Things in life can be quite funny sometimes, the moment when i step out of the examination hall, i remembered this word "Bildungsroman", i wanted to write it in my Lit essay but can't recall how to spell it.
Sigh...true, Great Expectations is a book about the life of Pip, his developments in life. From a superficial ignorant boy to a true gentleman, it took him more than 20 years to realise what is the most important thing in life. Only when he became an adult and sees the ugliness of the society did he finally understood what are the things he should treasure. Not money, not status, but the love from others. And only when you give out love, can you receive it in return. One who was not a gentleman at heart was never a gentleman in manners. In the book, Pip grows and learns...but me...after reading the book and doing the exam felt that i learned much more. Lit really is not subject for emotional people to show off their powerful language...it's a subject that requires understanding, a deep understanding of the society and the inherent flaws that exist in it. We live in a society where the advancement of technology is inversely related to the evolution of man's character and values, the more technologically advanced we are, the more dehumanised we become. Paper one was a poem, 20th century poem, which talks about the idea of dehumanisation, lack of privacy, conformity and the loss of individuality in today's society, how human can be judged like "a thing" using surveys and statistics. Im a bit disturbed by the poem... spent quite a long time thinking about the question of life in today's society and had no time to really tackle the stylistic features, i predict i might fail this lit promo exam, but...somehow, it's a nicer feeling compared to Hist...yes i didn't do well, but somewhere in my mind, it tells me that i've learnt something really important about life.
LIFE, YOU NEED WARMTH AND LOVE.
That's all, a simple idea that not many people would come to realise it until the day they lose the meaning of life, because, they throw away their love.
Mankind cannot bear very much reality...sigh....
The Poem:
The Unkown Citizen
By W.H Auden
(to JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports in his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the war till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in everyway.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in a hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of yeah;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
