Lao She shows the audience that with this one-track outlook on life, one can’t expect to succeed without a fair amount of luck. Rickshaw’s characters each have their own take on what a proper and decent living is. Hu Niu is too realistic in her actions to seduce Hsiang Tzu for a quick buck and a long-term committed banking system. Apparently, Hsiang Tzu has extremely high dreams and goals for himself. He knew the direction of his life was in his own hands, or so he thought until she made him see herself in a whole new light. She takes Hsiang’s inexperience with alcohol and women to her advantage. Although her scheme worked, already manipulated him into marrying her with a phony pregnancy, the plan failed where she didn’t anticipate her own demise during labor. Deception is probably not the right road to go down. Hu Niu was desperate; she didn’t want love, she just wanted to be able to face society with a man on her arm and a family to show. She would step over anyone to get to her goal; she saw Hsiang Tzu as an opportunity and there was no hesitation when she seized it.
The other extremity of human behavior can be depicted through Hsiang’s character. He did want a family, something to show to the world of what he had worked so hard for. However, the difference between Hsiang and Hu Niu was that Hsiang wanted to earn it, willing to work for it. Deception didn’t cross Hsiang Tzu’s mind, but if it did, he would have refuted it. Even if in a slump, he would hang on to his last bit of hope and worked even harder without ever wasting a needless penny. Lao She makes Hsiang Tzu a character living in his own world; that is his downfall. Although rickshaw-pulling is somewhat honorable, is his dream of achieving a perfect family life just a fantasy? Instead of looking at life as rather enjoyable, he sees it as a burden. The other rickshaw pullers tend to enjoy themselves with a shot of baigan here and a prostitute there. Everyone steps all over him and he lets them. These causes, life as a burden and the money clinging, causes him to crack one day when he realizes that despite all his hard work and determination, he’ll never reach his goal in this deceiving and cunning world. His realization morphs him into a detestable man; at least his way of life meets his lower expectations.
The most insightful character in the whole novel of Rickshaw is the old man, the one who walked into the teahouse and fainted. He was also the one who began to make Hsiang Tzu think about the reality of what Hsiang can actually achieve and how to continue to appreciate the accomplishments regardless of the failures. For the first time, Hsiang felt sorry for someone else. This old man and Hsiang Tzu were the very same and yet extremely different. Both were in the same line of work and in the same social class thus same quality of life. Yet, the old man was content with his life, at least he was alive! Hsiang Tzu could not accept that fact that he had to settle for lower, meeting expectations or not. Therein, he would be bitter towards everything and everyone by bending people’s wallets to his will until his reputation could no longer buy him credit. It was a chain reaction: he kept digging himself deeper in his hole, he became even more irritated with life, and so deeper the hole got.
The light in which we see things does not change what has happened, but may affect what will. No matter how we interpret our sense (either in a bright light or dim) it can’t change the fact that it happened, but may enlighten us to decide a better, or brighter, path towards the future. If no one was around to see it, hear it, smell, taste, or feel it, does not the tree still fall? If a ball is dropped, someone above may not see anything happen, whereas someone on the ground would say it fell. There are an infinite variety of angels to view an event or hear a sound; the way you take it in and interpret will forever and continually affect you, for better or worse.
Word Count: 891
