love of life《热爱生命》的英文版读后感

Book title

: Love of life, 2010,

Author

: Jack London, American, 1876-1916

Background

:1907

Summary:

This book tells a story like this: A gold digger went to west America to look for

gold. After having found lots of gold and on the way back home, the protagonist was

abandoned by his

friend, Bill. As winter was

approaching,

he traveled alone on the

vast expanse of wilderness with a full bag of gold, injured leg, bleeding feet and little

food. He was hunger-mad to feed himself with tasteless roots and raw small fish to

survive

in

prairie

covered

with

swamps,

hills,

streams

and

other

wild

animals.

Unfortunately, as time went on, he became weaker and weaker. Suddenly, he found a

sick wolf was following and licking his blood trail behind. And from then on, the two

dying creatures began to hunt each other. To come back home alive, and to defeat the

sick

wolf,

he

as

a

human

being

threw

away

all

of

the

gold

and

other

worldly

possessions

in

order

to

struggle

forward

the

boats

on

the

coast.

With

unbelievable

perseverance and human potential, after several desperate fight, the man finally killed

the

wolf

with

teeth

and

drank

its

blood.

Luckily,

on

the

coast

there

were

some

members

of

a

scientific

expedition

on

the

whale-ship,

and

the

man

was

saved

by

them.

Comment:

Jack London is a famous American realist writer, he has also been known as the

“Father of American proletarian literature.” In the short life, he left to the world a lot

of valuable works

, like “Call of the Wild,” “Sea Wolf” and “Martin Eden” and e

tc.

which

have

become

classics

people

familiar

with.

However,

among

his

numerous

works,

“Love of Life”

is my favorite short story. This work has brought me a lot of

inspiration of life, and also has taught me a lot of life philosophy.

Jack London wrote:

“

When life becomes tiresome and painful, death will come to coax you to sleep a deep

slumber.

person

in

distress

can

rely

on

dreams

to

persist,

but

once

he

gets

out

of

the

predicament

to

be

successful,

the

meaning

of

life

becomes

an

issue.

Suffering

can

make

one’s heart

strong, and successful can destroy everything.

Cherish life

The background of “Love of Life” is set in the “gold rush” period, which

was not

wit

hout relevance to the author’s experience as gold digger. The novel’s protagonist

and

his

companions

started

adventure

to

west

America

for

gold.

After

an

arduous

journey,

they

found

gold.

But

after

the

celebration,

they

gradually

became

anxious,

because gold was certainly priceless, but the weight was beyond their load, and even

worse, the food ran out.

There is no doubt that they loved gold, otherwise they would not go there. But

they

loved

their

lives

too.

So

how

to

choose

if

you

have

to

abandon

one?

Maybe

everyone inwardly holds the same view that

“while ants are greedy to live yet, human

should cherish life much more

”.

But it’s hard for

them to make decision, because to

choose life means to give up hard-earned gold, which was just the reason they were

there

. Think about it: if you have a full bag of gold on your back in dilemmas, won’t

you think that you may be lucky to get out of the plight and

won’t you be

hesitate to

throw gold away? Honestly, I would be hesitate. But it is undeniable that when human

life

is

seriously

threatened,

any

material

possessions

would

be

meaningless.

People

must know when and how to control their own desires.

Life in any sense is the most precious thing and everyone should love life. Jack

London's “Love of Life” tells us to

cherish life, then you can get the attention of fate.

As long as people have faith, there is hope of success. Faced with the challenges of all

kinds of adversity, people only dare to insist, fight against the fate, and never give up

any chance, ultimately to get the final victory. Money is important to live well, but

compared

to

life

it

is

worthless.

Therefore,

in

order

to

survive,

it

is

sometimes

necessary to give up those worldly possessions and travel light.

Hang on and you will be successful

Another

revelation

of

“Love

of

Life”

is

to

learn

to

persevere.

Even

if

there

is

only

a

little

chance

to

survive,

you

should

persevere

until

the

final

victory.

The

protagonist survived from extremely worst situation, just reveals that

“

with strong will,

is

equivalent

to

the

feet

to

a

pair

of

wings”

(Bailey).

Survival

is

the

reward

he

deserved, but also the gift from fate.

As human beings, we are eager to win merits for ourselves. In my opinion, firstly,

the

quality

of

determination

to

succeed

is

an

important

one

to

have.

We

often

hear

people

say,

“Never

give

up.”

These

can

be

encouraging

words

and

words

of

determination. A person who believes in them will keep trying to reach his goal no

matter

how

many

times

he

fails.

The

hero

in

this

novel

was

distinctively

provided

with this determination.

On

the

other

hand,

after

making

determination,

only

patience

as

well

as

endurance can help us to succeed in performing great deeds. Some people would give

up halfway in the face of what seems to be insurmountable. Men of such a type can

hardly

expect

to

succeed.

We

must

take

a

step-by-step

approach

to

accomplish

everything until we get the final result. The reason is very simple: if one attempts to

climb a mountain, however high he reaches, he has failed if he does not reach the top.

In the case of Si Maqian, without patience and endurance, he could never attain such

great

achievements.

Shortly,

as

long

as

the

continuous

efforts,

unremitting

struggle,

there is no things that cannot be conquered.

To be vigilant in peace time

The

most

detailed

and

impressive

part

of

the

novel

describes

that

how

the

protagonist searched for food and fight against hunger. When I read these descriptions,

I can even vividly imagine the embarrassment and pain of the man. After he had been

saved by scientific men, he was haunted by a fear that the food would not last, so he

hoarded lots of bread under his bunk and mattress. Maybe it seemed ridiculous, but