Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (A Reflection of Life So True)

 With great sadness I am just waiting for the Form 3 Literature Component Text to inevitably finish its run in the syllabus. Next year, the last batch of students will read 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' before it is replaced by a new text.

And what a beautiful text it is (eventhough the read-aloud session can potentially disable your larynx). As I read the struggle between good and evil in Dr. Jekyll, I found that I'm experiencing the same dilemma.There is this pressure to maintain a kind of a perfect image for yourself to be viewed by people around you. You are a mother to your children, and an adult very much in the view of your young students. Yet you know you are not perfect. Sometimes you slip. And when you slip, there are dire consequences. And thinking that you are supposed to be perfect, you can't seem to live with that. You feel that Mr. Hyde has won and the Dr. Jekyll facade that you try to keep as this while is a hypocrisy. You feel worthless and useless. You feel like rubbish. You feel that you have failed as a person because you let yourself make mistakes.

So you're turning a new leaf. You are not perfect and any attempt to be so will be absolutely futile. So, you have to not think too highly of yourself. And just hope the world will accept you the way you are. You are sometimes naughty, sometimes moody, sometimes angry, sometimes reckless, sometimes lazy, sometimes anti-social, sometimes lie, sometimes screw up big time, sometimes careless, sometimes you want forgiveness, most of the time you are coward.You will not judge people too much as you know you will be judged one day. You are not perfect and you have to face the consequences of your imperfection. Whether you are coward or courageous, the consequenses are always there in front of you.

This is what good literature can do to you.