Carey Hume (1947 ——) is an outstanding contemporary Maori woman writer in New Zealand. She was born and raised in Mullarkey, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her ancestors were Maori in orkney, Scotland and Lancashire, England. She worked as a cook, TV director, law student, tobacco picker, wool worker, etc. Now she is a professional writer. Carey Hume began to write in the 1960s and made his mark in the literary world in the 1970s. His main works include poetry and prose collection Silence (1982), novel Ridge (1984) and short story collection Wind Eaters (1986), and he has published poems and short stories in many literary magazines. Many of her works have been broadcast by radio or put on TV screens, and some have been translated into Swedish, Japanese and other languages. Kerry Hume 1973 won the TeaAwamed Short Story Award, Katherine Manthfield Short Story Award 1975, University of Otago Burns Fellow Award 1977, Maori English Writing Trust Fund Award 1978 and 1978. Backbone is a rare masterpiece in the history of New Zealand literature. It is based on the first short story written by the author 18 years old. The novel was revised several times, and it took 12 years to complete. After it was sent to several publishing houses, it was rudely denounced as heresy. Finally, Spilar was co-founded by New Zealand women's groups. The novel was snapped up within a few weeks after its publication, and then reprinted many times. The demand for the book Key People in sparsely populated New Zealand has become a surprise in New Zealand literary circles in recent years. This novel won the New Zealand Novel Award and the Moving Pegasus Award for Maori Literature in the year of publication, and the rare literary creation award for foreign works in Britain in the following year. The success of Key Figures marks that the development of Maori literature has entered a brand-new stage. Carey Hume's works mainly involve the emotional estrangement between Maori and aborigines, which reflects the mentality of Maori between the two cultural traditions and their difficulty in succumbing to one kind of pain. At the same time, he also pays attention to describing the opposition to poverty and violence, imprisonment, discrimination or protection, and depicts the world of apartheid, economic inequality and social injustice in New Zealand. Kaili Hume is good at pure psychological description and drawing rich nutrients from exploring the national characteristics of history, tribes and myths. The novel's original conception and incisive language are the main features of her works. Backbone is favored by readers, especially Maori readers, because the novel is rooted in the national soil and based on New Zealand society, and analyzes the relationships between people with New Zealand social characteristics-men, women and children. The protagonists of these three novels are all social * * *, but they are Maori, mixed-race women and whites respectively, which is the characteristic of New Zealand society. Through the narration of their reunion and reunion, the novel discusses many current situations and problems in today's society. The relationship between the three of them is also a microcosm of the relationship between people in New Zealand society, and the happy ending of the novel represents the beauty that the majority of good people hope that the two peoples can live in harmony.
There are three important characters in this novel. The first is kleven Holmes, a female painter. She is a descendant of Maori and white people, but she thinks that "I am one-eighth Maori in terms of blood, body and inheritance, but I am a full Maori in terms of thought, spirit and taste." Clewing is a knowledgeable woman with wide interests, from painting to music, from history to religion, from fishing to chess, from cooking to alcohol. She is confident and arrogant, posing as a cold woman; She is strong and moody, but full of feelings. Climbing the artist's pagoda did not bring her happiness and satisfaction, but deepened her sense of alienation from her relatives and felt empty and lonely inside. She designed and built a tower-shaped house in a remote coastal village in South Island, and used the traditional art of Maori and her own imagination for reference, built a spiral staircase in the tower, drew a double spiral on the ground, and lived alone. The second important person is Joe, a middle-aged Maori worker. He is kind and compassionate, but he is grumpy and melancholy. Shortly after the death of his first child, Simon, a white boy whose parents were killed in a shipwreck, was rescued and adopted. Soon, his wife and another child also died of the flu. Joe was extremely sad and depressed, and his temper was even worse. He often misses his dead wife and children. The third important person is Simon. The death of his parents left a scar on his young mind. After being adopted by Joe, he gained the warmth of his family. The death of Joe's wife added insult to injury and left a new scar on his heart. He is very sad about this and often says that he will go to his mother. He is usually quiet and his behavior is puzzling. Sometimes he is cute and funny, and sometimes he is naughty and aggressive, breaking the law and discipline. Joe was often punished at school, which broke his brain. Joe is out of sympathy. Secondly, he has been taking care of Simon to make up for the loss of his wife and children. Sometimes he is full of motherly tenderness for Simon, and sometimes he will be brutally whipped. He will regret it afterwards, and it will be uncontrollable. In the evening, Simon left his home in the