Book review: Pollyanna - A amazing story about the power of optimism

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:
While you may be amazed by the previous two novels, I had also read another famous novel entitled "Pollyanna" and this story is written by a quite reknowned author, Eleanor H. Porter. This novel had left me great impression as it is really one of the finest piece of literature works in the world. This novel is actually about a miraculous story of a girl, Pollyanna who transform the lives of everyone she meets with her optimism. She always looks on the bright side of her life and never bear a grudge. But one day, a terrible accident caused her to be in great despair and she did not know how to be optimistic about it. "Pollyanna" is also one of those popular stories of the turn of the Century.

-Story background
This story is a children's literature novel written in 1913 about a girl, Pollyanna who uses her extreme optimism for her life. In a fundamentally honest and straightforward way, the author brings out the trials of life such as poverty, loneliness, and illness in the story and tells us that a cheerful child's presence and encouragement can alleviate social and personal sadness. In the story, Pollyanna makes use of her optimism to help people see the positive side of life rather than the sad and negative one. In addition, this novel is also a solid adventure romance tale and it encourages readers to be optimistic towards life.

The positive vision taught by "Pollyanna" can be adopted into everyone’s life without age, race, geographical or any other difference. The author successfully uses Pollyanna to evoke the texture of life in small-town New England in the early 1900s. In the story, the author uses the country dialect and the rich regional flavor to mark the dialogue of such characters as Nancy and Old Tom. The author also skillfully employs imagery and symbolism such as Miss Polly's "tight hair" actually represents her tight and aloof personality. The characters show the different personalities of different characters and the changes of their personalities as the story moves on.

-Story Summary
This novel is about a eleven years old orphan girl, Pollyanna Whittier, who transforms the lives of the people around her with her extreme optimism towards her life. Being the main character of the story, Pollyanna was a young, innocent and kind girl. She liked to help one another and encourages people to be positive towards their life. At the introduction of the story, Pollyanna was said to have led a hard life since her mother passed away when she was still young and she has been impoverished her life. But her father brought her up and taught her many important values. When Pollyanna was a very young girl, she once hoped for a doll in the missionary barrel as Christmas present but she was very disappointed uopn seeing that it was only a pair of crutches in it. She was sobbing uncontrollably but her father who was a traveling minister then introduced the "Glad Game" to her to cheer her up since she was so disappointed. Her father also played the "Glad Game" and told her that they should be glad as they did not need it. It was actually a game to find something to be glad about in everything even if it is a bad thing. After learning to play the "Glad Game", Pollyanna eventually enjoyed playing it and this changed her life and others too. She then learnt to appreciate what she had.

But unfortunately, her father also passed away some time later when Pollyanna was still eleven years old. After her father's sudden death, Pollyanna was later sent to her maiden aunt, Aunt Polly's house to stay with her in Beldingsville, Vermon. Her aunt was a weathy but austere and humorless woman who always does her duty but not anything more. Her aunt then relegated Pollyanna to a hot, stuffy and small attic without carpets and pictures to live in as she hoped that Pollyanna would not disrupt her household routine. But luckily, Pollyanna remembered the "Glad Game" which was taught by her father and remained optimistic of she had been recieved from aunt even she was left with nothing as both her parents passed away. She played the "Glad Game" when she was living in Aunt Polly's house. When she was stuffed in a small, almost airless attic, she said that she should be glad as she actually had a high window to enjoy the beautiful view. When Aunt Polly punishes her for being late for dinner and gave her only a bread and milk to eat in the kitchen with her servant, Nancy, Pollyanna said that she was glad and loved to eat bread and milk and like Nancy to accompany her.

