《放生》小說的集結出版，究竟意味著黃春明的個人生活情感世界有何轉變？還是這停筆近十年，當今社會的家庭結構有著快速的轉變，以致於作家觀察到「三代同堂」的家庭傳統價值觀正逐漸的崩解，而企圖為這群夾縫在新舊時代矛盾衝突中的老人們留下見證的寫真集？以文學的角度切入，輔以社會學中的功能結構概念，來探討當今逐漸高齡化的社會中關於老人問題的呈現，以及其中形成的內在意涵。

Could the publishing of the novel”Fang Seng ”mean any changes in Hunag Chun Ming’s sentimental life? Or is he trying to leave a testament for the seniors who are caught in the clash of generations, after witnessing the ongoing collapse of the traditional family value of three generation households in the past ten years when he stopped writing and the family structure had changed drastically? From the viewpoint of literature and aided with the concept of the structure-functionalism, this paper is to investigate how the senior problems are presented in this aging society, and its internal implication.