101-1 英文讀書心得徵文比賽第一名 : 財法四 施O輝 The Pearl

        ‘The Pearl’ is a heartfelt story written by John Ernest Steinbeck who wrote it soon after his overnight success with ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. The Pearl reveals how people in poverty struggled to stay alive, especially after the discrimination that Steinbeck witnessed against the Mexican people in the 1940s. This is a story that portrayed how greed can devour a man.

        Kino was a young pearl diver who led a simple life with his wife Juana and son Coyotito in La Paz. He loved his family and remained faithful to the traditions of his village and his people. One day, Coyotito was stung by a scorpion while sleeping on his bed. However, the mercenary town doctor refused to treat the baby because Kino could not pay the exorbitant treatment fees.  That day, Kino went diving and obtained a great pearl. Both Kino and Juana thought that their prayers were answered as they would be able pay the doctor to treat their son. News travelled quickly about the pearl and many people in the town plotted to steal the pearl from Kino. While the townspeople plotted against Kino, he dreamt of marrying Juana in a church, buying a rifle, and sending Coyotito to school so that he could learn to read. Kino believed that an education will free his son from the poverty and ignorance that have oppressed their people for more than four hundred years.

        The doctor came to treat Coyotito when he learnt of Kino's pearl, and even though Coyotito was already healed by Juana's remedy, the doctor took advantage of Kino's ignorance and convinced him that Coyotito would die without the care of a doctor. The doctor tried to con Kino into revealing the place he hid pearl. The doctor is an important character in The Pearl because he represents the colonial attitudes that oppressed Kino’s people for years. The doctor symbolizes the colonists’ greed and arrogance towards the natives. Like the other colonists, the doctor displayed no interest in Kino’s people. His warped values made him there simply only to make money out Kino. As a physician, the doctor is duty-bound to save lives, but when faced with someone whom he considered as status that is beneath him, the doctor felt no obligation at all. His unsympathetic refusal to treat Coyotito for the scorpion sting simply because Kino did not have the money to pay him exhibit the human costs of political conquest embedded in the desire for financial profit.

        Greed contaminates their once simple way of life. When Kino tried to sell the pearl in town for fifty thousand pesos the dealers only wished to pay one thousand for, the pearl buyers tried means to convince Kino that the great pearl he found was worthless because it was too large. Kino made the decision not to sell the pearl and intended to travel to another city to sell the pearl at a fair price. His brother, Tom Juan, felt Kino was foolish because it defied his usual way of life and placed his family in great danger.

        Juana warned Kino that the pearl was evil and would destroy the family, but he refused to throw it away because it was an opportunity to provide a different life for his family. That night, Juana tried to throw the pearl into the sea, but Kino managed to stop her in time and gave her a beating. From a simple and contented man, Kino became aggressive against people who showed interest in the pearl and the tragic break from the family he longed to support. The pearl finally led Kino into corruption, and he slit a man's throat who attempted to steal the pearl from him.

        Eventually, the price of the pearl was higher than anyone could imagine. It was paid in the price with the cold blood of Coyotito. While they were travelling to another town, Kino discovered trackers following them. He knew that they would steal the pearl and kill his family. Kino and Juana took the baby and hid in a cave at nightfall. Kino sneaked down in the night to kill the trackers but before he could attack them, Coyotito gave a loud cry. The trackers thought that it was a coyote and shot at the dark cave where Juana and Coyotito hid. As the shot was fired, Kino attacked the trackers and killed them all. Unfortunately, Coyotito was already killed by the first gunshot and Kino's journey with the pearl ended in a tragedy. Filled with redemption and sorrow, Kino and Juana decided to return home and get rid of the trouble source. They returned to La Paz and threw the pearl back to the ocean.

        Steinbeck has written a parable about how wealth and greed may deplete innocence and bring evil into our lives. With his expressive and beautiful writing style, he brought the story to life.

        In the beginning of the story, Kino is a simple man who is essentially contented with his lot in life. However, Coyotito’s scorpion sting and discovery of the great pearl opened Kino’s eyes to a larger world. The portrayal of Kino’s character is a gradual decline from a state of innocence to a state of corruption and delusion. The forces propelling this decline are desires and greed in human. In the story, Juana symbolizes wisdom and common sense. She supports Kino’s dreams and idealism but was vigilant and guarded against the pearl’s temptations. Juana was at first seduced by the luxury that the pearl will bring for them, but she recognized the pearl was a potential threat as Kino’s character changed and their family might be broken up because of it. Contrary to Kino, Juana believed that their lives would be better if they maintained things as they were. Kino could only see what they can gain from the pearl, but Juana understood they were on the losing end. Juana’s presence in the story capped Kino’s enthusiasm and serves as a warning to the readers that Kino’s desire to make money was dangerous. Kino’s brother represents the voice of reason and caution. He recognized the fact that they must not show too much ambition or else everything good will be torn from them. 

