In the middle of a war, a transport plane carrying a group of English boys from Britain was shot down over the ocean and it crashed in thick jungle on a deserted island. Scattered by the wreck, the surviving boys lost each other and cannot find the pilot. The story starts with Ralph who meets with a chubby boy named Piggy. Ralph and Piggy look around the beach, wondering what has become of the other boys from the plane. They discover a large cream colored conch shell, which Piggy realizes could be used as a kind of fake trumpet. He convinces Ralph to blow through the shell to find the other boys. The boys were summoned by the blast of sound from the shell and they staggered onto the beach. The oldest among them are around twelve and the youngest are around six. Then a choir led by Jack shows up and all the assembled boys decide to elect a leader or Chief. Ralph is elected chief but with serious opposition from Jack and in order to satisfy Jack, Ralph appoints Jack and his choirboys as the hunters of the "tribe." He then takes Simon, and Jack to explore the island. They find a mountain and explored the land and they return to the beach.

Chapter 2

Ralph returns and tells everyone that the island has no adults that all have to learn to live together. They also agreed on meetings whenever the couch is blown and that, at meetings, the conch shell would be used to determine who has the right to speak. The boy holds the conch shell will speak, and the others will listen silently until they receive the shell in their turn. Even Jack agrees with this idea. Then one of the little kids claims that he saw a "beastie" on the island, which puts fear and scares everyone. Ralph tells the group to build a large signal fire on top of the mountain on the island so that any passing ships might see the fire and know that someone is on the island. Piggy tries to reason with the group about survival but they all ignored him.

Chapter 3

Jack follows and tries to kill a pig but he fails. He returns and finds that Ralph is busy with building the hut with Simon. Ralph is annoyed that boys are unwilling to work on the huts and Jack promises Ralph that they will have better luck with the pig next time. Ralph implies that Jack and the hunters are using their hunting duties as an excuse to avoid the real work. Jack responds to Ralph's complaints by commenting that the boys want meat. Jack and Ralph continue to bicker and grow increasingly hostile toward each other. Simon goes off by himself and finds a place where he can peacefully stay.

Chapter 4

The little kids now called "Littluns" plays all day long and at night has frightful experiences. Ralph is worried about this. The large amounts of fruit that they eat cause them to be sick in the stomach and get diarrhea. Roger and Maurice torture little kids by destroying their sand castles. Jack who is obsessed with catching a pig goes off with his hunters to get a pig. While they were gone, Piggy and Ralph spots a ships that passes by and finds that while the boys were out for the hunt, the fire on the mountain went out ending with the ship passing by without their rescue. Ralph is angry but the boys brought the pig back from the hunt and roasted it and gave it to everyone. Jack is now resenting Ralph and his leadership.

Chapter 5

Ralph goes to the beach and calls a meeting in order to bring the boys into line. Ralph tells them about their failure in duty and that they should do their duty. Ralph also tries to tell the young boys that there is no beast and that they should not be afraid but it failed. The little ones say that the beast hides at day and at night come out of the ocean to haunt the kids and that these kids are in danger. Suddenly, Jack proclaims that if there is a beast then he and his hunters will hunt it down and kill it. Then the group breaks away while Ralph tells Piggy and Simon that he might cease this leadership but they tell Ralph that he need to be leader or Jack might go on a rampage.

Chapter 6

In the darkness, military planes fight in the air above the island but the boys were sleeping so they miss it and they also miss when a parachute lands with a dead person onto the island. When Sam and Eric woke up, in the flickering firelight, they see the twisted form of the dead parachutist and mistake the shadowy image for the figure of the dreaded beast. They rush back to the camp, wake Ralph, and tell him what they have seen. Ralph immediately calls for a meeting, at which the twins reiterate their claim that a monster assaulted them. They look for the monster and when they get to the place where they did not explore the island, the boys start to play around so Ralph gets angry with them.

Chapter 7

As the boys eat, Ralph look at the sea without hope but Simon reassures him that he will get home safe. The boys go boar hunting as they chase the beast and Ralph gets excited when he get a "snot" at the boar's snout with his spear. The group frenzied with the hunt, reenacts the hunt with a boy named Robert as the pig and he gets almost killed before the boys realize what they are doing. Ralph sends Simon back to Piggy to tell him that the group will be back after dark. The group climbs to the mountain and Jack goes to the summit while Ralph and Roger wait at the mountain. Jack tells Ralph that he saw the beast and Ralph also checks it out and sees a beast too so they go to warn the group.

