Author: 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

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

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

After reading Lu Xun’s “Diary of a madman” discussing in class today, I had a strong desire to express my contempt to those who call the protagonist “madman” in the story. Just because he does not agree with the practice of “eating human flesh” which is common in the society, people call him a madman. I think that those who call him a madman are the real madmen because I bet they don’t even know why they are doing what they are doing!

In the story, many people in the society eat human fresh because either they are taught by their parents, or just going with the flow while everyone else is doing it, or doing it so that they wouldn’t become the next target. I suddenly thought that, one madman may be despised by the society, but if everyone becomes a madman, then it suddenly becomes the right thing to be a madman. These people do not have their own judgements, or are too coward to speak up, because difference always means bad in the society. Indeed, Chinese culture promotes unity and obedience to elders, but if you know what you are taught are immoral, why would you not speak up about it? By participating in the practices are you know are ethically wrong, you are partly responsible for the “wrongdoings” in the society!

I believe that Lu Xun uses “eating people” to bring out the hidden message he wants to convey – the rape of human freedom.Children are always taught to respect their elders and follow rules, even when the elders are wrong and are taking away children’s personal freedom. My family always calls me a stubborn kid because I only listen to them when I think they are right. When they ask me to behave in such way, I always ask the reason why; and if they cannot explain, then I wouldn’t conform. My parents always use my neighbor as an example of how a good child should be, because she does everything her parents want her to do and nothing more. Her parents make all decisions for her. But is that what we need in our society today? Actually, I don’t think that’s what we need in any society. We need individual thinking so we can be independent, so there won’t be as much victims of scam, so we can decide for our own lives.

Don’t conform without questioning. You don’t want to become a member of the ignorant crowd.

-Kary Huang

The reason why Hedda Gabler married George Tesman is still a question to me since Tesman is less wealthy than Hedda and she doesn’t show a bit of love towards him (even if she did, it was an excuse to hide her true intentions at burning the manuscript). Tesman is undoubtedly a good husband, he endures Hedda’s moodiness and buys her the house when she expresses interest in it. However, Hedda is greedy and displeased with everything. She complains to Judge Brack about their boring honeymoon and even her life now, after returning to her dream house, is “boring [her] to death.” She appears to be a superficial and manipulative person. Her beauty would’ve definitely attracted many more men. However, the only reason I can think of to explain her marriage with George Tesman is that Tesman is submissive to her which makes her feel proud and superior.

Hedda’s debut both in the book and the film gives me a bad impression for her. Her pride and demanding attitude towards the people around her somewhat angered me. Her way of speaking and acting are very disrespectful, yet Tesman still tolerates her and spoils her. Hedda reminds me of some young ladies, even celebrities in our society today who also lack profundity. They always complain about their boredom because they have nothing better to do other than gossiping or thinking how to attract those rich men so their lives are “secured”. I believe that women, besides our duties to take care of our husband and children, need to have our own goal and passion in life. We should not be satisfied with being a housewife. We should use our leisure time to explore more of what we are interested in and contribute to that field. If our time is used wisely, we should not feel bored at all.

We should all live for a purpose. Hedda’s act of suicide is absurd in my view. She is just avoiding the consequences that she created for herself. In fact, I usually do not feel sorry for suicide cases because they absolutely have other ways in life other than death. They choose death because they do not have the courage to face their problems. Who doesn’t have ups and downs in life? Life like a straight line would be meaningless. Who doesn’t make mistakes? No one is perfect. We should always admit our mistakes and stand up again and not let life defeat us.

Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice is still among the top of the world famous literature now. Indeed, after reading the novel, I feel that it is definitely a must-read book in one’s life. The elegance of language and the character of Elizabeth Bonnet struck my heart deeply. The main theme in the novel is that love can overcome pride and prejudice. Mr. Darcy’s love for Elizabeth propels him to put aside about his pride and neglect their class differences. Similarly, Elizabeth’s love for Darcy makes her forget about her prejudice about him and agrees to the marriage despite the disapproval and dislike of Darcy’s family. Austen grants them a good ending by saying that Darcy’s family members eventually accept Elizabeth because of her true love for Darcy.

In real life, I wonder, how many of these stories can be true? True love does exist, I believe in it, but people’s faith for love has been diminished. There are many instances in our society today where girls marry rich men not because of love but because of their property, and men are attracted by beautiful appearances instead of personalities. Girls (note that I don’t use women here) feel proud to have a rich husband, and automatically filter out men who are less sociable and eloquent as rigid, boring cavemen. People pay too much attention to appearances and fame and forget that they’re spending the rest of the lives with the person not their face. That is why divorce rates are so high nowadays. Perhaps because of this, marriage and divorce do not play as important to a person’s reputation anymore. The purity of love depicted in Pride and Prejudice cannot be found in modern society anymore.

Yes, it does sound a little sad.

–Kary Huang