain times, but also places his character in certain spaces. It is the space of a dead market in a forgotten world. With just a few sketches, the afternoon market appears to be very dreary: what is trash, grapefruit peel, and market. The street vendors lingered to talk about something and then they returned. On the ground, the rays of light make the grains of sand sparkle, which stone is bright and dark, creating a picture depicting the ruin of the afternoon market.

They all went into darkness to give the neighborhood a feeling of indifference like never before. Then on that background the children appeared pitifully. Those were poor children who went to pick up the usable things left by the market. they pick up bamboo sticks.

Lien was merciful, but Lien’s situation was not much better than them. Before that scene, for some reason, “Lien felt sad in her heart”. Perhaps life had turned her from a carefree child to a thinking child. Lien’s sisters sat on their cots and watched the neighborhood prepare to light up.

It can be said that the scene of the neighborhood appears to have something poetic, poetic that is the rustic of the district but also desolate and deserted. It evokes a stagnation of life with dreary images, life here like falling when the afternoon is over.

Afternoon closes to give way to the darkness of the night, Thach Lam poetically describes that summer night. It was a velvety summer night with a cool breeze. Lien sisters still sit on cots to watch at night. The petals of the eagle flower gently falling on the hair and on the bed are very poetic. However, before that poetry, there was a small sadness. The author builds a correlation between light and darkness to show the life here at night.

The light here is a bright slit and then “the dome of the sky with thousands of sparkling stars”, the sisters looked up as if they could see Mr. Shen Nong on it. Light streaks of fireflies. Then all the bright dots of the phosphorescent crystal appeared and disappeared, the small fire dots, the light particles from the black top of the Lien, the halo through the glimmering American lamp.

All those lights are talked about a lot with dense density, but they are only particles, slits of light. It could not dispel the darkness of that day, while the darkness was only given by the author for a few sentences, but it overwhelmed all the other bright men. It is the street and the images of the streets and alleys gradually filled with darkness. “Dark all the way to the river, the way through the market to home, all the alleys to the village”.

It can be said that Thach Lam used light to describe darkness. The presence of light does not dispel the darkness, on the contrary, it accentuates the darkness. That contrast is a symbol for the people here when they live anonymously in the dark of feudal colonial society.

Against the background of the night the night inhabitants emerge and begin their night lives. Particularly, Lien’s sisters were assigned by their mother to that small shop to sell small things to earn more. And the first to appear in that darkness was the mother and daughter of Ti. Her mother and daughter hunt for crabs to catch snails in the evening, then sell drinks until late at night. My mother and I did not sell much, but every night we moved and sold until late at night.

Next is Pho Sieu, whose job is quite high-paying but has the most terrifying risk. Because here, Uncle Sieu’s pho is the most luxurious gift. Contributing to those residents living in the dark is Uncle Sam’s family. The whole family’s inheritance is only a tattered mat and a rusted iron bowl. Uncle did not sing because no one heard, the child rolled on the ground playing in the sand, sometimes he contributed a table music played in the night.

Can’t forget another character that is crazy alcoholic Thi. Every afternoon, he would go to Lien’s house to buy wine and drink, then laugh and walk into the dark with a wobbly look. All these people showed up really hard. In that dark night they still look forward to something brighter in their lives.

Thach Lam does not use a word to describe their portraits, no one has the same face and shape, they are like an actor on the stage of life who can change roles but cannot change their fate. And in that darkness, people live and work, are they living or are they holding back?

However, they do not lose faith in life but still hope for a brighter life. It was the moment they were all looking forward to—a night train arrived. What do they expect? What makes them look forward to this?, it makes An, even though sleepy, still tries to stay awake to wait for the train to arrive. The scene of the train coming to the district town seemed to glow with the light emanating from the most luxurious carriages. “Lien had only glimpses of the luxurious upper-class carriages filled with people, glittering copper and nickel, and bright windows.

Then the train went into the dark night, leaving red embers flying on the railway. The sisters also watched the red dot of the green light on the last car, far away and then disappeared behind the bamboo grove. “It can be said that the night train has brought light to the district town here. The light is not ordinary, but it is the light that illuminates people’s beliefs about a brighter future.

For the other characters, they look forward to the arrival of the train with the desire to earn more money when the train rests and the guests disembark. As for the sisters, Lien did not expect to sell anything, she just wanted to see the train. Because it was a train ride back from Hanoi, it reminded her of the days when the family was still rich, the two sisters Lien were led by their father to the lakeside to eat red and green ice cream. It can be said that the ship is a beautiful memory of Hanoi in the two sisters. Not only that, the two sisters are like the people here who dream of a truly brighter future.

Thus, it can be seen that the short story Two Children has brought us an overview of the life of the people under the feudal colonial system. It was that society that made these people miserable. Life is like a struggle for them. know that no one is buying but still move out and wait. Perhaps the author has given us some troubling thoughts about those human lives.

Thach Lam is an emotional writer, recording his feelings before the gloomy fate of the poor, who have a hard life, silently endure and rich in sacrifice. The characters in the story have the appearance of his sensitive soul, as well as the author’s point of view.

Two children is one of the typical works in his unique series of short stories, the detailed images in the story are like a river that sweeps us into it, and feels what is happening with the story. by the author.everything happens very gently but also intensely digs deep into the thoughts and feelings of each reader’s work.