Chapter 8

The next morning, they call a meeting and Jack tells everyone that there is really a beast. He also goes to tell everyone that Ralph is a coward and a scared loser and he tries to vote him out of power and be the new chief but no one cares to remove Ralph. Then Jack goes off with his own followers. The boys wanted the fire back so Piggy suggests building a fire on the beach and they build one. At night, many boys go off to join Jack and Piggy tells Ralph that it is good that the deserters left. Then Jack declares himself the chief of his tribe and they hunt a pig and impale its head on a stick. Then they raid Ralph's tribe and steals fire while Jack invites them to come to his tribe and eat the feast and join them. Meanwhile, Simon sees the head on the stick and feels as it is talking to him so he faints.

Chapter 9

Simon then comes upon the dead body of the parachutist and he sees how the boys got mistaken about the beast so he takes the parachute to the feast by jack to tell them about it. At the feast, the boys eat and have fun and Jack invites Ralph's followers to join his tribe and many do even though Ralph tries to stop them. Ralph also tells them that in the storm, where will his tribe stay and jack ignore him. As the boys are dancing and reenacting the pig hunt, Simon comes to the party with the parachute but the boys did not see him but sees his shadow and thinks he is the beast and kills him. Then the wind blows the parachutist's body unto the beach and they run off scared.

Chapter 10

The next day, Ralph is feeling guilty over the death of Simon while Piggy claims it as a small accident. Many of Ralph's followers joined Jack's tribe and now Ralph and Piggy are almost alone. Jack made his base at Castle Rock and he is the true ruler. He commands his tribe to be on the guard against the beast since it can assume anyone's shape (they believe Simon is the Beast) and since it is not truly dead. He also tells roger and Maurice to go to Ralph's camp and steal the fire. Jack's hunters steal the fire and Piggy glasses and beats Ralph and his tribe.

Chapter 11

The boys at Ralph's tribe try to light the fire but fails. So they go to Jack's tribe where the encounter Jack coming back from the hunt with a pig. Jack tells Ralph to leave but Ralph tries to reason with him but ends in failure. They fight. Jack them orders the twins Sam and Eric to be ties up, leading Ralph into rage causing another fight. Piggy tried to reason with them but they continued fighting. Roger pushed a boulder at them and Ralph doges them but it breaks the couch and knocks Piggy off the mountainside into the rocks (he dies). Ralph runs into the jungle as Jack and others in the tribe attacks him. Sam and Eric started to get tortured as they were forced to join Jack and his tribe.

Chapter 12

Ralph hides in the jungle and then he goes back to jack's camp. The twins, who were the guards, see Ralph and gives him food but doesn't join up with him. They tell him that Jack is going to send the whole tribe after him tomorrow. Ralph hides in a jungle thicket. The boys try to get through but the thicket was too dense so jack sets it on fire. Ralph come out and fights his way past jack and his hunters. He runs and at last collapses on the beach after frantically trying to find a hiding place. Ralph look up and sees a navy officer standing there. The officer tells him that he saw the smoke and came to check the island out. Them Jack and his boys arrive and Ralph tells the officer everything that had happened and he was amazed how civilized boys turned into nothing more than barbaric savages. They get saved.

Mullet Fingers is trying to save some burrowing owls from the construction of a pancake house.  He resorts to some minor vandalism at the construction site to delay progress and Officer Delinko is put on the case.  The owls are endangered and protected but the company is ignoring this fact and plan to build the pancake house anyway.

Roy soon learns that Beatrice is the stepsister to Mullet Fingers and together all three work towards saving the owls.

Unfortunately they have some difficulties with Officer Delinko, a foreman named Curly and Dana.  Everyone learns that the owls are endangered and the pancake house construction is scrapped.  And in the end Roy, Beatrice and Mullet Fingers triumph over bullies, grumpy foremen and mixed up policemen.

 

This book has been published through many publishers, but my personal copy was Penguin. This book was copyrighted in 1926. It was previously printed in Dodd, Mead, & Company, and HarperPaperback editions.

Introduction

            Like all of Agatha Christies other novels, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has a very complex plot to it. The main characters are the narrator (this book is in first person), Dr. Sheppard, the famous detective, Poirot (who is present in many of Christie’s books, and other suspects. Poirot is a famous detective in the story, and has happened to retire close to the house of Dr. Sheppard, growing vegetable marrows. From then on, Dr. Sheppard acts as Poirot’s colleague. All the other suspects live in the house of Roger Ackroyd.

