There are three perspective towards life. The first is an egotistic one, only considering the relations between others and the owner. The second is sympathetic, mainly concerning others by replacing himself into their situation. And the last is a general one, regardless any of the emotional factors from the mundane. It considers the world as a whole, and all small lives, as to the great nature, are of fragility and innocence. And everything uns so well in a cycle just as it should be.
Those three points of view are mixed in the story “Sunrise on the Veld” with some complexity. The protagonist, the boy, starts with a self-centered arrogance, imagining that he has the power to manipulate the world. He is already fifteen and he should do something to prove his independence, maybe killing a buck, which seem to him just a belonging.
He hold this view until he sees the dying buck, which is eaten up piece by piece by a mass of ants! So at the very moment, he is astonished and feels extreme abhorrent against the ants, when his perspective switched. He starts to think himself in the situation of an injured buck. He feels the agony for deathand the aspiration for existence.
Do the ants go something wrong? Something against the law of nature? Certainly not. They were a group of predators, and it is a god-given right to be fed. Or, as the boy suspects, it is human beings who hunt for the buck, cause the injury and lead to the tragedy? If we assume that humans are of equal importance as animals, there is nothing actually to be blamed of, because human’s fatuity is also a necessary component of the true nature. And we therefore, switch to the third point of view. Nothing goes wrong , not the buck, the ants or the humans. However, who cares about the buck, the death of which is merely negligible. The third perspective provides us with a vision of broadness.
The boy eventually learned the intrigue relations between those three, the combination of which is interpreted. A successful person can usually switch themselves into different points of view. They need to focus their attention on themselves when they are absorbing energy and growing stronger. They are not allowed to disseminate their concentration onto other object. Thus, the application of first perspective is all about self-control and self-development.
To the next, the second one is about sympathy, which happened when you have possessed some base of power and want to enlarge it through the way of sharing. To a more general understanding, the second perspective represents the communication and the human inter-relationship. No one can survive without a friend, and the sympathy is what a sincere friendship based on.
When you feel your rising greatness, for example, your business is going optimistically enough that your decision is not only a consideration of a particular interest, you should think of gradually taking on the third perspective on your office table. At this time, a single word in your global strategy could determine the trend of economy. So that is why should not blend in any personal emotions from the second perspective. Another well-proved example will explain it. When people are getting old, will they place themselves in a great fear of death? No, they will regard birth and death as a normal thing, a regular cycle if they are satisfied with their age, just like a river flows wider and slower and finally merged into the sea, a universal magnificence. The third perspective is about entirety.
Although the story does mention about the placement of human being s and the nature, it concerns more on the placement of individual beings, such the boy’s introspection. We use different attitudes and life values toward different situations. It is an art to implement the combinations of three perspectives all the way through your life.