AK 17

As you can see, throughout our posts we were able to find even the slightest connections between the literary works we read and reality. Although some of the works we read includes supernatural elements, fantastical, and even unrealistic story-lines, we realized that these made our process of completing this project more fun and discovered interesting connections between fictional stories and our lives.

Besides the long, meaningful readings, even through short and vague works we were able to find the messages that the author is trying to convey to us by reading them again. Authors use novels, poems and writings to express their approaches and opinions on the world, and we could still feel their hidden thoughts and feelings in our own world today. We can never be certain about the definite meaning behind an author’s work because literary works can be interpreted in multiple ways, but rendering our own interpretations was what we wanted to accomplish. The beauty of literature is great in its way that, it can be interpreted in so many different ways and still give readers a sense of relation and familiarity. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

– Amy Wang and Kary Huang

Remember in Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock“, when the heroine, Belinda is going mad about the lock of hair that got cut off by the Baron? I believe that most of you, if not all of you, had the same reaction as I did: is it THAT big of a deal? Well, Belinda was about to kill the Baron for this. Was it because appearance was all she cares about? Did  she not have more serious businesses to do besides dressing herself up and going to card games? Pope purposely titles it with the word “rape” to emphasize the irony in this story.

Many of you might feel the same way: some people around you just fuss about trivial things in life, you will most likely get annoyed and fight back, but soon afterwards, you will feel that the argue is very pointless and the time could be spent on more meaningful things. Many couples argue over a missed call or message; siblings argue over a broken toy; students argue over a pen mark on the shirt… As a bystander, we can see things clearly; but as a participant in an incident, we often cannot develop a more objective perspective. After reading “The Rape of the Lock”, you can finally laugh at some of your funny actions sometimes. Although everyone has a different bottom line in their standards, but many times things just aren’t that serious! You can really just sit and have a conversation and things will work out. There’s no need to make a big deal.

You have to know, that relationships with people around you are way more important than the little displeasure you’re feeling!

-Kary Huang

When we feel stressed, depressed, and suffocated from life’s speedy tempo, we tend to turn back to the original form of entertainment – seeking comfort from nature. Take myself as an example, many times when I need to “breathe” from my heavy load of work I will often walk out to my balcony and look at the sky, the trees, the flowers, and the peaceful residential streets. I often exclaim what a luck to live at a peaceful, quiet, lovely neighborhood. My friend who’s sitting across from me at the desk right now says that when she’s tired, she will take out the photos of beautiful nature views and of places that she’s traveled to (Maldive is amazingly glamorous by the way).

In John Keat’s poems “Ode to a Nightingale” and “To Autumn“, many fascinating natural scenes are depicted, and it is a pleasure alone to read these beautiful lines. In the first poem, narrator’s description of the interaction between nature, nightingales and himself in his half-conscious mental state gives me a particularly mysterious feeling. The plants surrounding him and the energetic nightingale are bringing him back to live from his depression and weariness, healing his sufferings. We can see that nature has the power to relax human and put aside our problems. In the second poem, Keats shows the readers how autumn could be just as beautiful as other seasons because of its unique characteristics. In fact, autumn has always been my favorite season because its comfortable temperature; I love to stay out late on autumn nights. Also, it is harvesting season just as Keats describes, so it actually brings us a lot of joy.

Sometimes a walk in the park can be much more relaxing than seeking ways of relaxation online. Solutions to problems will come unexpectedly!

-Kary Huang

“Becoming Jane” is a film that is based on Jon Hunter Spence’s novel “Becoming Jane Austen.” The film portrays the life of the famous English author, Jane Austen. After watching the film, I notice the similar themes, and connections between Jane Austen’s life and her novel “Pride and Prejudice.” Many even believed that Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” was based on her own life, but in the novel Austen was able to give herself a happy ending. Throughout the film, I saw Jane Austen as Elizabeth Bennet and Thomas LeFroy as Mr. Darcy. Many of the characters in Austen’s life is very similar to the characters in her novel. For instance, Austen’s parents were similar to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Marriage and social status is a big theme in both Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and in the film “Becoming Jane.” Alike Austen’s novel, in the film, Jane and Thomas face obstacles in getting married because of their different social status. Jane alike Elizabeth Bennet, is pressured into getting married to any men that proposes to her, because society deems women only worthy of marriage.

