Chí Phèo

Thao Vu

Language : Vietnamese

Title : Chí Phèo

Author : Nam Cao

Publisher: New Life

Year: 1941

Summary

One day, Chi Pheo was adopted by a man and was brought up by Vu Dai village (where he lived). At the first time, he was a kind famer and a tenant of Ba Kien. The young third wife of Bá Kiến often asked Chí Phèo to massage her legs.Thus, Bá Kiến was jealous of him, so he found any ways to imprison Chi Pheo. After 7 or 8 years, Chi Pheo came out and turned into a different person. He became a terrible monster of Vu Dai village. Firstly, he become to Ba Kien's house to slit his face for what Ba Kien had done. However, Ba Kien tried to seduce Chi Pheo to be his henchman. After that, Chi Pheo became crueler and was always drunk.

One afternoon, as usual, Chi Pheo was wandering and abusing, but no one noticed him. Thus, He was very angry, so he always destroyed something in any of the houses in this village. Everybody in village was scared of him. After drinking, he went to a river bank. He suddenly saw Thi No, a silly, ugly woman, who comes to take water. They spent the night with each other. When Chi Pheo woke up, he felt tired out. Miraculously, he listened to sounds of daily life outside that he never heard before.  He thought about the past, the present and the future and felt sad. He knew he was old but still lonely.  At that moment, Thi No came in with a pot of hot onion soup. Chi Pheo was very surprised because it was the first time he was given something by a woman. Thus, He wanted Thi No become his wife.

However, because of her aunt’s disapproval, Thi No declined Chi Pheo’s love. He was broken-hearted. He drank a lot. He depressed for his life. After that, Chi Pheo realized who destroyed his life. He took a knife to Bá Kiến’s house, killed him then put an end to his own life.

Recommendation

Chí Phèo is one of the most famous short stories written by Nam Cao. The author Nam Cao worked as a clerk and as a teacher. In 1946 he joined the War of Resistance. His prerevolutionary works realistically depicted the tragedy of the “little man” and the spiritual searching of the intelligentsia living in the oppressive atmosphere of colonial Vietnam. Such works included in this amazing novel Chí Phèo.