#54

Today is another bad day, but I don’t feel like talking about it, so I just talk about the sports team meeting instead. I’m on the blue team for sports day, and we call ourselves the Blue Smurfs. Today, me and 3~4 other people got the privilege of not having to practice the chant, and went to make the banner for our team instead. We drew 3 smurfs pretty quickly, and had some fun coloring them. I’m so glad I don’t have to practice the chant. Our chant is a weird theme song from the smurfs show, and it sounds like something 4-years-olds would sing. 

Definition of Freedom

What is freedom? There are hundreds of different definitions, because everyone has different opinions. My definition of freedom is simple: to be able to choose what I want to do, or to be able to do what I like. I’m pretty sure this kind of freedom is rarely seen in Asian families, because the Asian mom is often equivalent to an emperor, and the children are like the servants. The children has to do everything the emperor mom says, because according to her, the children should be grateful that she went through 9 months of tediously painful pregnancy, and 10 hours of unbearable birth just to give life to them. Because the emperor mom suffered a tremendous amount of pain, the children are naturally confined to their mothers, their job is to do what she says, and complete their filial duty. In other words, most Asian children are born with handcuffs. My kind of freedom doesn’t exist in my home either. One of the most recent (and typical) examples I can think of is The Choosing of Sports Teams. My mom was pretty resolute in wanting me to join the swimming team, but I wanted to join the basketball team, because, quite simply, I hate swimming and love basketball. We spent hours arguing about this, although it wasn’t really arguing, because arguing means to persuade or influence another person by presenting reasons. Our “arguing” was basically my mom shouting at me, and ignoring whatever that comes out of my mouth. In the end, I went to swimming team, and dreaded every practice I had. I hope that in some point of my life, I will be able to practice my freedom, and be temporarily freed of my handcuffs. 

Response to Tiger Mom article

I had various mixed feelings while I was reading Amy Chua’s article, but the dominating feeling is anger. I felt angry at how Amy treated her children, and how she made them do what she thinks is “right” and “suitable” for their future careers. I felt sympathy for her daughter at the part where Amy made her daughter practice the piano. I am able to relate to my personal experiences very well after reading that. My mom used to tell me to go play violin, and she really means what she says. If I don’t play it now, I’ll play it later. If I don’t play it today, I’ll play double the amount tomorrow. It’s as simple as that.

People argue whether Amy Chua’s parenting technique is right or wrong. Some people say it’s right because those relentless practices and harsh punishments are necessary to prepare the children for a “successful” future. Some people argue that it’s wrong because planning a life for the children, and requiring strict adherence of the plan diminishes the children’s self-independence, creativity, and the ability to take risks. I think neither is right and neither is wrong; I believe practices and punishments are necessary, but parents don’t have to enforce them to the extreme. I agree that planning a life for the children can diminish the children’s ability to think and decide for themselves, I feel that way because my mom is 90% identical to Amy Chua.

Overall, this article by Amy Chua is very interesting to read. I would really like to buy her book “the battle hymn of the tiger mother”, but I think I’ll get very mad and emotional while reading it. 

One Hundred

One hundred journal entries. Each entry has over 200 hundred words. That is a LOT of words. Although I forget to do this journal assignment frequently, I still got over 20000 words written on my blog. This assignment has proved very useful to me. Because I have to write more than 200 words on each journal, whether I have anything to say or not, I am now very capable of writing lengthy essays, because I can always find things to say now. This assignment has also helped me do homework in other classes. In MUN class, we often have to write movie responses, and I usually don’t have any opinion. After this vigorous journal training, I found out that I finish these responses much faster than I did before. I was able to identify my own opinions very fast, and write it out. This was a very valuable experience for me, because I learned a lot. I didn’t really think this journal writing assignment will benefit at first, and I thought it was just annoying. Now that I’ve done a hundred journals, I felt that I earned more than I bargained for. 