Thankfully, today we don’t practice this belief of women’s only purpose as marriage. The social class gap that prevents marriage from occurring, no longer exist as our economy and society changes. I believe that without people such as Jane Austen, we will not have been able to see this change in society. Austen defied society’s expectation of her into getting married, and instead chooses to live a life unmarried. Austen chooses to become a successful author, and proves that a woman can become successful without marriage or a man. Although society has changed, and women are no longer expected to marry the moment they come of age, there are still beliefs that men are superior to women. In order to destroy this belief, I hope to see more successful women like Jane Austen, prove that women are as good as men.

For those of you who enjoyed reading Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” in class, I suggest that you watched “Becoming Jane.” It is interesting to see the comparison between Austen’s novel and her own life. The following is the trailer for the 2007 film.

– Amy Wang

After reading Ueda Akinari’s Bewitched, I was furious at the fate of the two main characters, Toyo-o and Manago. It was unfair to have only Manago punished in the end, while Toyo-o was excused and lives a peaceful life. Although Manago, did deceive Toyo-o by concealing her true identity, she does not intend to harm Toyo-o in any way. She disguises herself as a “voluptuous” and beautiful women to attract men’s attention and find love. She did not cast a spell or bewitches Toyo-o into falling in love with her, because Toyo-o voluntarily falls in love with Manago for her beautiful appearance. However, the moment Toyo-o discovers Manago’s true identity, he chooses to betray Manago, and puts all the blame on her. I believe the only reason Toyo-o does this is not because of his fear for Manago, but because he is afraid of what society might think of him for falling in love with a demon. He blames Manago for “bewitching” him and turns himself into a helpless and innocent victim. Toyo-o is even the one who harms Manago in the end, leading to her death. The only fault Manago had was unconditionally loving an ignoble man.

Manago’s situation can be incorporated into the real world, where women are blamed for men’s wrongdoings. There have been many situations where rape victims (mostly women) are blamed for being raped, while the rapist is set free. These victims are blamed for dressing in a provocative manner, thus implicating that these victims “were asking to get raped.” While rape victims live their life in depression or fear, the rapist move on with their life and not caring about the negative impact that they have created on the victim’s life. In Akinari’s story, Toyo-o is excused from his mistake for blindly loving someone for their outer beauty, and for harming a women who only had love for him. In the end, Manago is punished and suffers because of Toyo-o wrongdoings.

– Amy Wang

In William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper, we see the lost of innocence and sufferings. All the young children in Blake’s poem are suffering and in pain because they have to sweep chimneys for a living. These children do not live life happily and carefree, like most children in our society do. They don’t have parents to support and love them, and have to learn to fend for themselves at a young age. The only joy and brightness that these children receive are during their sleep when they are able to dream of a happier place. One of the children, Tom’s dream can be perceived as: the only hope of a happy life for these children are their deaths. In Tom’s dream, all the children are locked in black coffins, and are saved after an angel comes with a key to unlock them. Tom’s dream foreshadows that these children will suffer in life but be free after death because they’ll be sent to heaven.

Although we don’t usually see the scenes in Blake’s poem in our country, it does not mean that it no longer exists. Nowadays, children are given more care and protected, but the sufferings of children in Blake’s poem still exist in many third world countries. Especially in Africa, young children are forced to work in very dangerous environments in order to survive and to keep their families alive. After reading Blake’s poem, I realize how sad it is that the adolescents in our society complain about going to school and dropping out because they believe that it is to difficult and stressful. The children in society take advantage of the free education and opportunities that we have. The children in Blake’s poem would have killed to be given the opportunity to receive a free education instead of spending their life sweeping chimneys and fearing death.

