Reading Log: Boy: Tales of Childhood

How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

The text is mainly about the childhood life of the author himself, Roald Dahl. It compiles some interesting event that happened throughout his life ranging from 1 years old to 20 years old. It could be say as a journey as a kid because it reflects the common events that almost all kid will go through during their school life.

Being a kid of course, we tend to be rebellious. Roald and his friends made fun of Mrs. Pratchett whom they dislike by putting a dead mouse in a sweet jar. As a result, Mrs. Pratchett went to their school and complained to their headmaster. Roald and his friends were then received cane punishment by the headmaster.

At St Peter’s, which is a boarding school, Roald like many other kids was homesick. He even tried to pretend to be sick and wanted to be send back home. Every night when sleeping, he would face in the direction to his home to ease his homesickness.

In addition, Roald also faced a hard time at school. Captain Hardcastle who was his Latin teacher was a very strict man. There’s an incident where he accused Roald for cheating during prep but in truth, Roald never cheat, he just asked his friend to borrow him a nib. In the end, Roald received Stripe and caning. During his time at Repton Public School, he was bullied by the Boazers by been instructed to do all the things the Boazers ordered them to.

What is the main issue in the text?

The story revolves around the school life of Roald Dahl. As can be seen from the text, school practices body punishment. There are total of 3 canning event happened in the text!! First, was the punishment Roald got for making fun of Mrs. Pratchett. Second, was a false accusation made by Captain Hardcastle towards Roald for cheating and Roald received cane for that. Lastly, was a vivid canning scene which Roald witnessed in Repton Public School.

In addition, in school, the grown-ups (headmaster, teachers, prefects, matron) always overwhelm the students. For example, Boazers, the prefects in Repton can asked their junior to do whatever they want them to do and they cannot refuse to do it. If they did not do as exactly what the Boazers asked them to do, the Boazers had the authority to send them to the headmaster for punishment. Often, there’s always discrimination happened on the juniors.

Other than that, there was a case of teacher being unkind to student. For example, Captain Hardcastle, who likes to pick out a student’s mistake and use it as reason to punish them. Roald was caught by Captain Hardcastle when he is talking to his friend who actually was asking to borrow a nib from his friend, Captain Hardcastle without further investigation, boldly accused Roald for cheating. The headmaster too, although Roald had try to tell the truth to him, he refused to listen and investigate the actual incident. Instead, he caned Roald.

What quality do you admire in a character?

In my opinion, Sofie Magdalene Hesselberg who is the mother of Roald Dahl portrayed several good qualities in the text. Roald refer her mother as Mama in the text. Mama was very concern about her children’s education. She was determined to send her children to English schools as it was her husband’s wish before he died. For example, when she found out that Roald has been punished physically, she felt frustrated and went to find the headmaster to complain. After this incident, Mama was even more determined to send Roald to an English school.

Besides, Mama was a very calm person. During Roald’s Christmas holiday, his 21-year-old ancient half sister brought him and other family member including Mama using her newly bought motor car. Unfortunately, they met an accident and Roald’s nose was cut. He was bleeding seriously. All of them were shocked and panicked, except Mama. She remained calm and asked her daughter to fetch them to nearest surgeon.

In addition, Mama took up the great responsibility of taking care for the whole family after her husband died of pneumonia. Even though there are so many children to be taken care of, she tried her best to let none of them being left out in the family. For example, Mama arranged all the things for their whole family when they were going on to the summer vacation trip.

How does the text develop your understanding of the world?

As can be seen from the text, in school, grown-ups (headmaster, teachers) overwhelmed the children (students). For example, headmaster in Repton Public School did not listen to Roald’s explanation of being accused by Captain Hardcastle for cheating and investigate further of what actually happened, instead, he trusted the teacher’s word blindly.

This happens in our everyday life too!! Teacher’s words are always the right one and the student’s are always wrong, even though the teachers make mistake when judging, they still considered as the right one. In order to produce fair and just treatment towards the students, the authority should spend time investigate the whole incident instead of just listening to one side only.

Author: Roald Dahl.

My self-introduction.