Final Exam

I wasn’t really prepared for this exam, mainly because of the SAT reasoning test on Saturday. I spent almost all of my time preparing for the SAT, and didn’t think much about the upcoming finals. My mind was so occupied by SAT, I forgot to bring my American Literature textbook home, so I have to read the stories online, and try my hardest to get the complete study guide. I was most confident on the parts of the exam about the stories and the stories’ details, because I read both stories multiple times. I wasn’t confident about the parts about literary terms, because I didn’t really get to study them. This exam wasn’t as hard as I expected, but I still couldn’t get some questions. I think I’ll have to be more careful in the future, so as not to forget to bring my book home. I found that reading the stories multiple times helps significantly in taking the test, I remembered almost all the details, and had no problems answering most of the questions. 

Group Work

I think group work is a good way of coming out with solutions. When people work as a group, they each contribute a small share, and sometimes they provide knowledge that another person doesn’t know about. I like working as a group more than working by myself, because I tend to miss some important facts when I do projects alone. By working as a group, we discuss together and get all the important facts recorded down. I sometimes contribute largely to the group, and sometimes let other people do the work. I think teachers who make students do group work so often do so not only because it makes their own job easier, but also because it helps us learn better. Group work will surely benefit us in our life after high school, because we will have to work very frequently with other students when we go to college, and also work together with other employees if we work in a company in the future. Given the fact that I college you might have to work in groups even more than you have had in high school, I began to think that group work in high school is very important. It helps us prepare for our future career.

Language Use

How are new words created? New words are created “randomly”. Sometimes people suddenly say a word or term, and if they it sounds cool, they continue using it. Some common neologism phrases in our time are: lol, lmao, rofl, ttyl, gtg. Some common neologism words are: noob and pwned. Some old phrases fade away because people don’t think they are cool anymore. I use the Internet abbreviation language almost everyday, and it has become part of my life. I use that language because it’s fast, concise, and carries the meaning you want. It takes us about 10 seconds to type “talk to you later”, but it only takes us one second to type “ttyl”. Some words are used more often than others in politics, the media, and popular culture because they are the things that most people car about.  For example, in the recent presidential speeches in the US, the word “terrorist” has been used numerous times. It is used so frequently because terrorism is one of the top concerns of the American population. 

Independent Reading Project Reflection

By doing the independent group project, I learned about World War I from the Italian’s point of view, because the main character was an American ambulance river serving in the Italian army. The book was pretty thick, and it took me a very long time to finish it. Some of the parts describing the war are really good, because it described the soldier’s suffering very graphically. I believe that this exercise was pretty worthwhile, because I learned a lot about not just the World War I, but also the grim realities of war. I think this book is almost the direct opposite to The Red Badge of Courage; in The Red Badge of Courage, the author put the focus on the honor and glory of war, but in A Farewell to Arms, the author focused on the bad side of war, it described how the main character’s friends died one by one, and how he lost his lover in the end. To make it a better project, I would suggest myself to be more creative. The project Danny made was pretty creative; he taught us the theme of the book The Great Gatsby with simple and interactive “treasure” box.

Contemporary

Romanticism is one of the earliest movements that we have looked at. Some of the characteristics of the Romantic Movement are that it values feeling and intuition over reason, values imagination, shuns civilization and loves nature, and praises individual freedom and the worth of the individual. Transcendentalism is a movement that followed Romanticism. Transcendentalists believe that everything in the world, including human beings is a reflection of the Divine Soul, and that people can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit that is revealed in nature or in their own souls. The transcendentalists also believed that spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality. After the Transcendentalism movement, it’s the Realism movement. The Realism movement is basically a rejection of Romanticism. Almost all of the beliefs of Realists are opposite from that of the Romantics. The Realists rejects the idealized hero of the Romantic Movement, and they focus on ordinary people. They avoid using very florid language, and uses everyday speech patterns. Modernism is another movement. The Modernists rejects the traditional themes, subjects, and forms of earlier literature, and also rejects sentimentality and artificiality. 