With her cheerful and optimistic personalities, Pollyanna eventually brought much gladness and transformed her aunt's dispirited New England Town to a pleasant place to live in. While living in her aunt's house, Pollyanna also met some Beldingsville's most troubled people such as Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton who was a miserly bachelor. She had also taught the people how to play the "Glad Game" and transformed their lifes. In addition, Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton had also showed a significant transformation of their characters. Pollyanna had taught them how to be glad for what they had as compared to those who experienced worse things. When Old Tom the gardener was bent over with arthritis, Pollyanna told him that he should be glad as since he was so close to the ground, he would not have to muster so much strength to stoop down to do his weeding. Aunt Polly was also taught by Pollyanna of the "Glad game" and she at first resisted the game but later she became another player. Pollyanna also could feel the love and care of Aunt Polly after teaching her to play the game. Althought Pollyanna had experienced poverty, deprivation and initial rejection of Aunt Polly, she still could be optimistic and never gave up.

But all these happy times soon past by and Pollyanna faced a huge problem. Her robust optimism was then tested when she was hit by a motorcar as she crossed the street. She was then severly injured and hospitalised. At first, she was not that sad as she did not really knew her situation but when she overheard the specialist saying that she might not be able to walk anymore, she was taken aback and was in great despair. She did not know what to be glad about it. At that time, her little thoughts become shaky and she was scared. But luckily, all others who experienced the encouragement from Pollyanna and played her "Glad Game" came and encourage her to be glad that she still had her legs. Pollyanna then regained her confidence and became optimsitic as before.

At the end of the story, it is said that Aunt Polly is getting married to her former lover and Pollyanna finally learnt to walk again after the treatments and appreciated the use of her legs more after the accident.

-My reflection
After reading this novel, I really impressed by Pollyanna's optimistic personalities. She was very positive towards life and never gave up. I really enjoyed reading this story. It is worth-reading and well-written. In addition, I am also amazed by the style of writing of the author as the whole story really captures my attention. A good book, absolutely.
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Book review: Animal Farm

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:
After reading Robinson Crusoe, the novel, another novel entitled "Animal Farm" captured my attention. This novel, Animal Farm, is written by George Orwell in 1945 and this might be the most famous work of political allegory ever written. The author wrote this novel to bring out a historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism and using farmyard animals such as pigs, horses and dogs who overthrew the farmers in search of utopia to show that a state of equality is impossible to achieve due to the corruptive influence of the power required to necessitate it. This novel succesfully presents how mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarians regimes.

-Story background
Although the title of the novel suggests that the story is only about animals living in a farm, the story is actually a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The farm animals are used to illustrate how the communist class system worked, and how the Russian citizens reacted to this, and how propaganda was used by early leaders of Russia, and the effect this type of leadership had on the behaviour of the people of Russia. The three pigs, Old Major, Snowball and Napoleon, are the main characters in the book and they are all used to be compared to different leaders in the Russian Revolution. In this novel, the author is trying to illustrate his own thoughts on Soviet Communism which is a hot topic.

-Story Summary
This story is about Old Major, the boar who was a much respected leader, started with a dream of taking over the running of a farm from the farmer by animals for animals. Old Major hoped that animals will form a rebellion and overthrew the human race and thought that there were liberty and equality for all in the farm. After since Old Major had passed away, the animals of Manor Farm were led by the two pigs who were also the protagonists, Napoleon and Snowball, and drove out Farmer Jones and his wife. After gaining power of the farm, the animals set up Animal Farm which their dream seemed to be coming true. After the revolution, the pigs became the leaders and gained power while taking over the running of the farm as they were the most intelligent animals. That was when the corruption started. The pigs started to control the animals of the farm and set down some rules which is the Seven Commandments to ensure equality and prosperity for all. The animals in the farm first agreed to these rules as they felt that they would get what they believe - equality and communism. It is written as follow:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

As the months and years past by, Napolean who was one of the leaders got the control of everyone and slowly exerted his influence. Napoleon began to twist what was once the truth but not now and used his trusty spindoctor to ensure the animals of equality and communism but eventually forgot what was agreed by all which was to be equal. As each passing day went by, this continued until eventually no animal could tell the difference between the man and the pig (Napoleon and Snowbell). Eventually, power corrupted and influenced the pigs. Hence, it appeared that the revolution was a failure from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism. The pigs, however, being the leaders of the animals, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda established the rule of an elite of pigs, which was led by Napoleon which was the most revered and sinister pig.