        In a story that is less than a hundred pages, Steinbeck managed to captivate the readers and empathized deeply with the characters. Readers are lured into turning the pages knowing that an impending disaster awaits Kino and his family as the pearl starts to devour Kino’s soul. The story is considered as a classic because it portrays ideas that are common to all people. In this world, everyone has greed and the desire to become wealthy. Steinbeck made use of simple music like the song of family, the song of evil, the song of the pearl to create a surreal story. The Pearl displayed an exploration of how good motives can bring a person to a bad end.

101-1 英文讀書心得徵文比賽第二名 : 應外三 江O涵 The Reader

A short but breathtaking story with inspiring and meaningful subjects: The Reader. Michael, a little boy haunted by illness, madly fell in love with Hanna, who was almost twice of his age. Not until Michael found out that Hanna loved him reading to her did their relationship deepened. Their love, passion, and desire bonded the secret affair. Reading, showering, and making love had become their meeting ritual. However, one day, Hanna left without any clues.

Next time when Michael saw Hanna, who was accused of murder, was in a court. The reunion was hard for both of them. For Hanna, she was about to be discovered a long-hidden truth: she was illiteracy. For Michael, he was pulled himself into a dilemma between different views of justice which determined whether he could save Hanna or not.

The book gave me the feeling that the relationship between one and the other was so volatile and vulnerable, but the opportunity to shorten and tense each relationship was in our hand. In the first glance, Michael and Hanna seemed to build up enough trust and dependence so that they never tried to intervene in or intended to gain the power to control each other’s private life. To a certain level, they were perfect match and the love was transcendent and impeccable. However, Hanna’s leaving changed everything. Originally, Hanna was a misanthropic woman because she was illiteracy, which caused a sense of inferiority to her. This negative self-image isolated her from the world, and finally made her an outsider in the society. Neither did she easily believe in people nor did she get enough security. As a result, she seldom told Michael her past, her family, even what she thought in mind because she was not familiar with trusting people. Once she gave people recognition, she would be so anxious that the person would betray her. That was the reason why she got so angry when she woke up but could not find Michael in the morning. The same thing can also be seen in Michael himself who experienced a difficult time to accept Hanna’s leaving. That healing process turned Michael into a defensive and sensitive person. He neither trusted Hanna nor himself anymore. When Hanna backed to his life, he supposed to be happy but it turned out to be retreated. On the one hand, he had not forgiven Hanna’s unsolicited leave and he was not sure whether Hanna still loved him or not. On the other hand, he was afraid of not being able to make Hanna happy so that Hanna would unhesitatingly leave him like the previous time. The confusion and uncertainty finally led Michael to the path of escaping form Hanna. Actually, the main reason that caused the tragedy was Hanna’s sense of inferiority. Because of illiteracy, she cannot receive higher education. Because of illiteracy, she can only find a job requiring no reading and writing skills. Because of illiteracy, she was unwilling to be labeled as lower class and be discriminated by the society. Therefore, with strong sense of inferiority, she regarded illiteracy as a shame. To protect her dignity, she would rather commit to a crime she was not supposed to be responsible for than tell the truth. Honestly, I admired Hanna’s courage to protect what she valued the most, dignity, but I did not agree the way she saw herself. I believed that discrimination is formed by both sides: Hanna and others. In other words, although other people probably despise Hanna, if she did not see herself that way, discrimination did not exist at all. We cannot control how people judge us, but we can decide the way we see ourselves.

  The story also raised another issue: justice. Hanna worked as a guard in the concentration camp, when WW ǁ finally came to an end, she was charged with murdering the Jews. Germans who did not join Nazi’s massacre blamed those who worked for Nazi of cruelty, lack of humanity, and even deserving imprisonment. Hanna, unfortunately, was the pathetic sacrifice after the war. Actually, the Jews, the victims, probably had the right to fight for justice from Nazi, but others did not. Ironically, the post-war German society was the opposite way. The minority could not speak out for themselves; instead, the main accusers of Nazi’s crime just were those Germans who were not the members of Nazi. However, did they entitle to blame others? In the critical time, how many of them had tried to stop the slaughter, how many of them had tried to save the Jews regardless of their own safety? If they acted like bystanders and did not try to offer help, what was the difference between them and the Nazi? What they both did was looking people dying without offering help. In other words, people who should be responsible for the tragedy were not only the Nazi, but also those who had the opportunities to do something yet chose not to. Justice is hard to define or strike a balance satisfying both sides. Be aware that when we criticize others, do we do the same thing as theirs?