Reflect on Your Project

We divided our group project into three parts, and assigned each member a part. My part was to do a poster on the background and basic information of The Handmaids Tale, and a “connection to self” poster that relates the conditions described in the book to my personal experience. The background and basic information poster was pretty easy to do, because all I have to do is research. The connection to self-poster was harder because I had trouble relating the book to myself. After a few hours of ferocious thinking, I found out that I could relate the way the Handmaids are prosecuted in the book, to my experience of being prosecuted. The handmaids were forced to do what they most likely don’t want to do (make babies), and will face severe punishment (death) if they raise any objection. I am often forced to do something that I don’t want to do, too, and I will also face punishment of a different form if I don’t do it. I spent a few hours on each poster, organizing the information, arranging the format, and adding some details. No one in our group took an obvious leadership role, but it was Christine who organized everything. I got my material from bookstores, and I worked at home because I have art supplies at home.

A Horror Story

I think “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is very much a horror story, as it contains all the elements that a horror story ought to have. Some of the most important elements in a horror story are of course the diction and plot. The right uses of words successfully builds up the suspense and nervousness. The right organization of the plot allows the reader to feel suspicious all along, and then still get surprised by the ending of the horror story. I think a surprising ending is also an essential element of a horror story. I was very surprised by the weird and chilling ending in “A Rose for Emily”. I suspected that something dead is inside the house, but I never suspected that it’s a dead person. I think there is a big difference between something scary and something that inspires a sense of horror. I think that “something scary” are mostly things that would be scary if it happened in real life (but will most likely not), but not really scary when you read it; for example, a character meeting a monster is not scary when we read it, but if we would be scared if we actually met a monster in real life. “Something that inspires a sense of horror” in horror stories are usually things that are really terrible that we never imagined existed, but could actually happen in real life. I think that is the case in “A Rose for Emily”. I never imagined someone would kill a person, and then keep that person’s corpse inside her room for more than ten years. Even though that’s a really crazy thing, it’s still possible that it will happen in real life, because we never know what some mentally disturbed people can do.

Homer’s End

I was very surprised by the end of “A Rose for Emily”, even though I suspected all along that something bad happened inside the mysterious house. After Emily died, people found a skeleton lying on a bed in a room in Emily’s house. I think Miss Emily poisoned Homer Barron to death, because she wants to get married so badly. She is afraid that she will lose another chance of getting married if Homer Barron runs away, so she killed Homer Barron before he could even decide whether or not he will marry her. After Homer Barron is killed, I think Miss Emily purposely arranged his body on the bed in a position that looks like he’s sleeping soundly. I believe the most reasonable motive for Emily to kill is that she wants to live in the day of marriage forever, because she yearned for it for so long, she cannot afford to lose it anymore. I think there is an indentation on the pillow beside Homer’s because Miss Emily lies there so much. I also think that there is gray hair on the pillow beside his decomposed corpse because Miss Emily purposely put it there. She sealed the room after a few years, probably because she couldn’t bear the pain to see that Homer Barron is actually dead. She then put the hair on the pillow as a symbol that she will always be with Homer Barron.

Nobel Speech

In Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, h urged young writers to tackle “the old universal truths…love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” I think he followed his own advice in “A Rose for Emily”, too. The six themes: love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, and sacrifice are all reflected in that story. First is the “love” theme, the love of Emily’s father for his daughter, and the love of Emily for Homer Barron are the two most evident examples. Next is the “pity” theme, the villagers pitied the death of Emily. Evidence of the “pride” theme is also seen in the story. Emily’s father is very proud of his family, and he won’t let any one marry his daughter because he thinks no one is good enough for her. Sacrifice was also shown in the story. Miss Emily sacrificed her youth and didn’t try to court with anyone just to live up to her father’s pride. 

Eccentric or Crazy?

In the story “A Rose for Emily”, we see a woman that acts and talks abnormally. She is disconnected from the society she lives in, and does her best to shut anything from the society out. She seems that she doesn’t understand how things work, because when people asked her to pay taxes, she replied multiple times that she has no taxes in Jefferson, and that the people should go talk to a colonel who died ten years ago. When poor people act this way, people usually say that they’re weird, but when rich people act this way, people say they’re “eccentric”. Eccentric by the dictionary definition means “off center”. I think the reason why people describe weird aristocratic people as “eccentric” is because aristocratic people live by a set of rules. People expect the aristocratic people to behave a certain way, so when the aristocratic people behave differently from other people’s expectations, they are considered eccentric. People say Miss Emily is eccentric because she doesn’t act like what an aristocratic lady would act like.

