Maugham, the author of "The Moon and Sixpence", uses "I", the memory of a writer, to tell the story of his first acquaintance, interaction, curiosity and pursuit with Strickland. The language narrates and watches, and as a reader, you gradually enter into his narration, and your mood constantly changes with the fate of the protagonist.

The Moon and Sixpence After Reading

A man sat in front of the window and read Somerset Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence". When dusk came, I also read the last page.

Putting down the book, the image of the painter was still lingering in my mind. You may not remember his name, but you remember his paranoid personality, miserable fate, extraordinary talent, and the last moment of his life.

Yes, "The Moon and Sixpence" is about the fate of a painter, or the life of a genius.

This genius’s name is Charles Strickland. It is said that this character has a prototype, which is the famous French post-impressionist painter Gauguin. But this book is not a biography like "The Life of Van Gogh", but a fictional novel based on a real person. The book does not narrate the male protagonist's experiences as a teenager and young man, but directly enters his middle age.

Strickland originally had a decent job as a securities broker and a family that looked very stable to outsiders. He looks ordinary, even clumsy, giving the impression of "a loyal, honest, boring ordinary person." Suddenly one day he ran away from home, and the reason turned out to be "I want to paint"! No one understood his inner dream when he was a boy, let alone his obsessive madness. He desperately wanted to write an unknown destiny with his brush!

Poverty, hunger, nowhere to stay, illness and torture, and real embarrassment followed one after another, but he didn't care and never regretted it. Painting became all the passion and strength in his life. He was eager to create beauty until he lost his eyesight. He also used oil paint to paint on the walls of the cabin in the jungle.

In the end, he got what he was pursuing, and he created a world.

Artists are the most emotional. Although Strickland’s emotions are dedicated to painting, there is no shortage of women in his life who like him. He experienced three women in the second half of his life: his wife in ordinary life, Blanche, the wife of his friend Stroeve, and Aita, a simple woman he met after he stopped wandering. He and his wife are an ordinary couple in reality, living a seemingly inseparable life and not understanding each other. After reading, I felt that there was an instant spark between him and Blanche. Blanche was originally Stroeve's wife and had an inner secret. When Stroeve took the seriously ill Strickland home to take care of her, her emotions changed from disgust and fear to strong love. , but what the painter loved and was obsessed with was the art of painting, and he was no longer interested in her. Stroeve was still willing to accept her, but only she understood a woman's heart. In the end, she ended her life by committing suicide. When Strickland wandered to Tahiti, he was introduced to Aita. Perhaps it was Aita's simplicity that attracted Strickland. Perhaps he was lonely and longed for warmth. He and Aita met him. Ta came to an uninhabited island, lived together and had children. It was a difficult but peaceful life. Perhaps it was the divine radiance that inspired Strickland to create his greatest work during this period. Perhaps, this talented painter came to this world not to love women, but to create paintings that will last forever.

Although Strickland’s talent was not recognized until his death and the value of his works immediately doubled, his talent was not unappreciated at the beginning. As a painter, Stroeve was ridiculed by Strickland as a painter, but he saw Strickland's genius. Although he was not rich, he willingly gave it to Strickland. He provided help with food and accommodation, buying paints, etc., and even accommodated the other party when he took over his studio and took away his wife. This plot of the story takes up about one-third of the whole book, allowing readers to realize the selfish and ruthless side of the painter's character.

If there is a reason for genius to be self-centered and to have no one in his eyes, then Stroeve's silent suffering and selfless care for Strickland are also touching. Maybe he is someone sent by God to take care of the painter.

Suffering creates genius, and art is indeed "a life without madness". Genius is arranged by God into the world. He strives for his mission. His selfishness, his quirks, and even his ruthlessness should be treated with compassion and love by the world, because he gave his talent and life to the world.