Writers are those who speak for reality, sometimes they poetize what is happening around them, from the simplest things to the things people think about, poetry plays a role. indispensable game. With a talented pen full of compassion, the work Two Children was born with a humanistic meaning.

The people appearing in the work have a life of extreme poverty, poverty clings to them and they have no way out. They want to have an affluent life, although they are not rich, but how to make life less difficult. Through this, Thach Lam lets us see the hardships that the people here are enduring. The details in the work are descriptions of reality, but there is no shortage of vivid and romantic details.

The beginning of the work is the image of the sunset, the image that appears in most of the works, is the moment that makes people realize sadness the most. The familiar sounds, frogs, buzzing mosquitoes, and surrounding scenery affect each person’s mood. The opening scene of the work is a late afternoon, the sky consists of pink clouds, like being dyed a red red color brings a feeling of sadness and loneliness.

Through Thach Lam’s description of a dying day, it partly helps the reader realize that this is a sad and depressed afternoon. Time begins to move gradually to the night, the images of the sunset and the image of the afternoon market appear even more showing the poverty and loneliness here.

Thoughtful people, always want their lives to be more complete, life is hard and full of hardships. The image of the people appearing in “Two Children” does not appear much, but has a distinct feature, the highlight is the image of the girl Lien, although she is young, her soul and thoughts are really real. like a young girl.

Life here is dark and boring, they live with boredom and despair, for them, they are living a temporary life, a quiet life and not knowing what tomorrow will bring. After the afternoon market ended, everyone went home and the noise disappeared, as a sign of the beginning of the stillness of the night. The trash, grapefruit peel and pictures of children picking up what’s left are just bamboo sticks…

The night began to fall, the life of a poor night in the district town began again. Lien’s character in the work rearranges the goods on a bamboo cot, her mother and daughter, catching crabs and snails in the morning, and opening more stores in the evening. country to earn extra income. The pho restaurant also started to prepare, and Uncle Sam’s father and son had not yet played the piano because there were still no customers to listen to.

The child leaned out and played with the sand outside. Everything is so monotonous, without a bit of their joy, perhaps they think and hope that the expensive restaurant earns more money is a joy, a happiness and brings a full life. than. The image of Thi crazy, immersed in alcohol, walking unsteadily, she lives a life without self-control, is it possible that she finds alcohol to forget all suffering and sinks into it to find his pleasures.

The people in this district, they live, were born and raised here. For them the atmosphere is silence, loneliness and boredom. But for the Lien sisters, perhaps they are still not used to the boredom and boredom here, because of the pushing circuTaxances, the unemployed Lien sisters’ father has to go to the district town to make a living. The two sisters must realize this and gradually get used to life here.

Every day, the sisters Lien and An, not only this child but almost all the lives of people in the district, expect something very important in the evening. Nothing else, it was the light and sound of the train. That light also partly shines on Huyen Street and helps the neighborhood become a little more light, not only that, but there are also the sounds of the passengers on the train that make the atmosphere quiet. The district neighborhood has a little change apart from the tedious and not bright enough lights as usual.

The sounds on the train help sisters Lien and An reminiscent of the days in Hanoi, the two sisters were taken to play, lived a beautiful life in the city, you went back and forth busy and Drink with glasses of red and green water.

In addition, the light and sound of that train has helped the lives of people in District Street partly awaken, they dare to dream of a happy and prosperous life, wish for something real. better and more meaningful, want what they desire and burn now to come true, not an ephemeral thing that waits and waits.

Their dreams only flash when the train passes, sometimes there are dreams, but only when the train passes, they feel that their wishes become more sparkling and hopeful. Two children, a romantic, emotional and meaningful work. In the lives of people in District Street, they have always been people with a pitiful life but full of longing and burning, but really, the things that burning desire measure are actually just fragile and fanciful.

Through the work “Two Children” by Thach Lam, it also shows the great desire of a human life, a poor fate that wants to reach a good life although it is still difficult and struggling. Thach Lam’s talent through that is revealed, especially the subtlety of describing scenes and analyzing the psychological developments of the characters, making the story go into people’s hearts in the most natural way.

Two Children is a short story written by writer Thach Lam in the years 1937 – 1938 when Vietnamese society was in one of the darkest periods. This is a story with the style of Thach Lam, the plot does not have unique outstanding knots, but when finished reading, it always haunts people’s hearts. One of the successes of the story is that the author has recreated a vivid picture of life in a garage when night falls, through which the writer has conveyed his feelings to different scenes of life.

The work of Two Children begins with a sunset scene on a district street. Traditional literature often describes the evening scene with images of birds returning to their nests, people away from home, sadness at sunset… In the two children we don’t see that image, but the afternoon scene is still full of sadness and in The sadness of the writer still discovered the poetic beauty with a little wildness of the countryside “The West is as red as a burning fire and the pink clouds are like a dying coal… Afternoon, afternoon, a quiet afternoon like lullaby, echoing the sound of frogs croaking in the fields brought in by the gentle wind.”

Along with the sunset scene is the end of the market with a series of images showing the poverty in this place: “The market meeting in the middle of the street has long ceased. People have returned and the noise has also disappeared. There is only garbage on it. , grapefruit peel, market, longan leaves and sugarcane leaves. A humid smell rises, the heat of the day mixed with the familiar smell of dust, making women associate it with the unique smell of the land, of this homeland.” . Right after the scene of the end of the market is a scene of darkness.