The N-Word

Many books that contain racial slurs such as the well-known n-word had been banned because it contains offensive language. Many of those kinds of books have been edited, and had the offensive terms replaced with similar but non-offensive terms. For example, they substituted the n-word with “slave” in some of the books. I think this is a wrong thing to do, because replacing the word can change the meanings that the book wants to inform. I also think that in those kinds of books, the racial slurs are not meant to insult people, they are meant to teach people reading the book about the situation at that particular time. For example, Mark Twain uses the n-word frequently to teach us how white people treat African Americans in the past. I think it’s wrong to ban these kinds of books, because they are only meant to help us understand the horrible past, and make us believe that using those racial slurs is not good. But what if the books insulted my ethnic group? I think people nowadays won’t really get offended by words that insult an ethnic group in general, people will only get offended by words aimed directly for a specific person, for example: articles that attack a specific person. 

Retreat

In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the main character retreated from society. She shut her self from the outside world and stayed in her own house. Why would a person want to do such a thing? I think there are some possible explanations for her actions. I think a person would want to escape from society because the society makes them “sad”. If a person’s husband is unjustly tried and executed by the laws in society (ex. Tom Robinson), the person would want to escape from society because the society is too oppressing to her. A person might also escape from society because everyone the person knows has died, for example, Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson isolated herself from society because all her friends have died. She probably escaped from society because she finds the society unworthy to live in. Some people escape from society because they think the society is corrupt and superficial. People who think the society is superficial might go and live in the woods. In my life, I sometimes feel like withdrawing into my own shell, too. I feel that because my everyday life sometimes become too tedious or boring.

Free Write

While the other people have APs, I have SAT subject tests. Although not nearly as hard as the AP Exams, it still takes a pretty long time to prepare. I’m taking the SAT Math Level II and Chemistry test this Saturday, and I’m awfully nervous. Chemistry and math are never my interests, and of course they are never easy for me. The chemistry test took me a very very long time to prepare, because there was a lot of stuff to understand and memorize. The SAT Math Level II test didn’t take me very long to study, but it’s still kind of hard to get 800. Because my parents are both math teachers, they’ve been putting a lot of pressure on my math test. I’m starting to feel more like a junior, since there are a lot of tiring things happening these days. I had to turn in a piece of artwork, and I spent many hours working it. I sat in front of my desk and worked on it for five hours straight, for two days. It’s weird how while some people are very busy and super stressed out, some people are going to the movies and saying how awesome that movie was. 

I Hate Poetry

Why do many people hate poetry? I hated poetry before, so I know the reasons why. In art, most people don’t like abstract expressionism or minimalism because they don’t understand it, they think the artists is just using the name “abstract expressionism “ as an excuse for making very random art. That’s what I thought, too, before I studied art history. Now I like that kind of art because I know their meaning. Similar to art, many people hate poem because they don’t understand it. I hated most poetry before because I think the poet is just writing random stuff down on paper. But after I got to look closely at the poem and tried to understand the poem, I started to like the poem, because I found out that the author actually talked about many things that I myself can relate to. After reading the poem by Marianne Moore, I found out a lot about the function of poem. A good poem does not say, but instead describe to let the reader “fill in the blanks”. For example, imagist poems described scenes of some animals sleeping, walking, side by side on a prairie etc. The poet didn’t tell us in the poem that these are peaceful scenes, instead, we found out the poet is describing peaceful things by imagining the actual scenes.

Horror

What makes a story scary? What elements contribute to a tone of horror? In horror movies, much of the “scariness” is built up by the music. The music is very vital in creating horror in scary movies; music with a very fast rhythm makes us nervous and anticipates that something is about to happen, where as music with eerie music notes heightens the fear we get from watching the scenes. In horror stories, the author can’t use music to make the story scary, so the author has to rely on his diction and tone. Vivid descriptions of what the characters saw is also important, it helps build a picture in our mind. Another element that makes a horror story scary is suspense. When the characters in the story don’t know why something weird is happening, it creates suspense because we start to wonder about the reason about why those things are happening, too. Our imagination runs wild and we think up a lot of scary reasons. In the story The Feather Pillow we read today, the author described how the wife of a man loses blood in her body mysteriously everyday, and finally dies. During the whole story, the man doesn’t know why his wife is dying, and the way the author wrote the story made us as terrified as the man himself. 

