AK 17

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

After reading Herman Melville’s Bartley the Scrivener, one part that caught my attention was the mention of dead letter office that Bartley used to work in. The narrator states that the dead letter office was a place where Bartley sorted letters that had no recipient and would eventually be destroyed. Before reading Melville’s story, I had no idea what a dead letter office was, and wondered if one actually exists in the real world. After some quick research, I discovered that we do indeed have a dead letter office. According to the USPS, the Mail Recovery Center as formerly known as the “Dead Letter Office.” This center acted as the “lost and found” center for the postal services. While in Herman Melville’s story, the dead letter office seemed like a place that was gloomy and hollow, the USPS Mail Recovery Center, is actually a place where lost mail can be found. In the real world, there is hope that the mail in the formerly known “Dead Letter Office” would have a recipient.

However, I doubt Melville’s mention of the Dead Letter office is in regards to the USPS Mail Recovery Center. Melville uses the dead letter office to symbolize the repetitive and dreary job that more people were doing. Bartley’s job in the dead letter office, was the reason for his depression and his loss of motivation. In the dead letter office, Bartley aimlessly spends his time sorting letters that were sent to be destroyed. This repetitive task was both lifeless and pointless. The dead letter office, is Melville’s portrayal of the lackluster occupations in society that required employees to do repetitive tasks. Alike the dead letter office, if employees continue to purposely do the same task every day, they will not strive to do better. Even today, many employees suffer from depression as they realize that they have to perform the same tasks daily. There is a lack of excitement for their jobs, and can even lead to an employee despising their jobs. If employers do not give employees new opportunities to strength their skills, employees will give up and put no effort into their work. As an employee myself, I can relate to feeling of repeatedly doing the same tasks. It makes me wonder if this was how I was to live the rest of my life as. I realize that I do not want to waste my entire life repeatedly doing the same tasks, and want to experience new things. It would be a shame if we spend our entire life experiencing the same actions over and over again.

– Amy Wang

In Molière’s play Tartuffe, the female role is represented in two ways. Mariane was the representation of the delicate, reserved, and powerless women. On the other hand, Dorine and Elmire are the opposite of Mariane, they are courageous, clever and powerful. While Mariane’s characteristics make her submissive to men, the personalities of Dorine and Elmire puts them on the same level as men. Although they do not have power over men, they have the ability to argue back and keep themselves from becoming inferior to men. Dorine can be seen as one of the reasons why Orgon was able to redeem himself from his foolishness. She also saves Mariane from marrying Tartuffe. Elmire is also the opposite of Mariane because she is cunning and able to deceive Tartuffe. Elmire is not the image of a pure and reserved women. She takes charges when she realizes that her husband was being tricked. She also plays a large role in saving Orgon, because she is able to trick Tartuffe into revealing his true self. In the end, the powerful and deceitful Tartuffe falls prey to a woman.

Mariane represented society’s image of an acceptable women, while Dorine and Elmire represented the rebellious nature of women as they move away from the typically powerless and weak image. In today’s society, both representation of the female role still exists. In a more modernized country, like the United States, women are more like Dorine and Elmire. As society changes, more women fight for their rights and justice. However, in some countries women are still submissive towards men. This inferiority towards men is evident in the Middle Eastern, as there have been many conflicts on the rights of women. Women are treated as men’s property and have no human rights. As a women myself, I hope to see more women fight back like Dorine and Elmire. Instead of the “knight in shining armor coming to save the damsel in distress,” I hope more women will become like Dorine and Elmire who are the ones saving the men, and not being saved by men.

– Amy Wang

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.

Cao Xueqin’s The Story of the Stone, gives the reader a vivid and descriptive glimpse of life and culture back in ancient China. The readers are introduced to the elaborate and extravagant lifestyle of a wealthy Chinese family in ancient China. The activities that the Jia family enjoys, are eloquent and sophisticated. For instance, the emphasis on literature and art is evident, since the Jia family hold poetry contests to pass time. The author vividly depicts many aspects of ancient Chinese culture such as religion, cuisine, clothing and much more. Of the many aspects of ancient Chinese culture portrayed in Cao Xueqin’s The Story of the Stone, one aspect that caught my eye was the family hierarchy.

After reading the novel and watching the drama version in class, I was in astonishment by the differences between the modern Chinese-American family today, and the family in Cao Xueqin’s novel. Although some values and philosophies of Chinese family hierarchy are still engraved in today’s Chinese culture, it is evident that there has been a huge change to the family hierarchy structure in Chinese culture. In the novel, one of the biggest cultural shock that I discovered was the caution and restraint the younger generation must have in the presence of an elder. During class when we watched the scene of Jia family eating dinner, I felt as if the family had no sense of a true family. The Jia family’s dinner seemed very distant and dull, instead of the lively and warm dinner a family usually share. The children could only eat if they were invited to the table by the elder and even while eating dinner, they had to follow strict procedures. There were rules on how to eat, how to drink tea and even how to rinse your mouth! After watching this scene, I realized the amount of freedom and independence we get to enjoy today. In today’s society, we are always arguing that our parents have too much control over us, but the children in ancient Chinese culture had no free will and were firmly confined to their roles in society. Cao Xueqin’s novel made me realize that although Chinese culture now may still seem strict, I am grateful that many of ancient Chinese practices have since been discarded.

–Amy Wang

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

Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe once said, “This is one great thing that literature can do – it can make us identify with situations and people far away.” Literature is written to convey a message or to state a point. Through literature, we perceive the world in the author’s point of view and relate to ourselves in some way. The novels, short stories, and poems that we read in class are relevant to our everyday life. We can relate to these works in different ways, such as the society depicted in a literary work, a character, or the theme stated in work. By relating the literature that we read to everyday life, we can have a better understanding of the works and the world. In our blog posts, we will be comparing and contrasting the literary works that we read in class with our experiences or discoveries in life. Our goal is to understand more in depth the works we’ve read in class and create interesting insights from them. We hope to show our followers the strong links between world literature and ourselves despite the difference in era and nationality.

– Amy Wang and Kary Huang