Under Lien’s eyes, everything was now filled with darkness. Thach Lam describes darkness as magical. There are up to 30 times the author mentions darkness. The darkness came from many sides: from the dying cloud, from the blackened bamboo, from the mosquito buzzing in the corner, the frog croaking in the fields and then it covered the streets and alleys: “It’s dark all over.” Even from the winding road to the river…, the alleys to the village are even darker.”

With this description, the reader will perceive the darkness as something very scary, like a threat. It wriggled everywhere, it penetrated the landscape. It covers and weighs heavily on the suffocating life in this poor district. In the story, there are also details about that light that just creeps in and is weak, not strong enough to dispel the darkness, but on the contrary, makes the darkness feel even more dense. Every evening, shadows of people begin to appear, making the reader think of nocturnal birds. On the other hand, we also immediately think of the dark life in the dark night of feudal colonialism.

The way to describe each specific face, each person has a life of their own: Miss Ti always appears in the dark. After a hard day of catching crabs and shrimps, although she knew she didn’t earn much, she cleaned up every night. The image of a flickering lamp that only illuminates a small area at her restaurant reminds us of a life of darkness and creep.

When Pho Sieu appeared with a small fire dot and hovered in the dark night, flickering like a ghost. From the time I cleaned up until I got home, I didn’t sell a single penny. The crazy old lady came out from the dark with laughter. After drinking all the wine, the old man’s laughter fell into the darkness again. In this character, there is a mysterious melancholy pity.

But the most haunting scene is the image of Uncle Xam and his wife that the writer has mentioned three times. They appeared with the sound of gourds trembling in the dark, then with the baby crawling on the sandy soil in the dark, and when it was late at night, they fell asleep on the mat.

After describing each face the author summarizes “So many people in the dark as if expecting something bright for their daily poverty”. It is clear that the writer has a deep sympathy with the scenes of life in the dark and Thach Lam himself also expects to change his life.

Although the story does not raise serious issues, the author just quietly paints a picture of a poor town, but the reader is still haunted by the images the author chooses to include in the story. The work has shown Thach Lam’s sympathy with the poor, the writer ponders their very simple desires.

Through the work, Thach Lam also expressed his belief and praise for the qualities of workers. Regardless of the circuTaxances, they are still industrious, living in the dark, silently longing for a bright life for themselves. Although the work talks a lot about darkness, readers still see a light of belief: the people here will not tolerate being stuck around and they are always trying to move towards something brighter.

Indeed, Thach Lam’s writing has a very unique style, although it is not climactic or contradictory, but it leaves deep impressions in the hearts of readers and creates a very unique literary identity called called Thach Lam.

Thach Lam was born Nguyen Tuong Vinh, later changed to Nguyen Tuong Lan, younger brother of two writers Nhat Linh (Nguyen Tuong Tam) and Hoang Dao (Nguyen Tuong Long), came from a family of civil servants. . The writer’s grandfather was from Cam Pho village, Hoi An, Quang Nam, worked as a mandarin in the North and lived there.

Thach Lam was born in 1910, in Cam Giang district, Hai Duong province, his mother’s hometown. Growing up, he attended high school in Hanoi, then dropped out to work as a journalist, wrote with his brothers and became an effective writer for Phong Hoa and Today newspapers. His literary career was on the rise when he contracted tuberculosis and died in 1942, at the age of 32.

Thach Lam composed not much but enough for people to see that he is a writer with a clear, simple but profound personal style. Each of his stories is like a lyrical poem, the tone is calm but contains many feelings of love for people and landscapes. He made many valuable contributions to the development of prose before the August Revolution, especially in the genre of short stories. The work Thach Lam left behind is a short story: The first wind of the season, Sunshine in the garden, Hair thread, … novel New day; Hanoi 36 streets and wards; Essay: Following the line…

The short story Two Children from the collection Sunny in the Garden (Doi Today Publishing House, Hanoi, 1938). Like other short stories, the work reflects scenes of life that seem insignificant on the outside, but going inside, in the depths of the soul, what kind of life, especially the poor, It also evokes a lot of sadness, compassion, sometimes profound, surprisingly subtle.

Two children talk about two sisters Lien and An. She is twelve, thirteen; I was eight, nine. The family first lived in Hanoi, then because of a decline, they had to return to their hometown in this district town. Mother was busy grinding goods, leaving the two sisters to take care of the tiny slicing stall near the station. Mom told me to stay awake until the train passed, maybe someone from the train came down to buy groceries. The two sisters sat on the cot in front of the porch and waited.

I fell asleep, leaning on my sister but still reminding me to wake up when the train came. She sat and looked around. Life is only collected in a water stall, a pho burden, a Xam family. All was engulfed in immense darkness, and the brilliant light on the carriages flew by as quickly as from a foreign land. The two sisters watched the light until it disappeared in the distance, then closed the door and went to sleep.

The content of the story is only that, but a whole world has been evoked with deep compassion. It was a silent world, quietly in the darkness of the night; darkness of poverty, misery; in the solitude of the shabby district town. The dim, glimmering lights highlight the gloomy colors of the miserable life. Just as the flickering glow in the carriages seemed like a distant mirage never dared to dream of. That world the two children are familiar with, moreover, have integrated into it with all their souls.

