Before we begin to analyze, let's take a look at what story is told in the book "The Obscured Sky.".
The book is set in the 1940s, during World War II.
Potter and Kitt are an American couple, and the war has exhausted their hearts, in order to escape the trauma of the war, in order to escape the trauma of the war, they hope to find a place away from the war to heal the wounds.
Places to walk overland would be particularly unsafe, and then they chose where they could reach by water, and Porter chose North Africa from one of the few destinations. At the same time he invited his friend Turner to join him on the trip.
However, the world is not as they expected, the dirty and chaotic environment, different cultures, barren landscapes, etc. all make them have a strong sense of discomfort.
Due to limited medical care, a tropical typhoid fever during the journey cost Potter his life, and after Potter's death, Kit gave up his sense of self in order to escape responsibility, exiled himself, and gave his body to an Arab merchant and became his mistress.
Turner, on the other hand, could only carry the result of the death of a friend and the disappearance of a friend, and return to the United States to be questioned by their loved ones.
Now let's see how this all happened.
North African desert
Potter | the so-called fate is just the result of each decision, do not make decisions when negative emotions such as anger and depression arise
To escape the trauma of war, he crossed the Atlantic from the United States to far North Africa, a trip of Potter's choice.
He had come as a student and thought north Africa was worth staying for a year or so, but he regretted coming to the continent on his first steps.
"When he stood in the blazing sun, he had already considered whether to go back to the boat and take the water to Istanbul, but it was difficult not to be ashamed, because he tricked them into coming to North Africa."
When he realized that his decision had gone wrong, he did not choose to correct the mistake, but chose to stay in North Africa for the sake of face.
From the environmental point of view, the hot weather, the dusty streets outside the café, the casual walking is to smash some huge insects on the ground, the smell of garbage floating in the air, all of which indicate that this environment is not very suitable for the three of them, well-bred Americans.
Some people say that they just want to escape the war, if they can get this result, wouldn't it be better?
But the results were also disappointing. North Africa at that time, mainly a European colony, could still see the traces of war everywhere they went.
There were still many North Africans who had to endure hunger, and the three Americans who lived leisurely were out of step with their surroundings. Porter, who was just traveling, had to bear the gaze of the hungry people when he was wandering, and these eyes made him feel embarrassed and confused.
In this case, he thought all about going to the deeper, inaccessible inland areas of Africa, thinking that it would be better if there were fewer people.
At this point, there is a hitchhiker that allows them to go further inland, and only two more people can sit. Potter had now sensed his friend Turner's ill-intentions toward his wife and believed her previous judgment.
He planned to take the free ride with his wife and let Turner go alone on the train. His wife did not agree to leave his friend aside, so he became angry and took the hitchhiker himself, leaving his wife and Turner alone to take the train...
As a result, on this long-distance train, the wife and Turner really had a relationship as he feared.
Life forks the road
Life sometimes needs to face multiple forks in the road, and the direction of each intersection is inconsistent.
Turner did not have a direction in the face of his life choices, just free choice, if he found that the environment in North Africa was not as good as he expected, and then immediately chose to stop loss, and a more suitable environment may be better.
In the way of riding, he knew that his friend Turner had a plan for his wife, but he chose to go first in a fit of anger, leaving his friend alone with his wife.
Potter made a lot of decisions in one fell swoop, and these decisions pushed him step by step to the brink of death.
We see a lot of decisions made under intense emotions in our daily lives, and these decisions often don't get good results.
Just like when I was at the beginning of the year, I met an unreasonable person in the company who did something unreasonable, felt very angry, and directly quarreled with the person in charge in a fit of anger.
If you can get the desired result, the tantrum still has an effect, but the quarrel did not solve the problem, and at the same time appeared to be particularly unprofessional. What is particularly humiliating is that I have not yet won others, there is really no "gain", there are a lot of "losses".
We face all kinds of situations in our lives that require decisions, but remember to make decisions, not when they are emotional or have negative emotions.
It is very sad not to be like Potter, to go by his own emotions and finally leave his life on the North African continent forever, and even the way he was buried cannot be the way he liked when he was alive.
