Rachel's Writing Portfolio

Reading Log

The writer's depiction of the Misrilals aroused my interest at first. It was my first time to have seen the collocations of "spherical boy", "ovoid father" and "cuboid wife". What a family! It looked like a cartoon. I began to wonder the writer's purpose of using these adjectives. Did he want to point out that there were still some well-off people when Ajit Babu and his wife were so impoverished that they had to live in a pipe? Or maybe it was only an unplanned reflection of the writer's sense of humor.

I was most impressed by Ajit Babu's attitude towards the never-ending miseries in his life. I couldn't even imagine myself living on the roof, eating grass, or wearing a piece of cloth. But he endured both physical injuries and spiritual strain without much complaint. He took upon himself the hardship in an unbelievably optimistic way. I was surprised when he and his wife exulted at residing in a place with doors and when he listed the advantages of living on the roof rather than below it. It suddenly led to my realization that there were people who would be happy about things I took for granted. I respect Ajit Babu and his wife very much, for they refused to lose hope and insisted living on even when life seemed to be the black hole. It reminded me of numerous stories of people who remained cheerful in adversity and built their success step by step.

However, I inferred from the last paragraph that the writer didn't write this story only to talk about Ajit Babu's own experiences. Although Ajit Babu appeared not to care much about his own miseries, he was actually very concerned with the severe social problems at that time. It seemed that the dark side of human nature was easily exposed during the hard time. Ajit Babu was very worried about that, but he wasn't mighty enough to make any change, so he could only quietly look at the passing scenes. And the word "content" was rather ironic. I could feel the torrents inside Ajit Babu's heart which was covered by the writer's ordinary words and indifferent tone.

25.5.07 17:06