The "Moon and Sixpence" as the title of the book is a metaphor for ideal and reality, or spirit and material. The author Maugham said, if you are busy looking for the six pennies on the ground, you will not look up at the sky and miss the moon. We cannot use ordinary people's standards to evaluate people with personality, and spiritual pursuits cannot be measured by material standards. People who pursue spiritual excellence are worthy of our respect.

Thoughts after reading The Moon and Sixpence

More than a hundred years ago, the British poet Oscar Wilde wrote this sentence: "I don't want to make a living, I want to live." I think this is simply okay. Use it to summarize the novel "The Moon and Sixpence".

Strickland, a securities broker with a happy family and a successful career, suddenly abandoned everything when he was in his late teens and went from London to Paris without giving any reason. Later people learned that he went there to paint, and as a result he became impoverished and suffered a lot in Paris. A kind-hearted painter appreciated him, sympathized with him, and took him to his home to recuperate. However, he repaid the favor by "seducing" the painter's wife and causing her to commit suicide. He is very cruel to his family, friends, and lovers who love him wholeheartedly, and he is dismissive of all worldly concepts. He only has an instinctive and unstoppable desire to pursue art. Finally, he got tired of the civilized world, came to Tahiti in the South Pacific, isolated himself from the world, married a wife and had children, and finally created an immortal work in the history of art. But after he got terminally ill, he told his indigenous wife to burn these great paintings. For the rest of his life, he lived for painting itself. Only the process of painting fascinated him. As for the value of the painting and how much praise it received, he didn't care.

This is the whole story. "There were six pennies all over the ground, but he looked up and saw the moon." This symbolic sentence is very emotional. "Sixpence" represents worldly interests, and "moon" is a seemingly unattainable dream.

After reading the whole book, although I can’t fully understand the protagonist’s ideals, I really appreciate his extreme state of pursuing his dreams. Although many of the protagonist's actions are inconsistent with secular morality, his original intention made me quite heartbroken. This is the so-called "the ancestors are of high quality, although they cannot reach it, the heart yearns for it"!

From Strickland, I think of more "god-like" figures! 2500 years ago In ancient India, the little prince Gautama Siddhartha enjoyed all the wealth and honors in the world since he was a child. However, after seeing the suffering of life, old age, illness and death, he decided to give up his throne and family and seek liberation for the people. After 16 years of hard work, he finally realized the truth and achieved enlightenment? This is the Buddha Sakyamuni.

More than half a century ago in the Republic of China, there was a man named Li Shutong who was in troubled times and made a decisive decision at the age of 39. Abandoning the life of a rich family, escaping into Buddhism, saving oneself and others, and living out a willful mind and an independent character? This is the dazzling legend of a generation of eminent monks, "Master Hongyi".

"A man is a deposed king, otherwise he would not be sad for losing his throne." Borrowing this famous saying from Pascal, we can regard the spiritual history of these strange people as a The history of the struggle to restore a lost throne. Whether it is Gauguin, the prototype character in the novel, or Buddha or eminent monks, their determination is like that of a strong man who cuts off his wrist and chooses to be loyal to his dreams, like a true warrior who challenges all misfortunes.

However, for most people, dreams never come true, but always fail. The United Kingdom at the beginning of the twentieth century was an era of rapid economic growth and industrialization in full swing.

After reading, I feel that the characteristics of the era are reflected in people, that is, money is supreme and materialism is rampant. This is very much like China today. Nowadays, how many young people are willing to give up their high-paying careers and stable status to find illusory dreams? How many people’s dreams are not a million-dollar annual salary and a BMW car? Everyone is looking down for the "sixpence" on the ground and looking up to admire the moon. It's so fresh!

I think this is a matter of choice. It doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong, but there is indeed nobility and mediocrity. How to choose still depends on the goals we pursue, our outlook on life, and our values. Those who deviate from the norm and pursue the "moon" are not necessarily madmen, they may also be gods; those who follow the rules and give up for five buckets of rice may not necessarily be happy, they may also be depressed; glory, wealth, success and fame should not be the only definition of success; do what you want Doing things that bring peace of mind is not entirely an excuse for irresponsibility!

