Jingyi Li
ENG102.5592
Professor Benson-Scott
20 April 2015

Essay 1: The way to Paradise

Do you work hard in order to succeed? I think the answers you get from most people’s answer will be the same as mine: Of course!I study hard and work hard everyday, hoping that I can realize my ideals and goals someday. As the pace of our life is speeding up everyday, our living stress level is also getting higher. Some people try all sorts of tricks to achieve their goals. They think that as long as the result is good, they can do anything even if it is contrary to morality. Does the end justify the means? For this question, everyone holds a different attitude about it. In Gauguin's case, the end should not justify the means. The first reason that his behavior is not justified is because that his artistic pursuit is based on giving up his family. The second reason is that he lost his health and his life. The third reason is that his behavior is contrary to morality and artists in the future might follow his destructive life-style, and therefore created many future victims. No one on this earth should give up his/her family to pursuit success. French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin perpetually yearned for an exotic paradise, he abandoned his family and career to go to Tahiti. However, in the end, he lived a lonely life. The author states in the passage: “When he set foot in Tahiti at last, he had just turned forty-three. He had brought all his belonging with him, as if to show that he was finished forever with Europe and Paris.” He was determined to leave the city of France and his family, since he wanted to live the life that he desired. In 1891, he was tired of Paris civilization. The reason is that he had been looking for the South Pacific tropical atmosphere. Thus, he abandoned the high income occupation and secular life, leaving from the Paris to the South Pacific island of Tahiti. This caused him to give up all of France, in order to find his expectation and things that he wanted in here：Lush plants, forever blue sky, generous nature, simple life. Even though he got what he wanted, which is the environment that he had been dreaming of, still, he lost everything that he had before. It is a lonely life to chase after heaven. So Gauguin was all alone before his death with no family or friends. He had paid the price for this choice and his life-style. The second reason that the end cannot justify the mean is that he lost his health and his life for what he achieved. If one loses his/her health or life, one will not be able to continually create more great art. In order to be inspired, Gauguin contracted syphilis from immoral sexual activities and abused drugs，they cause his health to deteriorate. So he could not go farther on the road in the pursuit of art. According to author's quote：''At beginning of August 1891, just as he was beginning to adapt to the heart and the penetrating fragrances of Papeete, he suffered a violent hemorrhage and a racing of the heart that made his chest rise and fall like a bellows and left him gasping for breath.” From this quote above, it is clear that Gauguin's health condition had already begun to deteriorate to the point that he could die anytime. However, he was still unconscious about his health condition and what kind of danger it could bring to him. As a artist, it is a painful affair to take care of such an unhealthy body with so many health problems. Within the last year of his life, his eye vision started to deteriorate to the point that he couldn't see anything anymore. Even before his death, these were abscess all over his legs, which caused him agonizing pain. He had no choice but to use excessive amount of opium as pain-killer. No one was will to get close to him because the rotten smell from his leg abscess was too much for anyone to bear. Just two hours after his death, his rotten abscess caused his corpse to smell like he's been dead for over a week. Gauguin also said in a