In the story, Squealer, a pig "could turn black into white" was much responsible for propaganda caused. Squealer could speak very well and was persuasive as he could argue at some difficult points yet, he had a way of skipping from side to side. He managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"which was presented in the story. In addition, he also managed to convince the animals that the pigs could eat more than the others as their roles were very important and they had heavy reponsiblities as they "helped the animals to run". As a result, this caused the gullible animals to believe what the pigs said and become thankful to Napoleon, for what they believed that Napoleon had "made their dream to reality".

A contributing factor to the propaganda showed in the story was that the pigs, which actually worked less but received more rations than other animals. This increased the confusion of the animals as they wondered why one species was receiving more than another in an equal society as the pigs promised. However, the other animals still respected and trusted their leaders and were willing to sacrifice to work harder for a better life. Here, the story brings out the situation in Russia which was more or less similar. In both the story and real life, greedy leaders took full advantage of the desperate commoners who were willing to sacrifice anything for them. The leaders were capable to turn matters upside down which were different from what they promised before. The commoners were then subjected to propaganda.

In "Animal Farm", Squealer and Napoleon which were he leaders decieve the animals that Snowball was a traitor and convinced them that he was a criminal through propaganda in order to gain more advantages for themselves. In the sotry, the horse, Boxer, actually represented the cruelty of how people are used for their skills and talents for others' advantages but as they turned powerless or useless, they were then disregarded as they were not needed anymore. Boxer which was the hardest worker on the farm as he contributed the most to the building of the windmill in the farm. But when Boxer was unable to continue work, Napoleon then got rid of him. This showed that the cruelty of human nature as man have the tendency to use other people to achieve their goals but disregarded them once they are useless or when man have found someone better. In the story, the author also presented the confusion of the animals as they all believed that Napoleon was right but they were confused by the better treatment which the pigs recieved.

-My reflection
After reading "Animal farm", I feel that this novel is more than a book but it can be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime and shows the the situation of propaganda and totalitarianism in general. In my opinion, I feel that it is really well-written and might be the best book in the world to show the negative side of politics. In addition, I also like the ending of the story which was a warning to the society about propaganda which is written as follow:
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which".
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Book review: Robinson Crusoe - A wonderful classic of shipwreck and adventure

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:

Imagine yourself being stranded on an unhabited island alone. No food along with you, no money and no help. You are just the only human being on the island. How will you manage to survive and recover from desperation? Well, Robinson Crusoe could.

During the school holidays, my eyes are glued to the book entitled" Robinson Crusoe" written by Daniel Defoe. This novel is written in 1719 and the author was inspired to write this novel by a true story about a man, Alexander Selkirk who was rescued after spending about 3 years on a Pacific Island in 1709. This novel is about a magnificent classic of shipwreck and adventure.

-Story Background
The protagonist of this story is Robinson Crusoe who was born in 1632 and is his family's third child. Being not bred to any trade, Robinson Crusoe's mind started to fill with rambling thoughts and was very fond of sailing. But unfortunately, Crusoe's father determined that his son would become a lawyer. Undaunted, Crusoe once said in the novel that he "would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea." Still, his mother and father did not allow it. A year later, Robinson Crusoe decided to sneak away from his parents and accepted passage to London. He then left on September I, 1651. That was when a series of adventure and mishap began. To Crusoe's horror, the voyage started badly. His first ship was lost in a mighty storm, but he did not give up and tried again. Little did he know that his second attempt was even worse! To his utmost horror, he was abducted by pirates and sold into slavery. But he still eventually managed to escape and then travelled to Brazil, where he became a wealthy plantation owner. However, he could not resist himself from sailing again. Strong-willed, He decided to try another time. Once again, this voyage ended up in complete disaster. As a result, his ship was trapped in a great storm and it was lost in the sea. Being the only survivor of the shipwreck, Crusoe then found himself stranded on “The Island of Despair” which he called. To make matter worse, the island was not near any shipping routes. His adventure soon began as he was plunged into desperation without any help and support. He was alone to make a life for himself on the island.

