What do we do when things go wrong?
Years ago, when I first spotted this book in a stationery shop, I decided to buy it without even flipping through its pages. On the cover, three men were being carried by the river's current toward an unknown destination. The title revealed little more than the image itself: Three Men in a Boat. Where they were going and why remained hidden between the pages.
For some reason, I never got around to reading it. The book sat forgotten on a shelf for years, quietly waiting for me. Then one day I picked it up and finally began. Soon, I discovered why these three men had embarked on such a sudden and peculiar boating trip. Tired of their daily routines and convinced that they were suffering from all sorts of illnesses, they believe an adventure will do them good. Instead, the following two weeks prove far more challenging than expected. They can never quite agree on what should be done or how it should be done. They blame one another, make a mess of simple tasks, and seem incapable of catching a break. Jerome narrates all of this with an exaggerated sense of humor and remarkable wit.
In the end, the three companions more or less accomplish what they set out to do. By the time they return to dry land, they are rather proud of themselves. But perhaps this book was written not only to amuse, but also to make us reflect. As we accompany these three friends like an invisible fourth passenger, we spend much of the journey wanting to step in and sort things out for them.
And yet, when things go wrong in our own lives, what exactly do we do?
A Critical Review of Humankind
Rutger Bregman’s book Humankind is one of the books that questions negative ideas about human nature and makes readers think. For many years, many people believed that humans are naturally selfish, bad, and only care about themselves. However, Bregman does not agree with this idea. According to him, human nature is not as dark as people think. Instead, people are more willing to help each other, understand others’ feelings, and do good things. In the book, the author supports these ideas with many examples from wars, psychology experiments, history, and biology. One of the best parts of the book is that it gives hope about humanity. Still, when I finished the book, I did not only feel admiration. On one side, I was happy to read it because it made me think differently. On the other side, some of the author’s ideas felt too optimistic to me. Because of this, the book was both interesting and questionable for me.
One of the strongest parts of the book is that it makes people question ideas about human nature that many accept without thinking. Today, we often see violence, murder, wars, and fights on television, social media, and in the news. After some time, people start to believe that the world is full of bad people. At this point, Bregman asks an important question: If humans were really bad by nature, how could societies survive for so many years? A big part of human history was shaped by helping each other, working together, and surviving together. From this side, the writer’s ideas are important and meaningful.
His ideas against the belief that humans are naturally wild are especially interesting. Today, when someone behaves badly, people sometimes say, “Did you grow up in a cave?” However, Bregman says that hunter-gatherer societies were not as violent as many
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In Amis’s famous novel, London Fields, the witty language is used and highlighted in the book repatedly. With the use of wit and pan (word play) Amis creates one of the most intelligent written novel ‘London Fields’. These uses of high elevated language and word plays also gives us the hints of postmodern fiction. As the novel is considered one of the best novel representing postmodernism, one can appreciate it due to the style that the novel is written, by means of wit and language. To give examples from the book;
-It was fixed. It was written. The murderer was not the murderer. But the murderee had always been a murderee.
The quote from Samson Young foreshadows that the real murderer is not the one we think, it will change. However the murderee ‘Nicola’ will always be the victim, not be affected by the inconstant murderer.
- I know what his poetry will be about. What poetry is always about. The cruelty of the poet’s mistress.
In this quote we can also sense the metaphor that is made to Nicola. Here Samson , as a writer, claims that the poets are writing poetry due to the relationship between their mistresses. It is known that Young also writes a novel about Nicola, creating the same plot with the poets he criticizes.
-I close my eyes, trying to see a way- how do writers dare do what they do ? – and there is just chaos. It seems to me that writing brings trouble with it, moral trouble, unexamined trouble. Even to the best.
