Shirley the Greyhound: A Healing Story in the Context of War

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When I first started reading Shirley the GreyHound, I didn't realize I had read the French original film version of the book. It wasn't until I read that Shirley jumped into the pool and showered and changed into a dog that I vaguely felt as if I had seen the episode somewhere and at one point thought it might just be my delusion. Knowing that I was staring at the cover on the bus that day, I noticed that the original French name of the book was "Belle et Sebastien", and I remembered that the subtitle group was called "Storm Greyhound" at that time. No wonder I was so moved by the theme song at that time that I couldn't find it.

The title of the book, Belle et Sebastien, is literally called Bella et Sebastien. Belle is the dog's name, the book's "Shirley". In French it means feminine beauty. Originally, the name refers to its good friend Sebastian who discovered that it was not actually a black monster but a beautiful white dog, which led to the name Belle. I know that in the context of our Chinese, we don't call a dog "big pretty", but think of belle Hadid, one of the Internet celebrity sisters , belle Hadid, Chinese

In fact, in works like this kind of drama, I think the so-called "elevation" is not necessarily needed, because not all works can really reach the height of "national hatred and family hatred". But if I really want to say anything about the "central idea", I would like to say that it is the multidimensional nature of human evaluation. The little boy Sebastian is ostracized by the children of the same village, and is said to be a little savage, a little gypsy, only because he is a fatherless and motherless orphan, and is not in the same group as the children of the village; shirley, the greyhound, is initially mistaken for a sheep-eating beast, because of its terrible appearance after being abused and surviving alone; The leader of the enemy army actually secretly provided a lot of help to the refugees, but because of his identity and stereotypes, subconsciously everyone felt that he was not a good person, and finally ushered in a reversal and so on. From the commonality of these characters, it may cause the reader to think: What is the criterion for judging people? Is it another form of understanding others to understand others from the perspective of their judgments or stereotypes? This question is actually worth thinking about.

In short, this "Shirley the GreyHound" is a vivid and unique novel, with a double choice of paper and film versions. The paper version pays more attention to the details, while the film version can make people more immersive. No matter what method you choose, "Shirley the GreyHound" itself is a good work that deserves attention.