book review
Some man looked up to the moon and could not see a sixpence on the ground.
The moon and sixpence mainly talks about the contradiction between ideal and reality. The moon is ideal and the sixpence is reality.
Charles Strickland was an ordinary stock broker in London at first. He had a rich and happy family, a beautiful wife and two cute babies. But when is was the seventeenth year of their marriage, Strickland suddenly left home to Paris to pursue his dream of art. Finally, he was successful in his field of painting.
I think there are two major contradiction in this story. One is Strickland’s idealism and his wife’s realism. Strickland’s wife was a peacockish woman. She could not understand why her husband can abandon all his wealth and family and other enviable things to pursue that so-called dream of art. As a result, so long time she believed that her husband had an affair with a woman in Paris. But when she found it not she was hateful to Strickland and determined to support the family through a successful career. She was absolutely a qualified mother and wife to take care of her children and husband. To a certain degree, she was a poor woman. On the contrary, Strickland was totally an awful father and husband. His wife, children and job were the sixpence held in his hand. But he never looked down on his hand and the sixpence in his hand. One day if he could not control his ardor for his dream of art, he would loose the sixpence and let it drop on the ground without looking down to pursue the moon. It is no wonder his wife and children would hate him. But on the other way, he was successful in his painting career and became a really outstanding artist in the world with great reputation and excellent masterpieces.
The other is personal dream and responsibility. Strickland had his wife and children, as a husband and a father, he should bear his responsibility to protect and support his families. Maybe he thought it a responsible behavior that he left all the money he had to her wife and children. But actually what his wife and children really want was not just money but the happiness of the united family. But it could never be true once he left for his dream as he was so crazy about it. But in his personal perspective, to pursue the ideal of painting that dreamed so long was pressing and attractive. It is fortunate that Strickland successfully make his ideal come true, or he would be a ridiculous failure, abandoning family and wealth.
To draw a conclusion, it is allowable that one man has a crazy dream and spends money, time and energy on it. Especially when you are in your teens when it is time for excitement and righteous ardor, go ahead to your dream without looking back. If you have your own responsibility, keep a balance between your responsibility of reality and your ideal.
Not everyone is Charles Strickland. He can pursue his dream and make it come true. His family left behind can lead a good life. He is absolutely a talent or even a madman. But in fact, most of us are ordinary people. It is self-willed for us to do this like Charles Strickland. But we must praise his bravery, ardor and talent.
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