- •Books and readers. Rate of reading. The most important types of reading.
- •In conclusion I would like to say that reading is the best way to develop your mind and to learn not only some useful information, but also to learn to feel the real beauty of your language.
- •Books and readers. The purpose of reading. Most essential kinds of reading.
- •Scientific research. Pros and cons.
- •Choosing a Career. The factors contributing one’s choice of a career
- •Juridical system in the usa, uk and Russia
- •In 1993 Russia started to experiment with jury trials (panels of twelve jurors). A jury trial is only available in serious crimes.
- •Comparative analysis of dominant Russian and American Values
- •It is impossible to approach the culture of Russian people without trying to look at the geopolitical context within which Russia has lived for centuries.
- •Environmental protection. Its importance for the European countries. The "Green" parties and organizations.
- •Genetically Modified Foods: Curse, Blessing or other.
- •Genetically modified food
- •Challenges of the XXI Century
- •In my presentation I’d like to talk about the problems which are to my mind the most serious in the XXI century.
- •Travelling. Attitudes towards travelling. What does holiday-making mean for you?
- •Your attitude to travelling. What does holiday-making mean for you?
- •English as an International language
- •The role of computers and the Internet in modern life.
- •In future all techniques will be connected to the Internet. Now we can connect with Internet mobile phone, photo camera, palm computers and even alarm clock.
- •The generation gap. The problem of the young.
- •Childhood and happiness
- •The moon and sixpence The content, main characters of the novel. What is the main problem tacked in the book
- •Healthy lifestyle
The moon and sixpence The content, main characters of the novel. What is the main problem tacked in the book
The novel “The moon and sixpence” by W.S. Maugham was written in 1919 .
The revolt of the individual against the accepted conventions of society is a theme which has always fascinated W.S. Maugham. It is the inspiration of the novel “The moon and sixpence” which makes use of some outstanding incidents in the life of Paul Gauguin (though it cannot be regarded as his biography).
The novel marks a significant stage in W.S. Maugham’s literary development. The theme of “The moon and sixpence” took root in his mind as far back as W.S. Maugham’s Paris days (1904-1905). W.S. Maugham’s approach in the novel is that of the detached, experienced, somewhat disillusioned observer. W.S. Maugham hit upon the title of “The Moon and Sixpence” in a review of the novel “Of Human bondage”. This was what he later wrote: “The author … in his childhood was urged to make merry over the man who, looking for the moon, missed the Sixpence at his feet, but having reached years of maturity he is not so sure that this was so great an absurdity as he was bidden to believe. Let him who will pick up the sixpence, to pursue the moon seems the more amusing diversion”.
“The moon and sixpence” is constructed with great care, even with a certain degree of artificiality being divided into fifty-eight sections or scenes, many of them no more than a couple of pages in length.
The main character of the novel Charles Strickland is a prosperous stockbroker. At the beginning of the book the reader sees him through the eyes of a young writer, the narrator of the novel “He looked commonplace … He was a null”.
The rest of the book shows how wrong the narrator’s first impression was and the reader’s attitude towards Strickland’s character changes as the novel progresses … The only aim of Strickland’s life was to create beauty. Not long before his terrible death of leprosy, far from his native land, on the remote island of Tahiti, Strickland realized his lifelong dream. The pictures on the walls of his dilapidated house were his masterpiece. In them “Strickland had finally put the whole expression of himself”. W.S. Maugham tries to be impartial to his characters. They are neither all good nor all bad, “There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness …”.
The reader despises Strickland as a human being: he is selfish, cruel, pitiless and cynical. But, on the other hand, the reader worships him as a talented artist, a creator of beauty. His passionate devotion to art arouses our admiration.
Another important character of the novel, Dirk Strove, is shown as an antipode to Strickland. He was a very kind man but a bad artist, though he possessed a keen sense of beauty and was the first to appreciate Strickland’s talent.
Maugham wants the reader to draw his own conclusions about the characters and events described in his novels. “I do not seek to persuade anybody. I am devoid of the pedagogic instinct and when I know a tiding, I never feel in myself the desire to impart it to others. I do not much care if people agree with me … Nor does it greatly disturb me to discover that my judgment is at variance with that of the majority (W.S. Maugham “The summing up”).
Realistic portrayal of life, keen character observation, and interesting plots coupled with beautiful, expressive language, simple and lucid style, place Somerset Maugham on a level with the greatest English writer of the XXth century.