After reading "The Long Day Will End", what attracted me was the title of the book. After reading it, I felt unfinished. As a Japanese-born English writer, kazuo ishiguro is first and foremost a master of naming. His works have beautiful names, such as Shadows in the Distant Mountains, Ukiyo-e Painters and Indifference. Of course, the book "A Long Day Will End" is also beautiful in artistic conception, just like the flower arranging tea ceremony in Japan.
After reading this book, I especially thought of a slogan: life is like a trip, I don't care about the destination, I only care about the scenery along the way. The story tells the story of an excellent English housekeeper. After the new and old owners of the manor where the housekeeper worked changed, the new owner gave him a long vacation and reimbursed him for the gas bill for his trip to the south of England. There was such a good boss at the beginning of the 20th century, "The world is so big, you can take a walk". I have to say that such a boss is what we all dream of today.
It's not so much a person's go on road trip as meeting a good colleague who once worked together, and it's also for work. I hope to call Miss Kenton, a good partner who once worked together, back to achieve the goal of hand in hand. In the process, the housekeeper Stevens not only enjoyed the scenery of England that he had never seen before, but also recalled his decades-long housekeeper career in this huge room of Darlington House. As a housekeeper who received rave reviews in the manor of dignitaries, his professionalism and housekeeping ability are described in detail in the book, which confirms the sentence: there is no real housekeeper outside Britain. Because extreme emotional self-control can only be achieved by the British.
The biggest gain is that I learned the greatness of a real housekeeper through this book, the kind of forbearing, calm and unhurried British housekeeper. However, it is by no means a description of vulgar words such as holding a silver plate and introducing the high-end service of British butlers in domestic real estate advertisements.
Stevens' historical background, the special period after the First World War, reveals the living conditions of the people in the victorious and defeated countries after the First World War when recalling the great events he experienced when he grew into a mature and dignified housekeeper. I think kazuo ishiguro's works won the Nobel Prize because there is another kind of thinking about war in his works.
What moved me was Stuart Stevens' professional ethics and the 35-year-old employer Lord Darlington's maintenance. After the death of his master, the world had a lot of misunderstandings about his master, and through his memories, he saw a real English gentleman who promoted the well-being of mankind. There are too many people who believe that they are competent for a higher post, but they have no idea about the qualities needed for this higher post. Stevens, on the other hand, was sincere and basically gave everything he could to the master.
Because it's more intimate if you tell it in the first person. I realized that Stevens had also experienced various accidents along the way. For example, the car forgot to add water and the car ran out of gas. This incident on the trip actually gave him more experiences. For a housekeeper who abides by the rules, accidents are intolerable mistakes, but these accidents are full of interesting elements in the trip.
At the end of the book, I finally met Miss Kenton, but this is not what she said in the letter. Stevens considered the whole journey and finally found nothing, but the journey was not without gain. Walking out of the rich mansion where I have worked for nearly 40 years, enjoying different scenery and meeting different people is a kind of gain in itself.
It can be summed up by Miss Kenton's words: Time can't go back, and one can't indulge in what may happen forever. You know, what you have is not worse than most people, maybe even better, and you should be grateful.
The Long Day Will End 2 is a novel written by kazuo ishiguro in 1980s. In this book, the author runs through the whole text with memories of the past. In the long river of memory, we saw the hero's empty life.
The story revolves around a butler, Stevens. As the butler of British tycoon Darlington Manor, he witnessed the 30-year glorious time of Darlington Manor between World War I and World War II. But it didn't last long. After World War II, Duke Darlington supported the evil pro-Nazism and began to decline. In the end, Sir Alex Ferguson ended his life in depression, and Darlington Manor was transferred to Mr Faraday. With the kindness of his new owner, Stevens began his six-day visit to go on road trip. At sunset, Stevens began to reflect on his life.
"His choice is not out of some unpredictable fate, but more out of a sense of self." Under the great influence of his father, Stevens chose the career of housekeeper to realize his life value. "Only loyalty to the master can reflect the value and dignity of a housekeeper" is the unchanging truth he defends. Stevens thinks that Darlington is a man who "upholds justice in this world", so he serves his master wholeheartedly without reservation. He sacrificed a lot for it.
The first is affection. My father used to be a role model for Stevens and a conscientious housekeeper. Although Miss Kenton reported his illness many times when his father was dying, hoping that he could go back to see his father, Stevens gave up his family for professional ethics and missed the last time with his father. He called this pursuit of professionalism "the dignity of a housekeeper".