The author divides the story into three parts according to the sequence of changes in time and space. Part one is the scene of the afternoon market when there is an empty autumn drum, the two sisters are still struggling to arrange the shop. Part two is the scene of the district town at night, darkness covers everywhere. The sign of life is only a few lights. Part three is the scene of the district town when a night train whizzes past for a moment with noise and light.

The story takes place in a natural setting that is perceived in both time and space dimensions. It is a very short period of time, the space changes from the sunset until the night falls and the sky is late at night. The color of the scene changed from thanks to dark black. The color of night life is darker and darker. On that background emerge some love scenes that keep swirling in the reader’s heart. It is the scene of the end of the day in a small district town, the end of a market, a simple market corner, a poor restaurant, the lives of people in poverty and the image of a train passing in the dark.

The story begins with the image of the district town at sunset, described by the author in sentences with a slow and leisurely rhythm, along with sounds and images signaling the end of a day: The sound of empty drums on the small district hut, one by one to call the afternoon. The West was as red as a burning fire and the clouds were pink like a dying coal. The row of bamboo in the village in front of them turned black and clearly cut into the sky.

Afternoon, afternoon. One afternoon as calm as a lullaby, echoing the sound of frogs croaking in the fields brought in by the gentle wind. In the slightly dark shop, the mosquitoes have already begun to buzz. Lien sat quietly beside some black lacquer; her eyes gradually filled with darkness and the sadness of the countryside afternoon permeated her innocent soul; Lien didn’t understand why, but she felt sad at the end of the day.

The images above all evoke a feeling of helplessness, manliness.. Called a district town, but a small district, the signal comes from a hut rather than a watchtower. The tiny hut hid in the village’s bamboo range, which was darkening, at the time when the western sky was red but about to die. In the field, the sound of frogs chirped in the gentle breeze. In the Lien sisters’ shop, the sound of mosquitoes buzzed. Lien suddenly felt the sadness of the dying day seep into her soul as she sat next to the black paint balls, her eyes gradually filled with darkness.

In the painting of dusk in the district town, there is a mixture of two types of images: peaceful and poetic images and images evoking poverty and poverty. For example: the sound of drums on the hut of a small district, one by one, sounds like a poetic afternoon; and the sound of frogs croaking, the sound of mosquitoes humming… evoked a poor life in the countryside.

In fact, it is also difficult to tell clearly whether the sadness from the scene permeates people’s hearts or the sadness in the innocent souls of the two sisters spreads and permeates the scene. Just know that there is something very rhythmic here, in harmony between scenes and people.

The opening paragraph is rich in images, music, and flexibility. It not only makes the reader imagine the scene but also evokes feelings and emotions before the close, idyllic nature of the homeland.

After a day of hard work, what awaits everyone is darkness and silence and solitude. The scene of the afternoon market still reveals poverty: garbage is scattered on the market floor and children stoop in search of what can be used for their family’s poverty. That’s the flip side, the dark side of the market.

All the details are focused on the tendency to shrink, fade away of the daytime scenes before the dominant, overflowing strength of the night scenes in which darkness gradually reigns. The beginning of the story is darkness, the end of the story is also darkness. Immense darkness, covering all landscapes and people.

When it was still dark, although the houses had lights on, those light sources could not dispel the darkness, leaving the small stones on one side dark. At the beginning of the night, the streets and alleys gradually filled with darkness. The pho shop owner stooped to light a fire, when his shadow fell to the ground in an area and dragged to the distance. Lien sisters sit on a bamboo cot under the tree with the darkness around. It’s all darkness. At night, the road leading to the river, the road through the market to the house, the entrance to the village is darker again.

The sentry drum also made a short sound and immediately sank into the darkness. At this time, the rice shops at the station were also silent, as dark as the street. The train with bright lights passed, then the dark night surrounded, the night of the countryside, the vast and silent fields. The Lien sisters also fell into a quiet and dark sleep.

Darkness overwhelms light. Some light is sparse, faint, making the darkness even denser. The light streaks of the flying fireflies are on the ground or in the branches of the trees, as well as thousands of competing stars twinkling in the sky… That distant light is the product of the night, dissolved in the darkness. . Notably, the flickering light on the water stall of Ti’s mother and daughter, the flickering fire in Uncle Sieu’s noodle shop, the faint light in the Lien sisters’ stall and from the lantern in the hands of the shopkeeper. passengers, from the station’s green light.

The lamp on Miss Ti’s water stall is just a small halo of light in the middle of the dark earth, under a vast sky full of secrets. Sieu’s stove is just a small and yellow dot of fire, floating in the dark night, briefly appearing, briefly disappearing, only making his shadow immense.

The light in Lien’s sister’s shop is sparse, each light seeping through the bamboo screen. The lantern light swayed the long black shadow of the person holding the lantern. The burning lamp is blue like a ghost. Meanwhile, around those glimmering points of light was a pitch-black, immense, endless darkness. Those particles of light, those dots of fire only make the night more dense and murky.