        I learned two lessons from the book: First, the importance of learning to believe, to love, and to forgive. Instead of tormented by the past, we have to learn how to let go at the right time. Second, do not criticize people until you make sure that you are not responsible for the outcome. With the tangled but appealing plot, The Reader undoubtedly depicts human nature directly and realistically. The nature shared by all human beings when it comes to love and separation. It will be the book I would like to read all over again.

101-1 英文讀書心得徵文比賽第三名 : 應外三 張O誠 Before I Go to Sleep

        The author divided the whole novel into 3 parts: Today, Journal, and Today. At the beginning of this fiction, Christine woke up and knows nothing, including her name, identity, and all her own memory. The only thing she could pick up was that she was 20 or so, but actually she was almost 50 already. Then, she realized she was now sleeping with an unknown guy, who then claimed that he was Ben and her husband as well. Later, he told her about how they first met and their wedding. After handing Christine a scrapbook containing some so-called memory between him and her, he went out for work. With uncertainty, she browsed through the book. Later, a ringing sound filled the room. A man whose name was Dr. Nash called, claiming that he and Christine had been meeting about the disease for a couple of weeks. The most important thing he told her was that under the shoebox in the closet lay a journal that Christine had been keeping for weeks. The first part of this novel ended with an appalling sentence: Don’t trust Ben! Then part two of the novel began; in other words, the journal that Christine Lucas had been keeping will lead readers, and the memory-lost protagonist, onto the path to gradually discover the thrilling trauma of herself. In the last two parts of the novel, Christine gradually found out some inconsistencies between what Ben told her and what she discovered herself. Therefore, she decided to trust only herself, started a journal, and relied on her own way to discover the hidden world.

There are two main reasons for me to admire this book. First, I assumed the use of first person point of view was remarkable. As mentioned above, the second part of the novel is Christine’s daily journal. Just like reading our own journal, I read Christine’s and the images of the setting emerged as if I was experiencing the story written in words by myself. Simply because of this, when I was skimming through the journal, it seemed that I were Christine herself. It felt like that I was with Christine to feel happiness and sadness, to doubt what she heard, to explore the unknown past. Second, the novel also provided a penetrating insight to the anxiety and struggle of a sufferer from memory loss. For Christine, her own world was not managed by herself. However, it was built based on others’ statements. However, for everyday new Christine, those who claimed themselves as secret doctor, intimate friend, or even lovers are no more than strangers. It is undeniably difficult for her to trust all they said. She was like a drowning swimmer, while those who were still in touch with her are her only reliance. She thought of running away; tragically, she could not even do this because tomorrow she would wake up and remember nothing. The depiction of the frightened mood was not only outstanding but remarkable.

This novel began with a line from Parviz Owsia, “I was born tomorrow/ today I live/yesterday killed me.” This line, or poem, perfectly described the hardship that Christine suffered. For her, tomorrow was a brand-new life, for she could not remember anything. The life she could really handle was only today. The yesterday her was already killed as long as yesterday passed. This novel, as far as I am concerned, is a total success because its plot was well-organized and aroused readers impulse to keep turning the pages. In my opinion, the author simply figured out a brilliant theme of a novel. Christine, a mid-aged woman, still thought of herself as a young lady. The huge memory void successfully created conflict, which made this novel thrilling and exciting. Certainly, memory loss is one of the most cliché plots in soap operas. Yet, the use of first person point of view was brilliant enough to support the whole book. The depiction of fear and helplessness in this book was beyond description. A book of detailed depiction of humanity will be marvelous. This book is the one.

101-1 英文心得徵文比賽結果

非常感謝各位同學的參與這次徵文活動!
語言中心收到眾多投稿, 競爭也相當激烈!
首先感謝兩位評審老師的批改及支持 東吳大學馬健君教授
以及台中教育大學的廖美玲教授
評審老師也特別提到：
「前三名的作品寫的真好，讓人感動!
    藉著閱讀參賽者寫的文章，

    再一次體會書寫與閱讀是多麼的重要與可貴。

    書寫與閱讀，讓我們知道，我是誰。」

最後，恭喜以下三位同學
第一名: 財法四    施O輝
第二名: 應外三    江O涵
第三名: 應外三    張O誠

以上得獎同學將擇日頒發獎狀獎金 感謝各位同學的踴躍投稿!