Siddhartha - 晉羚莉

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

The novel is based on a historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived 25 centuries ago in northern India. He was born into wealth and privilege, but chose to relinquish the luxurious palace life and seek enlightenment. Buddhism is both a philosophical and religious teaching in India. In the novel, by Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha is known as the “Illustrious One.” He is a well-known enlightener that all people admired. His countenance is fulfilled with intellectual knowledge of wisdom and his inner self is possessed with invulnerable peace.

Siddhartha was a young priestly caste fellow with high vocation and status. He was enclosed with features of intellects, fervent thoughts, and strong wills in his beliefs of karma and the Four Noble Truth in Buddhism. In the novel, Siddhartha is described as ‘strong, handsome man with lofty brow and king like eyes.’ The author uses the adjective modifiers to describe his high standard of status and reputation in people’s eyes. However, with his entire well being, Siddhartha is not pleased with the worldly life he owns. He thirsts for more knowledge of wisdom to improve his maturity. He wants to be enlightened with the teaching of wisdoms from Buddhism. There are a variety of wealthy and high status people in a society, often times, they feel that money does not own everything in this world such as health and love. This is when people start to believe in religion and want to find the true meaning of existence in life.

Siddhartha’s dissatisfied life is full of restlessness; he does not feel valued for his existence in the world, so his soul wonders for true meaning of reality. The “seeds of discontent” lies in his inner soul. Thus, he wishes to start a self-denial journey to search for his innermost beliefs. The usage of figurative language as in a metaphoric content is applied when Siddhartha’s “seeds to discontent” is compared to his unsatisfying prosperous life. I believe the “seeds of discontent” directly links to the materialistic society, in which the discontentment is the feeling of insecurity and loneliness of people. Meanwhile, as their desires of greed are built up, they start to shop for goods such as bags, clothing, luxurious car, jewelries, and etc in order to fulfill and mend our holes of insecurity. In order to escape from the money-oriented world, some people may choose to meditate and join religious practices to help them understand the real purposes of being in this world.

In the novel, Siddhartha’s insatiable thirst for knowledge has led him to join the ascetics. Siddhartha discovers that ‘the world tasted bitter, life was pain,’ in which his only way to alleviate pain is to become ‘empty.’ Siddhartha wants to ‘let the self die’ in order to experience purity. Both ‘empty’ and ‘let the self die’ imply Siddhartha’s wish for absence of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure, and sorrow. By taking the path of self-denial, the mind will be appeased. Agonies will be absent when Siddhartha reaches the Nirvana. Many Buddhism practices in modern days such as mindfulness meditation has allowed us to free from all desires, wishes, and pleasures. It is a palliative way to release pain, agony and suffering in life. Other religious practices like community services projects have helped us realize how fortunate we are. By looking at an abundance of unfortunate people in this world, we learn to cherish and appreciate things and people around us. Being able to give is not what everyone can do; therefore we should feel good about having the chance to help.

When the soul and the religion overlap with each other, the inner self can experience values for life. “Your soul is the whole world,” it is vital quote that signifies the importance of connection between our internality and the world. The author creates this spiritual effect of the soul to encourage Siddhartha to be enlightened and make influences to the world. Once the soul and the self has reach Nirvana with absence of worries and sufferings, Siddhartha will be able to realize that the social issues like poverty and disasters are caused by the desires’ from every individual in the community. If we can reduce our desires, we can prevent countless social issues and natural disasters.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - 紀佳妤

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Introduction:

Berlin 1942
When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.
But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
(sources: official website)

I was wondering how a story about the boy in the striped pyjamas can be when I first saw this book. It sounds like a children book but its cover, with only three plain colors which are far from bright, seems to convey the idea that it’s not going to end up happily ever after. It was not until I finished the reading did I realize it is about a serious topic.

The striped pyjamas in this book are symbolic of criminals who did nothing wrong but just were born to be. Those criminals are the Jew. Shmuel, nine-year-old, is one of those in the striped pyjamas. He was found by Bruno, who was on his exploring journey around his new home ‘Out-With.’ Bruno’s father, a general, was promoted to be in charge of the concentration camp and that’s why Bruno’s family moved to near the camp and why Bruno would ever have a chance to meet Shmuel. With an electric fence which emblems a barrier between two ethnic groups in between, the two little boys became good friends, though. Bruno, a Christian, and Shmuel, a Jew, treat each other with true heart and pure spirit, which is the very part that brings about the most conflicting point.

