Without love and guidance, angels will turn into devils - Comment on "The Remaining Children"

For children, many parents only care about having children, but never think about how to give appropriate love and guidance. In the end, they become strangers to their children, and even turn them into "devils" that harm society.

In the novel "The Remaining Children", the boy who broke into the school and started shooting was such a "devil", and the protagonist Zach and his dead brother did not lack the love and love of their parents. What about the “victims” of teaching?

01

This is a novel filled with sadness. From the perspective of a 6-year-old boy, Zach, it tells the story of his brother Andy who was killed in a school shooting. From then on, the mother could not let go and insisted on revenge. The family fell into endless misfortune, and finally almost ended in a story of fragmentation.

The story is told from a child's perspective, allowing us to see a different world.

In Zach's eyes, Andy is not a good brother. Andy and he were three and a half years apart, and they always bullied him. So at first, when Andy died, the six-year-old didn't understand what sadness was. He was even a little happy because he felt that there was no one else to share it with. Parental love.

But after my brother died, my mother was immersed in grief, and even the love she originally gave him disappeared. Because Andy's murderer had been shot dead by the police, my mother transferred her hatred to the murderer's parents and focused all her energy on how to take revenge.

This turned the original well-dressed, gentle and smiling mother into a terrible woman who cried and cursed at every turn. She became uncaring about Zach's life and study, making Zach feel very lonely.

From the beginning to the end of the story, the mother seems to value the dead Andy more, but in the subsequent story memories, we find that the mother also ignored his feelings when Andy was alive.

Andy was diagnosed with antagonism by a doctor very early. This disease mainly manifests as long-term and repeated rebellious behaviors such as talking back, getting angry and blaming others. Therefore, Andy is actually the "little devil" at home. like existence.

However, Andy's mania and rebelliousness are actually not only the impact of mental illness, but also largely due to the lack of love and education from his parents. His mother kept his daily schedule full, learning this and that, but never cared about his feelings or accepted his emotions, so he sought his parents' love in such an extreme way.

02

This situation occurs in many families. Parents will feel distressed and worried if their children behave rebelliously. This is why some children will resort to saying sarcastic words, fighting, and being disrespectful. Studying and other ways to attract parents' attention, Andy is a typical example.

And if a child does not cry or make noises like Zach, then parents will think that he is very sensible and pay less attention to him. Therefore, when Zach was fed up with his parents' neglect and began to become sensitive and irritable, scream and throw things, the parents were shocked to find out what their neglect of their children had brought about.

In fact, being a parent does not mean that we have successfully raised our children. We must also provide them with love and guidance. There was a news report on TV: A man had an argument with his wife and strangled her to death while she was sleeping. After the murder, he used his wife's mobile phone to forge various alibi in an attempt to conceal the truth. Later, he mentioned his native family in his confession. It turned out that his father was also violent towards his mother, which eventually led to emotional discord and divorce. He never received the correct love and guidance from his parents, so he was psychologically and behaviorally unstable. A huge distortion occurred.

The boy who shot the school teachers and students in the novel also did not receive enough care and education from his parents. In his daily life, the boy showed signs of depression early on. He posted negative remarks on his website, browsed many violent websites, and secretly purchased many guns to store at home. And this kind of thing, the parents were not even aware of it, which shows how neglected the parents are towards their children.

If a child lacks the love and attention of his parents and does not receive a good education, then an angel-like child may also turn into a hurtful "devil".

03

This novel caused a huge sensation as soon as it was published, and quickly appeared on major lists in Europe and the United States. The popularity of this work is not only due to the story narrated by the author - school shootings have been a relatively sensitive topic in recent years, but also because of the theme of how parents love their children that she conveys in the book.

The author of the novel, Rhiannon Naveen, is considered a newcomer in the field of writing. This is her first published work. However, as a mother, she has rich experience and thoughts in raising children. Through in-depth observation and thinking, she skillfully presents the love and guidance that children need to readers from the perspective of a little boy.

Although the story is narrated from a child's perspective, the author has very good control over the text in terms of language processing, and there is no sense of violation when reading it. When reading, we will think that we are little Zach, looking at problems with his childishness, and feeling the changes around us.

For example, when the book describes how Zach's face turned red quickly because of nervousness, it was written that "red juice" was spilled on his face; when he saw a TV broadcast truck, he thought it was a car. A big bowl was placed on top. These languages ????show the child's innocence to the fullest.

And when his mother cried and fainted in the hospital after hearing the news of Andy's death, during the infusion process, Zach watched the medicine being injected into his mother's body bit by bit. He described it this way: "It was like a water bag injecting my mother's body just now." All the tears she cried were returned to her, and now only the water bag is crying. "Seeing this makes people feel distressed, because the child seems to be able to feel more delicate emotions.

But we adults always think that they don’t understand anything, and we rarely look at problems from their perspective. On the contrary, they always tell them what they should and should not do according to their own will, and think that this is the love and education of their children.

In fact, this is a manifestation of imposing one's own wishes on children. So, how do you teach your children to be a qualified parent? In the second half of the novel, the answer is given through a picture book that Zach reads to his brother in Heaven. It can be said that "The Remaining Child" is a novel that makes parents realize how to love and teach their children.

Jian Baoyu’s reading challenge check-in - "The Remaining Children" book review