dearJohn英文读后感.doc

After reading Dear John
To be frank, Dear John is not a story which catches my eye at first sight. It is a slow hot story which make me moved little by little .
The novel refers to many aspects ,such as love ,family ,friendship ,and even the war ,which reflecting how major events take impact on ordinary people .The author analyzes people’s growth path and dialyzes the frailty and firmness of human.
The novel uses the first person in narration. The hero is called John. His mother left him when he was still a baby. His father worked in a post office who was a man of routine and lacked social communication ability and whose only enthusiasm was collecting coins .John couldn’t understand why his father was such a man of silence and, to some extent, was a weird one, which was actually caused by a disorder called Asperger’s .So John felt life tedious and pale and he always tried to do anything exciting, such as drinking and cutting class. However, the days went round and round. He felt tired of his life and wanted to make a change. So he joined the army.
Military life changed John. He no longer drank and had a routine life. When he went back home on vacation, he met Savannah, a girl full of innocence, vigor and love .He fell in love with her at the first sight. And Savannah loved him, too. The love between them became stronger at every moment. “She had one arm across her chest and another above her head, and I could think was that I would like to spend every morning for the rest of life waking up beside her.” And when John was leaving for the first time, Savannah said “I won’t be able to see your silly expressions. We won’t be able to lie on the beach together and stare at the stars. We won’t be able to sit across from each other and talk and share secrets. And I won’t feel your arm around me, like I do now.” How sweet! And with the help of Savannah, John accepted the fact that his father had Asperger’s. He also attempted to understand him and realized his love.
When John came back from the army for the first time, he and Savannah had a quarrel. John wanted to spend more time with Savannah, but Savannah thought John had humiliated her in front of her friends. But the anger melted away. They even made love. But it may be a sign of separation. Just as what John felt “I couldn’t help wondering there had been a trace of desperation in our actions, as if we were both clinging to the hope that this would sustain our relationship through whether the future would bring.” And the anxiety lasted even when John was in the army. “I listened carefully during the calls, trying to pick up any signs of depression and longing to her any words of affection or desire.”
Then what fate brought was the horrible 911 attack. This was the very patriotic part of the novel. “It was as if all personal differences and political affiliations of any kind melted away.” “For a short period of time, we were all simply Americans.” John “was caught up in the same patriotic wave, but more than that, was bound by the twin ties of friendship and responsibility.” And he finally decided to extend his service for the country with the support of Savannah.
However, space and distance ate into the love between them. When John came back for his father’s illness, he found something irrevocable had changed between them. During his service in Iraq, he was tortured both physically and mentally. What could been seen in Iraq were” the charred remains of a truck, the driver’s lifeless body beside it; a partially demolished building; ruins of cars smoking here and there.” But what was worse was that he received Savannah’s dear John letter. He was angry and sad, but unable to change anything. Then his father was in danger so John came home only to find that his father was in such bad condition .John decided to send his father to the extended care facility. Pitifully his father died at last and left John sixteen heavy boxes with gold coins involving the 1926-D buffalo nickel which was the only coin that really meant anything to them. For this part, I am so moved by the picture when John saw his father for the last time. “He held the paper close to his face, and I could see the page shaking slightly. His lips were moving as he concentrated on the words, and I forced myself to study him, hoping to memorize his face forever.” It is full of warmth but heartbreaking.
The sadness made John want to see Savannah, his lover. He finally saw her but got that she was married and her husband was her good friend—Tim. Yes, he knew and he always knew that Tim loved Savannah. Savannah asked John to see Tim tomorrow. John wanted to refuse but he just couldn’t do so. He also knew that himself always loved Savannah. Next morning, John saw Tim in the hospital. Tim had got an almost incurable disease but there was hope to recover if they had enough money to get MD Anderson test treatment. When alone with Savannah, John felt the ambiguous air between them. When alone with Tim, he felt a sense of guilty, especially when Tim asked him to be with Savannah again if he died. John became confused. Love should bring joy, it should grant a person peace but not pain. When he removed Savannah’s picture from his wallet, I understood his decision.
He left and sold his father’s coins for Tim’s treatment without telling them who he was. The last picture of this sad love story is that John and Savannah saw the moon together without face-to-face, but maybe heart-to-heart. As John thought, it’s a miracle.
Just as what I write at the beginning, it’s a slow hot story. But when reading it more and more, I couldn’t help being moved and feel its magic. The author’s description is so beautiful that arouse echo in my heart. Besides the preceding quotation, there are other sentences I want to share. “We watched a show of falling stars, staring in amazement as the flashed of white raced across the sky. It was one of those perfect evenings with just enough breeze to keep us from either hot or cold,” “The kiss that followed was like its own magic kingdom, complete with its special language and geography, fabulous myths and wonders for the ages.” “The realization left me feeling as empty as a rusted paint can.”
The author uses some felicity and sometimes wonderful comparison to describe the feeling of the characters. That makes me identity with the people in the story. From the two relationships (John and his father; John and Savannah), I understand what true love is. From John’s father, I realize that sometimes love can’t be told by mouth, we should learn to touch love by our hearts. When you view things from the point of others, you may find another world. John’s father is undoubtedly a great father. As a man with Asperger’s, he still raised his son up and gave him care and love. I admire him. Regarding the sad love story between John and Savannah, I still feel so pitiful, even sympathize with John. It is not until the end of the story, I get comfort. John said it when he gazed at Savannah secretly: True love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.