-Story Summary
After Robinson Crusoe was left stranded on the island due to the shipwreck, he was in despair without any hope, but slowly as he was adapted to the island, he started to recover from desperation. To survive on the island, Robinson Crusoe began to gather food, such as grapes and melons. With patience and ingenuity, he constructed a fortress home and developed a farm. He domesticated animals and learnt to make the tools in order to continue living on the island. As the years past by, Crusoe improved his situation. However, he was lonely and he sought for companionship to no avail. He was alone on the island without human company for twenty-four years.

After more than 20 years on the island, Robinson Crusoe one day found a human foot print which he believed was not his, and he was scared to death by his discovery: he dicovered that he was actually surrounded by canibal barbarians living on the opposite shore of the island. Some time later, Crusoe witnessed a human sacrifice and saw one of the preys escaping from the barbarians. Eventually, he rescued the inhabitant of a nearby island from cannibals. Crusoe then named him "Friday" since he was rescued on a Friday. Since then, Friday became Crusoe's loyal companion. Friday was alos taught by Crusoe to speak English. In addition, he was also introduced to the Bible which was the only book Robinson found in his sunk and broken ship.
But for twenty-four years he has no human company - until one Friday, he rescues a prisoner from a boatload of cannibals.

Several years later, Friday once told Crusoe of the region where he used to live before. He mentioned that there were white bearded people, like Robinson Crusoe himself, that remains abandoned after another shipwreck. That was when Crusoe knew a mutiny on board left the captain of the ship marooned on the island. Crusoe and Friday then rendered aid to the Captain and his men to retrieve the vessel. Finally after 28 years stranded on the island, Crusoe was managed to return home to England with the help of the Captain and his men. In addition, Friday accompanied him home. When Crusoe was back in London again, Crusoe then learnt of the new life and the new civilization that had evolved since he was left stranded on an island for 28 years ago."

-My reflection
After reading this exciting, amazing novel, I had impressed by how the author written the novel. This whole novel is like a biography of Robinson Crusoe, telling his adventure in a diary format. I had been impressed by his style of writing. He could turn the story so exciting, amazing and unbelievable! From the novel, I had also learnt some important values such as perseverance. Despite Robinson Crusoe being left stranded alone on a deserted island, he could still survive and did not give up. This tells us that how he managed to cope with all the challenges and struggles. It also tells us how man cope with reality when they face challenges. Anyway, I really feel that this is a great, well-written novel and perhaps one of the finest literature works in the world. It is really worth-reading.

Check out my elctronic bookshelf for more updates!

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My Electronic Bookshelf (updated)

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:
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STTA (Singapore Table Tennis Association) VS Coach Liu

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:

As you may know, there was a hot topic recently in the newspaper and the media about the saga between the STTA and Singapore Table Tennis National Coach Liu Guo Dong. On 14th May 2009, the newspaper wrote "Table tennis saga continues with coach Liu getting more support". Now, you maybe curious of what is happening but I assure you that you will have a clearer view of the saga.


The saga started when there was a public debate on Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA)'s decision of not nominating the former Singapore National table tennis Coach Liu Guo Dong for the coach of the year. Despite winning a historical silver medal for Singapore in the Beijing Olympics 2008, Coach Liu Guo Dong is not nominated for the award. This caused the some members of public to feel unfair for Coach Liu Guo Dong as they think that Coach Liu deserves the award for his commitment to Singapore Table Tennis Association by clinging a silver medal for Singapore. He also helped Singapore to end the republic's 48 year Olympics Medal drought. However, STTA did not feel this way. Instead, the chairman of STTA, Ms Lee Bee Wah, said that Coach Liu's integrity and professionalism was in question and thus, she decided not to nominate him for the award. Her view of Coach Liu had become an insult to Coach Liu and caused him to feel unhappy and insulted.


