It was the era of genuineness; it was the era of artifice, it was Eden of innocence; it was Sodom of hypocrisy, it was the empyrean of all virtues; it was the abyss of all sins, it was the paradise of peace; it was the pandemonium of violence, and above, this absurdity was what I beheld in the short novel Oroonoko, a book written by an English female of the Restoration— Aphra Behn.
The plot commenced with a sketch of a nameless lady’s witness to a primitive land with a primeval forests, a verdant and jubilant place which the chattering parrots merrily inhabited, which chirping birds delightedly dwelt in, and which the peaceable man peacefully resided in. It seemed that the wonderland was tranquil and blessed as if it were the Garden of Eden that the omnipotent and omniscient Creator bestowed upon Adam and Eve; nevertheless, the approaching diabolic colonists shortly sabotaged the bliss that the inhabitants once immersed in and vandalized Nature that the residents once possessed. This invasion led to the calamitous results and tragic death of Oroonoko, the African prince who was later tricked to be a slave by the crafty captain; and Imoinda, the pathetic woman bargained to the wicked captain by a king and enslaved by the sinister colonist.
My mind resounded with the impressive and heartbroken scene that Oroonoko mournfully cut Imoinda’s throat, sorrowfully removed her face, and grievously witnessed his own wife’s decease. Unlike Othello, a Moorish man in great jealousy suffocating his own innocent wife Desdemona, Oroonoko’s murder of Imoinda resulted from Oroonoko’s slavery, the colonists’ despotic power, and Oroonoko’s own sympathy for his own expectant wife and for the fetus. Being a slave without dignity, fearing that their kids will also be born in captivity after his or her birth, and preventing his wife in slavery from being tarnished by the colonists, Oroonoko painfully resolved to slay his own wife so that the tragedy of the slavery or the calamity of everything would not continuously recur in his homeland, in his wife’s life, and in his child’s future. As soon as I read this cruel but compassionate part of the novel, I simultaneously expressed my sympathy for the price in slavery, Oroonoko, and also thought that all the misery and misfortune has ended with Imoinda’s death; yet, shortly afterward, I found that my speculation was opposite to the story that Aphra Behn has indited. Soon after I just finished reading Oroonoko’s personal killing of Imoinda, I learned that Oroonoko, sinking into deeper depression and having a heavy heart, kept watch for Imoinda’s corpse until the corpse’s stench brought the colonists to the scene and the colonists took away Oroonoko’s life and that Oroonoko was ravaged by the inhumane abuse of his body whereas he stood stoically smoking the pipe until he fell down dead. It is a dreadful story that is more fearful than Edger Allan Poe’s stories and that shepherds the readers of all Modern into the colonial age. As I scrutinized the lines in the novel, it seemed that the slaves in the colony were all reappearing and howling for their strenuous travail. Behn really aroused readers’ sympathy to those who situated in the low stratum of society and accused the privileged of their exploitation and persecution. Once the readers saw the miserable lives of the slaves with their own eyes, they would show their mercy for the underprivileged as Behn wished the readers to be concerned with the people in low stratum and to introspect the barbarity of the glorious epoch.