Then, it is love. While working at Darlington Manor, Stevens was indifferent despite Miss Kenton's kindness to him again and again. In his memory, his description of Miss Kenton has always been evasive, perhaps out of sadness that excessive pursuit of professionalism led to fruitless love. Stevens' indifference made Miss Kenton give up the hope of love again and again and marry off. Although Stevens doesn't show his true feelings for Miss Kenton in his memory, he can find his love and guilt for her from his narrative. During the trip, Stevens went to see Miss Kenton again in order to solve the shortage of government staff. But this time, all Stevens can say to Miss Kenton is goodbye, which he may never see again.
When the sun goes down, the long day is over. The ideal that Stevens pursued all his life also sank into the sea with the sunset. He was crying by the sea. It's too late, even if he finally faces up to his feelings and recognizes his so-called ideal ambition, life is irreversible. Stevens is not a man who gives up on himself, as he said from the bench: "I really should stop looking back on the past so often and adopt a more positive attitude towards life to make the rest of my life as beautiful as possible." What's the point of worrying about what to do and what not to do at first? As long as you and I at least make a modest contribution to a real and valuable cause, I believe it is enough. If some of us are prepared to devote most of our lives to such ideals and ambitions, then there is no doubt that what we should be proud of and satisfied with is the process of dedication itself, rather than the result. "At the beginning of the Lantern Festival, he chose to start over and try his best to serve the new owner and become an excellent housekeeper.
After reading this novel, what impressed me most was nothing more than what Stevens did. Kazuo ishiguro said that his starting point for writing this book was "how you wasted your life for your career". This is also fully reflected in his works. Stevens gave up love and affection for the success of his career, but in the end he got nothing. Stevens is a tragic figure in this book, and his experience also reflects the lives of many people in society. He has been busy all his life. When he looks back on his life at the end of a long day, all he sees is emptiness and sadness. However, the past is always the past, and the future is the most important thing. After the tragedy, none of us can give up hope. At this point, we should learn from Stevens, don't stop because of failure, and don't waste your life because of sadness.
Finally, no matter what happens, remember: only by facing up to oneself, heart and reality can one gain the hope and courage of ultimate success.
Read The Long Day Will End 3. When I saw Lady Blackstone's The Long Day Will End, I had reason to hope that when my employer came back, I could give him a surprise. "I vaguely feel that the story is coming to an end, but I still want to continue reading and look forward to the change of the protagonist.
Turning to the next page and seeing the translator's postscript, my heart sank and I breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, the hero bid farewell to his past life and will continue to be a housekeeper for his master in the new era. I don't know why I feel very sad, and a burst of bitterness welled up in my heart. I continued to read the translator's postscript, only to ponder it carefully. It's a pity, because there are too many profound analyses and some unexpected ones in the postscript, which let me have a further understanding of the author's conception and the protagonist's character.
As a housekeeper, the hero Stevens has always wanted to be a so-called big housekeeper, so he has done his best. In my opinion, his definition of a big housekeeper should be: to serve an excellent master and help him achieve his career with dignity. This led him to ignore or not feel the feelings between himself and Miss Kenton, the housekeeper, for his professional identity. After many attempts, Miss Kenton had to choose to give up love, marry another woman and live an unsatisfied life. From a psychological point of view, Stevens' expression of emotional alienation and depression is rooted in his family background, which can be seen from his opposite play with his father. He and his father worked under the same roof, but his father didn't appear many times in this memory. Although he regarded his father as an example of his housekeeper, the communication between them was not intimate at all. Until his father died, Stevens was still busy with his duties and didn't stay at his father's bedside, and his father had the same attitude. The atmosphere between father and son makes readers feel depressed at first sight, and if they want to escape, it should be more lethal to the parties. Therefore, the introverted character of the hero was achieved, which led to his life tragedy.
Even in the previous decades, influenced by the times, I had no chance to express myself better. This era may be more suitable for him. Because time came to the fifties and sixties, the whole world became more self-centered. This can be seen from the fact that the author arranged an American host for him. ) Stevens doesn't know how to live! Because he seems to have no ego and can't feel his emotions. So when I saw him end his journey, bid farewell to the past and move towards a new life, I would feel deeply sad. Because he has been thinking about how to train himself to please his employer!