Life is short, you still have to go back to your heart and question your soul. Whether it’s life or making a living, just make your own choice and have no regrets!

Thoughts after reading The Moon and Sixpence

After reading the last page of "The Moon and Sixpence", The first thing that came to my mind was this sentence. It's as if this sentence was already there, just waiting for this book to call it out.

Of course, it depends on whether you really love the moon or sixpence.

The moon represents the lofty ideals in the heart, while sixpence represents money, status, and things that the world values.

The protagonist of this book, Strickland, is a man who gave up sixpence for the moon in his heart. It is not appropriate to say this, because he did not weigh it, and the moon in his heart became all he pursued.

From a middle-class stockbroker, to an ordinary burly middle-aged man, the father of a pair of children, to the husband of a woman who enjoys socializing, he suddenly escaped from everything he had. London moved to Paris, and then to Tahiti, and finally found the true meaning he was pursuing on the picturesque island. Near the end of his life, he painted his feelings in the cabin where he lived, and then used the remaining He spent the rest of his life understanding his paintings, and before he died, he asked his wife to burn the hut to the ground, leaving only some of his usual paintings for the world to marvel at. He was peaceful before his death. It was precisely because he chased the moon in his heart that his limited life became full of meaning.

To the world, he is an ordinary person with an unattractive appearance, harsh words and no roundness at all, just like a "square plug in a round hole." He seemed out of place in the world around him. Regarding the pursuit of painting art, he does not pursue appreciation, but follows his own heart and pursues truly valuable art.

For him, painting is something that must be done without any reason. “Some people were not born in the right place? They always treat their relatives and friends as strangers, and have no regard for the environment they have only seen in their lives. Emotionless, perhaps it is this sense of alienation that drives them to fly far away to find something eternal, a land that they can be attached to." This land also applies to the spiritual realm. This kind of pursuit is a guide in the dark, like the only light beam in the tunnel, which makes people have to get closer.

As a result, I do odd jobs just to paint. After I earn enough money for a period of time, I start painting.

An example in the book is a good analogy. There are two doctors. One is particularly outstanding and was selected as the management of the hospital at a young age. However, due to an accidental trip, he fell in love with He worked as an ordinary local inspector, and a slightly inferior doctor took his place, gaining both fame and fortune. When the latter judged the former for ruining himself, the author conducted a soul torture: "Is it possible to ruin yourself by doing what you want to do most, living in a comfortable environment, and having inner peace? Is it possible to ruin yourself by becoming a man with an annual income of tens of thousands of pounds? Surgeon, is it considered a success to have a beautiful family? I think it depends on how you view the meaning of life, what contribution you think you should make to society, and what requirements you should have for yourself.

”

It depends on how you define peace.

It reminds me of a sentence in the movie "The Pianist", where is a person's limit? How much space does he need?

It is already 2018, and in one month it will be 2019, the 100th anniversary of the writing of The Moon and Sixpence. This kind of spiritual torture is still not out of date; not only is it not out of date, it is more profound. The world faced by modern people is superimposing at a faster speed, becoming more diverse and complex. The answers and questions about how to pursue the inner moon are buried in the ordinary bustle, making people involuntarily drift with the flow.

People can often see what everyone likes, but often forget what they really love.

Lights hide the stars, and haze blocks the moonlight.

Diversity is easily accessible, but setting boundaries is a problem.

People are keen to form a unified concept and then use this concept to comment on others, and there is little tolerance for those who "do not fit in". In this trend, we not only forget the way we came from, but also forget that everyone can have their own unique dreams.

Forgot to pursue the moonlight. Just stay close to the wilderness.