Apart from the novel itself, the story appeared to insinuate our history and our society. Oroonoko in the novel ultimately slew his wife because he did not possess the strength like the armed colonists’ power to thwart the colonial captain’s violence and insult to his family. Without the inferiority, he had no alternative but to take away his wife’s life in order to end the torments they suffered from and provoke an outcry. Similarly, the Peasant’s Revolt of England, the Jacquerie in medieval France, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution were the reprinted version of the prince Oroonoko. When the underprivileged or the oppressed were crucified by the governments’ exploitation or the totalitarians’ maltreatment, they simultaneously decided to crusade against tyranny, to revolt against authority, and to strive for their rights so as to annihilate the inequality they faced. However, not having the same financial capability as the government and the same scepter as the sovereign, the underprivileged can only gang the men together and make an assault on the ruler, with the iron and the fists. As the underprivileged rose in rebellion against their ruler, society soon lapsed into agitation and havoc and suffers from the thorns that are engendered from the underprivileged as well as the ruler. From these facts, we can say that when the oppressed encounter society’s tearless treatment or isolation and are at the end of the rope, they are inclined to damage themselves or injure others, causing everyone’s catastrophe and nightmare. This is not what we expect to see.Hence, as soon as we see the poor or the underprivileged, we must not evade them as the rich man fared sumptuously ignores Lazarus, a beggar who is full of sores. Instead, we must generously give our assistance to those needy people. With our help, they will not imprison themselves in the abyss of helplessness; jail them in the inferno of poverty, and lock themselves in the perdition of ordeals. Conversely, they procure the hope and more impetus to serve for their society and usher other impoverished people into bliss of being concerned. And, all the goodwill shepherds all humans into a harmonious heaven.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Image of China in Western Literature--“ China in the sixteenth century: The journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1610”--黃韻玲
Ricci Matthew, as everybody knows, was the most famous priest in the 16th century who lived in China over 25 years. Being so talented at language-learning, he could memorize every character he saw and read Chinese classics without any difficulties.
This journal was edited by one of his friends after few years he died and was translated into English in 1983. It is said that Matthew Ricci’s journal was an extraordinary work which provides a vivid picture for those who have no ideas about China in Europe. Telling us as much as he knew about languages, religions, customs and bureaucracy in China, Ricci’s journal might be viewed as a bibliography rather than fantasy novels which Marco Polo, Odoric have already written down in the early 13th.
It is no doubt that nobody could be so familiar with Chinese culture like Matthew Ricci at that time. He makes cultural comparisons between Europe and China to raise European’s attention toward Chinese. On the other hand, his concern about different living styles in those two places makes us to know more about European culture, too. For example, by stating that the buildings in China are not as permanent and stable as in Europe, he introduces public facilities in Europe which are common and sustainable. Another interesting story is that, Ricci says he was confused when seeing Chinese paintings and hearing Chinese melodies. I think it is just because of the totally different techniques in arts that could confuse him. One thing we need to understand is that, each culture has its standards when it comes to arts. That is to say, what they think unharmonious may be the arts we appreciate. Hence, I think “be respectful to all cultures” is what Ricci’s journal reminds us of and the spirit of the 21th century.
Besides, he tried to show how wonderful China was and how well-mannered Chinese were in order to convince more priests to believe that China was blessed. Hence, China seems like a good place for those who want to begin their preach jobs. He also shows his tolerance when mentioning religions in China. For him, all they need is God’s bless, which can help them get rid of superstitions. Ricci, so rational a man he is, finds out that while fortunetellers in China always cheat on people, everybody would like to believe in it rather than being skeptical about it. He thinks fortunetelling is a kind of crime and actually, has nothing to do with one’s future. In my opinion, the reason why people believe in fortunetellers is that they are still uneasy and anxious about their future; furthermore, they are afraid of being conquered by Tartars again, even though they have regoverned China for such a long period of time.
Also, there are something need to be taken into consideration in this book. Not until I read Ricci’s journal, did I realize that how people from outside of China think of us as. Apparently, European and Chinese culture are totally different, but they still have something in common—both of them have their own philosophy of lives. And we should admire both of them. This book gives us a chance not only to see the way they look upon us, but also help us to figure out how hybridity featured in modern society. As mentioned above, the book “China in the sixteenth century: The journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1610” is very valuable for people such as students and researchers who want to go deeply into history. Finally, although Ricci, the author of the book, disdains superstitions in China, the book itself seems like to be a prophecy which foretells the disasters in the late 19th-- the defeat of China is inevitable because Chinese are too weak to fight with the invaders as he describes in the book.
This journal was edited by one of his friends after few years he died and was translated into English in 1983. It is said that Matthew Ricci’s journal was an extraordinary work which provides a vivid picture for those who have no ideas about China in Europe. Telling us as much as he knew about languages, religions, customs and bureaucracy in China, Ricci’s journal might be viewed as a bibliography rather than fantasy novels which Marco Polo, Odoric have already written down in the early 13th.