town and wandered to the tower in kleven. kleven took him in for one night. Joe came to thank him for this. They talked about gross profit, and both of them had a sense of intimacy. They started walking back and forth. Simon likes Clewing and sometimes comes to her tower room without authorization, which also increases her contact with Joe. They recalled the past in their hometown and poured out their nostalgia for their relatives in their hometown and their inner loneliness and pain. Joe often plays chess, sings, walks and fishes with kleven. They also took their children for a drive and went on holiday, and Clewing helped a lot. In this way, these three men, women and children with different skin colors got together for their own needs. However, due to the differences in personality and experience, Clewing hates Simon's rude behavior because of Joe. Joe's aversion to kleven's self-confidence and indifference, their different experiences and differences in sexual relations, and all kinds of troubles that Simon has given them, all of which make the three people hurt each other intentionally or unintentionally, and they are involved in a spiral emotional entanglement. Sometimes they turn to the heart, help each other, and sometimes hurt each other centrifugally. Simon occasionally acts violently against Clewing, and Clewing feels very sad. Finally, all this led to their separation; Kleven was traveling, Joe was arrested and imprisoned, and Simon was ill and hospitalized. During this period of separation, the three girls experienced physical and mental pains and recalled the time together. After cleaning up, she was very ill. She also visited Simon in the hospital and Joe in the prison. Finally, the three girls got back together. At first, the relationship was not very harmonious, but at the end of the book, they understood each other and lived in harmony.
Appreciation of Works Backbone is an excellent work that Maori writers have been trying to integrate their own national culture and European culture, and it is also the first novel of Carey Hume. The success of this novel marks a new stage in the development of British Maori literature, which rose in the 1970s. The novel focuses on the acquaintance, communication, reunion, separation and reunion of the three main characters, such as the title, which depicts the racial relations, family relations and interpersonal relations in New Zealand society. Their relationship is the "backbone" of generality and social representation. In the clue, the author mainly expresses some emotional alienation between Maori and aborigines. They lost contact with the Maori hometown, and they were linked by nostalgia for their hometown and mutual resentment. They all think this is the most precious part of their way of life. This sense of loss has brought physical and mental pain to the clues of the whole book, and the novel also involves homosexuality, crime and violence in today's society. The theme reflected in Key People is exactly what Maori writers have tried to express since1980s, and it is also the artistic origin of their creation. Carey Hume's unique artistic technique is more outstanding and successful than her peers. The author's opening is extraordinary; This paper describes the relaxed mood and beautiful feelings of the three protagonists walking on the road, suggesting a happy ending of the story. The spiral staircase in the tower and the double helix painted on the floor symbolize the complex emotional entanglement between the main characters. At first, out of need and desire, they lived together and danced around the same basic point like a dance circle. As a result, this dance circle has become a whirlpool, separating them and leaving them in isolation and despair. This spiral is very important to the meaning, concept and form of this book. The author consciously arranges the description of the relationship between characters and the development of the plot like a spiral. Broadly speaking, the relationship between human society and people extends endlessly like a spiral. This description structure brings vitality to the details of the novel; It is also one of the most direct and in-depth ways for the author to absorb Maori culture. She wrote in the book: "There are two spirals carved on the floor under her (kleven's) feet, and your eyes follow one of them round and round to the center. At this time, you will be surprised to find that another spiral starts from here and leads your vision to the outside ... Old people will find that this is the inspiration caused by their clever carving of the double spiral on the straight fern tree ... "The author uses" stream of consciousness "and symbolism to strengthen the theme, not paying attention to the plot of the characters, but only focusing on revealing the inner world of the characters. The progress of the novel is slow and there is no suspense, but the content is extensive, the surface description is rich and colorful, and there are not many characters in the book. However, the portrayal of fictional and real characters in the book falls into the plot with incisive pure psychological analysis, and the relationship and inner activities between the characters are enriched through dialogue and thought, and the feelings are blazing. This description is very rare in New Zealand novels. The language of the novel is also extremely rich, from military art to dandelion for cooking, from music to fishing and other special words and idioms that describe various interests make the novel interesting, which shows that the author has a deep grasp of language and a wide range of knowledge.