In this noisy world, if you calm down, you might as well think about what the real moon is to you, and whether you can go through fire and water for it. If not, please Don't use your own sixpence to measure other people's moon. However, in today's society, if you are lucky enough to find your own moon, then follow it, because in this materially rich world, there is no shortage of sixpence, but the lack of seeking things. The essential heart is infinitely close to the essence, and along with it, there is often sixpence. In the process, you will also gain inner peace, because there is no beauty that is infinitely close to the essence of things.

Thoughts after reading The Moon and Sixpence

You must have a friend like this: working in a bank, average-looking, doing a decent job, having a wife and children, working diligently to support the family, not fond of talking, but if he speaks , and most of what he says is boring? In short, his image is very plain, and he is an inconspicuous person in any social situation. In fact, you must have more than one such friend. In fact, you may be such a person.

Can you imagine that this friend suddenly ran away from home one day? Then when you heard about him again, it was said that he had arrived in Paris and was learning to paint from scratch to become a painter.

It’s hard for you to imagine, looking around at all the friends with the above characteristics, I can’t either. But Maugham wrote about such a person. His name was Charles. Okay” note, he left his 2019 wife and two children and went to Paris. At that time, he was 40 years old, living in the shabbiest hotel in Paris, and only had 100 yuan on him.

However, this is not an inspirational story of how a dream chaser went through hardships and achieved glory. If this is a story like this, the male protagonist should be in his early 20s, handsome and unrestrained. In the book, he meets the beautiful daughter of a rich man. Of course, he will also meet a villain who is jealous of his talent, and the villain will inevitably follow him. Fighting for the young lady, but justice will surely defeat evil, the hero becomes a tycoon, and the lovers eventually get married.

"The Moon and Sixpence" is not such a story. What kind of story is it? The whole world is chasing dreams, but Charles is chasing his bad luck. Well, the two things are not that different. People who are captured by their dreams are chasing their own bad luck. Of course, the dream mentioned here is a real dream, not the blueprint mentioned in "Mom and Dad Said", "Teacher Said" and "TV Newspaper Said", it is not the gold collar on top of blue collar and white collar, it is not the hunter giving sparrows The little grain of rice in the trap he set.

Charles moved quickly, catching up with his bad luck as he wished.

Five years later, he was poor and sick in Paris, lying dying in a small attic. If his friends hadn't saved him, he would have almost died. Later, he ended up on the streets and became a dockworker. A few years later, he self-exiled to a small island in the Pacific. He suffered from leprosy and became blind. Before he died, he ordered his masterpiece to be burned. In 2019, this London stock trader galloped across cities, civilization, the middle class, the Pacific, and human nature, and finally caught up with the fierce horse of destiny.

"He lives at another level". There is a line in the movie "Big Night" that Charles reminded me of. Other people's lives are constantly adding, but he is doing subtraction. Every human identity is a kind of self-kidnapping, and only loss is the way to freedom. So Charles refused to be "husband", "father", "friend", "colleague", "British". He threw off each identity one by one, just like taking off layers of clothes. Finally, he lifted his feet and stepped into the world naked. Go into the ice cave called by your heart. The "I" in the novel asked him: "Don't you love your children?" He said: "I have no special feelings for them"; "I" asked him again: "Don't you even need love?" ", he said: "Love will only interfere with my painting." Others may sympathize with his poverty, but when he picked up his paintbrush, he felt like a king.

Of course such people are hateful. He only has eyes for himself and no one else. He is selfish, has no sense of responsibility, and disdains any relationship with "society". But he is very innocent, because not only does he not see anyone else in his eyes, he doesn't even see himself. He didn't choose his dream, he was struck by it. In his own words, "I have to paint like a drowning man who has to struggle." If there is any difference between him and others, it is that he obeys fate more than others. How coquettish and sharp the dream is, people are running around in panic, fleeing to fame, fortune, or the resentment of seeking fame and fortune but not getting it. But Charles refused to be the "people" within the "people." There were sixpences all over the ground, but he looked up and saw the moon.