The pages of the book are dyed with darkness to attach to that dark frame equally dark lives. In the scene of the end of the day, the market is over, showing the dying lives. Those who make a living during the day with the market such as the late saleswomen, the children picking up trash, and the sisters Lien. Those who make a living at night around the corner of the market and the station platform like Ti’s mother and daughter, Mrs. Thi, Uncle Pho Sieu, Uncle Xam’s family…

They have the same dark life, poverty, the same boring, boring situation. However, in their hearts still shines the beauty of human love, homeland love and a glimmer of hope in a bright tomorrow. After the afternoon market ended, the darkness did not fall, but dark lives appeared. It’s the poor children on the edge of the market fighting to pick up all that can be used, a bamboo stick, a bamboo stick or whatever. It is their miserable life with things that people have thrown away.

At night, there is the life of Ti’s mother and daughter with a simple shop of water. During the day, mother and daughter hunt for crabs to catch shrimp; From dusk to dawn, they sell fresh tea and waterpipe cigarettes to a few rice cooks, chauffeurs, some soldiers in the district or family members of the teacher, teacher Luc, sometimes waiting forever but no one comes out. Mother and daughter both carried, carried on their backs, and wore them on their heads… but there was only a bamboo cot, a few chairs, a kettle of cups, a plow, and a handful of fireflies…

The son struggled to make a fire to cook a pot of tea. Water, medicine is ready. Sister Ti always waved and grabbed dried banana leaves, involuntarily exclaiming impatiently at the situation: It’s so late, but they haven’t come out yet, right? Even though she already knew in advance: Wow, sooner or later it won’t matter! A random sentence that helps the reader visualize the bottom of the life of her mother and daughter, who have been miserable but can only rely on luck, an expectation that is certainly not very hopeful.

But Ti’s mother and daughter still have a chair to sit on, a lamp to illuminate; Uncle Xam’s family was sprawled on the tattered mat on the ground. The little boy crawled to the ground, the white iron bowl waiting for the prize money was empty in front of him. Silent as a family of reptiles, if not for a few loud voices of the herd of gourds emerging to talk. Then after that, no guests, no singing, no money, they fell asleep on the ground.

And the mysterious life scene of old lady Thi, a slightly crazy old lady. She went to Lien’s sister’s shop with the familiar laughter of customers, bought a quail of wine, praised Lien for filling it up, then tilted her head back to drink it all, staggered away, slipped into the dark, and the laughter of the customers dwindled. .

The three scenes of the above life of the children near the market, of Ti’s mother and daughter, and of Uncle Xam’s family were all blackened by the darkness of poverty and hardship. The tragedy revealed, nothing hidden. As for old lady Thi, she still has money to drink, still speaks softly and lovingly to the sales girl, but the wine is drunk in one gulp, laughing again, for no reason? At night, only to see her come out from the village and then disappear into the darkness of the village. What’s the grievance? What’s sad? Unknown, but certainly darkness has weighed on her life, adding a strange and terrifying image to the scenes of life – the darkness of this district.

Uncle Sieu sells pho not far but also not near the scenes of the other life. Uncle was like a hyphen between the poor people and other people in the district town. They flickered in the place where someone took a lantern to pick up the mistress from the station, where there was a festival of shrimp nests that beat each other with dozens of silvers that poor people could not even dream of, where soldiers beat drums. and beak guard. Their well-to-do life serves as a backdrop to highlight scenes of poverty, as light contrasts with darkness.

In the context of the story, every feature is dark: the children at the market are like bats that wait until dark to find out, finding life in anything people throw away. Ti’s mother and daughter make a living from waiting for luck. The Xam family is almost hiding in the land. The slightly crazy old lady contains a dark corner in the depths of her soul.

Combined, they are all scenes of life – darkness. Is there any glimmer of hope? The scene of the district town is now reduced to the place where Ms. Ti’s water stall is located, because there are still dim lights, while the whole street is dark. Then people in the dark expect something bright for their poor lives.

In the picture of the town at night, there is a meaningful blend of light and darkness. Light is just a slit, a bright spot, a light particle, etc., but the darkness is both dense and immense. The whole road to the river is dark, the road to the village, the alleys are even darker.

It was so dark that it seemed that the sound of Uncle Xam’s lute and the drums of the district town could not be heard. This makes the reader somewhat imagine the hidden, worn-out lives almost forgotten in the shack of the poor district, and at the same time evokes a deep sympathy. The mood development of the two children in front of the natural scenery and the picture of life in the district town was meticulously described by writer Thach Lam and contained many meanings.

Not to mention the author’s intention when building the image of two children and using that as the title for the work; let’s just know that they are two children with the characteristics of a child’s age. She knew how to cherish and be proud of the silver necklace because it showed her to be a strong and brave daughter. It’s not that big, but it’s still a little childish. Knowing how to calculate money for her mother, arrange them, know how to love you, that’s really a good and gentle girl.

Sitting in front of the store, Lien quietly felt the countryside scene, sad but familiar, close and sympathetic, sharing with the people living in the poor district. The two sisters previously lived in Hanoi with their families, but because of the decline in their home, they moved here.

Mom opened a small grocery store that the two sisters took care of. Sales during the day, carefully bolted doors at night. At dusk, my mother stopped by to visit and told the children to stay up until the train passed before they could sleep. Therefore, the two sisters, Lien, were familiar with the people and scenery in the district town, and were innocently integrated into the life of this place.

