Sunday, November 28, 2021

The Boatman’s Gift - Summary- Pamela Michael B.Ed. first year Compulsory English

The Boatman’s Gift by Pamela Michael

Summary

The essay” The Boatman’s Gift ” is written by female writer Pamela Michael in a narrative form. She has included an experience of her journey to Laos, a landlocked mountainous country with no railroad. It has domestic airlines and few roads.  It has rich civilization and natural beauty. She visited Laos and enjoyed her journey.

She had three options to reach Laos: air, land, or water. She decided to fly instead of several days of anxious land or river journey. She enjoyed rugged mountains, thick green forests, breathtaking highlands, freshwater rivers, wooden houses, ancient Buddhist temples, Laotian architecture, shops, and villages. She found that Laotians had tolerance, forgiveness, and compassion even though they had suffered much during nine years of the US bombing in the war.

She visited an ancient city, Luang Prabang, in Laos.  It’s known for its many Buddhist temples. It is rich in architecture, culture, and traditions. Her journey by air from Vientiane (capital of Laos) to Luang Prabang was enjoyable, although Laotian airlines were known as dangerous airlines.

The different customs and traditional historic artifacts drew her attention and connected her with the people of Laos. She compared their living status and food with her California and found them more exotic. Similarly, she found that fish, rice, and different varieties of fresh vegetables were common among them.

She took photographs of the beauties of Laos. While she was changing the film of her camera, a boatman offered her to visit Buddha caves. Unfortunately, she found batteries were dead in her camera they were impossible to replace in that remote place. She thought without her camera her stay there would be meaningless. When the boatman knew her intention he advised her that she could enjoy the beautiful scenery with the camera of her natural eyes. This knowledge was a gift to the writer from the boatman.




No comments:

Post a Comment