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Prompt: The ultimate meaning of 'The Distant Boat'
Sample essay on the final significance of 'The Distant Boat'
Task Submission:
The photograph 'The Distant Boat' earns high acclaim from art enthusiasts. 'Not only in that year's calendar, but forever after,' it retains its value. This image graces the walls of sophisticated living rooms, admired by those with a discerning taste for art.
This praise rightly matches the effort Phung invested, spending days to capture it. It's a beauty that perhaps Phung only grasps once in a lifetime. Art enthusiasts appreciate the photo purely, sensing its beauty on the plane of an all-encompassing, worthy-to-be-hung artwork in the most elegant places. Whoever collected it must be immensely proud. Art is priceless!
Yet, for Phung (or, in other words, Nguyen Minh Chau), it's not necessarily so. While capturing a picture-perfect image, Phung seems to harbor uncertainties and inner turmoil. Because beyond the photograph, Phung sees more, other images. These are the images of suffering people. Phung is the creator, the one who brought forth this work of art, but he doesn't glance casually, like some casual admirers. Perhaps many only see its external beauty, admire, praise briefly... and forget! But Phung 'each time he looks closely,' meaning he's looked more than once, then 'looks longer.' This indicates that behind the photo, there's still something that troubles him.
Whenever he gazes upon that woman, she seems to step out of the photograph. The impoverished fisherwoman, struggling to provide for her children while enduring continuous beatings from her husband, leaves a vivid imprint on Phung's mind. Her suffering is evident in her worn-out attire, tired and pale face, soaked lower half, enduring beatings in silence without resistance or escape. Phac, her son, and the stout, brutish old man, her husband, represent lives of hardship, making the deepest impression on Phung's mind the image of the fisherwoman. She embodies the struggles of laboring people in numerous ways. Their happiness is often simple, humble, but not always attainable (during family harmony, joy/when watching their children eat well...).
Their lives are ordinary, silent, unknown, yet they are the majority, the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of this earth 'her feet firmly planted on the ground, blending into the crowd.' They are the masses who have rooted themselves on this planet since the dawn of humanity. Unfortunately, these masses seem unfamiliar with the magnificent photos depicting their lives. In other words, the artistic photograph 'The Distant Boat' is like a beautiful shell; behind it, there are still torn, impoverished lives. The photo remains motionless in an elegant place in art-loving families!
Art originates from life. However, life is not always as ideal as art. This is not new. More than sixty years ago, Nam Cao said, 'Art doesn't need to be ... shouldn't be a deceptive moonlight; art can be the sound of that pain, escaping from the mistakes of the past...' (Bright Moon - 1943). Photographer Phung is haunted every time he looks back at the photo, as he may think that the photo is too luxurious, too distant from the lives of those impoverished laborers. It's just a shell containing the misfortunes of lives that those who don't witness directly, like him, will never fully perceive behind that photo. There's still a gap between art and life. He wants to understand, share, empathize more with others' pain with all his heart, hence why he 'looks closely' and then 'looks longer.' Phung wants to unearth what is in a familiar photo of his own? Somewhere is also the soul of an art enthusiast.
Perhaps that's why Phung seems to want to do something more, something specific, to connect art with life. Otherwise, the beautiful photo, like a dream, will forever be The Distant Boat!
Explore more about the short story Beyond the Distant Boat and witness the profound, eloquent role of Nguyen Minh Chau as the 'trailblazer' through various essays: Summary of Beyond the Distant Boat, exemplary essay Analysis of the Symbol of the Distant Boat, Character Analysis of Phung in Beyond the Distant Boat, Analysis of Irony in Beyond the Distant Boat, and an examination of the humanitarian values in the work Beyond the Distant Boat.