It is no doubt that nobody could be so familiar with Chinese culture like Matthew Ricci at that time. He makes cultural comparisons between Europe and China to raise European’s attention toward Chinese. On the other hand, his concern about different living styles in those two places makes us to know more about European culture, too. For example, by stating that the buildings in China are not as permanent and stable as in Europe, he introduces public facilities in Europe which are common and sustainable. Another interesting story is that, Ricci says he was confused when seeing Chinese paintings and hearing Chinese melodies. I think it is just because of the totally different techniques in arts that could confuse him. One thing we need to understand is that, each culture has its standards when it comes to arts. That is to say, what they think unharmonious may be the arts we appreciate. Hence, I think “be respectful to all cultures” is what Ricci’s journal reminds us of and the spirit of the 21th century.
Besides, he tried to show how wonderful China was and how well-mannered Chinese were in order to convince more priests to believe that China was blessed. Hence, China seems like a good place for those who want to begin their preach jobs. He also shows his tolerance when mentioning religions in China. For him, all they need is God’s bless, which can help them get rid of superstitions. Ricci, so rational a man he is, finds out that while fortunetellers in China always cheat on people, everybody would like to believe in it rather than being skeptical about it. He thinks fortunetelling is a kind of crime and actually, has nothing to do with one’s future. In my opinion, the reason why people believe in fortunetellers is that they are still uneasy and anxious about their future; furthermore, they are afraid of being conquered by Tartars again, even though they have regoverned China for such a long period of time.
Also, there are something need to be taken into consideration in this book. Not until I read Ricci’s journal, did I realize that how people from outside of China think of us as. Apparently, European and Chinese culture are totally different, but they still have something in common—both of them have their own philosophy of lives. And we should admire both of them. This book gives us a chance not only to see the way they look upon us, but also help us to figure out how hybridity featured in modern society. As mentioned above, the book “China in the sixteenth century: The journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1610” is very valuable for people such as students and researchers who want to go deeply into history. Finally, although Ricci, the author of the book, disdains superstitions in China, the book itself seems like to be a prophecy which foretells the disasters in the late 19th-- the defeat of China is inevitable because Chinese are too weak to fight with the invaders as he describes in the book.
Of Mice and Men Book Report--歐仲庭
Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, is a novel telling the tragic story of George Milton and Lenny Small. This book tells us a story about two friends who love and protect each other, while working together towards achieving their dreams. Of Mice and Men is a controversial book due to the inclusion of killing and violence. It also brings attention towards other controversial topics such as euthanasia and prejudice. Despite all these, Of Mice and Men is still a popular book that is read in high schools all over the United States. Of Mice and Men is a small book that has a brilliantly written plot which will touch many people’s hearts.
The story is set in California during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. George Milton and Lenny Small are both migrant workers. George is a small but intelligent and responsible man. Lenny on the other hand is completely different. Lenny is very strong physically, but is mentally disabled and very simple. They have been traveling companions since young, and Lenny is dependent upon George for protection and guidance. They not only share a mutual friendship and devotion, but the same dream as well. They have a dream of one day buying and owning their own piece of land, on which Lenny can tend rabbits. The story begins when they report to and start working on a ranch. Curly is the boss’s son, who is recently married to a beautiful, but flirtatious woman. All seems to be working well toward realizing their dream. Their plan had been set, all they needed to do was work a bit longer. One day, however, tragedy strikes. All the men on the ranch left to a brothel, except Lenny. Lenny was tending a puppy in the barn when Curley’s wife appears. She flirts with him, eventually asking him to touch her hair. Lenny, fond of soft things, began to stroke her hair. He was too strong however, and began to hurt her. When she started screaming, Lenny attempted to silence her and accidentally breaks her neck. Lenny escapes to the hiding place that George sets up for them to meet in times of danger. When the rest of the men got back, they realized what happened and set up a lynch party. George got to Lenny first, and to the surprise of Lenny, George was not angry at him. George begins to tell Lenny the story of their dream again. How they would own a beautiful piece of land, and Lenny would be playing with the rabbits. As the lynch party got closer, George shoots Lenny in the back of the head. George killed his friend out of mercy, so that he will not endure cruel suffering from the others.
