I Do Have Dreams

The Moon and Sixpence, a novel written by William Somerset Maugham, narrates a life that seems absurd of an ordinary man but truly talented artist who abandons a nice and cosy family suddenly just for painting from a writer’s perspective. As the narrator put it, Strickland was possessed of a evil, a primitive force. So going far away and pursuing his dreams, eventually he steps on the land of a corner island away from all the world--Tahiti, South Pacific and is destroyed by Leprosy in the end. He never cares about the hardship of life all along. It sounds really ridiculous that a comfortable middle-aged man leaves coziness for unrealistic fate-calling of empty talk, which is the biggest contradiction in this novel. Based on this, Maugham tells of dream and reality, art and society ,nature and reason, in concert with moon and sixpence. What I see as a real ending is that Strickland is a genius than ever. So when in a realistic society full of so-called money and numb dogma, do not forget the natural zeal in your heart. After travelling through Tahiti, Maugham returned to Europe and indited The Moon and Sixpence. Though taking Paul Gauguin as prototype, I can not grasp a concrete characteristic of Strickland. Compared with other personae, he is more like a carrier of an ideology without normal emotion only satyr remains. Strickland, his works and the deep significance of writer show a tormented spirit striving for the release of expression, a nature force. He is cruel, selfish,brutal and sensual while a great idealist, narrator put it. He is a brave man suffering torture and despair between primacy and civilization but to choose exile to dreams, I think. Another character impresses me deeply is Stroeve, who strives for the “moon” but ends with “sixpence”. This is a nice opposites of Strickland. It shows a reality I guess that some are born to be a thing but others devoting whole life can not be. Besides, Maugham, from third-person perspective, uses a little strange way to tell.  It seems that the narrator is assimilated with Strickland to invent much to account for the change of heart and human nature , because of which covers a gauze to the novel. The instinct is to take an interest in the singularities of human nature so absorbing that the moral sense is powerless against it. I’d like to talk about dreams after finishing reading.Dream, in my view, is a primitive force born with you, which is equal to writer’s. As you get older and know more, the force exiting deeply in the soul grows and gradually controls your mind and body. I do have dreams, however, there are more realities. Similar to Stroeve, we must learn that some are born with noting, neither material or spirit. That is saying that “if you look on the ground in search of a sixpence, you don not look up, and so miss the moon.” I pick up the sixpence, then look up for the moon. While admiring braveness and greatness of Strickland, we might find the connection between dream and reality and the balance between wildness and reason as well. The most importance is to know there do have moon as long as you look up.So, look up!