Ms Lee said that Coach Liu was biased to the table tennis men's team and neglected Gao Lin who was one of the table tennis player. She claimed that Coach Liu focused more in the women's team than the men's team. This caused Coach Liu to feel unfair for himself as he feel that it is not true to say so. Hence, Coach Liu wanted to have an explanation from STTA as he felt that the claim by STTA might tanished his reputation.


The STTA could not be reached for comment, but Coach Liu also told the media he plans to meet the association's president over the next few days. And he said if he does not get a clarification, he would consider taking legal action. This caused things to go worse,


Mr Liu said: "She just needs to apologise. I will not ask for trouble. She just needs to clarify her remarks. I have feelings for Singapore."


STTA did not issue any public statements castigating Liu for lacking “professionalism and integrity.” Lee Bee Wah has to answer for her own words. Since she dared to hurl accusations at Liu in public, she must be prepared to substantiate them. Till now, Lee had refused to defend herself or comment further on the matter. Why do you think she is refusing to give any comments?


It is most unacceptable and unbecoming for a leader to walk away and leave her subordinates to clear up the mess she had created herself. This will even caused more problems. She can prevent all this fuss by explaining the whole thing to the media and Coach Liu instead of refusing to give any comments. In addition, she could have easily apologise to Coach Liu for the insult to him. She could have also retracted her statements and then, this whole saga would have been solved so easily.

STTA think they can bully a non-English speaking China coach into submission and let the matter rest. They cannot be more wrong.

It is also pointless for Liu to waste his time meeting STTA if all they want is to save the skin of Lee Bee Wah who continues to hide behind the association.

Coach Liu said: “The least you can do is to not attack me through the press, or to comment that I have moral issues. If it was said on a personal level, I would have dismissed it. But the comments were published in the papers, so you can imagine the harm done to me."


But now the coach has the support of Dr Tan Eng Liang, who had worked closely with him prior to the Beijing Games. Dr Tan does not doubt Liu's professionalism as he had delivered the silver medal for Singapore.


Do you think this whole saga could have been prevented easily if STTA have done what I have earlier mentioned? The moral of the saga is "Always think twice before you act".
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A story that greatly affected my parents' life......

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:
Hey everyone, have you ever asked your parents before about their reading habits? Do you know what is their favourite book? Or do you know which book gives your father or mother the greatest impression that changes their reading habits or lifestyles? If you have not done so, try doing so as you will know more about your parents through their favourite books or reading habits.


As for me, I interviewed them about their reading habits and their favourite books and my eyes widened in disbelief as I could not believe their favourite books! My father had told me that when he was a teenager at about my age, he was so addicted to wuxia (martial) novels and comics that his eyes were glued to the books which he had borrowed from his friends. One of the novels which he impressed the most is The Legend of the Condor Heroes. My father said that he loved novels written by Jin Yong who is one of the most influential modern Chinese Language Novelists. His novels were all very exciting and most importantly, Jin Yong's novel are widely range, from wushu to romance. His novels are all so famous that quite a lot of movie companies used the story background for their movies. Artists also drawn out the wuxia novels Jin Yong had written.
The Legend of the Condor Heroes is a story set in the Song Dynasty and it is a novel about the friendship of two young men, Yang Tiexin and Guo Xiaotian who became heroes in their own right as they fought bravely the invading Jin soldiers in the war. They were very good swore brothers and they even swore to each other their unborn children would become either sworn brothers (if both were of the same gender) or be married (if they were of opposite genders). Then, the story focuses on the trials and tribulations of their sons following Guo Xiaotian's death and Yang Tiexin's disappearance. After that, the story tells about Guo Jing who was the son of Guo XiaoTian and Yang Kang. Later, Guo Jing was mentored by the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan in martial arts but he was a slow learner and only managed to master part of the skills he was taught. Yang was mentored by Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen Sect. Then, the story tells the adventures of the two warriors and the story ended with Yang Guo, who was the son of Yang Kang and would become the protagonist of the sequel novel.
Jin Yong had also written many famous novels which captured a lot of readers' attention from all over the world. Jin Yong's novels includes The Book and the Sword, The Deer and the Cauldron, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and more...... After interviewing my father, I am so amazed by his favourite novel and started to be interested of them.
If you are also attracted to Jin Yong's wuxia novels, you can visit this website as they have all Jin Yong's interesting, eye-glueing novels :http://www.ccler.com/jinyong/
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Village By The Sea - Character Analysis