            As you can guess, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a myster-fiction. The murder takes place in Liverpool, England, and probably took place in the early 1900’s. The beginning takes place without Poirot (but still is Dr. Sheppard’s neighbor but goes under the name of Mr. Porot), but Dr. Sheppard is present with his obnoxious sister.

Plot

In the beginning, a widow named Mrs. Ferrars committed suicide and stirs suspicion and rumors. Roger Ackroyd, a wealthy businessman, gives Dr. Sheppard a call asking for medicine. It turned out that Roger really wanted to tell a secret to Dr. Sheppard (they were close friends). Roger Ackroyd was engaged to Mrs. Ferrars. Coincidentally, during the middle of the conversation, a blue letter arrives. It was the confession of the widow’s suicide. Dr. Sheppard and Roger Ackroyd discover in the letter that someone was blackmailing the widow for large sums (they found out a bit before that the widow had killed her husband), but the letter didn’t say

Liz Pennykettle: Lucy's mom.

Lucy Pennykettle: Daughter of Liz.

David: The tenant who is staying at Liz's house.

Conker: Lucy's pet squirrel that only has one eye.

Snigger: The other squirrel.

Gadzooks: David's dragon.

Gawain: Lucy's dragon.

Sophie: A vet that helped Conker.

My Summary to The Fire Within

David has just arrived at the Pennykettle's and he has discovered that they have strange clay dragons around the house. He is given a dragon of his own named Gadzooks by Liz, the creator of the dragons. Liz tells David not to make a dragon cry, but she doesn't tell him why. David is too distracted by Lucy's squirrel and the story he's writing to find out more about the dragons. David also needs to help Lucy save Conker from Mr. Bacon, who is trying to kill the squirrel. David meets a vet named Sophie and falls in love with her. Sophie also needs to help Lucy with Conker. They discover that Conker has a kidney problem and that it can't be helped. David is looking for an end to his story when they realize that Conker has died.

After Conker's death, David gets an inspiration for his story and finishes it. While they were burying Conker, David gets frustrated and accidentally makes Gadzooks sad. Liz tries to talk to David but he gets mad and shouts at her. David takes a long walk home and when he gets there Liz is waiting for him. Liz talks to David again and she tells him the story of Gawain. In the story David learns that if a dragon cries, its flame is extinguished. David then realizes that to save his dragon from crying, he must master the magic of the Fire Within.

Relaxing and reminiscing back on the city life that once was, Brian leans up against a hollow oak tree set in a forest of vivid varieties of green stretching for miles in which he called, the Bush. Away from civilization and armed only with a simple longbow and the knowledge of the wilderness from past experiences, young Brian must endure the harsh moods of Mother Nature, alone. The feeling of loneliness overwhelms the reader as this brave boy travels through the woods searching for a life of his own just like how a little kid might get lost in a convenience store searching for its mother. As the story progresses, Brian comes across a creature that plays a significant role in the text. This creature happens to be a dog that has lost its way and looks badly scraped from what Brian suggests is a bear. Brian, not wanting to leave this defenseless creature alone, decides to take the dog as his own and return it back to it's rightful home. This type of behavior is similar to how others may pick up trash off the ground or how someone might return a wandering pet back to its rightful owner. When Brian suspects that the dog belongs to an Indian tribe called the Cree, which he met before his journey, he heads north in search for them. When Brian finally arrives at the Cree's campsite, he discovers that the two leaders of the tribe were mauled and half eaten. Making a thorough search throughout the campsite as if he was like a true Sherlock Holmes, he makes a conclusion that a bear had beaten the leaders. Hunting for revenge, he goes out to find this sinister bear and with the dogs help was able to slay it. To me I think Brian had over reacted because Brian had barely known this tribe that gave so little to him.

While reading this book, I find out that Brian is very intelligent. He shows his intelligence by using survival methods such as using heated mud to prevent infection in his open wounds. In some situations I disagree with him though. For example, when he decided that the deer was too much to eat, Brian would gather up the whole deer still intact and carry it with him and load it into his canoe. If I were in this situation, I would cut the deer into portable pieces and maybe only take enough meat to last me for a couple days. Another part of the text that shows his determination to find the Cree campsite is that whenever Brian arrives upon a beaver dam while paddling down stream, he is ambitious enough to unload all of his equipment, drag his canoe over the dam, reload it, and set off. This is similar to me because I'm able to get the job done and will never give up when a situation comes about. Throughout the book, Brian makes a very strong connection with the dog almost as if the dog was his own. It seems that Brian and the dog could communicate between each other because whenever Brian had instructed the dog to do something, the dog was able to understand and complete it's task. To me I think this relationship convenient; as the dog needed Brian to gather food and treat it's wounds so it could survive. Brian in return should also be grateful that he had the dog because it had saved Brian from being shredded to pieces by the bear.

