Book Review

Never be mean, false and cruel —For David Copperfield No matter how drastic this society will become, darkness and evil are always temporary. Those who struggle in the adverse environments are bound to seek the light of dawn, shape own values and rewrite the destiny. In this book, in addition to the demonstration of Dickens’ critical realism, what we can see are glory and hopefulness of humanities. David was born in a poor family, in his childhood, he lived a humble but happy life with her mother, however, after his mother’s second marriage, stepfather’s cruel and violent personalities made him suffer a lot. Being regarded as a useless burden, he was devastated day and night both physically and mentally. There is such a plot in the book, in the dark evening, when David was locked in the room, the domestic servant carried a candle, sobbing upon the door. Precisely in this evening, David realized that there is always someone who loves him although he was trapped in the darkness. That candle fire is a single spark in borderless darkness and silence, shedding a light on miserable social reality. Miserable scenarios in society are well demonstrated in the book. Such as greedy and rude stepfather lashed David, varieties of setbacks confronted by David when he was a child worker, and Simon’s those wicked plans. In these scenarios, we could catch a glimpse of Dicken’s values on the money in nineteen century, which are exhibited through Jacob’s words, “When the income is 20 pounds , he would be released if 19 schillings and one penny are consumed, while being frustrated if 2o schillings and one penny are consumed.’’ This is probably a more fascinating and easier to understand social situation in the film. Nevertheless, it is fortunate that David meet his aunt Betsy, who exerts the most far-reaching and profound influence on David’s growth. She took the majority savings to provide as good as possible education for David, and also shaped David’s personalities in those life’s trivial moments. When she sent David to Wakefield for further education, she said, “Never be mean in anything; never be force; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, and I can always be hopeful of you.” Truly, we create the environments, in the meantime, environment shape us. As David suffered from all kinds of misfortunes and obstacles at birth, he still marched forward step by step with the guidance of Betsy, finally sought own lighthouse. This film also reveals the common truth that “good is good, evil is evil.” There is a line in “Big Fish and Begonia”: As long as your heart is kind, right or wrong is the business of others. In order to become the driver of fate, we must always be kind to our surroundings, and David Copperfield has set an example for us. At last, it occurs to me that a sentence written by Oscar Wilde, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’’