I read this book in high school, and it has been my favorite book ever since. The story is simple, yet strong and powerful. Having a brother myself, seeing how George and Lenny love and take care of each other touches me. Their friendship and devotion is very moving, especially seeing what they do for each other. The ending where George shot Lenny was one of my most shocking experiences when reading. There was no way that I could have prepared myself for that scene, it was just too sad and unbelievable. In fact I re-read the same paragraphs over and over just to make sure it really did happen. The act of shooting his friend, perhaps a type of euthanasia, was heroic by George. George ended Lenny’s life peacefully without any suffering. If George did not make the move, Lenny would have suffered cruelly under the hands of the lynch mob. Another sad side of the story was to see them so close to their dream, and yet to have everything fall apart that night. I really liked the character Lenny, because he was like a child. He was huge physically, but likes soft things and animals. He was one step away from being in a ranch tending rabbits all day long and being taken cared by George. It is also sad to see the ending from George’s point of view. Even if he does eventually save up enough money to buy his farm, is it still the same without Lenny? His dream must have always included Lenny in the picture. Would owning a new farm still be worth anything to George now? I find it extremely sorrowful to imagine the picture of George alone on his own farm, seeing no purpose and feeling extremely solitary and empty.
Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, is a small book with a touching plot that is brilliantly written. George and Lenny are memorable characters that readers will grow to like. They have dreams, like the rest of us, so we can relate to them. Their friendship is almost like a brotherhood and very touching. It is sad that they cannot realize their dreams together, even though it was already within grasp. Overall, Of Mice and Men is an excellent book that is recommended to anyone who loves friendship and dreams.
The story is set in California during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. George Milton and Lenny Small are both migrant workers. George is a small but intelligent and responsible man. Lenny on the other hand is completely different. Lenny is very strong physically, but is mentally disabled and very simple. They have been traveling companions since young, and Lenny is dependent upon George for protection and guidance. They not only share a mutual friendship and devotion, but the same dream as well. They have a dream of one day buying and owning their own piece of land, on which Lenny can tend rabbits. The story begins when they report to and start working on a ranch. Curly is the boss’s son, who is recently married to a beautiful, but flirtatious woman. All seems to be working well toward realizing their dream. Their plan had been set, all they needed to do was work a bit longer. One day, however, tragedy strikes. All the men on the ranch left to a brothel, except Lenny. Lenny was tending a puppy in the barn when Curley’s wife appears. She flirts with him, eventually asking him to touch her hair. Lenny, fond of soft things, began to stroke her hair. He was too strong however, and began to hurt her. When she started screaming, Lenny attempted to silence her and accidentally breaks her neck. Lenny escapes to the hiding place that George sets up for them to meet in times of danger. When the rest of the men got back, they realized what happened and set up a lynch party. George got to Lenny first, and to the surprise of Lenny, George was not angry at him. George begins to tell Lenny the story of their dream again. How they would own a beautiful piece of land, and Lenny would be playing with the rabbits. As the lynch party got closer, George shoots Lenny in the back of the head. George killed his friend out of mercy, so that he will not endure cruel suffering from the others.
I read this book in high school, and it has been my favorite book ever since. The story is simple, yet strong and powerful. Having a brother myself, seeing how George and Lenny love and take care of each other touches me. Their friendship and devotion is very moving, especially seeing what they do for each other. The ending where George shot Lenny was one of my most shocking experiences when reading. There was no way that I could have prepared myself for that scene, it was just too sad and unbelievable. In fact I re-read the same paragraphs over and over just to make sure it really did happen. The act of shooting his friend, perhaps a type of euthanasia, was heroic by George. George ended Lenny’s life peacefully without any suffering. If George did not make the move, Lenny would have suffered cruelly under the hands of the lynch mob. Another sad side of the story was to see them so close to their dream, and yet to have everything fall apart that night. I really liked the character Lenny, because he was like a child. He was huge physically, but likes soft things and animals. He was one step away from being in a ranch tending rabbits all day long and being taken cared by George. It is also sad to see the ending from George’s point of view. Even if he does eventually save up enough money to buy his farm, is it still the same without Lenny? His dream must have always included Lenny in the picture. Would owning a new farm still be worth anything to George now? I find it extremely sorrowful to imagine the picture of George alone on his own farm, seeing no purpose and feeling extremely solitary and empty.
Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, is a small book with a touching plot that is brilliantly written. George and Lenny are memorable characters that readers will grow to like. They have dreams, like the rest of us, so we can relate to them. Their friendship is almost like a brotherhood and very touching. It is sad that they cannot realize their dreams together, even though it was already within grasp. Overall, Of Mice and Men is an excellent book that is recommended to anyone who loves friendship and dreams.
Reflection on Never Let Me Go: Read the Unspeakable--林佳楠
Published in 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest tour de force Never Let Me Go emerges as a mesmerizing novel veiled by understated poignancy. Staged in England of the late 1990s, the novel revolves around a school of clones whose bodies are preordained to function as repositories in supply of organs for “normal people.” Though in Hailsham the hermetic school these innocent pupils are informed of their future tasks, they never fully realize how their “career” would be going to fare. The sharp contrasts between the futureless clones and the bright normal people are dramatized with inarticulate bitterness so that the whole novel is enveloped with an impenetrable somberness.
Narrated by Kathy the 31-year-old woman in her point of view, the story unfolds alongside her fragmentary reminiscences. She reflects on the jovial days in Hailsham where students are emotionally attached to the strict “guardians” and entertained with myriads of myths and hearsays circulating on campus. The school education places great premiums on their physical health and artistic creations, the latter in their understanding is to enrich the school “Gallery.” They know donations and they know they are somewhat different from their guardians, whereas they cannot tell exactly what disparities are set in-between. Directed by her occasionally elliptical remembrances, we readers are ushered into a fictional world where things beyond the school seems obscure and floating, and like a tantalized detective we are urged to assemble the pieces and parcels dropped by the speaker to shape out the isolated world. We relish the enchanting ways of life they indulge in, while with the elusive attitude of the guardians we sense that something explosive is looming. Puzzles like who the Madame is and what the Gallery functions for lurk in their mind, yet they live quite easily without deeper questioning. Initiating them to crystallize the haunting puzzles is the distressing speech launched by one of their guardians—Ms. Lucy:
“The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for you.” (P79-80)
Their golden days are concluded as yet; afterwards, they enroll in Cottage (like our college) accompanied by the unresolved puzzles that begin to entangle their lives only intangibly. Among the credulous students Kathy and Tom are more sensitive and skeptical about those surrounding them. Self-satisfyingly, they forge numerous theories to clarify the disturbing riddles. After graduated from Cottage, Tom and Ruth commence their donation career, while Kathy chooses to work as a carer who attends to the donors. Their efforts to realize their world persist, yet waiting at the termination of their pursuit journey are merely consecutive disillusionments. They come to recognize that the “Gallery” collecting their best works serves simply to attract more capitals, Hailsham the school they cherish in memory is established only to demonstrate how humanitarian the scientists treat the clones, and most heartrendingly, the guardians’ coldness and detachment is to mask their fear of them, once the puerile clones.
I mourn for their incompetence to overturn their dooms. “Which is the better way to lead a life, believing or questioning?” I feel compelled to ask. In the story, Ruth is the one who appears more dominant and adaptable, though more vulnerable in reality, often choosing to believe in whatever she is offered. Before her last donation, she confesses all her calculation around Ruth and Tom the unfortunate lovers, and she passes away before the appalling truth dawns on her. Ruth and Tom, who eventually get together and delve into the myths jointly, end up illuminated yet radically disenchanted. But for their insistence, they could live a brighter life together like any normal couple. It is their relentless aspiration for truth that dissolves their hope. In our confusing world, analogously, it is easier to turn back on those disturbing things and pretend to be blind or dumb. Isn’t it a clever way to lead a merrier life? But as we lose curiosity to probe into the ambient world, what on earth makes humans unique? Further muddying the water is the moral dilemmas triggered by the author—are you willing to sacrifice someone’s life in exchange of that of your beloved one? And how can we, so-called civilized people, cultivate a group of clones by the way we raise poultry?