As a result of Brian having no food and must catch his own to survive has greatly impacted the story. Whenever Brian has to catch food for the dog and himself, it takes away time from the main part of the story which was to get the dog to it's home that the dog has run away from. At the same time, it also triggers memories from the main character and lets the readers know more about him. This is similar to myself because when I try to accomplish my chores such as sweeping out the garage, I sometimes get distracted by my neighbors who invite me to play a lot. This takes me away from the reason I'm outside but I am getting to know my neighbors better at the same time. I think the theme of this story is that sometimes working to hard may lead to a devastating truth. My opinion about this theme is that it's true and that when you realize you have done everything for nothing, you feel terrible and can't do anything about it but start over. I have also made that mistake while finishing a math worksheet to find out that I have been doing the wrong one. These ideas had helped me understand the story better by providing me a sort of prediction that the story won't end with protagonist doing so well. The details that helped support my opinion was when Brian found out that the tribe leaders were already dead and the dog that he had brought with him had no one to take care of it. Another idea that helped support my opinions is when Brian had found out that a bear had hurt the dog. If the bear was able to get to the dog, then the bear was able to get to the campsite where the dog was living in. This gave a clue to the reader that the people in the campsite could be dead, or that the bear would be dead from the tribe. It's actually depressing to know that something terrible will happen to the Brian because usually the protagonist wins whenever you read stories that involve the good guy to reach or gain an objective.

“Not a villain, not an evil thing. Just a dead bear. Like any other dead animal that he might have hunted. Killing the bear did not bring back his friends, did not ease the pain for the tribes people and their leaders. It was just what it was, a dead bear.”

Janie's grandmother whom she calls Nanny was once a slave and was impregnated by her owner and she gave birth to Leafy, a baby girl. Nanny wants to give her daughter a better life than she had but destiny had other plans. Leafy was raped as a teenager by one of the school teachers and she eventually gave birth to Janie.

A disturbed Leafy soon gets addicted to boozing and stays out late at night. After sometime, she runs away leaving Janie and Nanny behind. Nanny transfers all her unfulfilled hopes from her daughter to her grand daughter.

When Nanny sees Janie kissing a neighborhood boy, Johnny Taylor, she fears that Janie would face the same fate as her mother and grand mother faced and arranges her marriage. She arranges her to marry an older man and farmer, Logan Killicks. But from her childhood, Janie has an opinion that marriage should involve love and she thinks that marriage is equal to bees pollinating flowers. On the other hand, Logan Killicks wants a wife just to help him in his farm work and he never considers wife as a partner or lover. After their marriage, he forces her to do labor and she runs away from his house with Joe (Jody) Starks and they go to Eatonville.

Soon Starks opens a general store there and he wants Janie as a trophy wife rather than the wife he can take to social gatherings. He forbids her from coming to any social gatherings along with him and he confines her only to take care of the store. But soon Starks passes away.

Janie finds herself financially secure and independent and soon many men start harassing her. Some of them are well settled and prestigious people in the society but she falls in love with a gambler and a drifter, Vergible Woods. They get married and she sells the store to move to Jacksonville. They move from there to the Everglades region. Janie feels very happy about their marriage, despite having some quarrels in it, because she finally married in a way she always wanted to, that is love before marriage.

Soon their area is hit by a strong hurricane and though both of them manage to survive, Vergible Woods is bitten by a rabid dog while he is saving Janie. But after attacked by the disease, he tries to kill her but she kills him in self defense and is arrested on murder charge.

A group of local women support her and the jury which consists of white people aquits her. She arranges a grand funeral to her dead husband and returns to Eatonville but soon finds that the neighbors are gossiping about her.

Structure

The Book of Dave has an unusual structure in that it alternates between different time periods. Half of the chapters feature Dave driving his cab round London, showing everything that happens from his point of view. The other half of the chapters are set 500 years in the future, when England is a collection of islands and a strange pig-human hybrid animal has evolved.

