Journal Entry 21, Title: What I like about this class

In this class, there are a lot of things that I like. For example, I love how the fan swings its big blades around, causing the wind to blow and make us cool. Also, the air conditioners brilliant job simply cannot go about unmentioned. In summer, it sacrificed it’s self, making us cool and at the same time, making itself hot. It risks the condemnation that it is contributing to global warming, but despite these hardships, it continues to work and devoted its life into satisfying our needs. Another big thing is the large windows, these windows are brave creatures, they withstand the powerful winds of Hsinchu, and protects as from the horrendous beating from the large raindrops. They sacrificed themselves just to give as a nice, warm room for our educational needs, and they also protect us from the sun, but not so that they block the light. When we open these windows, it gives us a splendid view of the very clean streets of the Guangfu Road, and also an excellent place to breath in the fantastic air of our urban dwelling. Finally, what I love the most is the formation of the chairs and tables, they can be described in a single word, “creative”; with that formation, we can keep a safe distance from the lecturer without sitting too far so that we cannot see. I enjoy almost every class of American Literature that I took from October 29^th to November 1^st, it is truly my deepest pleasure to have the chance to walk into this classroom three times a week, and have the opportunity to walk out with a full mind and a flat stomach. 

Journal Entry 20, Title: What I don't like about this class

What I don’t like about this class? People might expect a five paragraph, 5 page double spaced essay, but to be honest, there isn’t much that I don’t like. If I have to be picky, I would say the weird smell that lingered in this classroom for one entire day. The smell can be easily described; it smells like “gas”. One thing that I also didn’t like was when we read the Scarlet Letter, we have to read many chapters for each week, and I wasn’t able to keep on with the schedule of the book. Unlike the pre-calculus and physics class, the formation of the seats are comfortable and spacey, I won’t hit my elbow with someone else’s every time I’m writing something. I hate it when I don’t have enough space to write, plus I am usually the only left handed person, so when I sit in the middle of various people, my left elbow keeps on bumping into another person’s right elbow. The formation of tables and chairs allows me to focus intensely for a much longer time than in pre-calculus or physics. Almost everything I have to say are positive things, I don’t have many complaints. 

Journal Entry 19, Title: The Unknown Quantity

People are all unknown quantities at the beginning of their life. What they like, what they’ll want to do when they grow up is all determined by later influences in life. They began to know who they are as they grow up; some people undergo this process sooner than other people. People find out what they do best by many different ways. Some people find out what their strengths are by slowly figuring out their own interests. Some people find out their strengths and weaknesses by significant events. Challenging situations can test someone, how they react with the sudden need to solve a difficult question, and how they try to solve the question. I do not fully agree with the idea that each person is an “unknown” quantity until he or she is tested by a challenging situation. Some people find their strengths from exploring, they try various different things and find out what they enjoy and are best in doing. Some people feel that they aren’t good in anything, and those are the people that find their strengths through certain challenges. A Chinese saying goes “Everyone have their own use in the world.” The people that think themselves as useless just don’t realize how great they are through important events. 

Journal Entry18, Title: Persuade Me

I want a bottle of water. And you are going to get one for me. “Why should I?” you may ask, don’t be so upset and I will tell you why. First of all, I need a bottle of water because I am thirsty. Imagine that you are stuck in a cage with the water just out of your reach. That’s the situation I’m in right now. Also, getting a bottle of water is easy… “Then why don’t you do it yourself?” Wait, I’m not done talking. Getting a bottle of water is easy for you, but not for me. That is because I have no legs, I lost both of them in war. I have to go down so many flights of stairs just to get a bottle of water, and I might die of thirst by the time I reached the first floor. Lastly, what if I’m god in disguise, and I’m here to test you? If you get the water for me, it might be a sign that you are a good man, and you will receive luxurious treasures just like in fairy tales. “But what if you’re not?” You’ll never know, plus, you won’t want to try the consequences. 