Anti-Hero

The definition of an “anti-hero” is “a person who is unable to succeed in what he/she does (or wants to do) because of he/she’s personal’s personal flaws”. I think J. Alfred Prufrock fits the definition of the anti-hero very well. Prufrock wants to get a woman he admires, but he is afraid to take action because of his lack of courage and confidence. He was unable to get the woman because of his personal flaws. I think J. Alfred Prufrock is certainly disillusioned, he mentions several times in his poem “the Love Song” how he is too old and too bald to do what he wants to do. Prufrock doesn’t dare to dream that he might one day get the women he wants. , “The hero is today running up against a hard world that is in no way responsive to the spiritual need.” Modern society has become a “stagnation of inauthentic lives and living . . . that evokes nothing of our spiritual life, our potentialities, or even our physical courage.” I agree with Joseph Campbell’s quote, I think that the modern society has indeed become a stagnation of inauthentic lives and living. People now work hard and do what they considered an entertainment (which is watching TV) everyday, they don’t really stop to think about anything because they are too tired, and also because their minds are too occupied.

What’s His Problem?

I think Alfred Prufrock’s problem is that he is too self-conscious and doesn’t have a lot of confidence. He is afraid to take action and propose to the women he admires, because he thinks that he isn’t good enough for her. I think he feels that most women are superior to him and are better than him; he also thinks that the women he sees won’t like someone like him. He thinks he’s too old, too thin, and has a bald spot. In his poem, he mentioned many times how he is bad compared to the woman he likes, he also mentioned how he doesn’t have the courage to tell the woman about his feelings. He said: “do I dare, do I dare?” many times in his poems because he doesn’t have the courage. In lines 37 to 44, he revealed his concern about his self-image. He confesses to the public that he lacks courage and confidence. He reveals his concern about how other people view him by saying: (they will say how his hair is growing thin, they will say how his arms and legs are thin!). 

Poetry’s Social Function

“I think it is important that every people should have its own poetry, not simply for those who enjoy poetry . . . but because it actually makes a difference to the society as a whole, and that means to people who do not enjoy poetry… Unless people go on producing great authors, and especially great poets, their language will deteriorate, their culture will deteriorate and perhaps become absorbed in a stronger one.”- T.S. Eliot. I agree with T.S. Eliot that every kind of people should be able to have their own kind of poetry, because poetry is a way for people to express themselves, and because poetry is different in every different culture, it contains its culture’s unique characteristics. For example, poetry from Indian tribes and poetry from urban Americans will differentiate in both the diction and subject matter. I think denying a culture’s poetry is equal to denying the culture itself. If a culture stops producing literary products, the culture will start to deteriorate. People will start to forget their own language, and the unique characteristics of the culture will start to fade.

War and Economics

Many significant events and disasters happened in the beginning of the past century. The World War One, Economic Crash, the great depression, and the World War Two all happened within the first few decades of the 19^th century. Many disasters happened during the first few years of the 20^th century, too. Even though there weren’t any wars, there were many natural disasters. There was the Si Chuan Earthquake, Haiti Earthquake, Japan Earthquake, Bali Tsunami, and the Japan Tsunami. These natural disasters caused drastic damage to the society and its infrastructures. People were horrified by the nature’s power to take away millions of lives. The human race had to face a big challenge once again; they have to rebuild society after mass destruction. I think historians of the future will describe the past twenty years as a time when the human race is harshly challenged by the environment they live in. We have to face the problem of rebuilding our society, and also sustaining our society, and we also faced the problem of climate change and global warming. I think the label for this contemporary period might be “Renewism”, because we have to, and have begun to restructure our society to fit the fast changing environment of where we live in. 

