《非洲孩子》英语读后感
After Read The African Child
The African Child was written by an African writer called Camara Laye, who gave me a different perspective about seEing the African children. It is really a book which is worth reading although it do not belong to the best-sellers or the newest publication. It is just a book written in a very long time ago by a not that famous writer, but you’ll find it fantastic or you will finally get something after read the book.
Now let’s see the details. The African Child is a book collected by Collins English Library, and the library graded it with level 4. The level represents a text written within a basic vocabulary of 500 words and appropriate structures, 2:1000 words, 3:2000 words, 4:3000 words, 5:5000 words. The Collins English library series are written for students of English as a second or foreign language and for reluctant native readers. The African child only contains 12 chapters, but for me, it’s the perfect, because I cannot read that much words in a short time by my reading speed, I know I have to do with my reading.
At the beginning of the book, there is a short passage written for the writer’s mother to express the writer’s thanks towards his great mother, and also, to appreciate the women of Africa. Then comes the story. It is a true story about the author himself became a man, and finally left his hometown and family. During the reading process, I find something interesting and touching. I used to misunderstood that all the African family are living a poor and unhappy life, and the woman here has little importance in their society. Now I know that not everything is so absolute. The author tells us that some people may hold this view for many years, but Africa is huge, with many different ways of life, and in their country the woman has considerable freedom and power. In his hometown, his mother was respected and admired greatly not only for her strong mind, but also her strange powers. He really had a mother with fantastic powers just like magic. In the book, it seems just many of them have magic, his father’s black guiding snake which guided him to do the right thing, and led him to the way of success. And also, his mother’s power to make animals come to life, the mystical ‘sema’ or medicine man, and marabouts who have a magic power to make wishes come true or can predict future just like a wizard. In the beginning of the book, I saw that those African boys did not live a hard time. Instead, they were happy almost every day, they loved wild animals, and the wild animals like snakes never hurt them, snakes are thought to be good friends and tutor to them. In a certain time, the author would go to visit his grandmother who lived in countryside. Here everybody knew everybody else, they know almost everything about each other, and each other’s secrets, but they were very considerate to each other in a country manner. Here we can see that country manners do not mean rough manners, people are more polite in the country than in the town. They have more time, and the way of life is simpler in the country, but there are accepted rules. Although everyone knows everything about everyone else’s lives, they are always very careful about each other’s personal freedom. And if their minds seem to work more slowly in the country, it is because speech is a serious matter. They always think careful before speaking. Here author spent a very happy time. He enjoyed the activity of cutting rice with adult and partners just as young as he is, he liked the sound of drum while cutting rice, and he loved to keep the birds away from their rice on the ground. He could swim in the river with others freely, and climb trees as he want even though his clothes would be torn. He was not afraid of that here, he had a grandma who would mend it without complain. She loved her grandson.
But life is not happy all the time; there surely will be some hard time to spend. As the author went to school, old boys always hit the younger students, took their food and money away, but the young was too afraid to tell their fathers. Finally one day, hungry and hurt, one of the younger students dared to tell all about it to his father, one of the most famous people in the town, so the problem was solved, and the younger students was lived in a happy life ever after.
Time flies, here came the day of boys becoming men. They would experience the circumcision. The process is hurt, but it’s the price of becoming a man. All the boys behaved very bravely that they never cried out under the almost unbearable pain. They were the African children!,
In the end, I want to say that although there are some strange customs in Africa, I do changed my view on the African lives. Maybe they do not as wealthy as the Europeans, but they are living a happy life too, just like the author said, Africa is huge, there’s different ways of life. Now I see Africa as a place full of love, care, magic and natural life.