The Picture of Dorian Gray

        Choosing my summer book was a daunting task. It always is for me, I never know what book to choose. I always do research on the titles that I recognize and then I usually choose the one that I find most interesting or that has the best reviews. This year I chose The Picture of Dorian Gray  by Oscar Wilde because I was really interesting in reading this books, because I thought the subject it covered was really interesting, and also very relatable to nowadays. I chose it, because I think it is really interesting how a story written in the late 1800s can still be relatable to topics nowadays. It was really interesting that a topic of beauty, people always trying to stay beautiful, and doing whatever they can to stay young is as current news now as it was back then. Nowadays, though it is even a bigger issue since a lot of people go through cosmetic surgeries to stay young and beautiful. 

The preface in this book is very important, it explains the importance of beauty in the social context of that time, and what they described as beautiful. The narrator wants us to know how beauty is seen in different kinds of arts, like for example when the narrator says “The artist can express anything. Thoughts and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are the artists materials for art”. 

“It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors”. This is a really important sentence, because it can show how art is seen by different people, how art is not the same for everyone and how the same piece of art can represent various things, depending on who is it that is reading, or seeing the piece of art. 

As the character show up in the book, there is a little explanation about the character and how they are going to be important in the story. For example, when the narrator introduces Lord Henry and Basil Hallward, he explains the setting they are in and what they do, and then hints how they are going to be relevant in the story.

The extreme life of Lord Henry is criticized in a mild way. What I mean by this is that we slowly see what is lifestyle is all about and not immediately. I think this is a good way of telling a story because it keeps yo interested and it makes you want to read more. 

My top 5 Books

The Sun Also Rises by Hernest Hemingway: I could really relate to this book since I grew up in Spain. I really enjoyed this book, although I was a little bit disappointed in the end, the end wasn’t what I was expecting. 

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I read this book during my junior year. At first I didn’t really like it, but I ended up liking it in the end. 

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger: At first I had my doubts about this book, but halfway through the book, I started to really enjoy it and could not put it down. The end was really surprising. 

One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: I red this book this summer, I had wanted to read this books for some years now, but never got around. I read this book in spanish. 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach: My father made me read this book a couple years back. At first I didn’t enjoy it at all, but by the end I really did. This is probably the first book that challenged me intellectually. 

Good Story Telling

Some books are great because of the way they are written, others because of the story they tell, Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an excellent example of great story telling because the way it makes you stop and think of society’s views on some issues. Since the beginning of the book, there have been different passages that reflect the way people think about beauty and youth and what people will do to keep being young and keep their beauty.

“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!" (Chapter 2)

This passage is one of the passages that I consider and excellent example of great example of a great story telling, because it shows how far a person would go to keep his/her youth. This passage shows what Dorian gray thinks of himself and how he thinks that the only way that he can live a happy life if he keeps his youth. These thought of always being beautiful and young start after Lord Henry tells him that his beauty and youth will allow him to live a life of pleasure. The vain Dorian becomes convinced immediately. Lord Henry sees the perfect opportunity to use Dorian’s insecurities to his own advantage, this showing how an insecure person can be taken advantage easily.