Their understanding about the real world and even the normal people are much flawed. The guardians, instead of being called “teachers”, are the only normal people in close contact with them, but at the end of the story they can provide no more than outspoken apathy. Separating the two parallel dimensions is a formless yet formidable gulf built by cumulative misconstruction. Ensuing the avalanching epiphany is mounting deaths of their generation. Ruth and Tom “completed” successively; remained is Kathy the paralyzed carer, whose yielding to be a donor at last suggests her taciturn surrender to her prescribed fate. In light of their infertility, the entire generation is going to be buried under the society’s acquiescence, and in the ongoing history no place can they ever find for their tragedies. Their tragedies are the society’s unspeakable guilt. When we turn over the pages of history books, have we ever noticed that some inaudible cries are concealed by the lines?
This is a story about love, about how anomalous people desire to be loved. Helplessness simmered in my heart that was tightly wringed the instant I closed the tiny yet heavy book. There is surely no clone at present, but in our society who are the invisible minority subservient to the majority? What, as well as who, backup our well-being that we always take for granted? Like the clones, we have been told, and taught, about many things, but certainly there are far more things we are untold and untaught. To believe or to question, to explore or to be blind—these are the matters of individual choices. Human life, like a carpet, is knit by manifold choices and dilemmas; each of our decisions contributes to the patterns of our own carpet. While we cannot identify fate the enigmatic manipulator, we are able to direct our own ways by making discrete decisions at every turn of life. This is perhaps what literature serves human life—not physically instrumental, yet from “witnessing” the development of others’ lives, we are occasionally enlightened, and we acquire the opportunities to re-examine our own ways of lives.
Narrated by Kathy the 31-year-old woman in her point of view, the story unfolds alongside her fragmentary reminiscences. She reflects on the jovial days in Hailsham where students are emotionally attached to the strict “guardians” and entertained with myriads of myths and hearsays circulating on campus. The school education places great premiums on their physical health and artistic creations, the latter in their understanding is to enrich the school “Gallery.” They know donations and they know they are somewhat different from their guardians, whereas they cannot tell exactly what disparities are set in-between. Directed by her occasionally elliptical remembrances, we readers are ushered into a fictional world where things beyond the school seems obscure and floating, and like a tantalized detective we are urged to assemble the pieces and parcels dropped by the speaker to shape out the isolated world. We relish the enchanting ways of life they indulge in, while with the elusive attitude of the guardians we sense that something explosive is looming. Puzzles like who the Madame is and what the Gallery functions for lurk in their mind, yet they live quite easily without deeper questioning. Initiating them to crystallize the haunting puzzles is the distressing speech launched by one of their guardians—Ms. Lucy:
“The problem, as I see it, is that you’ve been told and not told. You’ve been told, but none of you really understand, and I dare say, some people are quite happy to leave it that way. But I’m not. If you’re going to have decent lives, then you’ve got to know and know properly. None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for you.” (P79-80)
Their golden days are concluded as yet; afterwards, they enroll in Cottage (like our college) accompanied by the unresolved puzzles that begin to entangle their lives only intangibly. Among the credulous students Kathy and Tom are more sensitive and skeptical about those surrounding them. Self-satisfyingly, they forge numerous theories to clarify the disturbing riddles. After graduated from Cottage, Tom and Ruth commence their donation career, while Kathy chooses to work as a carer who attends to the donors. Their efforts to realize their world persist, yet waiting at the termination of their pursuit journey are merely consecutive disillusionments. They come to recognize that the “Gallery” collecting their best works serves simply to attract more capitals, Hailsham the school they cherish in memory is established only to demonstrate how humanitarian the scientists treat the clones, and most heartrendingly, the guardians’ coldness and detachment is to mask their fear of them, once the puerile clones.
