Reflection of Vanity Fair

When I first read the book, immediately it reminds me of the entertainment business in today's society. Actually, there is once a star said: "the entertainment business is a bowl of water, more people jump into pure will become dirty, dark."

Vanity Fair mainly talks two heroines---one of them is humble, the other one is a scheming social climber--- who meets in boarding school and embarks on markedly different lives. Amid the swirl of London's posh ballrooms and affairs of love and war, their fortunes rise and fall. Through it all, Thackeray lampoons the shallow values of his society, reserving the most pointed barbs for the upper crust. What results is a prescient look at the dogged pursuit of wealth and status---and the need for humility. In this novel, I like the name of novel “Vanity Fair” and the subtitle “A Novel without a Hero”.

When I see the name, I understand the main idea of the novel. The Victorian egoistic, hypocritical, and money-grabbing aristocratic and commercial society is a vanity fair. It is not only a show of Thackeray’s cynical view toward life but also a declaration of that the epoch in which capitalists or aristocrats posed themselves as heroes.

Becky, though plain-looking, is smart, skillful， can try every possible means to get what she wants. However, Amelia is beautiful and soft, but she is simple-minded and sentimental. There is a contrast of their lives, one going up while the other falling down, and vice versa. Through her own struggles and tricks, Becky manages to control her own life. She turns from a poor family tutor into an officer’s wife and leads a seemingly wealthy life. At the same time, Amelia’s parents go bankrupt and George wants to dishonor his engagement with Amelia. After their marriage, the newly wedded wife loses her husband, who dies on the battlefield. All this makes her turn from a beautiful daughter of a rich father into a poor widow. Both ladies’ husbands have to go to the front, which produces another striking contrast. Let’s see what Becky Sharp reflects to the departure.

Today we are living in a harmonious society; we should keep our purity and humanity. Fame and fortune are important, but they are not everything. Love and humanity are of more importance for a peaceful life.

We should trust each other, help each other, and take care of each other.

Reflection to Lord of the Files

Recently, I have read a novel---Lord of the Files, written by William Gerald Golding. To be honest, I can’t work out what the author is going to talk about, and all my feeling about it is that it is frightening and cruel when I first read it. However, after the second time I read it, I seem that I gain some deeper understanding.

The title of the story is Lord of the Flies which is originated from Hebrew Baalzebub, and in the bible "Baal" is interpreted as "evil". In English, it means the king of evil which is synonymous with the ugly soul. It portrays a story about some British schoolboys who were trapped in a deserted island which is far from modern

civilization due to an air crashes. The effects of civilization break down, and they return to their essential animal nature.

The book depicts the evil nature of human being by describing the children’s innocence. In the novel, Golding put those children in an isolated island without adults’ control. The process of children’s changing from good to evil, is actually the results of the outbreak of the primitive wildness. This paper mainly analyses children’s changing from good to evil and stresses on the evil nature of human by analyzing their psychology and behavior and the use of unique symbolism. And we could find out people’s wandering between good and evil. Through deep analysis, we could figure out the defects of human themselves, and expose its reasons and results. I think the purpose of the book is to warn human beings to be careful about the evil of human nature as well as to have a better understanding of how to control them. At the same time, it also aims to call for the kindness and justice that should be carried forward

forever and appeal to people to think about the future civilization of human.

At last, a navy officer lands on the island and his sudden appearance brings the children's fighting to an abrupt halt. I am very glad to see that those children who are supposed to belong to a innocent world are saved or we also can see it as the author’s hope of human being’s good nature.

 

第二篇：《名利场》英文读书报告

A Book Report on Vanity Fair

Name: Class: Date:

Author: William M. Thackeray

Publisher: 航空工业出版社 Place of publication: 北京 Time of publication: 2007

Summary:

Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharn were good friends, and they had completed their studies. They were preparing to depart for Amelia’s house in Russell Square and to live out their lives in “Vanity Fair”. Rebecca was an orphan; she was poor but very beautiful and ingenious. Amelia is the daughter of a rich City merchant. Rebecca was longing for the life of upper class and she took advantages of her beauty and intelligence to make it. In 1815, the two girls got married. Rebecca made full use of her husband Rawdon to meet many famous nobles in order to enter the Vanity Fair. In the meantime, Amelia was enjoying her newlywed with her husband George. However, the Battle of Waterloo made Amelia become widow and the two girls’ fates had begun to change. Rawdon had clearly known Rebecca’s voracity and departed from her. Rebecca found her place in society almost in the end. At the end of the story, Amelia led a happy life and Rebecca lost everything.

Thoughts and feelings:

There is a sentence that I learn from Vanity Fair: Here was a man, who could not spell, and did not care to read -- who had the habits and the cunning of a boor; who never had a taste, or emotion, or enjoyment, but what was disgusting and foul; and yet in Vanity Fair he had a higher place than the man of most brilliant genius or spotless virtue. I think some people in this book are just behaving like this.

After read Vanity Fair I have learnt that in the 18th century, the British were crazy for fame and fortune. They all hoped to enter into the Vanity Fair. But, I do hate the Vanity Fair, because in Vanity Fair, everyone exchanges with other people with masks. What they have seen is also not true. To tell you the truth, I look down upon Rebecca. She has been polluted by the Vanity Fair. I wonder if she ever regards Amelia as her best friend and shows her true care to Amelia. I have to admit that Rebecca is very ingenious. She knows how to attract men’s attention and lies easily and intelligently to get her way. Nearly everything she does is with the intention to secure a stable position for her. Maybe, Rebecca just wants to live a rich life, but the method is wrong and I think she deserves the ending.