Journal Entry17: Title: Give me Liberty or…

When you look back at Taiwan’s history, you can see that many countries have fought for the control of Taiwanese land. Several countries like Japan, China, the Netherlands, and Spain all involved in the wars on territories. After the temporary governments of various countries, there’s nothing more that the Taiwanese citizens want than the chance to govern themselves. Many of the most heroic events in Taiwanese history are the story of leaders fighting off the Japanese or Chinese control. I think the aboriginals will have the deepest understanding of the words “liberty” and “freedom”. Just like the Indians in America, the aboriginals were prosecuted by the outside countries coming into Taiwan. One of the most known rebels of the aboriginals resulted in almost the complete eradication of one aboriginal tribe. The craving for independence shaped the minds of Taiwanese citizens in the past, and it continues to affect us today. The characters of Taiwanese and American people are similar in some ways; we both fought for our independence. The Americans fought against the British, and the Taiwanese fought against China and Japan. Almost every country has the background of fighting for liberty and independence. For most people, when they hear the words “liberty” and “freedom”, they think about the history of their country. 

Journal Entry16, Title: My own Sermon

If you sin, you receive punishment. If you sin, god will not save you, you’ll go to Satan’s land and burn in the scorching hell for eternity. We are already sinners in the eyes of god because of Adam and Eve. We must not commit crime; one more crime will become the motive for god to ban us out of paradise. Sin is not tolerated by god. God tells us not to lie, not to kill and not to commit adultery. We are the creations of god, and god has the ability to destroy his creations, if some of us were to commit sin. Do not foolishly underestimate the power of god; do not be arrogant enough to cast disbelief on god. Those who cast doubt upon the powers of god end up dead, their bodies burn in black flame and cast a odor so foul it is surely the scent of Satan. God can create us with a flick of his hand, and he can destroy us with the same way. God keeps us from going to hell only to give us a chance to prove ourselves, if we sin, we lose the chance and we all die. So believe in god, and never commit sin!

 

Journal Entry 15: Title: Respond to Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards is a very religious and pious Puritan. In his speech “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, he stated that human are sinful in the eyes of god, and god have the power to destroy us if he ever wants to. I think Jonathan Edwards is not a very good choice if you want to live with somebody, as you can see; he is a very radical and extreme religious person. He says gods view us as something more disgusting than the evil serpents that we hate, and God has the power to “shoot an arrow” at as, as in killing us. I think his speech is trying to warn the people not to take things for granted, and we should be humble under the hands of god, and that god has the ability to take away everything we have, including our life. It is said that his speech made the crowds shriek and swoon. I think his speech won’t have the same effect on the modern religious people. Most people in our modern society don’t take the religion as serious as Jonathan Edwards does; they view the religion as only a way that can help them get through emotional hardships. 

Journal Entry14: Title: Sin

Sin is defined as “doing what is wrong, or not doing what is right according to God's rules”; this definition is clearly based on religion. The definition of “sin” in the modern society is probably defined as doing something that the majority of the society think is wrong. My definition is similar to the modern society’s definition because I do not have religious beliefs. In the religious realms, god decides what is considered a sin and what is not. If god tells you not to lie, and you lie, then you have sinned. The definition of sin is different for people with and without a religious belief. Many things done by religious people are considered a sin for themselves, but may not be considered a sin for others. For example, lying is not considered a sin by non-religious people because the law doesn’t say it’s a sin. Many religious people refer to the bible when it comes to the issue of sinning, and their lifestyles are often stricter than ours. When it comes to describing whether or not that you have done, or witnessed something considered as sin, I think I have not sinned, because various acts considered as sin in modern culture is written by the law, and up to today I have not broken the law yet. I am also not old enough to witness something truly described as sin. If I’m a religious person, the answer to the question above is probably both a “yes”, because it is almost impossible not to lie, and unlikely that you will never see someone else lie. 