I mourn for their incompetence to overturn their dooms. “Which is the better way to lead a life, believing or questioning?” I feel compelled to ask. In the story, Ruth is the one who appears more dominant and adaptable, though more vulnerable in reality, often choosing to believe in whatever she is offered. Before her last donation, she confesses all her calculation around Ruth and Tom the unfortunate lovers, and she passes away before the appalling truth dawns on her. Ruth and Tom, who eventually get together and delve into the myths jointly, end up illuminated yet radically disenchanted. But for their insistence, they could live a brighter life together like any normal couple. It is their relentless aspiration for truth that dissolves their hope. In our confusing world, analogously, it is easier to turn back on those disturbing things and pretend to be blind or dumb. Isn’t it a clever way to lead a merrier life? But as we lose curiosity to probe into the ambient world, what on earth makes humans unique? Further muddying the water is the moral dilemmas triggered by the author—are you willing to sacrifice someone’s life in exchange of that of your beloved one? And how can we, so-called civilized people, cultivate a group of clones by the way we raise poultry?
Their understanding about the real world and even the normal people are much flawed. The guardians, instead of being called “teachers”, are the only normal people in close contact with them, but at the end of the story they can provide no more than outspoken apathy. Separating the two parallel dimensions is a formless yet formidable gulf built by cumulative misconstruction. Ensuing the avalanching epiphany is mounting deaths of their generation. Ruth and Tom “completed” successively; remained is Kathy the paralyzed carer, whose yielding to be a donor at last suggests her taciturn surrender to her prescribed fate. In light of their infertility, the entire generation is going to be buried under the society’s acquiescence, and in the ongoing history no place can they ever find for their tragedies. Their tragedies are the society’s unspeakable guilt. When we turn over the pages of history books, have we ever noticed that some inaudible cries are concealed by the lines?
This is a story about love, about how anomalous people desire to be loved. Helplessness simmered in my heart that was tightly wringed the instant I closed the tiny yet heavy book. There is surely no clone at present, but in our society who are the invisible minority subservient to the majority? What, as well as who, backup our well-being that we always take for granted? Like the clones, we have been told, and taught, about many things, but certainly there are far more things we are untold and untaught. To believe or to question, to explore or to be blind—these are the matters of individual choices. Human life, like a carpet, is knit by manifold choices and dilemmas; each of our decisions contributes to the patterns of our own carpet. While we cannot identify fate the enigmatic manipulator, we are able to direct our own ways by making discrete decisions at every turn of life. This is perhaps what literature serves human life—not physically instrumental, yet from “witnessing” the development of others’ lives, we are occasionally enlightened, and we acquire the opportunities to re-examine our own ways of lives.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
英文讀書心得徵文比賽結果公告
恭喜以下四位優秀學生得到教務處語言中心第一屆英文讀書心得徵文比賽，
語言中心將於九月開學後第一場導讀會將進行頒獎！
特優: 應外四 林佳楠 Never Let Me Go (獎金2000元)
優等: 應外二 歐仲庭 Of Mice and Men (獎金1500元)
佳作: 1. 中文碩二 黃韻玲 China in the sixteenthcentury:
The journals of Matthew Ricci1.: 1583-1610) (獎金1000元)
2. 應外一 柳宗成 Oroonoko (獎金1000元)
＊得獎作品將公告在專屬BLOG：http://lc-guide.blogspot.com/
＊得獎學生會另行通知
語言中心將於九月開學後第一場導讀會將進行頒獎！
特優: 應外四 林佳楠 Never Let Me Go (獎金2000元)
優等: 應外二 歐仲庭 Of Mice and Men (獎金1500元)
佳作: 1. 中文碩二 黃韻玲 China in the sixteenthcentury:
The journals of Matthew Ricci1.: 1583-1610) (獎金1000元)
2. 應外一 柳宗成 Oroonoko (獎金1000元)
＊得獎作品將公告在專屬BLOG：http://lc-guide.blogspot.com/
＊得獎學生會另行通知
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