Kit | give up self-awareness, and giving up self-responsibility is the reason for the nothingness of life
In the text we can see step by step that Kit she gave up her sense of self and gave up taking responsibility. Why? Let's set our sights on Kit.
Kitt is a typical American blonde who, when she first arrived in North Africa, was described by the author as she looked.
The girl with blonde hair and olive skin was originally very beautiful, but her burning gaze overshadowed the face. As soon as you see her eyes, you immediately forget about the other things on this face. In retrospect, you don't remember what she looked like, and all that remains in your mind is the piercing eyes that pierce the heart and are full of inquiry. ”
She was originally a beautiful, self-aware person who maintained her own perception of things.
Blonde
But the unfamiliar environment of North Africa disrupted her previous way of judging, and the huge conflict in her heart made her feel miserable, and she slowly chose to give up thinking and choose to wait.
When she realized that her husband Potter was a little strange and should have encountered something, she did not make any changes, but instead thought in her heart that these were not important, and was unwilling to make any effort, because "the weakest statement may also suffer failure, and failure is much worse than never trying." ”
Including the night of the relationship with Turner, mainly because Potter left her to take the free ride, she has always regarded Potter as an inner dependency, alone on the train to face those scenes at a loss, so she chose to attach herself to Turner, so that she did not have to think.
After Potter died of tropical typhoid fever, she did not want to be alone to take on the inquiries after returning home, and did not want to bear the responsibilities that belonged to the widow. So she pretended potter wasn't dead, took her luggage alone, bypassed the army, and quietly left.
When she lay alone in the desert, she firmly refused to think about it, separating the past from her present self, so that she would no longer fall into the sadness and remorse of the past. She is unwilling to admit that Potter's death also has her share of responsibility, and she is unwilling to admit that she has lost her lover.
Close yourself off
Then she met an Arab caravan, drifted with the Arab caravan, allowed the man's hand to wander around her waist, without any doubt, and naturally became the mistress of the leader, who would also give her to the other men in the caravan.
Back in the Arabian territories, the leader locked her in a narrow attic, which was windowless and pitch black. Kit couldn't even stand in the attic. And the food they often offer Kit is piles of half-cooked mutton fat.
All of the above situations, I can not believe that it happened to a beautiful American woman, to know that in the context of the time, Americans are much superior, food does not say big fish and meat, it must be normal meat, vegetables and other food.
But kitt exiled her consciousness like that, gave up her responsibilities, and made herself an unsightly mistress, whose soul had been completely swallowed up by the abyss of nothingness.
Later, she was sent to the U.S. consulate and asked the consulate staff to come and receive her back home.
Do you think it was her consciousness awakening, taking the initiative to contact the consulate, and wanting to return home?
No, she was abandoned by the Arab leader and wanted to find another man to attach to, and when a hotel man found out that she was not an Arab, she was a foreigner, and she quickly contacted the consulate.
When the consulate people saw her for the first time, she was wearing a soft and collapsed blue-and-white striped skirt, so bad that the maid's clothes in the consulate staff's home were better than Kit's.
Kit sat dejectedly next to the staff, and when she heard that the staff had contacted Turner and would come and pick her up, her unfocused eyes and stiff muscles made the staff think that Kit had gone crazy.
Just as the staff hurriedly contacted the doctor to show her, she left again, not knowing if she got into the car that was heading for the Arab Quarter, and no one saw her again...
summary
The couple lost themselves in this so-called trip, one lost his life and one lost his spirit. Although I don't know what Kit ended up with, it seems to me that they are all dead.
Sometimes we also think about making free decisions at will, and there is nothing wrong with calling it three-seven-twenty-one. But is it really a good thing to have complete freedom to make decisions?
By rejecting one's responsibilities, rejecting the pain of choice, is life really easier? When personal responsibility is stripped away, are we who we are now?
Giving up self-awareness, giving up self-worth, like a piece of duckweed following the tide, passively allowing others to slaughter, is the most terrible thing!