The Book I Read Recently

I've finished a book recently called Human Bondage, written by William Somerset Maugham. It's a very interesting and educating one at the same time. The main character is Philip, a cripple, who lost his parents when he was 9 and lived with his uncle, followed by a priest. Just like the book title says, Philip had bondages in his early life. His disability is one of them. He had a misfortunate childhood since his classmates always made fun of his disability, which upset him a lot. The second bondage comes to religious belief. Philip had deep faith in religion but for some reasons he stopped believing in god. The third bondage is romantic love, 5 ladies appeared in his life. In terms of love, he has had  happy as well as pathetic memories . He loved Mildred most but she kept harming as well as taking advantages of him , plus not loving him at all. We can't blame her for that since love cannot be forced. However, her deeds is not very decent. The last bondage is the meaning of life. People tried to find out the meaning of life in all ages. Philip did the same, he wanted to figure it out too. But after his friends' death and the happening of other things, he finally realized that life is meaningless. All things we have done before was meaningless. The reason why we were born is to suffer. In the end, Philip is totally free, his mind and his body. He lets go of everything, whether it mattered or not. Sounds a little pathetic, but on the other hand, Philip comprehended the true meaning of life and he married a girl from a village. A very happy ending. From the book, I somehow realized the differences between love and like. Love means you are willing to sacrifice everything you have, to make her happy and in order to have her you are willing to do anything, as if you are going to die without her. but like is more of a enjoyment of the time being with her but you will still be ok without her.