What do i learn the most as i read Pram’s Pulau Buru? well, there are just simply much!
i remember when i was in elementary school, in social science, i was told that France Revolution and EnglandIndustrial Revolustion has globally affect the whole world. as a child, i swallowed the knowledge without really understanding what was it actually and how it affected my nation, and in the long run, me. this novels helps me to see it through the eyes of the people in the era. the personal touch of the people’s experience has me understand; it feels like i see what happened to them and i understand why it was so.
for eaxample, how the France Revolution influenced the people around the world to freely express their ideas; how the freedom of expression was really fought for; and how, in the old times, that it was not the culture, that it was just completely unlike now..
then, the Industrial Revolution. i see how it affected the European countries to colonize the non-European countries; it was all about wealth and prosperity of their nation. the colonized states were just the place for natural resources. i also see how bicycle, in its golden times, had changed the world. i see that it was once a breakthrough; that it was once a controvercy; that it showed how Germany was always the leading nation in technology.
next, from the historical point of view, i now understand that the two big events had started what was so called as ‘modern’ era. this novel tells me that when Indonesian people was still walking barefooted, somewhere there in Europe, people had begun enjoying automobile to replace horse carts, electricity to replace candles, etc.
apart from all those ‘outside’ influences, i also see how my nation’s root, Indonesia, especially Java, was a form of an imperfect culture with its pride. it was noble yet unfair. it made me really grateful that i live in this era, i didn’t have to see men reign over women with no priviledges on women such like in those times. then, i also see how my mother language, which is so much affected by Hindhuism and Buddhism, has stratas in it that makes it had to be a unifying language of Indoensia. apart from that, i now am prouder to be a javanesse due to some reasons i conclude from this novels.
well, in general, i know now that what i see as merely ‘history’ has a huge effect on me myself now; i see that everything the hero does was really a struggle and it wasn’t just a ‘story’. i see the good sides of colonialism, i see the that Ducth, inspite the fact that it had colonialized this country in 350 years, had never become a glorious and powerful nation; it has been always a lucky loser.
in short, i simplylearn a lot!
Thanks to Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Nina Inayati
January 28, 2010 (02.08pm)