Month: December 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBIjpKCWdiY

 

In Oroonoko, written by Aphra Behn, a royal slave had been became the new general for his people. The conflict arises when he falls in love with the daughter of his foster father, Imoinda. While he asked his grandfather for approval, the grandfather is enraged and decides to send her the royal veil and wants to make her one of his concubines. Oroonoko and Imoinda remain separated but they both stay faithful to each other.  In the end,

With the theme that being genuine comes along with heartbreaks, it can be seen that while Oroonoko sincerely falls in love with Imoinda, he wants nothing more than to be happy with her but he is forced to be separated from her, which breaks his heart.

While they were apart, Oroonoko reaches out to Aboan for help, and he makes it possible for the two lovers to spend a night together. When the king found out, he tells Oroonoko that he had executed Imoinda, but he had actually sell her into slavery. When Oroonoko heard about this, he gives up his will to live and abandons his troops. All of a sudden, the tables had turned and he leads his troops to victory. He eventually meets a slave owner, clemen and he was able to allow Oroonoko to be back with Imoinda.

With all the events that had happened, Oroonoko just wanted to be himself by finding happiness with Imoinda but that was forbidden due to social status. He goes through a heartbreak as they were separated and he lives thinking that she was dead. If he wasn’t so genuine and if society hadn’t demanded so much in aspects of wars, slaves, slave owners, and a king, nothing would of have stopped Oroonoko and Imoinda from being together, when the two of them are sincerely in love.

Lu Xun is a traditional Chinese story that I’ve always heard incomplete bits from either from my family or my teachers. When I finally read the whole thing, and got an understanding of what life was like living in feudalism where women were merely objects that were never recognized for good but only if they hadn’t marry, I was upset that humans were once treated that way. To be a successful woman, so to speak, one had to be arranged into a marriage and be kind, hardworking and strong. The story of XiangLin’s wife showed that her husband had died leaving her to be a widow which made everyone in society look down on her. She was then forced to marry again, she’d rather die than to be miserable. This was ironic because society demands that all woman must be married off and that is the only way a woman will somewhat be accepted but XiangLin’s personal morals are greater than that.

I can’t even imagine how to put my emotions together in an environment and century where each household consisted of women focusing on their husband and chores. No family focused on affection and happiness. Obedience and loyalty was wha determined fate for a women. I’m curious to know where such a thing came from, and why it lasted for so long until women can finally find happiness because men could have fought for women too. Men could have fantasized for a sincere and loving wife that would do everything a woman was expected to do.

In the story, XiangLin’s wife loses her second husband and her son, and had to go back to her uncle’s house. Her uncle does not like her, and she loses every hope she had that kept her alive. People would not feel remorse for her after laughing at her life like it was a tragic story. This comes to show that even though XiangLin’s wife did not match up to the traditions of a chinese woman, she would have been really loved and appreciated if she were to be in a later time period and if marxism had taken over for being her genuine self.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRppXdKDY_c

 

In Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, a wealthy scientist, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster out of body parts that he found in a grave. When the monster came to life, Frankenstein was so disgusted by the appearance of the monster that he abandons him. With the monster clueless of his lonely life, and hatred for being abandoned, he decides to go on a killing spree due to how he rejected he felt from humans(at this point, the monster only went after the Frankenstein family). The monster then takes shelter at a cottage for a year, where he learned language and how to read. He then was able to read  Frankenstein’s papers which revealed everything about Frankenstein. He then takes on the search for Frankenstein but ends up killing Frankenstein’s son on the way. In the end, Victor grew ill when the monster gets closer to him, and dies. Since the creator died, the monster decided he lost all purpose for living, so he goes to destroy himself.

In this video, the narrator stresses the question of how much we should blame the monster for everything he’s done. Then, the narrator proposes whether the monster could be good, but his surroundings had made him turned evil.

I believe that the monster had to be naturally caring and nice because Frankenstein made him for no good reasons just to abandon him because of how ugly he turned out to be. After the monster came to life, he did not know anything other than rejection and being abandoned. With this type of experiences, the monster didn’t know anything better than to keep his guard up and get revenge on everyone who misunderstands and is so quick to judge him. What really proves that the monster has good in him is when Frankenstein dies and the monster felt that he lost everything, and that he shouldn’t live anymore either. This proves that no matter how much wrong Frankenstein did to the monster, the monster still felt emotional attachment to Frankenstein. Instead of the monster deciding to kill himself, he could of also went on a further and more brutal killing spree but he chose not to, which shows he’s really not all evil. His environment and human relationships left him no choice but to do what he had done to get the attention he so dearly craves from his creator.