ABSTRACT
Numerous readers regard characters and their relationships in Family, a novel by Ba Jin, as his actual extended family members and the mutual relationship between family members. For example, they believe that grandpa, the third uncle, the fifth uncle, eldest brother, eldest sister-in-law, and others are Ba Jin's grandpa, the third uncle, the fifth uncle, eldest brother, eldest sister-in-law in real life. After comparing characters and plots in Family with text description of family members of Ba Jin, this paper makes it clear that the family of Ba Jin was an ordinary one that had no fierce conflict of contradictions as described in Family (although there were some contradictions between his family members, it is a common situation in families). Moreover, his grandpa was benign. The author believes that the reason Ba Jin described the dark authoritarian of a feudal extended family in Family is not only because he was influenced by some western ideas publicized by the new literature of “the May Fourth Movement,” but also because he considered creation factors of structural layout and form strategy of a novel.