Language

Will Self is well known for his use of complicated language, and the Book of Dave is certainly no exception. The chapters which are set 500 years in the future use a kind of evolved cockney language which is written phonetically. While this may be a clever idea, at first I found it extremely difficult to read, slowing down my reading speed considerably and actually causing me to abandon the book after the first few chapters.

I did however decide to continue reading the book a few weeks later, and after reading a few more chapters I was starting to get more used to the phonetically-written future dialect. It still slowed me down a bit, but as the book progressed I began to appreciate its value within the story more.

Plot

The basic idea behind the plot is a very interesting one, particularly to someone like me who hates religion. This story makes the point that anyone could write a book full of ideas on how to lead your life, no matter how ridiculous, and many years' later people might actually take it as the ultimate truth.

It's fascinating to witness how the events in Dave's life progress leading up to him writing the book, interspersed with the future events which were caused by what he wrote. In that sense, this novel really comes together as you progress through it and see the two sides of the story converging.

Conclusion

This is a difficult book to read at first, but definitely worth sticking with due to the unique writing style, interesting plot developments, fantastic characterisation, and thought-provoking concepts about life.

Plot summary of "Contagion"

Dr. Jack Stapleton is an ophthalmologist running his practice. He loses his practice to a medical giant who wants to earn money through his practice. Jack Stapleton also loses his family in an airline tragedy. He becomes an absolute nobody after losing his practice and after his family members are killed.

He feels he lost everything in life. But he slowly regains strength and motivation to start things once again from the first. He starts his work in pathology again and wants to start his practice in a new place and wants to make name through his practice. Though it is difficult to start once again from the first and go through all the things happened earlier, he is ready for that and he is determined to achieve what he wants to achieve.

He selects New York to start practice at as he thinks that the city suits his changed prospect of life. He thinks his mood matches well with the cold and strange New York. He starts his practice there.

Jack Stapleton thinks that he might not care for pain of people much as he went through lot of hell in life. But after seeing a series of very dangerous, lethal and vulnerable diseases spread by a deadly influenza attacking young, old, kids and everyone, he feels pain a suspicion about the incidents arises in him.

Soon he finds that the probable reason for this outburst of these illnesses is the set of hospitals which are run by the same medical giant to whom he lost his ophthalmology practice. He realizes that he was trapped in a web of conspiracies which are of lethal proportions. He goes in search of truth and to reveal it. In this process, he meets an art director at an advertising firm. Her name is Terese Hagen. Though she seems a very unlikely pair for him both on personal and professional front at first, they fall in love.

Both of them, together try to find the real reason for the spreading of the diseases and the substantial evidence for that. They succeed in finding the reason and they also reveal the facts infront of everyone.

It is a very thrilling and interesting novel which keeps the reader glued to it. The best parts of the book are definitely the unique love between Jack Stapleton and Terese Hagen, and the way they reveal the true reasons behind the spreading of diseases.

Somewhere amidst the vast lands of New Hampshire, most of the story takes place in and around the many dormitories and premises of the institution, known formally as Devon School, a boarding school located on Gilman Street. Its storyline through World War II moves transitionally from the fields of Devon School to the home of Elwin "Leper" Lepellier in Virginia.

Themes

A Separate Peace by John Knowles brings forth many themes that can be carefully observed as set points for connecting the reader to the writer's intention and motifs. In this novel one of the main highlights include

"Sometimes through codependency you find your identity"

"A war is not always a battle of the arms or the body but rather of the heart through which its emotions are expressed, an internal struggle"

"Respect for an other's ability can and is the only thing that will bring those of two different identities in unison agreement."

Character

Taking part in this epic novel were some dramatic characters such as: Gene Forrester, Finny, Brinker Hadley, and Leper Lepellier. Their actions and roles consequently affected the lives of each other throughout the novel.

Conflict

The series of conflict throughout this novel is seen to bean internal as well as external conflict of sorts, influenced and pressurized by the many causes that led to the climax. At first Gene Forrester befriended Finny with joy but his doubts camewhen he judged Finny by who he was physically, that is a strong athlete, and his disruptions in his daily life was because of Finny's influence on his life. Then later to understand Finny's sincere actions were to help him. As time passed an occasion arrived in which Finny and Gene decided to climb the tree and jump in the water but this time together. In their moment of happiness together, Gene accidentally shook the branch accidentally causing Finny to lose balance and fall altogether damaging himself. From there on, the story goes where Gene is running away from everyone who is saying he was responsible for Finny's lost ability to barely walk, and at the same time Gene triesto find his identity whether he truly did kill him, what Finny thought of this, how will he be accepted after this incident.

