閱讀陳映真的作品很難不注意到故事中關於死亡的書寫，在他1959-1968年之間的作品中，這個特徵尤其明顯。岡崎郁子把這段時期的作品共十八篇認定為陳映真創作的第一期，這個時期的作品以感傷主義貫通作品，主題也相近。十八篇中除了〈麵攤〉和〈最後的夏日〉，全都描述著死亡；即使沒有正面書寫死亡，也暗示了絕望感。　　 六○年代的台灣小說有台灣文學史上最大流亡圖，在面對生命的挫敗時，每個人以不同態度面對--不同的人有著不同的生命困境，也有其不同的自處之道，六○年代的台灣小說，以死亡銷解生命困頓似乎是一個慣常的形式，死亡的思維，伴隨時代的進步演化，已是一種生命意義的選擇，陳映真正是此一文學現象中典型代表人物。本文的撰寫重點即在探索陳映真死亡主題的成因及背後的意涵，著重作品內容顯露的死亡人物、情節、意識分類與剖析，期盼能把握到作家吐納的創作意涵及主客觀思想。 六○年代西方現代主義的思潮適時開啟文人視野，讓人意識到人類自身的荒謬與存在的困境。作家透過作品呈現殘酷現實世界，死亡成為作家不願逃避的課題，死亡是屬於個人的，存在的定義也由自己決定。陳映真的死亡書寫其實是懷抱著一種為其無法選擇的歷史和他所生活的沉悶時代贖罪的心情，將人物置放在一個特定的民族分裂的，冷戰的時代框架上，企圖以死亡喚醒生者的沉睡意識，他以一個小知識份子的視角，塑造死亡人物蒼白、憂鬱、頹廢、壓抑的性格，讓他們懷抱曖昧理想，近乎神聖宗教的道德律令，去面對現實嚴苛的試煉，當他們不免於空虛、墮落時，卻又讓他們的內在時時檢視自我，也讓他們在檢視中紛紛敗下陣來，最後唯有透過死亡才能洗滌罪惡，以消除內心不斷上升的焦慮與對現實理想改革無能的絕望。陳映真讓每一個故事中死亡的人物背負了沉重的包袱，也企圖透過死亡帶來獲得救贖的可能。

It is hard to ignore death writing in Chen Ying-chen’s works. This feature is especially common in his writings between 1959-1968. Okazaki Ikuko regards the eighteen stories written in this period as the first period. In this period, sentimentalism runs through the stories. Except “The Noodle Stand” and “The Last Summer Day”, all of the eighteen stories are about death; even if there is no direct depiction of death, and there is still rich suggestion of despair. Taiwanese fictions in the 60’s have a realistic picture of exile in Taiwanese literature. The people at that time dealt with setbacks in life with different attitudes—everyone faced his own dilemma in life with different philosophy. In the Taiwanese fictions in the 60’s, it seems common among the story writers to free themselves from the dilemma in life through writing about death; for them, an obsession with death has become a way of existence. Chen Ying-chen is a typical representative in this phenomena. In this essay, I will focus on exploring the cause such thinking and the meaning of Chen’s theme of death, with an emphasis on analyzing the depictions of the characters, plots, and consciousness in the hope of grasping the writer’s inner thought. Western modernism were just in time to open the literary men’s horizons in the 1960s. Writers were aware of the absurdity of human existence then, therefore, they display a cruel and realistic world through their works. Death is personal and existence is defined by oneself, therefore death becomes an inevitable topic. Chen’s death writing is actually an atonement of the lifeless age and an expression of the inescapability of history. He puts his characters in a frame of a split nation in the cold war, in an attempt of waking up the consciousness of people in a dead sleep at the time. With a petty intellectual’s perspective, the characters which die in Chen’s stories are created in the melancholic, decadent, and depressive atmosphere. On the one hand, he asks them to deal with the severe test in reality in accordance with ideal and morals, but on the other hand, he obligates them to criticize themselves when they corrupt. Unfortunately, the poor characters are destined to be defeated in this self-examination. Therefore, the characters can only purify their crime through death in order to diminish the anxiety rising inside and to comfort the hopelessness of changing the situation. Chen’s characters which die in his stories are endowed with heavy burdens like this and he attempts to reach redemption through death.