To Live

The protagonist of the novel, Fugui’s character shifts from the beginning to the end. In the beginning, he is the spoiled son of a wealthy, self-made landlord. He is cruel to his wife and disrespectful to his father. He ends up squandering the family’s wealth due to his gambling and sex addictions and forces his family to become poor farmers. After this change in circumstance, Fugui begins to change. He is no longer the gluttonous boy wasting his time in the city and instead spends his days devoted to his wife and children. He works tirelessly in the fields to support his family and makes continual sacrifices to his health and safety to ensure that they have enough food to eat and enough money to send his son to school. By the end of the novel, and from his nostalgic reminiscing of his past, it’s clear that the time he spent with his family was the most meaningful part of his life.

Jiazhen is Fugui’s wife. The daughter of a shop owner, Jiazhen comes from wealth, and when she marries Fugui he is also wealthy. However, she is far from spoiled. Once Fugui’s family descends into poverty, Jiazhen stays by his side and never complains, despite the cruel way he treated her in their youth.