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Week8 : Anansi Boys (6pt)

10/29/2020


This week I read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. The first thought came into my mind is that I feel like most of us are as ordinary as Charlie. So ordinary that we will not look at him or say hello to him. Charlie is next to me and you, and there's a good chance I'm the “Charlie” and you're the “Fat Charlie”. We are all looking forward to a brilliant, charming world, but unfortunately, we must face the conflict between our internal expectations and external environment, and It’s not easy to accept this fact. That is to say, we tend to be ordinary and not attractive.

Fortunately, if Charlie had never met Spider, he might have lived the same life for the rest of his life and accepted it as a normal life. The arrival of the spider changed all that, and finally, Fat Charlie can become someone he used to look up to and feel a little jealousy. I think self-cognition and self-orientation is a very important subject in the process of personal growth (in both the story and in real life). There are two selves in everyone. One is as sensitive and self-doubting as Fat Charlie, and the other is as adept and resourceful as Spider. Behind the ups and downs of Spider and the two characters with very different characteristics, Fat Charlie and Spider reveal the precious and not easy way to break through the shackles of self-denial in the process of personal growth. I think this is the most important lesson that Anansi Boy gives to every reader.

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