Journal Entry 13: Fear as a motivation

Yes, I agree fear is often a motivation for people to do things. In most companies, the employees often do their work because their scared that they will get fired if they don’t do their work. Many students do their work because there are scared that they will be punished if they don’t do their homework. Another example is me and my mom. I usually do what she tells me because she’s going to get mad, and fear is what motivates me to do what she tells me. Because of fear, we are less likely to be injured, because we wear a helmet out of the fear of injuring themselves when do certain activities. Without fear, we might not remember to wear a helmet, because we are not thoughtful of the consequences. We may not enjoy the feeling of fear, but we must admit, without fear, we will be more likely to be injured.

Journal12: Church

I have never been to an actual church before; I have only gone to Chinese and Japanese temples. In the Chinese temples, there will always be a distinct smell. The smells come from a big metal pot in front of the temple, when people go to the temple; they take sticks covered with powders and light it up with fire, and they stick the incense stick into the pot. The powder on the stick is made of wood grounded into fine dust. Also, in almost every Chinese temple, there will be a little ceremony that people do to ask the god’s permission to do something that want to do. It’s called “Bua Buiy”, it is two pieces of banana shaped wood painted red. Both of the pieces has one side that is flat and the other side that is round, they determine whether the god approves what they are going to do by seeing which side of the two pieces is facing up when it falls on the ground. Japanese temples have similar looks as the Chinese temples, but the Japanese temples usually have black roofs instead of red roofs as Chinese temples do. Japanese temples don’t usually have incense pots, and they don’t have “Bua Buiy”. Japanese temples always have boxes in which you draw a piece of paper of bamboo stick with words indicating your luck for the day. 

Journal11: Motivation

In both the Scarlet Letter and the poem “Burning of our house”, the themes are strongly based on religious beliefs, and the characters in both of the books are all Puritans. In Scarlet Letter the characters often have similar appearances; they wear plain clothes and talk in a similar fashion. The villagers in Hester Prynne’s town were horrified when Hester committed adultery, and they punished her harshly. I think the punishments of Hester are strongly related to their religion. Anything not according to the Bible is often prohibited, and of course adultery is viewed as one of the most sinful crimes. Our society is based on justice legislation instead of religious beliefs, in our modern world, we won’t be punished in public if we commit adultery; our society gives us the right to keep our crime a secret. In the poem “burning of our house”, the writer blessed god for taking what she has, instead of getting upset about her unfortunate encounters. That is very different from our modern society, even now, religious believers won’t thank god for burning down their house, they will just be mad. The way the writer reacted about the burning of her house is strongly related to her religion. The Puritan religion believes god is the great architect, as mentioned in the poem, god made everything, and everything that the people have was given by god. Ann Bradstreet believes it is only right for god to take back what he gave, because it ultimately belongs to him. Our society is designed so we have to earn what we have, so when we lose our material possessions, we will be very upset. 

Compare and Contrast: Bradstreet vs. Sor Juana

The biggest difference of these two poems is the use of language. In Bradstreet’s poem, Burning of Our house many of the sentences are inversions, they have the subject behind the verb, for example: In silent night when rest I took, and most of the sentences rhyme with each other. The English version of Sor Juana’s poem World, in Hounding Me did not have any rhyming, it’s probably because it’s originally written in another language, and the English words for the original sentences don’t rhyme. Despite the very different things that the two poems are describing, the poem has the similar theme “vanity”, but it is described in a different way. In Ann Bradstreet’s poem, the author described her feeling of vanity when she had her material possessions, and after God took away what he gave, she felt contempt because she thinks she has enough, even after everything is gone. In Sor Juana’s poem, the author described the feeling of vanity that doesn’t come from material possessions. She feels the world values people of their outside appearances, and not their internal beauty. She thinks that the world is shallow in viewing people, as if judging a book by its cover, and she thinks pursuing outside beauty gives her the feeling of vanity, and she prefers to stock her mind with knowledge.