The first time I went to read the original movie. I like this novel about a "slut" and an "adulter" killing a confused husband together for two reasons: First, the first-person narrative style of "adulter" Frank is neat and tidy, not only succinctly outlines a depressing and hopeless atmosphere, It did not affect the emotional explosive release of the protagonist in the slightest; secondly, "slut" Cora must not be easily defined as a terrible woman who kills her husband. Instead, like everyone else, she experiences complex and contradictory emotions and tries to resist fate in the wrong way. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is a complex and realistic human and love story.
The protagonist Frank, a homeless man who is not demanding in life, is observant and intelligent: "No one knows better than me how interesting [the homeless] is. I know all the twists and turns and joys of this life, and I also know how to deal with it. All kinds of twists and turns." However, in order to stay with the heroine Cora, Frank crossed the moral line and killed his husband. This healthy young man burns in a deadly romance, becomes a sick man, and falls short when he finally recovers.
On the other hand, Cora, who fascinated Frank, was not some kind of ecstasy with a smile on her face and an unrecognizable figure: "But that gloomy look and the way her lips are pouting out makes me really want to pout her pouting for her. lips pushed in." This woman, who is immersed in dissatisfaction and resentment with the status quo, is not paying attention to seducing the passing guy: "Listen, I'm Caucasian like you, understand? My hair may be black, and it looks like a It might be a bit like that, but I'm Caucasian like you."
If Frank had a crush on another woman, the ending would obviously be very different. For example, Ma Qi, whom he met by chance, had a cheerful personality, also liked to "wander", and also ran a catering and cub rental business on his own. The two who get along easily and happily are likely to be happy companions who can travel the world together. However, fate is so vicious that Frank and Cora, who have nothing in common, fall in love without looking back.
The author lays out Frank's maddening desire for Cora without pretense: "He went in, and I vomited everything in my stomach immediately. Lunch, potatoes, and wine, I made me I can't take it. I just want to get that woman, thinking so much, I can't even hold anything in my stomach." In the face of desire, Cora was equally eager and arrogant with naked candor: "'Bite me! Bite me!' I bit her, biting her lips with my teeth so deeply that I could feel the blood spurting into my mouth. The blood was running down her neck when I carried her upstairs."
Interestingly, at the time of the decision to kill and the failure of the first attempt, Cora kept emphasizing to her lover: "I am not a bad woman." This "sophistry" sounds harsh and absurd at first: isn't she a self-deceiving wicked woman who takes people's lives for her own sake? Why can't you just walk away with your lover? Cora, in fact, is afraid of falling into the bottom again after running away: "I work in a cheap eatery, and you do a similar job, say, get a lowly job in a parking lot and wear a smock. If I see you in a smock , I'm going to cry, Frank."
Thus, the crux of the matter is that, as a weak and traditional woman, Cora does not have the ruthlessness and determination to deal with complex issues. Like most ordinary people, she couldn't help tumbling in hesitation and confusion: firstly, even if she hated her husband, she could only restlessly compromise until Frank's "coming" turned the dark tide into a storm; He has repeatedly "disgusted" Frank for being "useless", but he is unwilling to cling to a rich lover because of this. When falling in love with and abandoning a homeless lover, Cora showed the sincerity and helplessness of a weak woman: "When you first came, you were an authentic homeless person, you didn't even wear socks […] I would fall in love with you even without a shirt. you". This weak woman's "luxury desire" is a decent life - "work hard and make a name for yourself". So, despite Cora's reliance on and subsequent abandonment of her husband and Frank's "transportation," and her radical and risky choices for money, it's hard to make simple moral judgments about her.
Or back to the question: Why does the husband have to die? Because Cora wants too much. While she has a sincere love, she still needs to look for security in material life, and she is afraid that her feelings will wither in turmoil. In this way, the act of joining forces to kill and rob money is too much confidence in the loyalty of the relationship, or is it lack of confidence? On the other hand, readers can't condescendingly judge that Cora puts material above love, because she is willing to test Frank with her life, just to find a way out for love.
Under the provocation of a seasoned police officer, Cora and Frank turned against each other. The novel's rather dark humor is that the characters who turn black and white and reverse the imminent guilty verdict are several major insurance companies. This also confirms Woody Allen's quip: "There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an entire night with an insurance salesman?"
Although she was acquitted, Cora, who wanted to gamble for a better life for herself and her lover, found in her heart that the premise of "love" was invalid: "God kissed our forehead that night and gave Everything any two of us could possibly have, but we just happen to be not the kind of people who can have it all. This kind of love is like a big airplane engine that takes you through the sky to the top of a mountain, but if you put this When this kind of love is put into a Ford car, this kind of love is shattered." One commenter also wrote: "In the face of fear, they have betrayed each other successively, and love can't stand the test more than imagined. [... .] From then on, they lived unhappy lives and began to suspect and torment each other".
Indeed, the sweet passion years seem to be replaced by drunkenness and distrust. For example, Frank felt relieved when Cora was out: "I feel free. For at least a week, I don't have to fight, or try to get rid of nightmares, and I don't have to rely on booze to soothe a woman and put her in a good mood. ." But I just don't think the two of them are just "Fords," or that their love is irreparable. In fact, Frank's choice to give up wandering and stay with Cora and continue to suffer is a testament to his love: "I wanted to run away with that woman [...] but I didn't because I knew I had to go back. By your side, our destiny has been linked, Cora." And Cora, who had been struggling between material security and love, would rather risk her life than betray her lover. Perhaps the death of her mother and the arrival of a new life made her willing to risk her life to eliminate the rift and restore her love. One can't help but think of the pure tenderness between the two: "I ran my fingers over the scars. They were soft and wet. I kissed softly, the kind of soft little kiss I had never had before." […] We didn’t do anything, just lay on the bed and she kept ruffling my hair while looking at the ceiling as if thinking about something”.
Cora didn't have to go through the process of murder, betrayal, and temptation. After some tossing, will she still feel that killing her husband is really "the only option"? Not only that, although the final car accident was an accident, it can also be said to be an indirect result of her and Frank's mutual testing. However, perhaps in Cora's eyes, the car accident is not the worst outcome at all: before she died, she had received precious answers with the hope and joy of giving birth to a new life.
Remember Cora and Frank in the sea? Freed from greed, cowardice, meanness and other irrelevant desires, this couple is naked and innocent: "She looks like a little girl. This is the first time I see how young she actually is. We play on the beach. , and then swam a long way in the water, letting the waves shake our bodies. I like to let my head sway with the waves, she likes to have my feet sway with the waves. We stayed there face to face, hands clasped under the water. I looked up at the sky and that was all you could see."
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