First, get used to the dark. Hanoi has too many lights, one area is bright and sparkling, but here it is the opposite. Night fell, Lien’s eyes gradually filled with darkness and Lien, for some reason, felt sad. Gradually, Lien Lien was not afraid of the dark, but also paid attention to what was happening and contained in it: seeing small stones on the road, one side light and one dark side; feel the smell of damp and the smell of dust when the market is over, but think it is the unique smell of this land.

Seeing the poor children picking up anything on the market floor touched their hearts. When Ti’s mother and daughter carried a whole load of water out, Lien quietly observed each gesture. Hearing the laughter of the guests, Lien immediately recognized Mrs. Thi. Seeing the children playing, An also wanted to join them, but was afraid to go against her mother’s instructions. Seeing a dot of fire appear and then disappear, the two sisters know that Uncle Sieu’s noodle burden is looming in the distance.

When it was dark everywhere, the light from the lamp in the shop emitting only a few light particles passed through the bamboo screen, the two sisters were sleepy. When the train had passed, those two young souls also fell into a lonely and dark sleep, like every other poor person in this district.

Every night Lien and An tried to stay up until the train passed by as their mother told them to, but for another special reason. Do you simply want to see the train, the last act of the night? Not! There is something much deeper about the sisters and the wretched people of this town. For two children, the train is a different world from their cramped, boring daily lives.

Perhaps that is why the image of the train was meticulously described by Thach Lam through the expectant mood and feelings of the two sisters, Lien and An. Thach Lam’s observation and description are delicate and artistic. The author observes and describes the image of the night train returning from Hanoi in sequence from far to near by many senses, by the interweaving between memories and reality.

The train had not yet arrived, but was foretold by the light of the watchman and the distant sound of the train’s whistle. Lien saw the blue flame, close to the ground like a ghost, and then heard the train whistle in the dead of night stretching out in the wind. Then, hearing the pounding sound, the car screeching loudly, accompanied by a bright white smoke in the distance…

Then the train came rushing by, the carriages brightly lit, the upper class cars filled with people, bronze and vulture glittered. Finally, the scene of the train going away, disappearing in the vast darkness, leaving red embers flying on the railway, the small dot of the green light hanging on the last car, far away and then disappearing behind the rows. bamboo…

There is a striking contrast between the image of the train – another world that the night train brings through the town for a moment and the image of the return to the quiet, dark, unchanged state of the town. On the one hand is the last heat of the night, and on the other is the immense silence of the night, in sleep and in oblivion.

The train at night is bright, cheerful and boisterous, full of attraction but only fleeting for a moment and then returns the life of the town to a state of vastness, silence and darkness. That seems to make the sadness more poignant in the hearts of the two children; leave them with unrelenting longing and regret. Almost done, the people in the district only stopped working for a day when the night train was far away.

For Lien sisters, the train from Hanoi brings back good memories, where the two sisters lived a peaceful and happy childhood. It was life in a not-so-distant time, completely different from life in this dull and poor district. The train is also the image of the future, it makes the poor people imagine a rich, bustling world, full of sound and light.

For the reader, the beauty of the train and the excited, happy attitude of the two children watching the train not only bring a moment of joy but also evoke a lot of sadness and sympathy. It is true that the two children are happy because their longing and waiting has been satisfied. But that train belongs to a world too far away and the brighter, happier, and more noisy it is, the more it makes the scene in the district town become dark, dull and silent.

There is only the image of the train passing by every night that the people of the district are anxiously waiting for. Readers with Thach Lam sympathize with the mood of people living in darkness and poverty. However, the story also rekindles in the reader’s heart the hope of overcoming the tedium and mediocrity of everyday life.

Thach Lam’s descriptive art and voice in the story Two Children are unique. The author describes very subtly the change of the scene and the character’s mood development. This description makes an important contribution to creating the atmosphere of the work. There is a correspondence between the external world (a picture of a district town) with the world, the inner world of the character (the mood of little Lien) in each moment: when the afternoon falls, people feel sad; When night falls, people wait anxiously; Late night scene, train passing, people are sad, daydreaming, longing, …

However, in a few passages, the author describes the external world and the inner world not as homogeneous but with an indescribable mixture of joy and sorrow. Peaceful poetic images mixed with poor images; light blends into darkness; the commotion for a moment blends into the immense silence… All of these combine harmoniously and naturally, highlighting the character’s mood.

Thach Lam’s voice is gentle, objective, but contains a real feeling of compassion for the poor. The author’s humanitarian feelings are greatly appreciated. The pen depicts the author’s character psychology subtly but still very natural, making it difficult for readers to forget.

The short story Two Children is a reminder of the emotional attachment to the roots, the homeland, with beautiful but sad memories. That is the writer’s kind heart towards the lives of poor people living in a flood, wandering around, monotonous, tired; is the respect for each small wish of the unfortunate people left in the garrets of the trains of infinite time.

Reading the short story Two Children, we see that behind the simple and sincere look is a sophistication and depth, very true to Thach Lam’s style. Going into Thach Lam’s work is entering the world of emotions. The plot of the story is simple, but it is the writer’s sincere feelings for the difficult lives that make the reader emotional.

