The man sitting next to me on the train was reading Papillon. I forgot what year was it when I read it? Was it 24 years ago. Papillon is an autobiography of Henri Cherrier, a Frenchman. He was convicted for murder he didn't commit and sent to Devil Island in French Guyana. I was so engrossing with the book I couldn't put it down. The first chapter hooked me up immediately. I remember when the first time I read it, I was working on graveyard shift. I couldn't wait until my shift was over to read the next chapter. I usually went to bed as soon as I got home, but Papillon kept me awake until three in the afternoon, until the book fell out of my hands, until I couldn't fight the sleep that took me over.
I've always considered Henri Cherrier as a hero for his determination to get out of Devil Island when everybody else was accepted the fate. He kept trying to escape many times. As soon as he was brought back to the island after numerous attempts to escape, he planned another escape. I considered him as a hero for not being bitter to the people who put him in the island, for not carrying grudge to the people who did him wrong. His forgiving attitude reminds me of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, an Indonesian author who was put away in Buru Island for sixteen years for the crime he didn't commit. His memoir The Mute Soliloquy is not as adventurous as Papillon but both of them love and value their lives.
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