Strickland in The Moon and Sixpence did. He was a stockman, with a decent job, a beautiful wife, Mrs. Strickland, excellent communication skills, two bright and lovely children, and a comfortable home. To the outside world, Strickland’s life might be described as a happy one. Well into middle age, a time of compromise or reconciliation with the world, Strickland one day left a note to his wife, leaving his family, his wife and his children.
It is not difficult to understand that for him, what he already has, like a shackle to him. This means that he is not only living for himself, but living for others becomes a part of his life. In life, when they realize that they are burdened with chains that they want to get rid of, some people can’t afford to lose the cost and choose to accept it. Others are only willing to let go of what they have in order to break free. Strickland is one of those people who chose to break free.
When a person realizes that he is not free, what he has in his heart will determine how much freedom he will strive for. People crave a sense of security and belonging, and are greedy for material things and emotions. With the passion of art in his heart, Strickland broke away from the existing formed life and started the unknown journey of life. And what he did all this, cannot but say that one is against the common human process. Since then, his life has been a constant wanderer and challenge.
After leaving London, Strickland’s life was devoted to painting. He had nothing but the ability to paint. It’s just that the existence of the painting itself is not something he wants to achieve. When Strickland finished painting a picture, he felt that it had lost its charm. It’s more like, as the book explains, he was seized by a passion that led him to spend the rest of his life searching for the ultimate answer to life in the form of his favorite art.
In the process of this pursuit, he left his family and the old life without food and clothing, and his living standard fell to the bottom of the rock. He had to live in poverty and rely on part-time jobs to maintain basic survival and buy the materials he needed for painting. He even nearly died during an illness, when Stroff saved him.
Stroff’s wife, Blanche, develops passionate love for him while caring for him, and Strickland chooses to be with her because of his physical desire. Eventually, Bustrov’s wife, Blanche, develops a passionate love for him while caring for him, and Strickland chooses to be with her because of his physical desire. In the end, Blanche kills herself because she can’t accept that Strickland doesn’t love her and wants to leave her.
Strickland moved to the South Pacific island of Tahi, where he married Atta, a native, and began to concentrate on his work. Before Strickland died of leprosy, he finally created a masterpiece that profoundly shook the human soul. His soul found the final destination and got eternal rest in the vagrancy.
The Moon and Sixpence is written in my vision. It seems to me in the book that Crane, in the second half of his life, was very much himself and didn’t care what others thought. As a reader, I can’t help thinking that perhaps in this indifference Strickland was able to break free from his great ideals. Because of his maverick, is destined not to be understood.
Everyone has a different understanding of life. Some people are keen on fame and fortune, some people get their inner satisfaction by constantly obtaining it, and some people turn their heads to their inner world in pursuit of self-understanding and self-meaning.
Everyone goes round and round in their own sphere of life. In “The Moon and Sixpence,” there are people whose sphere of life intersects with Strickland’s, creating a common zone on which the possibility of understanding, as Stroff and I understood him, arises. I, in the book, was critical of Crane when I first learned that Strickland had abandoned his family and children. Gradually, after a few contacts, “I” began to have a different view of him, that he was also a great man. Strickland sought the mysterious answers of art with an irresistible passion for the outside world. The crazy pursuit of art occupied Strickland’s heart, so he chose to separate from the material world, suffering in the desire to fight humanity, get rid of the emotions provided by people around him, choose to embrace loneliness. Jung, a Swiss psychologist, believed that “the artist, driven by the irresistible creative passion, must be desperate to complete his works, which leads to the destruction of his personal life. Therefore, the life of an artist is at least extremely unfortunate, if not tragic.” This makes “me” as a writer to him unavoidably produce a sympathetic understanding.
Stroff, on the other hand, wasn’t very good at drawing. However, he had a keen eye for beauty and an excellent appreciation of painting. He saw the artistic value in Strickland’s paintings, and was firmly convinced that Strickland was a genius. In a manner of speaking, Stroff recognized Strickland’s extraordinary talent, so he had an inclusive understanding of Strickland.
However, understanding is always scarce, because the barriers between people’s hearts always exist. In the same environment, people who cannot understand each other will turn to some invisible rules to limit each other and fix them in a certain position. Madame and Blanche, for example, hope to fit Strickland into the trajectory they set.
Mrs. Sterry loved to socialize with people engaged in the art business, but she did so not because she really loved art, but as a bargaining chip. Mrs. Sterry commissions “Me” to go to Paris to find Strickland after he leaves her. When she learned that Strickland had left her not because he was in love with another woman but because of his ideals, she thought it was more than she could bear, blamed Strickland, and in order to preserve her reputation, spread the word among her social circles that he had left for a woman. In her opinion, a man, for ideal, than for another woman, to leave his wife, more unforgivable. Later, she opened a shop and never stopped showing off her elegant life to others. There is no doubt that her so-called art is merely a means of communication. She did not understand art, she did not love art, and it was destined that she would not understand Strickland.
And Branch, because Stroff saved her from her misery, she married Stroff. While taking care of Strickland, she was so taken with Strickland that she willingly left him for Strickland. Her union with Strickland was the product of a passionate love. With Strickland, she will always try to trap him around her, which is bound to create a constant conflict with Strickland, who follows his heart, pushing him further and further away. The only passionate love that ignited her heart’s hope fizzled out, eventually leading Blanche down a path of self-destruction.
At last, the woman who accompanies Strickland to the finish line is Ata, who transcends her own understanding of life and chooses to tolerate and pay. She may not understand Strickland’s inner obsession, but she chooses to give him the conditions to create and supports him without complaint. Atta was a sincere and kind woman. She loved Strickland. She may not have understood art, but she respected Strickland’s ideals. She let him work at ease and took care of his family. In my opinion, she accepted him unconditionally and included him. After Strickland contracted leprosy, a disease most feared on the island, she chose to care for him until the very end.
If I understand Strickland out of an understanding of human nature, moved by his unique force of personality, I understand him; For his love of art, Stroff was impressed by Strickland’s talent and understood him; And it’s because he loves Strickland from the bottom of his heart that Atta is willing to give to Crane and make him what he is. Atta has been able to love one person unselfishly, and she is an amazing person.
I think, everyone has a different understanding of life, their inner pursuit is also different. Some people want the moon, some people care about sixpence. And people have different understandings of the moon and the sixpence, which leads to different understandings of themselves, and by extension, different understandings of the pursuits of others.
Reading the whole book, the author Maugham touched me with a sentence in the book: “Writers are more concerned with understanding human nature than judging it.”
Perhaps the process of life is a process of sublation, in weighing and sixpence, may we come to know ourselves and understand the world as much as possible.
