英格兰人：关于“女主最终复仇时刻的表现 男女主最终结局”的看法(2)

　　女主在看着墙上的画的时候，想象自己身处其中的时候，她不会想象得到西部的原住民面临着什么样的困境；女主也不会想到去美国西部投资实质上给当地土着居民带去了什么。当得知查克河大屠杀的时候，她的应对中体现出双重标准。这样的她，令我想起历史学家Simon Schama对殖民主义盛行的英国维多利亚时代（1837-1901）上层社会的描述：当时英国社会上层阶级并不是铁石心肠的冷漠怪物。他们中的大部分都是仅仅具有良好意愿而已。他们普遍认为英帝国是这个世界上最好的社会，因为它建立在美德之上。帝国的力量不用军事实力来衡量，而是用“对消除贫困，无知和疾病作出的无私奉献”来衡量。 他们会接收那些残缺的文明，然后治愈这些残缺。 假以时日，千百万计的人们会开化并且有能力自治。到了那个时候，他们会离开。他们把这些开化的人视为自由梦想的孩子。孩子们会感激，奉献，平和，自由。 但是事实的发展和走向却未能如他们所愿，到底出了什么差错？ （翻译一般，原文在此：The men and women who had sat at their desks, played out their chukkas and danced in the club were not monsters of hard-hearted indifference. They had, many of them, only the very best intentions. They had in fact a vision that their empire was the best the world had ever seen because it was built on virtue. It’s power was to be measured not in Gatling guns, but in an unselfish dedication to eradicating poverty, ignorance and disease. We would take the whole cultures crippled by these maladies and stand them on their own feet. In the fullness of time, so the theory went, the millions will become civilized enough to govern themselves, and we would leave them, the children of our liberal dream, grateful, devoted, peaceful and, this was the bonus for the modern world, free. It didn’t exactly work out like that, did it? So what went wrong? –A history of Britain by Simon Schama. ）

　　等到十五年后，女主亲自到了西部，才会意识到原住民经历过/经历着什么。她一路上所看到的，所经历的，Eli的每一次诉说，都是西部原住民的血泪史。等她回到英国，再对着这两幅画的时候，也许所思所想才会不那么“仅仅具有良好意愿”。