Maugham
The Moon and Sixpence, the masterpiece of the famous British writer Mao Mu, has nothing to do with these two things at first glance, so it is hard to think of the author's intention to put forward such a proposition. The moon and sixpence are metaphors of ideal and reality respectively. The moon symbolizes a lofty and unreachable ideal. Sixpence is the cheapest monetary unit in Britain, symbolizing real money and the most ordinary life. The protagonist strickland is an inaccessible, perverse and incredible securities broker. He leads an ordinary life with his wife and two children. Even in the eyes of many people, they are well-fed and well-off. My wife grew up in a high-ranking Kochi family and met a group of rich women who were equal to her. She is virtuous, loyal and smooth, and can always help her husband out of an embarrassing situation skillfully. She loves Strickland deeply, but she doesn't want her marriage to fail in the end. Strickland resolutely abandoned his wife and children and disappeared quietly and without warning into many people's speculation. Some people insist that he cheated a beautiful young tea girl and abandoned his wife for love. But the real reason is that he went far away to find his own moon in order to realize his ideal. He went to a desert island to paint. The end result is poverty, disease and death. But he created world-famous works of art.
Strickland is very headstrong. He refuses all possibilities in life. He gave up everything for painting and art. But his spiritual world has always been full and full of passion. He was extreme in character, made bad friends with many people, and finally fell to the point where no one paid attention to him. But he was happy from beginning to end. He regards painting as his ideal and art as his life. He did what many people didn't want to do-chasing his dreams desperately, even at the cost of his life.
Before, I didn't quite understand the people who shouted the slogan "The world is so big, I want to see it" in real life, and I once despised the "work" of such people. But after reading Mao Mu's The Moon and Sixpence, some people understand the influence of ideals on a person and why some people are willing to give up everything and go away to realize their dreams. That is the ultimate effort a person makes to realize his own value in his life. They are like pilgrims trekking all their lives, willing to be insulated from the secular world in order to reach the pure land in their hearts. People here are actually hard to find in life, or we are hard to meet. Because everyone's life is under great pressure, the purpose of running around all day is to earn tens of thousands of "sixpence" As for the "moon" on the head, there may not even be a chance to look up.
Every day, we meet more and more people who compromise to survive. What I heard was that the employees of any enterprise died of overwork; Or someone's friend got drunk in the bar because he didn't complete KPI; After 90, nurses worked overtime to earn milk powder money for their children in order to create better learning conditions for them. But who among these ordinary people has not promised to realize their ideals? Once upon a time, these people all had the purest "moon", dazzling and bright. Finally, in the years, everyone gave the moon to the sky and bowed their heads day and night to pick up the "sixpence" on the ground. The pressure of life, the helplessness of reality, is like a whip, beating people. When the physical pain has not been solved, how can we have the strength to pay attention to the spiritual poverty?
Far from despising Strickland, I am more jealous of him, jealous of his chic, jealous of his stubbornness, jealous of his courage not to face reality. I also envy him, envy his calmness, envy his rare purity and extreme persistence in pursuing his ideals. If most people can reach the state of strickland, then we are in a real utopian society. Unfortunately, there is no if, or the reality does not allow if.
Since most of us can't be Strickland, we can't reach the moon overhead. Then settle for the second best and try to be like his wife. Although he leads an ordinary life all day, he will never be short of sixpence at least all his life.