Writer Nguyen Tuan commented: The story “Two Children” has a really barbaric flavor, it evokes a feeling of the past, and at the same time echoes something in the future… In the world From the perspective of a young couple in a rural town, the image of a train and the sound of a train’s whistle has become a habit of emotions and desires.Reading “Two Children” feels infinitely busy about a gentle homeland. and deep. (Anthology of Thach Lam, Literature Publishing House – Hanoi – 1998)

The overarching content of the story Two Children is Thach Lam’s “cool and deep” heart for people and homeland, here, the writer has just expressed pity for the lives of poor people living in poverty. flood, hanging around in the old society and showing their similar attitude and respect for their very vague aspirations. Through the story Two Children, readers can also feel a part of Thach Lam’s emotional attachment to the homeland.

Reading the story Two Children, first of all, we have the impression of the dead, cramped life of people living in poverty, wandering around, with no light, no future in the old society.

The story opens with soothing sentences, with sounds and images signaling the end of the day: “The sound of autumn drums is empty on the hut of a small district; one by one it sounds to call the afternoon. The West is red. like burning fire and pink clouds like coals about to die, the bamboo range in front of the village was black and clearly cut into the sky.

Afternoon, afternoon. It was a quiet afternoon, echoing the sound of frogs coming out of the fields with the gentle breeze.” This is one of the many proofs in this work that shows that: “Thach Lam’s literature is rarely redundant, redundant. words, do not bend and charm in a sophisticated way, but are rich in images and music, and flexible and delicate (Vu Ngoc Phan). It not only lets the reader see the scene, but more importantly, evokes feelings and emotions for the scene. Moreover, the scenery is mostly very close to the bag, idyllic and has the essence of Vietnam.

Besides the scene of the end of the day, the end of the market is the life of people withering away. During the day, Ms. Ti searches for crabs and shrimps. At night, she comes to serve fresh tea and lights a flickering oil lamp. The shop was empty, although she moved every afternoon from dusk to dawn, but “didn’t earn much”. Uncle Xam sat on a mat, a brass bowl in front of him, “contributing with the sound of a few lutes playing in silence.

The son crawled to the ground, outside the mat, playing with the dirt buried on the side of the road.” The old lady Thi was a bit crazy and addicted to alcohol, had a terrible laugh, after drinking a quail of wine, “The old man went to the dark.” Lien’s sisters had to stay awake to look after “a tiny grocery store, Lien’s mother moved right after the whole family left Hanoi to go back to their hometown, because Mr. Lien lost his job”. What’s the deal”, Lien Thuong poor children, but “have no money to give them”.

Canh Lien lined up in the box, the way the two sisters paid, the regret of the time when they were still in Hanoi when “going out to the lake to drink red and green cold drinks”, the idea that Uncle Sieu’s pho was “one thing”. luxury gifts” could never be bought by the Lien sisters… making us imagine the difficult family situation and the narrow living standard of Lien’s family. However, perhaps anyway, the family of two young pineapples is still better off than the family of Ti and Uncle Xam, because there is also “a small stall rented by the old lady, separated by a bamboo shingle. diary stickers”…

Thus, from Ms. Ti’s family, Uncle X’s family to Mrs. Thi and Lien’s sisters, each has a scene, but they all share the same boredom and fatigue… What is more remarkable is that all the characters This little thing appeared in Thach Lam’s pitiful gaze, expressed in words and details that seemed to be very objective.

When it was completely dark, the whole town seemed to only absorb the light of Ms. Ti. In addition to this lamp, “the darkness that patiently resented the life of the countryside” (The Lu) owns everything. It is no coincidence that in the work, the writer repeats and repeats the details of Ms. Ti’s lamp 7 times. At the end of the story, the image that makes an impression, the last torment, going to sleep of Lien is still “the little lamp of Sister Ti lighting up a small land”.

Is this image a symbol of the lives of the poor and the poor living in the dark of the semi-feudal colonial society? The rhythm of life in this district town keeps repeating, repeating in a monotonous, round and boring way.

Day after day, every afternoon, Ms. Ti cleans the goods “from dusk to dawn”, every night, Uncle Sieu, who sells Pho, lights a fire, Uncle Xam’s family also waits for customers, Uncle Thua’s family, and Uncle Luc also go to call the cook. shrimp nest. Lien’s sisters also charge for the goods every night, “also have to sit on a bamboo cot under the eagle tree” and “every day, at dusk, Lien’s mother stops to visit the store once” …

Thus, “so many people in the dark” day after day live around, trapped in the “flat pond of life” (Xuan Dieu). The image of these people reminds us of some verses in Huy Can’s poem Quan Around:

Hanging around with a few poses,

Coming or going, there are many people’s faces.

Because it’s too close, it’s too funny,

The lips repeat the same thing.

Remember the monotonous, bland life of “lunch tomorrow, then dinner, two meals a day” of characters like Quynh and Giao in Xuan Dieu’s fantasy novel Toa Nhi Kieu. Still, the townsfolk still hope, even if it’s vague: “something bright for their daily poverty.”

It is this vague expectation that seems to deepen the plight of the characters in the story. They live there, but don’t know what their fate will be tomorrow! Thach Lam’s deep compassion is discreetly expressed in the way he poses: setting the scene and his monotonous, slow, sad tone of voice.