– Amy Wang

I believe the short story “Bewitched” and the poem “Goblin Market” still remain in our classmates’ minds although we read them a while ago. At least to me, they leave such strong impressions not only because of supernatural and fantastical figures in these works, but the overall theme – appearances are deceiving and sometimes they can be traps. In “Bewitched”, the protagonist fell in love with the beautiful lady a serpent disguised as, but later on he discovered that the serpent was trying to possess his body. Similarly, in “Goblin Market”, the younger sister Laura couldn’t resist the tempt of the various, juicy, colorful f: ruits sold by the goblins, but after eating them she suffered from a severe illness. These two stories, though simple, taught us a very important principle: beautiful appearances can be camouflages for fatal traps.

Everyone loves beautiful things, it is absolutely normal for a human. That is why some smart frauds thought of this clever way to lure people into their traps with things that are extremely tempting. I once watched a video of a man who drives around a Lamborghini to attract girls. He asked 8 random girls on the streets to go for a drink, and 7 out of 8 girls got on his car without hesitating. The man asked each of them why they would get on his car when they did not even know him, they all answered similarly: you’re driving a beautiful car, I believe you’re friendly and won’t harm me. I literally laughed out loud when I heard this answer: what kind of logic do these girls have? Even though the video was just testing how many girls would “fall for his trap”, I believe there are many similar cases like this where girls are lured into a car and get robbed or raped. There are also cases such as men who are attracted by beautiful girls but eventually got all of their properties scammed away. Like the protagonists in the short story and poem, the consequences for their ignorant actions are severe. It is very important to think twice before we act, and do not fall for these beautiful traps!

Attached is the video for those of you who understands Chinese.

-Kary Huang

In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s only ambition is to marry off her daughters. Her fixation with marrying off her daughters is based on the 19^th century belief of when a woman comes of proper age, it is only acceptable for her to get married. If a woman does not get married, she is considered hopeless and frowned upon. Unlike in today’s society, when a woman comes of age, she can become independent and strive to become successful without having to consider marriage as an option. However, in the 19^th century women had to rely on their father and then later on, their husband. Although Mrs. Bennet may seem senseless and irritating she is only trying to secure a future for her daughters. She believes that marriage is the best option for her daughters’ happiness, but does not consider the consequences of arranging a disastrous marriage such as Elizabeth and Mr. Collins, or Lydia and Wickham.

Mrs. Bennet reminds me of some of my close relatives, such as my aunts. Unlike my aunts who are more traditional, my mother is actually very modernize and does not believe of pressuring her daughters into marriage. She believes more in an independent woman rather than a woman who is dependent on men. However my aunts, are a different case. The moment my cousins graduate college or turns 21, my aunts pesters them on finding a boyfriend and getting married as soon as possible. They believe the longer their daughters remain single, the less of chance they have of marriage, therefore meaning no bright future. Alike Mrs. Bennet, my aunts are still living in the 19^th century belief that a woman’s only choice is marriage.

– Amy Wang

Alexander Pope’s poem An Essay on Man got me reading over and over again and took me a quiet long time to understand. Every time I read the poem, I underline more lines, but I think every line in the poem is very meaningful. There are a few aspects that I can’t agree more. One thing I want to point out is that from ancient time to present time, mankind still possesses that greed and laziness described vividly by Pope.

In the poem, Pope writes that human think it is unfair that they need to work so hard in life and the gain is always little while God can achieve goals easily. Human always envy the abilities of deities and other animals and dissatisfied with what they possess. It is true, we always want what we don’t have and neglect what we already have. We always long for more riches, better appearances, and think that these materials represent better life. This greed drives mankind to do immoral things such as robbery, scams, defaming, etc. Girls who are dissatisfied with their natural looks go for plastic surgeries. But at the end, are they that much happier? When they end up in jail, or their friends and families are lost while achieving their ambitions, or their bodies start to deform due to side effects of plastic surgeries, they cry and say they regret. There are too many stories like these in the society, but some people still do not learn the lessons and more people are behaving the same way.

“All in exact proportion to the state; nothing to add, and nothing to abate. Each beast, each insect, happy in its own: is heaven unkind to Man, and Man alone?” These lines from Pope are worth reflecting upon. If only human would think in another perspective – notice that every creature has its strengths and defects; that we should be satisfied with a healthy body and having people around us whom love us and we love.

We should all be grateful of what we have!

–Kary Huang