 

Symbols

In this novel many things can be seen to stand out as powerful symbols.Some things include:

Devon School - Overtaking their lives since their young age, this boarding
becomes a central part of their lives, and it comes to be that anything
outside of it is seen as "fake", something that is only heard and seen in
newspapers, the rest was the tragedies, the adventures, the roles, and
the power held at Devon School.

World War II - Came to be a symbol, a door into the free world, for once
you entered no longer did you have to think of school but rather touring
the world and the adventures that accompanied it, it became every boy's dream
it marked their adulthood.

Tree by the lake - A strong symbolism of friendship, and the binding factor
between the two friends Gene and Finny, even though it divided them
once, it brought them together and both cherished the moments and
their close friendship that came to be because of their meetings and
other activities at this tree.

 

 

 

 

The Uncarved Block, also known as P'u, is the idea that “things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power”. Hoff describes all the flaws of the other Winnie the Pooh characters, and how Pooh is the only one that truly holds this principle. To be simpleminded is to know The Way one is meant for. Hoff exemplifies that Pooh can't describe the essence of the Uncarved Block, because he just is it . That is the nature and meaning of the Uncarved Block.

The Cottlestone Pie principle is another of the important principles of Taoism. This principle can also be described as the idea that “things are as they are”. It is rather similar to the Uncarved Block principle. For example, when Pooh recites each verse to the Cottlestone Pie riddle, he ends each phrase with “Ask me a riddle and I reply: "Cottlestone, Cottlestone, Cottlestone Pie"”. The phrase "Cottlestone Pie" symbolizes the idea that “things are as they are”. For example, in one of the verses of the riddle, Pooh says “A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly”. The answer, of course, is “Cottlestone, Cottlestone, Cottlestone Pie”. Thus, “a fly can't bird, but a bird can fly”, because “things are as they are”. This is a major Taoist principle, symbolizing “Inner Nature”; “ things are as they are”.

The Pooh Way, or Wu Wei, literally means “without doing, causing, or making”. This principle is based on the idea that when we work with our Inner Nature, and the nature of the things around us, we will learn to go with the flow of life, wasting little effort. In one of Chuang-tse's writings quoted in the book, he describes an old man that went with the water as a Taoist goes with life: “I go down with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don't struggle against the water's superior power.”. Thus, the man survives, because he follows the water, symbolizing life, through its ups and downs. He survives because he doesn't struggle against the water, but rather goes along with it. He survives life because he doesn't struggle against it, but goes with it. Thus, with little effort, he is happy. “Without doing, causing, or making”, he goes along with life effortlessly and happily.

That Sort of Bear is a principle that states everyone is “special”. To find our Way and what we are made to do best, we must look in our Inner Self. Hoff exemplifies this principle, in a Chinese story he quoted, titled “The Stonecutter”. The stonecutter is a man who was dissatisfied with himself and with his life position. When he finally became what he thought to be “most powerful than anything else on earth”, a rock, he found that there was one flaw that could destroy even a rock; the stonecutter. Thus he realized his old life profession was more valuable than he had put it out to be. This is what the " That Sort of Bear" principle exemplifies; we are all “special” in our own way and what we must do is find that Way by looking into our Inner Self.

The Great Secret is “the key that unlocks the doors of wisdom, happiness, and truth”. And how would one obtain this Great Secret? Well, all one must do, is nothing. One may observe themselves and the world around them, and do what about it? Nothing. Nothing is after all something. And yet something “is really nothing at all”. This is a sort of indication of what the Taoists call T'ai Hs. This is the Great Nothing. Emptiness and nothingness are the keys to achieving a fresh mind; a mind so clear that it develops fresh, new ideas. After one begins at childhood and gains knowledge through adolescence, advanced adulthood is when they will begin to empty their minds; to reach that childlike state of a fresh mind that produces clear ideas. Like Chuang-tse describes with the character of Yen Hui in yet another passage quoted in the book, when one reaches nothing, they have found the Way. “I forget my body and senses, and leave all appearance and information behind. In the middle of Nothing, I join the Source of All Things.” This is the Great Secret. This is T'ai Hs. This is the Way.

According to Benjamin Hoff, these are the true principles of Taosim. By following them, you become a true Taoist.