No Ideas But In Things

One group of Modern poets was called the Imagists. Imagism was a movement in the early 20^th century that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. The imagists rejected the sentimental approaches of the classical Romantic writers. Imagists believed that poetry could be made purer by concentration the precise, clear, and unqualified image. They wanted to rid poetry of its prettiness, sentimentality, and artificiality. I think that there shouldn’t be a limitation on the subject matter of poetry, because I believe that poetry should be a way for people to express themselves, and they should be able to do without any restrictions. Poems today are written about everything. The subject matters are not limited, nor are the formats. Even though I think people should be able to write poetry in whichever way they want, I still think there should be sets of rules and standards made for poem, but people can choose whether or not they want to follow it. Poetry can be more fun when there’s a standard set on it, because poets can challenge themselves to express all their meanings in the limited format. 

Historical Influences

Looking at the timeline on pages 632-633, I found out that many political and social events helped shaped the Modernist movement. Some of the events that I’m most familiar with are the start of World War I in Europe in 1912, the treat of Versailles that ended World War I in 1919, the 18th and 19th amendment in the US, the Great Depression in 1929, and the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Some of the movements that I’m not familiar with are the sinking of the British ocean liner Titanic in Newfoundland, the opening of the Panama Canal, the protest of Mohandas Gandhi, etc. I think the most notable events that must’ve contributed in shaping the artistic movement of that time are the World War I and World War II, and the Great Depression. The three big events mentioned above all impacted the society and the people in it. People’s optimistic views of the world were shattered, and people became more pessimistic. I think some of the recent events that happened around the world can also influence some artistic movements. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the riot in Libya and other countries in Africa are both events that can deeply influence the present artistic movements.

Social Influences – Entertainment

The only few entertainments that people in the past had was reading, and going to the movies every once in a while, and they didn’t have the Internet. The people in the past usually go to the movies every week, since it’s one of their only few entertainments, and also the most popular. Going to the movies in the past are almost considered as a routine, everybody goes to the movies at the same day each week. The movie theater has only one screen, and they play just one movie. Movies don’t just serve as an entertainment to the people in the past; it also serves as a way to attain information. Some movie theaters in the past play some news before and after the movies, so the people can get a glimpse of news on the screen. Today, people still go to movies for entertainment, but people don’t always go routinely. The movie theaters nowadays have more than one screen, and play more than a dozen movies in a day. People can choose which movie they want to watch, or choose not to watch any at all. People now can choose to go home and use the Internet instead. People in the past depend heavily on the movies, because it’s their only entertainment. People nowadays have dozens of alternative entertainments to choose from other than movies, they have the Internet and the television. They can also choose to go to see ball games or shows. 

Modernism

Modernism is a movement that has characteristics some different and some similar to that of the Romanticism and Realism. Modernists reject the ideal belief of a hero as an infallible person (Romanticism belief), they favor the belief of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned, but shows “grace under pressure”. One of the beliefs that are similar to that of the realists is the rejection of sentimentality and artificiality. One of the most important characteristics of Modernism is the sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American dream. The people’s beliefs of the American dream were badly destroyed by the devastation of World War I. Kind of like when the people’s Romantic beliefs were shattered by the Civil War. The devastation of World War I and the economic crash severely damaged the belief of America as a New Eden, the belief in progress, and the belief of triumph of the individual. People no longer think America is perfect. I think Modernism is kind of similar to Realism in a way that both movements focused on portraying society “realistically”, they emphasize the bad along with the good, not just the good alone.

The American Dream

The American dream was a set of beliefs that shaped the “American mind”. There are three central assumptions: America as a New Eden, A Belief in Progress, and Triumph of the Individual. In the belief of America as a New Eden, people believed that America is a land of beauty, bounty, and unlimited promises. A Belief in Progress is a belief that is about “optimism”, people believe that life will keep getting better and people are always moving toward an era of greater prosperity, justice, and joy. Triumph of the individual is where people believe in the importance and ultimate triumph of the individual. These optimistic beliefs are shattered by the horrible impacts of the World War one and the economy crash. Americans believed world will become a better and better place, and nothing really bad will happen. They believed that America is the perfect place for a perfect society; it is beautiful, bountiful, and full of unlimited promises. But every society has it’s own flaws and shortcomings. The major flaw of the American society is the issue of slavery. The American dream was once battered by the civil war, and now the World War I batters it again. 