After reading this book, my mind was fixed on Charles’s last days. Deep in the jungle of an isolated Pacific island, in a simple mud house, the old man who was disfigured by leprosy sat in the wall-to-wall murals he painted, listening to the waves of color? Yes, he was blind at that time and could only listen Color, gold is treble, black is bass, white is breeze, red is scream. I admit that this situation cannot arouse the slightest pity in me, because in my heart there is only awe? horror and awe. I think this is the legendary tranquility. I think this is the legendary victory. Although I don’t believe in God, I think this is the scene where people should make the sign of a cross on their chest and say “Amen”.

Thoughts after reading The Moon and Sixpence

I like to buy books, I like to buy interesting books, and I like books with nice titles. This book "The Moon and Sixpence" was my favorite at first sight. I had heard of Maugham's name for a long time, but had never read it. I just happened to see a hardcover edition published by Translation Publishing House. The cover was quite unique. But the biggest reason why I actually bought it was the name.

The moon and sixpence, a dramatic sense of conflict, typical British humor, people are always chasing the bright moonlight, praising it, loving it, but always ignoring the dim light , that sixpence. Contradictory opposition, a metaphor for childlike innocence.

In the opening chapter, Maugham wrote a biography of the protagonist Charles, listing his famous paintings and praising him with all his praises. I couldn’t help but find it funny. After reading the biographies of Van Gogh and others, I actually I want to see what makes this novel, said to be based on Gauguin's life, unique.

Grog, the story starts from one scene and goes back a thousand times, leaving you sighing and sighing. A typical British gentleman did the most un-British thing. He abandoned his wife and children, gave up his stable job and harmonious family, and came to France alone just to paint.

For this reason, he wandered about life and death in the hospital bed; for this reason, he could hardly eat a full meal; for this reason, he traveled from London to Paris, from Paris to Marseille, and finally exiled himself to a world away from the world. Isolated Pacific island.

As mentioned in the book, he is very much like a lifelong pilgrim, constantly looking for a temple that may not exist at all, not knowing what incredible nirvana he is seeking. Just like all the artists who were poor before their time and became famous after their death, their experiences seemed to be the same, yet so different.

He is surrounded by many contradictory and typical people. The wife who cleverly used Charles' escape as a gimmick and eventually gained both fame and fortune; the friend who regarded Charles as a genius and even gave up her hatred of him for indirectly causing his wife's death; the captain who had his own secrets but communicated with each other calmly.

He himself is full of contradictions but it is so natural.

He seems to hate love, but in the end he is dependent on an African woman, Aita, for life and death; he never feels any gratitude for other people's help and praise, but he can give away the paintings he loves at will; he uses his blind eyes to He created perhaps the greatest Garden of Eden in the world, but it was eventually burned down together with him who was seriously ill.

The length of life is so insignificant compared to the timelessness of art. He is not an eloquent person, but he pours all his passion and concentration onto the canvas. , using the simplest lines and original brushstrokes to describe the world in his dreams. He never looked back at the path he had taken, and he didn't even want to turn over the finished painting. For him, turning this page means turning it over, and there is no regret or need for regret.

Since it is the call of the soul, it must be your own love.

How many people indulge in comfort and kill the bud of the soul? How many people can face it? Even in the face of his own desires that he is ashamed to express, he admits them decisively and calmly. Such an immortal genius passed away in troubled times, but what he left behind was a pure stream.

On that day, I closed my eyes in the fragrant mist of the Sutra Hall. In that month, I turned all the prayer wheels. In that year, I kowtowed on the mountain road. In that life, I turned around the mountains and rivers. pagoda. Tsangyang Gyatso was so pious for a woman he had only met once.

What about Charles? What kind of enthusiasm and what kind of guidance led him to embark on this path in the impetuous social circle? It has never stopped since then?

Maybe But the moonlight was just right that day, and I had a sixpence in my pocket.

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