Author: Chua Song Yang Posted under:

While you all might be interested of my previous book review on "Village By The Sea", I think the characters in the novel might also capture your attention. In the novel, the characters played an essential, important and vital role as from their roles in the novel, they give readers a better view and understanding of the story background and tell us the themes in the novel. With their roles in the novel, they explain the problems and conflicts going through.



Here are some major characters:


  1. Hari (protagonist of the story)
  • Hari was the older and only son in his family in a fishing village, Thul. Being the only son in his family, he had to work at the fields for his family to earn money even if he was still a child. He had also stopped schooling to work and this caused him to lose his childhood. With his family was dysfunctional, his father was permanently drunk and he could not play his role to work for his family. Hari's mother was also severly ill and could not look after her family. This caused him to bear heavy responsibilites and prematurely saddled with this heavy pressure.



  • Hari is responsible, obedient and knowledgeable as he knows what his family is going through. He knew he had to look after his family when both his parents could not. He also worked in the field at a young age and yet, he did not have any complains about it. He also knew he must quickly find a solution to solve the poverty problems his family was facing. 'He must have a job if he was to find his sisters a way out of this dark, gloomy house and the illness and drunkenness and hopelessness'. This shows that he knew he had to do something to solve his family's problems. In addition, Hari is also obedient. The story mentioned that Hari had listened to his mother and brought his younger siblings, Bela and Kamal.



  • Hari is hardworking, determined and iron-willed to work for his family. To support and earn money for the family, Hari had worked hard in the field. The story mentioned 'He (Hari) was soon sweating in the sun as he bent and pulled and tugged and dug.' In addition, Hari also was determined as he wanted to go to Bombay in search of job to earn more money for his family. He went to Bombay alone with determination to learn to adapt to the changes. Hari also determined to help Bela and Kamal out of this dysfunctional family as the story mentioned "He must have a job if he was to find his sisters a way out of this dark, gloomy house and the illness and the drunkenness and hopelessness that surrounded them like the shadows of the night." Hari was also determined to seek help in Bombay as he said that 'He would have to go to Bombay.'



  • Hari is also worrisome, pessimistic and doubtful about his future. He was unsure whether what he was doing would help his family. The story mentioned 'How? When? That was still not clear to him.' This shows us that Hari did not know what his future would like as he worried about it.



  • Hari was also caring and loving towards his mother and his siblings. While he was away in Bombay, he still did not forget about his family and worried them. This shows that he still cared for his family as the story mentioned 'I will save all my watch money for that (gifts for his siblings in Thul). When he was in Bombay, he remembered his family members. He also wanted to return on Diwalii to reunite with his family which shows his care and concern of his family.



  • Hari is also independent in Bombay and knows how to take good care of himself. He dared to got to Bombay by himself without any familiar faces. This shows he could be independent and do things by himself. He was also capable and independent as he could able work in Jagu's Eating house and My Panwallah's watchmending shop although he did not really
Hari was a reponsible, obedient, knowlegeable, caring and independent village boy from Thul. He had to assume both his parents' roles and work very hard since they could not take care of the family. As a result, Hari was prematurely saddled with these heavy responsibilites.
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