This essay is about the self-introduction of me, narrated from a third person view.

Waving his hands, shaking his body and following the rhythm. It was a dance by group of children during a graduation ceremony in a kindergarten. There were 6 of them, 5 girls and he was the only boy. He didn’t feel awkward or embarrassed being surrounded by girls and even dancing with them! His name is Tor Jiajun. That was 12 years ago back then when he was just a 6-year-old kid who knows nothing about boy-and-girl stuff.

When he was a kid, he had an ambition that was to become a businessman because to him, there were only 2 known professions, businessman and teacher. And he thought that all teachers must be woman, so he chose businessman instead. As he grows up, he likes to think and imagine all kinds of stuff. He enjoys letting his imagination runs wild. He joins drawing class during primary school age and finally develops his skills in arts. He is obsessed with computer games like other child did and even dreams of becoming a game designer. In the end, he decides to become an architect as he grows older and learns more about the reality.

Perhaps born with an extra portion of humour in his brain cells, he likes to tell jokes around with his friends. In addition, he likes to make fun of people and of course is willing be teased back. He just couldn’t stand a tongue-tied conversation. Everyone loves to have fun, including him. He loves being in merry crowds that he always hosts parties, gatherings during special occasions like birthdays, Chinese New Year and New Year’s Eve. No man is perfect. He has a striking weakness, a mind that is rather easily influenced by others. Whenever his decision or idea is objected by others, he will start to doubt his own judgment and most of the time will affect his final decision. He is now working hard to overcome this problem though.

To him, sports are a must. He strongly believes that a healthy mind comes with a healthy body. Jogging, cycling and futsal are his favourites . However, he loves futsal the most since it will not only give him a chance to sweat like mad but also meet up with his friends. Besides that, he enjoyed listening to music and he prefers sentimental songs because they would ease his mind after a long day of hectic work. Last but not least, he likes to blog and he thinks that one should write down joyful moments and not sorrow times. So instead of blogging about life’s a misery like what many other people did, he prefers to look at the brighter side of life itself.

He now has a big challenge to deal with. It is a test of intelligence, endurance and discipline. He is so fortunate that he receives an oversea scholarship to further his studies to Australia given that he passed this test. However, life is full of tests itself, there are uncountable challenges awaiting him in the future. Despite all the obstacles, he promised that he would appreciate this very opportunity and work hard to achieve his goal - to become a successful architect.

Tor Jiajun.

Reading Log: Desert Flower by Waris Dirie

How does the text relate to the theme of a journey?

The story centered on the nomad life of a girl name, Waris Dirie, it started with Waris who ran away from her home in Somalia because she did not want to marry an old guy as arranged by her father. With only known relative living in Mogadishu, she decided to travel to there to find her aunt. All by herself, on the way to Mogadishu to find her relative, she met a lot of obstacles, nearly raped by a man whom she hitchhiked, been tricked by stranger into his house to have sex. However, every time she managed to escape from the devil’s grip.

Among all the relatives at there, she stayed the longest with Auntie Sahru and maintained a good relationship with their family members. With the urge to earn a living, she followed Uncle Mohammed to London, where she worked as a maid. Although being a relative, she did not enjoy any privilege compared to the chef and chauffeur. After working as maid for 4 years, Uncle Mohammed had to go back to Somalia since his job as ambassador has ended. However, Waris refused to go back because once she went home, she will never come to London again.

Waris met Halwu and stayed with her at YMCA. Waris worked as a cleaner in McDonald’s nearby. Her life started to change after she went for some photo shoot by Malcolm Fairchild. Her beautiful photos were discovered by famous photographer, Terence Donovan. There began her modeling career. After achieving much of a success, she was offered a chance to film a documentary film from BBC.

With that, she had an opportunity to go back to her home, Somalia. After several tries of finding her mother (she did not have a photo of her mother), she finally found her mother. They had a great time together for a few days. The neighbors are welcoming Waris not because she is a successful model that made the Somalis proud but because she is one of them.

In New York, she met Dana in a jazz club. They fell in love with each other and after six months, they decided to get married. After having a family of her own (giving birth to Aleeke), Waris felt so contented with her life. That adventurous journey with all on her own before are now accompanied with the mental support from her own family members. She finally settled down her unstable nomad life.

