To Be A Real Princess

“Whatever comes, you are a princess, a princess, a real princess. Nothing can change this fact.”

She used to be a really blessed girl. It seemed that the gold gave her too much: devoted father, wealth and cosy life, beautiful looking, excellent ability to study, good memories and so on. But the gold also played a joke on her. He abruptly changed all the things. The little girl had to face all the tragic by herself, she couldn’t cry, and she didn’t cry. She never gave up, she always tried hard to be a real princess, whether in her behaviors or in her soul. She is Sara, the real princess—Sara.

The book “A little princess” is one of my favorite books, I find that the elapse of time didn’t decrease my love for it, in opposite, I can always get new ideas in different times in my life. I’d like to separate this report into several parts, they are as follows:

The story between this book and me

I remember when I first read this book, I was 9 years old, my Chinese teacher told us to read as much books as we could. I went to the bookstore and found that book, at that time I was addicted to being a princess, like Sara, I pretended to be a girl with frown. Before reading the book, I just thought that a princess was a girl who could enjoy comfortable life and had various kinds of beautiful things. However, this book changed all my opinions. Child as I was, I began to realize that the most important thing as a princess is the brave, kind and noble heart.

Nine years later, I approached to this book again. This time I read the original English. To be honest, I ddi find many differences between the original English and the translation, not the content of the text, but the spiritual power that the author wants to convey to us. While reading the original English, I can easily feel the determination and the inspiration between the lines. Sometimes I felt I was having a talk with that little princess through the distant time and space, and I could even feel the dignity in her soul.

The introduction of the author

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924)

She was an American-English novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels: Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).

Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, England.

After her father died in 1852, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 immigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. There Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. The first of her novels (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.

The structure and the main body of the book

This is a beloved story of a little girl. Sara Crewe was a unusual girl, she lived with her handsome and wealthy father in India, her mother passed away after giving birth to her. When Sara was seven years old, her father sent her to British because she could receive a better education there. She studied in Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary For Young Ladies, and enjoyed the best treat and a really comfortable life. She really loved reading books and did well in her lessons. She was fond of “pretending” and always pretended to be a princess. She made friends with Ermengarde St. John and Lottie Legh, together with lots of other students. But there were some students who were jealous of her, one of them was Lavinia Herbert. Sara also set a good relationship with a servant named Becky, she treated Becky equally and kindly. However, tragic happened when she was nine years old. Her father Captain Palph Crewe invested a mine with his friend, at first it was a big success, but then he went bankrupt, what’s more, he died because of severe disease, left no money to poor Sara. Knowing that, Miss Minchin began to treat Sara badly, she transferred Sara into a servant, gave her the worst clothes and forced her to live in an attic. But these trials didn’t defeated Sara, she still limited her behaviors in all aspects and insisted on being a princess. Gold blessed her, the friend of her father—Mr. Carrisford , who recovered the diamond mine and enriched it finally found Sara, and at last Sara was able to live a more wealthy and comfortable life, like a princess.

The most important thing of the story is that whatever happened, Sara believed she was a princess forever, even in rags and tatters, she tried hard to be a princess inside, her behaviors were always perfect，she insisted on restricting herself as a princess in all conditions.

Some good sentences from the book

1.“Whatever comes, cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.”

2.”She was thinking of the day when she had been told she belonged to nobody, and was in danger of being turned into the street; she was thinking of the cold, hungry hours she had spent alone with Emily and Melchisedec in the attic.”

3.” I promised him I would bear it, and I will. You have to bear things. Think what soldiers bear! Papa is a soldier. If there was a war he would have to bear marching and thirstiness and, perhaps, deep wounds. And he would never say a word-not one word.”

4.”She went to heaven. But I am sure she comes out sometimes to see me—though I don’t see her. So does yours. Perhaps they can both see us now. Perhaps they are both in this room.”

5.”We are just the same—I am only a little girl like you. It’s just an accident that I am not you, and you are not me.”

6.”I’ve often thought, that I should like to be a princess; I wonder what it feels like. I believe I will begin pretending I am one.”

7.”If I was a princess, I could scatter largess to the populace, I can invent little things to do for people. Things like this. She was just as happy as if it was largess. I’ll pretend that to do things people like is scattering largess. I’ve scattered largess.”

8.”It’s true. Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”

9.”Soldiers don’t complain, I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war.”

10.”Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are.”

11.”A princess should be polite.”

12.” It has been hard to be a princess today, Melchisedec. It has been harder than usual. It gets harder as the weather grows colder and the streets get more sloppy. When Lalaughed at my muddy skirt as I passed her in the hall, I thought of something to say all in a flash—and I only just stopped myself in time. You can’t sneer back at people like that—if you are a princess.”

13.”If I’m a princess, if I’m a princess—when they were poor and driven from their throne—they always shared—with the populace—if they met one poorer and hungrier than themselves. They always shared.”

 My thoughts and feelings about this book

 It always occurs to me and makes me lost in thought: What will I do if I am faced with the same situations as Sara? How will I behave if I have to go through so many changes? Will I  lose heart after suffering so many unfortunate things? Will I remain determined and optimistic? Will I still be confident about life and hold on to be a real princess?

 I am not sure whether I can be as brave as Sara.