The analysis of the scene of the end of the day, the end of the market and the end of the lives above helps us understand why the Lien sisters stay up every night to wait for the train to pass. Are the two sisters waiting for the train to sell goods? No, “Lien doesn’t expect anyone else to come and buy it. Besides, they only buy matchboxes or packs of pills at night.”

Moreover, “Lien was sleepy with eyes”, but she still refused to sleep. And “An was lying down […] my eyelids were about to fall”, still not forgetting to tell her to remember to wake me up when the train passed. Harm sisters try to stay awake because “want to see the train, it’s the last activity of the night”; Because for two kids, a ship is more than just a ship. It is a whole other world – “A different world, for Lien, different from the light of Miss Ti’s lamp and the light of Uncle Sieu”.

Perhaps that’s why the train was meticulously described by Thach Lam in chronological order through the expectant mood of the two characters Lien and An. The first sign of the train was the appearance of the watchman. Next, Lien saw the blue flame, close to the ground like a ghost”, then she heard the train horn “extending with the wind”.

After that, “the two sisters heard a pounding sound, the car screeching hard,” accompanied by “a puff of white bright smoke rising in the distance, followed by noisy passengers”. Then “the train came rushing in”, “the carriages were brightly lit”, “the luxurious upper cars were filled with people, bronze and glittering vulture”. Finally, the scene of the train going into the dark night “left red embers flying on the railway”, “the green light hung on the last car, far away and then disappeared behind the bamboo trees” …

For the Lien sisters and possibly many people in the district, the night train is a symbol of strong life, wealth, and brilliant light. It contrasts with the languorous, poor, dark and round life of the people in the district. Particularly for the Lien sisters, the night train also reminds me of the happy old days, in Hanoi, when the teacher had not lost his job.

The district street buzzed for a moment and then sank into the quiet night. And worth mentioning: The people of the district only officially stopped working when the night train passed. District streets return to district streets. The image of Ms. Ti’s flickering lamp reappeared in Lien’s flickering state before she completely fell into “a quiet sleep, as quiet as the night in the street, quiet and full of darkness”.

By describing Lien’s mood, Thach Lam shows respect and compassion for the small lives, living in poverty, darkness, boredom in the streets of the district (broadly speaking, living in immersed in poverty, contemporary slavery).

This, at that time, The Lu also commented: “The truth of Thach Lam’s soul takes place in complicated literary words, many pictures and many colors, but always loving and kind, also choking a little secret tears. If Thach Lam follows a certain idea in his writing work, that intention takes place and evokes pity.”

Through Lien’s mood, does Thach Lam still seem to want to shake people who are bored, living around, trying to reach the light? This can only be found in the writers that appeared in the 30s of the twentieth century, when they were fully aware of the individual and individual “I”.

Here, Thach Lam seems to have encountered Xuan Dieu, Huy Can, Nguyen Tuan… (in the line of romantic literature), Nam Cao, Bui Hien, To Hoai,… (in the line of realistic literature). in refusing to live in the “flat pond of life”, languishing and cramped, yearning towards a meaningful life, worthy of human life.

Thus, gently expressing the desire towards the bright life of small, ordinary people, the two have a precious human value. In addition, Two Children is partly a song about nature and country. With attachment to the country and nation, with a sensitive and delicate soul, Thach Lam has brought to readers close-knit pictures of his homeland, but no less poetic and sexy: “Afternoon, afternoon One afternoon, it was as calm as a lullaby, with the sound of frogs croaking in the fields brought in by the gentle wind.. “, “The night has begun, a summer night as smooth as velvet and with a cool breeze.”

The characters in the story are always attached to the countryside. Therefore, only encountering “the smell of moisture rising up, the heat of the day mixed with the familiar smell of dust”, Lien sisters “thought it was the unique smell of the land, of this homeland”. Living in close harmony with nature, the two children always pay attention to its subtle metamorphosis: “An and Lien quietly looked up at the stars to find the Milky Way River and the duck followed Mr. Farm”.

Their souls seem to have sympathy and harmony with their homeland: through the leaves of the eagle branches, thousands of stars are still sparkling; a firefly clings to the surface of the leaf, a small green light flickers and then the eagle flower falls gently on Lien’s shoulder, sometimes in series. Lien’s soul is very quiet, there are vague feelings that I don’t understand.” The scenes and details above are very familiar, often around us.

Yet with a gentle, calm voice, under Thach Lam’s pen, how sexy they become! We understand that each Vietnamese person’s love for the homeland is partly fostered by these very simple details.

It is worth noting that in general, in the works of realist writers such as Vu Trong Phung, Nguyen Cong Hoan, Ngo Tat To, Nam Cao… there seems to be little inspiration for nature. So, can this also be considered as a contribution of Thach Lam to literature in the period from the early twentieth century to the August Revolution in 1945?

Moreover, while many short stories in the 30s and 40s of the twentieth century often attracted readers with attractive plots, novel details, skillful narration, or exaggerated writing styles… ( for example, most of Nguyen Cong Hoan’s short stories), Thach Lam’s stories make readers fall in love with poetry in daily life. Each story is often composed around a mood, a silent thought of the character.

Because it is a lyrical story, behind the details, the characters always hide the image of the author himself – a person who is delicate, gentle, sensitive to all the metamorphosis of heaven and earth and the human heart, especially always pity the lives of people living around, poverty and darkness.