What is the main issue in the text?

The story raised an important issue, the difficult life that people lead in Somalia, especially women. At the age of puberty, young girls are required to be circumcised. Because people there believe it is to keep the virginity of a girl and an uncircumcised woman is regarded as dirty, oversexed and unmarriageable. However, the process of circumcising is pain and suffering and yet it was carried out by using whatever piece of sharp object they could find, razor blade, scissor or knife. Young girls have to go through all these unwanted suffering just because of the selfishness and ignorance of the men who want to assure their ownership of their woman’s sexual favor. The aftermath of circumcising may bring illness, infections and sometimes death.

Other than that, Somalia’s women did not have chance to choose their partner. They were been treated as item to trade. For example, Waris’s father arranged a marriage for her daughter with an old man in exchange for 5 camels. To her father, it was a very profitable deal and his father was desperate to get her daughter married.

In addition, life in Somalia is 180 degree different from the developed countries like Europe. The Somalis are very much dependent on rain and livestock. Without them, it’s the end of their life. Therefore, they are very caring towards the animals and will not murder them for their meat, instead for goats, they will just milk them. Whenever there’s rainfall, they will celebrate as it’s the gift from god. The Somalis lead a care free life where they do not sensitive with time. On the contrary, while living in Europe, every second counts! Waris who came from Somalia to Europe in the beginning cannot adapt with the time management that she never used to it and hates wearing a watch.

What quality do you admire or dislike in a character?

Of course, it’s Waris Dirie, the main character of the story whom I admire the most. First of all, she is a very brave woman. She fought back the man who tried to rape her, two times, different man! She dares to run away from home by herself and travelling to Mogadishu alone. Other than that, she even have the courage to risk her entire life been caught and send into prison by using her friend’s passport to go pass the custom just for the sake of casting in James Bond movie. However, this act should not be learned by us.

In addition, she has great perseverance and hardworking. In order to earn a living, she followed her relative to London and work as maid in the family. She did not receive any privilege however, despite she is their relative. She did not complain. She also portrays high determination to live on. While traveling around alone, she made friends and asked for their help to have a place to stay.

Last but not least, she is very concern about the people who live in Africa, especially women. She accepted the UN Population Fund’s offer and became the ambassador against the continuity of female genital mutilation (FGM). Despite having a risk of being threatened by her own people, she cares for the majority of the sufferers. Her ultimate goal was to help prevent the practice of FGM.

How does the text develop your understanding to the world?

After reading Desert Flower, I just discovered that how the life of African people was. They underwent so much of hardships, especially women. They need to be circumcised in order to get married, many of them of did not made it though (died). It was hard to believe that, despite the improvement of human society, this absurd practice and custom, ignorance is still happen in some of the places. While we are enjoying our life in home, there are people outside suffering from these cruel practices. In addition, Somalis women do not get to choose their husband, but their marriages were arranged by their parents and sometimes act as a trade. For example, Waris was to marry an old man in exchange of 5 camels. Women in Somalia were been discriminated.

The men there are even worse. They did not give up any chance to gain advantage over lone woman (rape, molest etc.). For example, even the friend of Waris’s father, Gudan offended her sexually even though she was just a little girl that time. Another example is when Waris was asking a nice looking man direction to her uncle’s house, that man tricked her into his house and tried to rape her.

These also gave us a lesson that, do not trust stranger especially lone women who travel around. Even though they look nice and treat you nice, it is better to keep yourself alert all the time. Dangers lie everywhere. The world is full with trickery. Another example, Harold Wheeler, the lawyer who “helped” Waris to get a passport, he scammed her two thousand pounds by giving her a passport that do not work and then ran away.

The whole story gave us a vivid look on the darker side of the world. We need to understand that the world is not perfect as we thought because there too much kind of people with different character and some of them may discriminate others to reach their goal. We could not judge a person’s character just by looking at their physical appearance. Ironically, most of the criminals used their good physical look to prey their victim.

Author : Waris Dirie.