Better Things?

I think technology doesn’t necessarily bring better things, or make/let us do better things. “Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things”. I think this quotation is very meaningful. Even though cars let us travel faster than horse carriages, we don’t really do a lot of good things. Cars pollute the environment, and many criminals use cars to commit crime. People in the past don’t have a lot of technology, so their lives are simple. People now use technology everyday; a lot of people pay their full attention to the technology and ignore other people. The downsides of the development of technology are clearly stated in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The people don’t think because they’re constantly watching or listening to a piece of technology. They fail to notice even when their neighbors disappear. Technology makes our lives more convenient, but relying on technology too much could lead to very bad consequences.

On Impulse

Being a person who doesn’t really think before he acts, I often do things on impulse. When I’m in elementary school, I was often tempted by my fellow “good friends” to do something that they promised would be “cool”. Of course I gave what they said a try, and paid heavily for it. One time in sixth grade, my friend asked me if I could kick an iron pipe on the wall and actually turn it in another way. I was reluctant to try because I feared that I would get into trouble (past experiences), but then my friends said it would be fun, and plus I’m a chicken if I don’t do it. So I did it, and the pipe broke, and water sprayed everywhere. As a reward, the teacher gave me the privilege to stand on the side of the classroom for the entire day. After that incident, I began to think more before I act. I always picture possible consequences before I do something I’m not really sure about doing. You can often see people that committed crimes on impulse on the news. Those people are usually very regretful of what they’ve done.

Romantics vs. Realists

The Romantic writers differ with the Realist writers in many different ways. The most significant difference is both their beliefs and writing style. The Romantic writers belief that people can find beauty and truth in exotic locales, the supernatural realm, and the inner world of the imagination. Romantic writers write in a style that idealizes things, because they think that there are already too much pain and sadness in the world. The Realist writers believed that people should “stay real”; they reject the idealized, larger-than-life hero of Romantic literature. The avoid writing about heroes or people from nature (Romantic hero), they focus more on writing about people from cities and lower classes. I think the Romantic movement kind of acted as a propaganda for war, people were filled with emotion and were determined to fight heroically, they thought that the war is holy and magnificent. Instead, the war turned out to be horrible, and many people died. I think the Realism movement was created because people think it’s better to “stay real”.

Think about...

• How and when did American writers and poets respond to the Civil War?
American writers responded to the war by inventing Realism and Naturalism.
• What are the basic characteristics of realism?
Realism explains why ordinary people behave the way they do. It rejects idealized, larger than life heroes of the Romantic literature; it also provides detailed depictions of ordinary characters and realistic events. Realist writers tend to focus their stories on characters from cities and lower classes, they avoid using exotic, sensational and overly dramatic descriptions of their story. They also use everyday speech patterns to reveal class distinctions, and they focus on the ethical struggles and social issues of real-life situations.
• What did the naturalist writers believe?
The Naturalists writers believe that human behavior is determined by heredity any environment, and that human beings cannot control their own destinies.

You’ve Com a Long Way, Baby

In Kate Chopin’s story, A Pair of Silk Stockings, the main character is called Mrs. Sommers. The story describes how Mrs. Sommers inherited 15 dollars one day, and decides how to spend the money. Mrs. Sommers carefully planned out the use of the money, so she can spend the money on everything she wanted. She decided to spend on things she never done before. She bought things that were considered luxurious in her time: silk stockings, and pretty shoes. She then went to a very good restaurant for snack instead of going back home to eat. After the snack, she went to the theater for a little entertainment. All the things that she did reflected her life and how she lived. She was very timid at first when she went into the classy restaurant, which showed that she have never eaten in a place like that before. We can see get a glimpse of her life in the theater, too.  “There were many others who were there solely for the play and acting. It is safe to say there was no one present who bore quite the attitude which Mrs. Sommers did to her surroundings. She gathered in the whole – stage and players and people in one wide impression, and absorbed it and enjoyed it.” The “many others” that were mentioned in the sentence are the rich people who go to the theater often. Mrs. Sommers tried to take in everything she can because she rarely goes to the theater. Just like how we curiously look around when we go to a foreign country. I think Mrs. Sommers’s life is better yet similar to that of the handmaids in the Handmaid’s Tale, Mrs. Sommers and the handmaids all can’t do a lot of things because of their situation. On the other hand, Mrs. Sommers life is very different to that of the women in our modern society. Women in our society are free to do anything they wish, and can even do jobs that are originally designed for men. 

