Pessimism

I think why Emily Dickinson’s topics are often about loneliness, isolation, and death is because she often encounters these things. It was said that she lived in a house by herself and isolated in herself from the society in the later years of her life. According to her, the reason why she locked herself up is because all her friends are gone. Because all her friends had died, she experienced loneliness and the feeling of losing her friends (death). Because she locked herself up, she experienced isolation. Emily Dickinson’s subject matters are mainly what she experienced in her life. I think the narrator (Offred) of the Handmaid’s Tale experienced things similar to that of Emily Dickinson’s. Offred was separated from Luke (her husband) and her child. She was isolated in a place where she has no real friends. She also experienced the feeling of losing someone, because her husband and child are very likely to be dead. Emily Dickinson and Offred are both in a circumstance where they have no friends of someone they know. I think the circumstances that the two women are in have some differences. Offred forbidden to make friends, Emily Dickinson is not. Emily Dickinson CAN make friends, but she doesn’t want to, because she thinks that people worth making friends with are all gone.

The Soul

I think most people select their friends using both their mind and feelings. I think mind and feeling is directly related, people first judge with minds when they meet someone they don’t know. They judge people by their clothing, race, looks, and their demeanor. Many people keep away from people who’s outside appearances are very different from theirs. For example, a guy with tattoos, earrings, and dyed hair usually don’t try to be friends with a person who looks like a scholar. People are attracted to people with characteristics that match their likes. Most Asians in the U.S. make more Asian friends than African American friends. I think people can only judge a person with their feelings after they understand a certain degree of the person. For example, if a person always does good things for you, you would feel good about him, and you would want to be friends with him. I think people judge more with their mind than feelings. You will want to be friends with someone if you think they some characteristics that you like. 

Real or Romantic

Walt Whitman celebrated the laborers in “I Hear America Singing” with a happy and content tone. I think Walt Whitman is idealizing the Americans’ works because he only mentioned the positive aspects of the jobs (how the people sang as they work, and how the fisherman looks happily at the fish he caught), he didn’t mention the negative aspects of their work. The laborers in America have to work for a very long hour each day to earn only a meager pay. Walt Whitman is expressing a positive yet unrealistic aspect of American life at that time. Having studied US history last year, I saw how many Americans immigrants struggled to make a living in the 18^th century because of the great depression. Families lived in constant worry that their husbands will lose their job, since most of the companies are discharging many of their workers every day. The people suffered and many even committed suicide. Even in the present days, laborers don’t enjoy a good life. They still have to do long, hard work for only a small amount of pay. Therefore, I think Walt Whitman is expressing only positive and unrealistic aspects. 

Work Songs

In the poem “I hear American Singing”, Walt Whitman celebrated the American enterprise. I think Walt Whitman celebrates the work songs because working is one of the fundamental things in a society, and especially the American society. Also, one of the most prized values in the American society is hard work. People work hard to achieve their potential and attain their goal. In our society, some jobs are considered to be better than others, and people value them more than the other jobs. The jobs considered to be “good” nowadays may be similar or different from the past. I think jobs that were considered good in the past is the job as a doctor, or a teacher. Jobs that are considered good nowadays might be engineers, policemen, firefighters, or professors. Some jobs that maybe considered better than other jobs both in the past and present might be the jobs as a doctor, or a police. Jobs celebrated in Taiwan are almost always jobs that require a high level of education, or a job that has a very high income. A lot of traditional Taiwanese parents want their children to grow up to be a doctor, so the job as a doctor is highly valued.

Ode

I will write an ode about parrots, and especially the parrots that had been a member of my house in the past and present. My mom doesn’t like to have cats, dogs, and other animals that can make a mess as a pet, so we bought parrots instead, white, green, blue, yellow, gray, parrots of various colors and sizes. The kind of parrots that we bought before does not have a very strong immune system, so a lot of them died. One of the interesting and sad thing is, each parrot died in a different way. After one parrot dies, we buy a new one, but not immediately, usually after 1 year. The kind of parrot currently living in my house has a very strong immune system, and it has been with our family for almost 6 years. I can think of many things to describe my parrots:

-  Feathery

-  Can fly

-  Very noisy sometimes

-  Sits on our shoulder

-  Gets very puffy when the weather is cold

-  Is scared of a lot of things, ex. The phone, pens

-  Likes to chew on paper

-  Makes sounds like whistling

-  Whole body is gray except the head, the head is yellow and has two orange spots on the side

-  Likes to “explore” dark places, ex. Drawers

-  Smells bird feed

-  Has a very long tail

-  Likes to get its head scratched, like dogs

-  Likes any green plant

Journal Entry 55, Title: Oppression

In the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, women are oppressed and are stripped of any human rights. The definition of oppressed is “To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority”. The handmaids in the book can’t do anything but to try to get pregnant; they will be killed if they do anything they weren’t allowed to do. I think some people that experienced similar misfortunes are the African American people; they were oppressed by many of the white people in the past, and were also prosecuted severely by the Klu Klux Klan. Taiwanese people were also oppressed in the past; they were oppressed by the Japanese and Chinese people. The Chinese and Japanese were fighting over the control of Taiwan, and they caused many Taiwanese people to suffer. I think the kind people that are often oppressed are the native people. The Indians in the US are oppressed by the people from England, the aboriginal people in Taiwan are oppressed by the Japanese, and the Dinka people in Sudan are oppressed by the Arabs. There are still some people being oppressed even in the present time. The people in North Korea suffered famine and diseases everyday because of their horrible communist government. People are killed randomly at the will of the government, and because of the lack of food, many people are forced to eat human. Although they know it’s immoral to eat human, they were too hungry to care. People who try to escape from North Korea will be executed, and their family will be send to torture camps to suffer and eventually die. 

Journal Entry 54, Title: Holiday Reality

Before the spring break started, I have many things planned in mind. I ended up doing most of them, but didn’t get to do the one that I wanted to do the most. I did go to Kaohsiung and Taipei to visit my relatives, and like what I said before the spring break, I sat around and did almost nothing but watch TV. I ate a lot when I visited my relatives, we went to a buffet restaurant for lunch, so I ate many food; my grandma also gave me a lot of food. I did study for the SAT test during my break; I practiced doing the test a few times and took the practice test on February 8. I didn’t get to hang out with friends mostly because the break was very short, and also because most people are busy visiting relatives and getting red envelopes. One good (or bad) thing about the spring break is that I didn’t do ANY homework; I got a pretty good rest from not doing school work. Even though I didn’t get to hang out with my friends, I still think the spring break is pretty nice. I had to do a lot of homework even during the winter break, so it was a relief when I didn’t have to do any during spring break.