Cold mountain

Cold Mountain is written by Charles Frazier, an award-winning American novelist. The novel is set during the outbreak of the Civil War, an era of discord between North and South. It is a thrilling story which centers on how a Confederate soldier Inman makes his way back to his hometown, Cold Mountain, to find his true love. On the journey, Inman confronts danger as the home Guard is killing soldiers who escape from the war. And he goes through a great many hardships and difficulties. In the meantime, Ada faces lots of troubles after her father died. She has no idea how to earn a living. Fortunately, Ruby shows up and helps Ada on the farm. Ada learns how to be independent and becomes more and more indomitable. Finally, Inman successfully comes back to Cold Mountain and proves his commitment to love. However, he is shot by the Home Guard and dies in the arm of Ada.

In respect of the theme, actually, the novel involves many themes if viewed from different perspectives. I am interested to explore the theme of isolation.

At the beginning of Cold Mountain, the two central characters are presented as being isolated. The first few pages of the book focus entirely on Inman’s inner life, on his thoughts only. Inman is surrounded by people in the military hospital yet we don’t really see him interacting with them, there is no conversation. He surfaces from sleep, in which he is literally separated from the world. He turns back on his fellow patients and escapes into a silent world of books or of studying the view on the outside. Even when he leaves the ward and talks to the blind man, he is separated by the man’s inability to see him. However his experiences from the war have profoundly changed him. He needs the peace, which he can get from the clean air of the Cold Mountain. He believes that if he can get back to Ada, there may be hope that he is able to feel better and recover what have been taken away by the war and horrors he has seen. The attempt to break down his isolation and to search for love and belonging forms the basis of the novel.

Ada is isolated in three ways. First, we learn that she and her father do not belong to the Cold Mountain and she is not a part of the community. And their ideas about God are not welcomed by the local people. Second, after her father died, she tries to ignore the real world and buries herself in books. She is lost in the world and does not know the most basic survival skills. She is on a farm but unable to work out how to find food. The irony is that she has been brought up to think of herself as educated and accomplished. It seems that she lives in an alien world and has to rely on someone to rescue her and teach her how to live. Finally, I think she also feels lonely from her love. When evening comes, her heart is full of nothing but miss to Inman. She expresses her love in the form of letter and hopes desperately to see Inman.

Both Inman and Ada experience things which undermine their sense of security and make them feel lonely.

 

第二篇：NOVEL Far from the Madding Crowd 英语小说远离尘嚣读后感

Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd tells us a story that happened in a village of Britain. The young farmer, Oak, had fallen in love with a girl named Bathsheba Everdene. Bathsheba was beautiful, but too proud, so she didn’t accept Oak. The girl’s uncle was also a farmer, and she succeeded him after his death, so Bathsheba became very rich. At the same time, Oak lost everything in one night, and Bathsheba became his employer, he worked for her as a shepherd. As he thought that he had chance to be close to Bathsheba, another farmer from a rich family, Boldwood, had came into Bathsheba’s life and he begged her to accept his love and marry him. But Bathsheba gave her love to a Sergeant Troy, and soon they got married. However, Troy had a lover named Fanny Robin, and this caused a series of unhappiness. Troy left their home after Fanny’s death, and Bathsheba lived a painful life since then. Then there was some bad news, people said that Troy had been killed at sea. Boldwood asked her to marry him again, and Bathsheba agreed to marry him if there was no any news about Troy six years later. Troy appeared surprisingly at the party, which Boldwood wanted to ask for Bathsheba’s hand in marriage. Boldwood shot Troy with a gun because of fury, and then he gave himself up to the police. He was judged to be mad, and sent to the prison for life. Finally, Bathsheba became Oak’s wife. And they faced the hard tests of life together.

Village, is a place that far from the madding crowd, and it is not complicated. However, not every person there has a pure heart. There are all kinds of people. The young sergeant Troy, with his good looks, he deceived girls time after time. He was good at mouthing beautiful words. Even the proud girl, Bathsheba, was seduced by him. It cannot be denied that Bathsheba was as naive and chaste as a child. But at the same time, she was vainglorious. Her isolation from reality made her life road be full of bumpy. And Boldwood’s love for her was pure, without any distracting thoughts. He was a great person, he just wanted her to live in happiness. His love was very great, but he lost his

mind, it’s reckless of him to kill Troy. And Bathsheba’s ignorance was the principal cause of Boldwood’s tragedy.

Oak, in my eyes, was a man with a gentle heart, and he was determined. Though he became very poor in the disaster, he worked hard, and he loved her as always. He had a tolerant heart, he stayed with her in her most disappointed. Though he was not so rich as Boldwood, and not as handsome as Troy, he had his own good qualities, and they empowered him to overcome all the difficulties and live with Bathsheba. Their love grows from fight in the hard tests of life, and this kind of feeling is the only love which is strong as death.

Being the master of ourselves, we should know ourselves well, without pretending and without being vain. We should be a primeval person. In my opinion, the happiest life is the simplest life.