Reading Notes

This book uses flashbacks to connect everyone through the protagonist Mia.

In each of us, there is a small fire, which needs a catalyst to form a prairie fire.

It's just that some people can't put out the fire after burning all their lives; Some people never arouse the desire for fire.

I think the fire in Mia's heart should be suffocated by real life. Although it has been burning, it has failed to form a prairie fire.

The small fire in her heart should be her persistence in art and disdain for the eyes of the world.

She has a talent for photography since she was a child, but her parents think that the real job can only be to make things or repair things.

And art is something that only the upper class can appreciate.

After Mia graduated, her parents didn't provide her with all the expenses for going to college. Mia completed her first school year through school grants and part-time jobs.

In the second year, the school no longer provided grants, which was a heavy burden for Mia, and Mia was cornered.

At this time, the appearance of surrogate couples gave Mia a glimmer of hope, but when she was pregnant for 5-6 months, her brother Warren died, and Mia went home with a big belly, but she was given the cold shoulder by her mother.

Said she couldn't accept a man who didn't want his own children.

My parents don't listen to Mia's explanation, which is equivalent to their own rejection of their daughter.

Mia may have been stimulated by her mother and lied to the surrogate couple, saying that the child could not be saved, and she left.

Mia lived up to expectations. While working, she took her daughter Pearl, took photos by herself and developed them.

She took her daughter wandering all the way, and her inspiration dried up, so she moved to another place to live.

Until they came to Cirkel, they decided to stay for a long time.

Pearl won the favor of most people in the landlord's family, but Mrs. Richardson, the landlord, drove Mia and Pearl away because of her selfishness. The reason is that Ikey is curious about the paintings in the exhibition hall and wants her mother to help her investigate Mia, because Mrs. Richardson is a reporter.

I think the little fire in Pearl's heart is a revolt against social injustice. She has never seen her father since she was born. She has never heard of any relatives except her mother. She never needs to get on well with her classmates, because she moves and transfers schools every once in a while.

She knows that she is poor in material things, but she is not inferior. Her grades are the best, and she is also a smart girl! However, the injustice she felt, she was temporarily unable to compete, except to give her body to Tripp.

Ikey is also a maverick girl. Mia helped her light a little fire in her heart. She felt that she was recognized for the first time and she was not pregnant.

Mia's arrival ignited her love and curiosity about life.

The little fire in her heart should be a kind of resistance to the unfriendly and unfair eyes of her mother and others.

Bell, the Chinese mother in the story, abandoned her daughter Meiling because of the pressure of life. Later, the pressure of life was reduced, and she tried to take back the custody of her daughter from the adoptive couple, and eventually lost the case.

One night, she stole her daughter Meiling and took her back to China. But it is undoubtedly unfriendly to the couple who adopted Meiling.

The small fire in her heart should be a resistance to this kind of social welfare and racial discrimination.

Everyone in the story has a small fire in his heart.

In the end, Ikey couldn't understand the fact that her mother drove Mia and her daughter away. Instead, she really set fire to her house to find Mia and Pearl.

In the first few days, Ikey's mother, Mrs. Richardson, hated Ikey so much that she even wanted to put her in prison.

But as time went on, she suddenly felt relieved at the thought of never seeing her daughter again.

She misses her daughter Ikey.

She always thought that the child was completely different from herself and represented her opposite, but Ikey inherited the rebellious flame that her mother had suppressed in her heart a long time ago. Like Mrs Richardson, Archie believes in her ability to tell right from wrong. Mrs. Richardson remembered the picture of the empty birdcage with golden feathers-she will often think of it for many years to come: is it her own portrait or her daughter's? Did she break through the cage and fly to the free bird, or the cage that bound the bird?

For so many years, she played the role of a cage, and Ikey finally chose to fly away.

We don't object to everything going according to plan, but we can't stick to the rules. No one can stand the life arranged like that, including her friends.

Mrs Richardson finally came to her senses. She learned to surrender to the so-called nothingness and became a very comfortable person to get along with.

The story has an open ending, and we all hope it will develop in a good direction, because a small fire in our hearts will fight this society to the end. ...