-When God got mad he was a jealous God. He had other planets, thanks, and in better parts of the universe. He promised plague, famine mile-high tides, sound-speed winds and terror, ubiquitous and incessant terror, with blood flowing bridle deep. He threatened to make her old and keep her that way forever… Cross that firebreak and then cross that
"But, alas, I had done what I had determined not to do; I had slipped unthinkingly into praise of my own sex." (page: 121)
A Room of One's Own is best understood when we first reflect on what feminism actually represents. Is it merely a demand for equality? Or a rebellion against centuries of imposed roles and limitations placed upon women? Even today, when we read about the historical denial of women’s most basic rights and freedoms, we are still surprised, perhaps because contemporary society presents such a different image of gender roles.
Let us imagine a world in which women were confined solely to domestic responsibilities: raising children, sewing, and managing the household, often forced into marriage and denied access to education. A world in which they had no private space, not even half an hour truly their own. In Woolf’s argument, the absence of such material and intellectual space explains why fewer women emerged as successful writers. Without a room of one’s own, she suggests, a woman is also deprived of an inner world that belongs to her alone. Nothing is truly hers; everything is defined through ownership by men. Even the impulse to resist such conditions is gradually suppressed.
Woolf’s writing carries a clear sense of intellectual rebellion. She questions why women could not live as freely as men, and imagines the creative potential that might have emerged under equal conditions. She also attempts to explain male claims of superiority through psychological and social patterns: insecurity masked as dominance, and the need to define oneself as superior to at least half of society in order to compensate for internal doubt. Meanwhile, women, historically excluded even from libraries and formal education, were denied the very conditions necessary to
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Fistly,I want to express some doubts about the reliability of the narrator, Nick Carraway, who tells the life of the main character, Jay Gatsby, from his own perspective because Nick sometimes praises Gatsby and sometimes expresses critical thoughts about him. This situation shows that the narrator is not completely objective and tells the story according to his own feelings.
Secondly, we see the American Dream theme from the beginning to the end of the story. The American Dream is the belief that no matter which social class people come from, they can become rich and successful through hard work. This thought is Jay Gatsby’s main motivation. His obsessive love for Daisy Buchanan and his hope that she will return to him one day lead him to work harder and do everything he can to become rich. The novel conveys this hope through the symbol of the green light. The green light comes from Daisy’s house, and when Gatsby looks at it, he sees his dreams and hopes. So the green light shows Gatsby’s dreams and the future he wants, and it also shows how unreachable the American Dream can be.
In addition, Jay Gatsby organizes big and flashy parties to prove his wealth and to show it to Daisy Buchanan. However, this situation did not affect either Daisy or the other people. Because society was divided into two parts: “new money” (people who became rich later) and “old money” (people who inherited their wealth). Although Gatsby became rich through his own efforts, he was not appreciated and was even despised by society. Therefore, Daisy did not choose to be with him. This situation shows that for Daisy, social status and wealth were more important than love.
Finally, Jay Gatsby was left alone at the end of his life despite his struggles. Nearly nobody came to his funeral. This
The tales of Beedle the Bard was mainly written for the Harry Potter series.The book was inherited from Professor Dumbledore to Hermione Granger in the course of the story. Later, Jk Rowling decided to write the book apartly. Therefore, we have a chance to read it rather than just being a mentioned book.The story "The Tale of The Three Brothers" is placed in the movie and the main book. But in this book , there have been four other stories except for it.
*The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
*The Fountain of Fair Fortune
*The Warlock's Hairy Heart
*Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump
In the book , also Albus Dumbledore's notes are given after the stories.The notes answer the questions in our minds such as "Where does the story come from?" , "What is the subtexts in the story?" or "What do people think about this story in Wizard world?" and goes on.In my opinion, the note parts have been like a milestone of the stories. They have enriched all of them.
What the most influential thing is that in muggles' fairy tales, good people are good because they are powerless while evil ones always have power. When we think of the Snow White and her evil stepmother, it could be more clear.But this is not the main point.On the other hand, in Wizard fairy tales, a person who has power in his/her hands can use that power in a good way or a good person doesn't have to be powerless.Starting from this point of view, even if you have the power,the important thing is to use it for good.
Lastly, thanks to the book I have decided to add.more fairy tales in my reading adventure. Because they reflect not only the story itself but also the culture they belong to. We can see sometimes the other side of the world, sometimes the Wizard world...
