I have always believed that reading more books and reading more good books is a very important and correct habit, because good literary works can allow us to better understand and understand the thoughts and emotions of people of different nationalities, different beliefs, different customs, and different personalities in various civilizations and cultural backgrounds, so that our emotions are more delicate, more sensitive, and easier to resonate with others, so that we can have a broader and deeper vision and thoughts, not limited to our own limited cognition, far away from narrowness and extremism, more rational, objective, Looking at people and things inclusively, we can see the essence of things more clearly, and we also have more humanistic feelings.
Recently, I read the famous British writer Forster's ** "Journey to India", and I felt a lot of emotion while covering the volume. This ** takes the British colony of India as the location of the story, and unfolds the story with the two irreconcilable contradictory groups of the British and the Indians as the humanistic background. It tells the story of two British ladies, Miss Quest and Mrs. Moore, who came to India from England and befriended the local Indian doctor, Aziz, and were invited to visit the Malabar Caves together. Unexpectedly, an undesirable event occurred in the cave that caused an uproar on both sides - Miss Quest was in a trance and thought she was being insulted and offended by Aziz in the echo of the chaotic and collapsing Malabar Cave. The British side tried to further strengthen its rule over India by trying Aziz in this matter, and the Indian side took various measures to express its dissatisfaction and resistance to the British side. And at this critical moment of saber rattling, Miss Quest suddenly lost the interference of the echo, regained her senses, bravely admitted her mistake, dropped the indictment against Aziz, and finally gave Aziz freedom and victory.
Although Miss Quest, Mrs. Moore, Aziz, and Fielding, who are fair, just, upright, kind-hearted, and pure in heart, who transcend ethnicity and creed, have always longed to break down the barriers between the two sides and achieve equality, warmth, and friendship, they have always backfired, and in the end they can only regret parting, but they can still make us feel the brilliance of their individual humanity.
Mrs. MooreKind, peaceful, and kind, she firmly followed her inner concept of equality and friendliness against Indians in response to the pride and prejudice of the British and her son against Indians, and spoke up fairly for Indians.
AzizAs a passionate Indian doctor, in addition to his Indian friends, he believed in and longed for friendship with the British, and acted actively and enthusiastically, and although he was misunderstood and judged for this, and although he was unwilling to believe in the friendship with the British, he still graciously forgave Miss Quest a large amount of compensation.
What I admire most is the justice, equality, integrity, kindness, bravery, and fearlessness that Mr. Fielding and Miss Quistead embody.
FieldingAs an Englishman who served as the president of a university in British India, he was enthusiastic, open-minded, unaffected by the world, freely and sincerely interacted with everyone, and when the Indian Aziz was detained and tried for a misunderstanding, he firmly believed in Aziz's character, ignored the British side's wooing, firmly supported Aziz, and took active action, mediated, and ran everywhere to rescue Aziz.
Miss QuestadTormented and misled by the echoes of the Malabar Cave, she hallucinates and leads to Aziz's imprisonment, and in the midst of all the bad comments and vengeful voices of the British around her, when Miss Questad realizes her mistake in her sober mind, she does not hesitate to offend both Britain and India at the same time, and bravely admits her mistake at the risk of bankruptcy.
It is incomplete to simply talk about individual emotions and thoughts, because we do not exist independently in this world, each of us is in a social environment and interpersonal relationships, and we also have our own social position, which affects our thoughts and cognition all the time, and the influence may be positive or negative (can also be understood as "echo"). When faced with negative impacts, it is easiest to go with the flow, but to break free from the shackles and fight against the world, injustice, misunderstanding, and even unforeseen consequences. But even so, there is still no lack of courage from the righteous people, bringing us light and hope.
And the "echo" in the book is also symbolic, it symbolizes the world that cannot be understood or refuses to understand, and I think it also symbolizes the influence of the surrounding environment on the self, in some cases, as the book says, "The original sound may be harmless, but the echo is ** and harmful." ”
Finally, I hope that everyone will not be affected by the "echo", insist on themselves, stick to their hearts, and remain pure and upright!