Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Attitude (Norwegian Wood)


Everyone has their bad days, those on which you think everything is against you, even the city’s traffic. Maybe you had an argument with your boss, or fought with your couple. And later on, everything seems to be wrong.

We have all had this kind of day, but we are the ones who make it even worse with our aggressive and negative reactions towards everything in those days. When I read this quote on Norwegian wood, it made me have a reflection about this, “I guess it´s all a matter of attitude. You could let a lot of things bother you if you wanted to” (p. 19).

This is one of my favourite’s quotes of the book. It couldn’t be more right. We enjoy life more if we at least try to have a positive attitude towards stuff; it is not that easy, I know. But it is word trying.

I think that if I remember this quote, and apply it to my life, things will be easier for me. I might not have straight A´s in all the exams, but my grades pretty good though. Or when I am stuck in traffic, instead of suffering I will just enjoy that moment I am spending with the person by my side. Or if I am on my own listen to the music I like and just relax. We can spend a terrible half an hour (or more in this city) complaining about stuff instead of trying to enjoy it the best we can.

This is one of the things I have learnt from Norwegian Wood, and it is one of the best advices I have been given in my life. And one of the best you can give.

Vocabulary:

Moat
-A deep, wide ditch surrounding a castle, fort, or town, typically filled with water and intended as a defense against attack. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)
- A fosse.
-“Where the green embankment makes for a nice place to walk by the old castle moat”


Embankment
- A bank of earth or stone built to prevent a river flooding an area.( The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved)
- A wall put up to avoid water from a river to go out.
-“Where the green embankment makes for a nice place to walk by the old castle moat”


Ramen
- A bowl of clear soup containing noodles, vegetables, and often bits of meat. (http://dictionary.reference.com/)
-“And the floors were littered with ramen wrappers and empty beer cans”


Littered
- Make (a place) untidy with rubbish or a large number of objects left lying about. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)
- An amount of garbage or things on a space.
-“And the floors were littered with ramen wrappers and empty beer cans”

Moldy
- Covered with a fungal growth that causes decay, due to age or damp conditions. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)
- Musty

-“Moldy mandarin orange skins clung to the bottoms of wastebaskets”

No comments:

Post a Comment