图书作者与内容简介

Kenneth Grahame lived with relatives in England near the River Thames, the landscape there impacted him while writing this book. Although this story was created only to entertain his son, it’s the most famous book he had ever written, and was popular with both ***s and children.

The story talks about friendship, adventure, and family. Through the vivid depiction of animals and idyllic life, it awakens the reader to a long-forgotten innocence, and also reveals the beauty of human nature.

我的观点

Most people know that The Wind in the Willows is a fairy tale whose main characters are four animals, but I can't help thinking deeply about each character in the story as a different part of my heart as I turn page after page. 
 
While I’m reading this book, a thought continues spinning in my mind: Why do most animals live the same life day in and day out, even if there are places they want to go and dreams they want to fulfill?
 
‘‘You surely don't mean to stick to your dull fusty old river all your life, and just live in a hole in a bank, and boat?’’, asked Toad.
 
I think the animals in the willows forest choose to stay in their comfort zone rather than get out of it because they can continue a stable life without spending much brain power and time thinking just by doing the same thing they are used to. 
 
According to the media, the people around the world nowaday have the same mentality. When they faced the "Covid-19" that started in 2019, even though they knew that staying at home and stop talking with others face-to-face is uninteresting and moreover bad for their both physical health and mental health, there are also some public encouraged everyone to get back to 「normal life」, but most people still avoid and struggle to change. They can avoid a number of unnecessary problems as long as they live the same life, they refuse to change the status quo.
 
In the past, I wasn’t brave enough to make decisions on my own as I’ve usually cared too much about what it might cause, and this made me lose lots of chances. When I was in elementary school, the teacher asked whether someone wanted to join an exchange program. There was only one person who raised his hand, actually I had an urge to raise my hand too but I didn’t just because I wasn’t sure what would happen. Though I knew this opportunity was rare, I dare not raise my hand to seize it just as other classmates did. A few months later, an exchange student appeared and sat next to him. I felt so envious of that, even though I still got a chance to interact with the student, but I indirectly became a coward because of my fear and hesitation. 
 
By reading this book, I realized that if we long for adventures or explorations, we have to do something although we don’t know what the overcomes will be at last just like Mole and Toad do in the book: Mole formed the resolution to go out by himself and explore the Wild Wood, and struck up an acquaintance with Mr. Badger whom he really wanted to meet; Toad sneaked away from the house where he was trapped by his friends so as to pursue the life he desired to live. I really admire the courage they have to keep going but for fear of the unknown. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, 「Do one thing every day that scares you.」, how could I predict the consequences if I don’t do something? Therefore, in the semester of senior high school, I mustered up the courage to recommend that I wanted to join the exchange programs to the teacher, and I made many close friends and got a lot of unforgettable memories after that. Later on,I found out that isn’t a scary thing.
 
In today’s post-covid-19 era, so as not to seek familiarity constantly and not be conservative, we must cultivate the ability to discover and explore aside from getting out of our comfort zone. Furthermore, it is important to have the courage not to be fearful of change and the unknown. 
 
For me, this book is not only a fairy tale about the meeting of several animals in the willow forest, but also a story about my meeting with my inner self. This book not only awakens the innocence we have long forgotten, but further leads us to find our inner selves through this story.