Why are diamonds so precious? Because it
is a very rare stone that can be only found in certain places. Even though
diamonds are very expensive, I could hardly tell the difference from glass and
diamonds not regarding their sizes from my naked eyes. It is a representation
of eternity, because it takes millions of years to form underground by
pressure. Diamonds also represent romantic and love, because every girl wants a
diamond ring from her love, to show that she is beloved forever and their
relationship is as hard as the diamond.
In Lightning Ridge, opals are like
diamonds to them. Opal is a kind of very beautiful stone with bright colors.
They are found in the mines in middle rural area of Australia, but they are
very rare. If you find an opal, that means you don’t have to worry about money
in your whole life. Many people come here, seek for opals and money even if
they know that there is only a little chance of finding it. Ashmol’s father is
one of them. He brought his wife and kids to Australia, and wished to find an
opal, for his dream and also for his family.
“The secret of an opal's color lies not
in its substance but in its absences.” There are many beautiful things in the
world, but opals are both beautiful and rare, which makes it more precious than
others. Many miners doesn’t care about what opals look like, because all they
care is the money they get from it. Maybe it is the same for Ashmol’s family,
because they are not really wealthy, and his mom is the only person that has a
proper job that gets income every month. Instead of calling it a work, dad’s
job—mining sounds more like a dream. He is one of the miners that are dreaming
about getting rich, and his son Ashmol thinks of it as his dream too. The plot
of the story is around opal—dream of the miners, and how the family struggled
with the opals and their own family members. Dad and mom are too busy working,
which left their daughter Kellyanne staying alone and felt lonely. To get rid
of the loneliness, she made two imaginary friends and played with them. Because
dad was too busy working, he had even lost her imaginary friends in the mine,
which made Kellyanne really sick. Her sickness had shift the focus of the family
from the opal dream to their family member’s feelings. It also made Ashmol’s
family realized that, comparing to the untouchable dream, family members are
more important.
For dad, an opal means wealth and his
family’s future. He could be wealthy because of the opal, and he could be able
to feed his family. This could be the responsibility to be a man in his family.
For mom, an opal means wealth too, but more likely to mean that she hadn’t
picked the wrong person. She doesn’t have to look at her rich ex boyfriend and
miss the life before she came to Australia, because she is now satisfied with
love and her excellent husband that provides her a good life. For Ashmol, an
opal means that his dad had accomplished his goal and mom would not be
complaining about dad anymore. Their family would be peaceful and full of
happiness. For Kellyanne, opals do not mean anything to her, but Dingan’s
bellybutton means a lot to her. The color of the opal Ashmol found is an
identity of her imaginary friends. Because of this, the Williamson’s family
learned that family should be always superior to the dreams, because any
accomplishments of dreams are meaningless without their family being complete.
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