When Bruno put on the striped pyjamas and crept through the small hole under the fence for the purpose of seeking Shmuel’s missing father, he became a member of the concentration camp unexpectedly. Bruno’s sincerity toward his best friend is somehow a gradual process to death. The identity of Bruno, in essence, didn’t shift, but in the striped pyjamas Bruno is no longer a german general’s son but an innocent victim under the prevailing racism at that time as the same case in which Shmuel was turned into a criminal from a guiltless Polish little boy.

I felt an excruciatingly pain when I read the last paragraph of chapter nineteen: ...Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel’s hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go. My eyes were flooded with tears since I was touched deeply within, especially when I saw the movie adapted from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Bruno and Shmuel held hands tightly and in their hands were faith in each other. It’s certainly a sorrowful image that in the dark were two pairs of eyes of naivete and fearlessness and the next second two little boys vanished from this world along with numerous lives. Simultaneously the horrifying, brutal and atrocious execution was gnawing away my conscience. I felt guilty for what germans did in the duration of world war. However, Bruto’s father, a blind patriot, is another kind of victim of the time. A father himself caused the death of his son, which is absolutely of great agony for a parent.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a powerful story but is simply told. It’s strange that while the sentences are seemingly effortless, it’s difficult to read. Still, I’d like to recommend this book to everyone. It’s even far more sarcastic to look at the event that happened back in the period of world war two through children’s pure eyes.

英文讀書心得徵文比賽結果

恭喜以下同學獲獎!

特優 應外一 紀佳妤 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (獎金2000元)
優等 應外一 晉羚莉 Siddhartha (獎金1500元)
佳作 1. 應外一 林鈺鈴 Perfume, the story of a muderer (獎金1000元)
2. 歷史二 邱信翰 The End of Ancient Christianity (獎金1000元)

語言中心將於二月開學後第一場導讀會進行頒獎!

[教卓] 英文著作導讀會!

Frankenstein
科學怪人

恐怖科幻小說始祖-Mary Shelley
帶領大家進入“科學怪人”的內心世界

12/9(三) 下午1:10

東吳大學英文系 馬健君教授

地點: 文4F18 English Corner

導讀會&徵文專屬BLOG: http://lc-guide.blogspot.com/
有任何問題&報名，歡迎洽詢語言中心 02-26748189轉66477~66481(人文大樓307教室) or來信s49682033@webmail.ntpu.edu.tw

英文讀書心得徵文比賽事項

批改辦法

1. 內容 40%
2. 結構 25%
3. 文法 25%
4. 修辭 10%

評分老師

應外系

左偉芳老師
翁素涵老師

比賽結果將於12/25(五)批改完畢後擇期公布於BLOG、各大首頁以及語言中心外公佈欄

特優：2000元 (一名)
優等：1500元 (一名)
佳作：1000元 (兩名)

#注意: 因無限制投稿篇數，所以若有一人同時得超過一個以上獎項時，即以最高獎項為主，不得重複。得獎者將經由投稿時使用的Email進行通知，並在下一場導讀會進行頒獎!

原10月21日英文著作導讀會暨第一次英文讀書報告競賽頒獎儀式延至11月4日

原訂98年10月21日英文著作導讀會延至

98年11月4日11/4(三)下午1:10

師大英語系 莊坤良教授

James Joyce's Dubliners

地點：English Corner

名額：20名

第一次英文讀書報告競賽頒獎儀式，擬於11月4日導讀會後進行，敬請授獎同學出席。

有任何問題&報名，歡迎洽詢語言中心 02-26748189轉66477~66481(人文大樓307教室)or來信s49682033@webmail.ntpu.edu.tw

本活動專屬部落格：http://lc-guide.blogspot.com/

10/7 導讀資料

10/7導讀會老師要講的劇本(Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest)

請自行預習~ 謝謝!

ftp://opensource.nchc.org.tw/gutenberg/8/4/844/844-h/844-h.htm