A Reprieve

After I started high school, everyday of my life became very similar. Wake up, go to school, come home, study, do homework, play violin, sleep. Everyday is the same and it gets very tiring doing the exact same thing everyday. Even weekends are similar to each other. On Saturdays and Sundays I always wake up at 9, and I study, to homework, then play violin. The only difference from weekdays is that I get to sleep later, and also get to play basketball. This boring routine feels like a cage that locked my mind up. When my life becomes too boring, I usually do something else to escape from the monotonous cycle. For example, I play computer, listen to music, or just sit around and ponder about life. Most adults escape from their boring life by going on a vacation, they go to places where there aren’t many people, so they can get a good rest. I think watching movies or reading books is a good way to escape from reality, when you watch a movie or read a book, you get absorbed in the plot, and you kind of imagine yourself being in the story with the characters. 

I Exist

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”


I think the quotation above from Stephen Crane’s novel is suggesting that human is insignificant, compared to the whole world. The quotation accurately portrayed the feelings of Americans after the civil war. Before the Civil War, the United States of essentially an idealistic, confident, and self-reliant republic. During the Civil War, a LOT of Americans died, almost all men who went to war from that generation died. The shocking and painful results of the war changed the American’s opinion about war: war is something terrible. By the number of casualties in the Civil War, Americans realized how easy it is to take a human’s life, and how insignificant their life is compared to the world. I think Stephen Crane is trying to say: Humans are not so great and powerful, they are actually very weak and insignificant.

Power

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the power relations between some people is very clear, and not that obvious between some people. The relation between the general and the handmaid is very clear, the general has the ability to “get rid” of the handmaid, or punish them, but the handmaid’s can’t do anything to disobey the general. The same works with the general’s wife. The relation between handmaids and marthas are also pretty clear. The marthas can tell the handmaids what to do and what not to do, the handmaids can only listen and execute the orders. I think the power relations between the police and handmaids are pretty clear, too. The police can kill the handmaids if the handmaids look suspicious, but the handmaids can’t do anything. One power relation that is not very obvious is the relation between Nick and the handmaids. Nick has the power to get the handmaids into trouble. Nick likes to “flirt” and make eye contact with the handmaids, but if the handmaids were caught responding to Nick’s flirtatious actions, they will be punished and even killed. Another relation that is not so obvious is the relation between the general and his wife. I think the wife has the power to influence the general, thus getting some handmaids into trouble. For example, if the general’s wife dislikes one of the handmaids, she can tell him to get rid of that handmaid.

Slanted Truth

I think “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” might mean to tell all the truth to people, but tell it in a way that people could accept it. For example, if a boss is firing their workers because of the depression, the boss probably won’t tell the workers: “I’m kicking you out because I don’t need you, you’re only going to drag down the company.” The boss would probably tell the workers the “slanted truth”, so that the workers won’t want to kill him. The boss will probably say: “you have worked for this company for a long time, and you have been a very good worker.” After the boss said this, he will continue with: “But recently, the depression has reduced the company’s profits by a huge amount, and we can’t afford to keep so many workers in my company.” Then the boss will get to the point: “I am very sorry, but I have to lay you off.” Telling the “slanted truth” and telling the direct truth will result in a different reaction from the person being told. I think Emily Dickinson’s way of telling the “slanted truth” kept her from being ostracized by her society, since the society that she lived in is very strict and forbids any kinds of activities that the people consider sinful.