Eva
2008-01-24 21:44:05 UTC
However, Maugham’s presentation of Chinese opium is sometimes contradictory. On the one hand, the Chinese opium smokers are terrible, stupid, and numb; on the other hand, instead of the scene of misery usually associated with the narcotic, his portrayal of the opium den is “cosy,” “cheerful,” and “homelike.” Maugham not only depicts Chinese people’s smoking opium at their home and other places, but also describes one of the opium den which scattered everywhere in China then. Before Maugham saw the opium den, his impression of it is extremely terrible; however, when he was led to visit it, he changed his mind. The picture of Chinese smokers in the opium den is like this: one old man holding the opium pie and reading newspapers, two coolies sharing a pipe between them, several others playing chess with pipes beside them and a man holding a baby while his beautiful wife watched him with a broad smile on her lips. Seeing this, Maugham sighed that the opium den “was a cheerful spot, comfortable, home-like, and cozy” (On 61).