Response to THE LAMENT

Response to THE LAMENT

   The Lament is a story about a cabdriver named Iona. The genre is short story. The characteristic of this kind of genre I think is a complete story and is shorter than novel. It has one or more main characters. Moreover, it will tell a story about them.

   This story is easy to understand and the vocabularies is not very difficult. I thinks he mean idea of this story is to reveal a social problem. People always focus on their own issues and ignore others’ feelings. Just like what Iona had suffered. He lost his son and no one wanted to listen to him. He was so grief that he did not care about the money. I show sympathy to him, but also wonder whether I would listen to Iona if I was a passer-by in the story. The answer might be “NO”. I am unwilling to spend a lot of time listening to a stranger’s sad story. However, when I read this short story, I felt that the officer and three guys were very inhospitalily with heartless. Iona was much struck with his son’s death, but he could not talk with anyone of them. The only “one” he could chat is his horse. 

   As far as I am concerned, this short story wants us to realize that we also need to care about the strangers. When they talk to us, we would better listen to their story, because maybe they are in pain. Actually, we will not notice this thing just like the officer and three guys in the story. The only thing we care about is ourself or our families and friends. However, when we read this story, a light will break in upon us that the strangers also need respect and caring. This may also the aim of this short story.