She used to be a blessed girl with all the good things one can imagine. The Gold gave her the best father in the world, he loved her so much, and regarded it as a pleasure to compare her, which was a really uncommon thing at that time. In addition, little Sara lived a rich life, even we could call it extravagant. She was able to have almost everything she wanted in the world, and because of her father’s wealth and social status, she received lots of respect, best education and so on. But that seemed to be a tragedy for her later, because it was harder for a person to adapt to a poor life after years of charmed life. What’s worse, as a little child, she lost both her mother and father, who were supposed to accompany her, teach her and protect her in the complex world. But little Sara had to do all these things by herself.  Meanwhile, she needed to do lots of heavy labors, beard the scold of the cooks, the abhorrence of Miss Minchin together with the animosity received from students like Lavinia. I felt great sympathy for her when I read about that sufferings.

 However, whatever happened, Sara never changed her mind—She tried to be a princess, and had determination on it during the whole process. When she was living in the honeypot, she could easily pretend to be a princess. At that time, she helped those people in need and

Shared what she had with them. She treated all the people equally, especially to Becky, she told her stories, made friends with her and brought her lots of delicious food, she was Becky’s support. She also made efforts to behave like a real princess, so many children called her “Princess Sara”. But as far as I am concerned, what is most precious is that she didn’t change herself after changes happened. Though in rags and tatters, she still pretended to be a princess inside, she didn’t abandon her noble manners in the most difficult period of her life. She shared her little possession with others, when she was starve to death, she found a coin and bought 6 buns, but gave five of them to a hungry beggar. She insisted on being polite to all the people around her, ignored their attitudes toward her. It was her performances in those difficult positions that made me appreciate her much more.

From my perspective, I think Sara has these good qualities that shine like gold. And all these virtues made her become a real princess. They are the treasures hidden in the book.

1. Never lose determination, never give up

In most readers’ eyes, what Sara had suffered was unbearable, when faced with so many troubles, the first idea that appear in one’s mind may be to escape, however, as Lu Xun once said:” True warrior, dare to face the bleak life, dare to face up to the dripping blood.” Almost everyone has to deal with various kinds of troubles in life, so it is important to choose a proper attitude towards these issues. We have no ability to escape from them, all we can do is to hold on our determinations and be brave enough to beat them. Therefore we will be happy to see the beautiful rainbow after the rain.

2. Find happiness in the hard life

When Sara was forced to live in the shabby attic, she didn’t “make herself adapt to the hard life”, instead, she used her rich imagination and her good eyes for beauty to build a rather colorful life. Remember the feast in the attic? Ermengarde once had a basket of delicious food and wanted to share with Sara. Using her wise and the limited things she could find in the attic, Sara successfully made the attic a beautiful banquet hall. Though finally the feast was prohibited by Miss Minchin, her creation impressed me deeply. Remember Melchisedec？ It’s amazing that she could “make friends” with a little mouse. By feeding it and talking to it, she got a simple but real happiness. If you can find joy in the hardest life, you can have warm sunshine surrounded you in your whole life.

3. Treat all the people equally.

As a noble miss with wealth and good social position, Sara could be a arrogant girl, nobody will blame her if she scolded a servant with no reason, in that time, the difference between high and low social status is deeply rooted among the people. However, Sara wasn’t affected, she treated all the people she met with a impolite and kind manner, people around her feel comfortable, even a humble person can get the feeling of respect.

4. Do as much as she can to help others

Sara regards it as her pleasure to do all she can to help others, both physically and mentally. One thing that impressed me most is the five buns she gave to the beggar, although she was starve to death, she told herself “ She need my help. I should help her.” Unlike the meat pies she gave to Becky, those five buns were much more precious in that condition. “The roses in her hand; the flavor in mine”, is one important principle that all the princesses should keep in mind.

5. Be polite to people

“Please””thank you””excuse me””sorry”.

Those are the words that she always put on her lips. Although the people she treated politely didn’t respond to her in the same manners, she didn’t care at all. She always kept in mind that she was a princess, therefore she should behaved in the way of a princess. In fact, be polite to people is a simple thing that all of us can do in our daily life, try to be polite to people, and you may receive both personal accomplishment and gratitude from others.

6. Keep optimistic towards life

“You can not change your life, but you can change your attitudes towards life.” If you choose to smile to life, you will finally find the life smile to you. After the heavy rain, the beautiful rainbow will be waiting for you. The optimistic attitude can inspire people, therefore make them strong enough to fight against all the troubles, in opposite, a negative attitude can only lead to desperate and failure.

7. Be good friends with books

She is a girl who regards books as her life. Her father once told Ms Minchin that she always buried herself in the books, he wanted her to go out or play with her dolls, which were good for her health. In this book, the writer told us many stories about Sara’s fond of books, for example, when she was suffering from cold and hunger in the attic, the books  Ermengarde brought her made her forget all the physical disasters. Nothing can stop her from reading, books are her most loyal friends. When she was sad, the book can give her spiritual power; when she was lonely, the book is her strongest backing.

8. Always feel grateful for life

I can’t imagine what will happen if Sara choose to spend all her days feeling sorry for what she has lost, perhaps she will become a girl who just know crying. Luckily, the little strong Sara remembered what she still had, and thanked the gold everyday for his kindness. See things from  a different perspective will bring you a total different consequence. If you think you are unlucky, think about those people who are in worse conditions than you. Instead of thinking what you don’t have, think about the things you already have.

 The reference of this book report

1.Baidu Baike  http://baike.baidu.com/subview/329728/5087376.htm

2.WIKIPEDIA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Hodgson_Burnett

3.Words from Lu Xun : True warrior, dare to face the bleak life, dare to face up to the dripping blood

4.An old saying: “The roses in her hand; the flavor in mine”,

2016-01-10

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