Theme

• Family ties

      Undoubtedly, the profound emotion between Fugui and his family was one of the most significant faith that encouraged Fugui to live. On the other side, however, family was also a major cause that led to Fugui’s miserable life. Among all the family members, there were two women that influenced Fugui’s life most deeply — one was his mother, and one was his wife Jiazhen. When Fugui was young, his mother spoiled him excessively, allowing him to do anything he wished. Growing up in this kind of “free” atmosphere, Fugui lost himself in gambling all day and soon lost all of his property during the Great Leap period. Nevertheless, Jiazhen’s unconditional sacrifice and loyalty to Fugui supported him to step over the toughest period in his life. Jiazhen came back to Fugui after she gave birth to Youqing and knew Fugui was no longer gambling. She willingly bared the burden of all the family issues when Fugui was captured in military. If Jiazhen did not accompany Fugui for her whole lifetime, fugui might not be able to grow up so quickly and strongly.

• The reason to live

      The other main theme in To Live is the reason to live. Introductory lists some motivations of living. However, when all those motivation disappear, what is the reason to live? In the novel, Fugui had lost all of his wealth and family members. In other words, he was neither physically nor mentally rich. Nevertheless, witnessing all his relatives died one by one, he still chose to live ordinarily and plainly though he could barely feed himself. At the beginning of the novel, Fugui expressed his opinion to life: “No matter how lucky a person is, the moment he decides he wants to die, there's nothing that will keep him alive”.  Then, what is the reason that keeps him alive? Yu Hua did not mention the answer directly, but leave the question to reader.