–The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived. Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.
–What is the connection between our narrator and Weifu? Why do you think so much of the story is spent on Weifu’s life, while the narrator shares very little about his own life experiences?
–Explain the significance of the story about reburying Weifu’s little brother?
–Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
–Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is its significance?
–What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?
–What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?
This short story is mainly made up with Wei-fu’s monologue. So, I think there is no clear beginning, middle, and end in this work. It is more like character’s stream of consciousness between past and now. This is one of aspects of Modernist. Also, narrator and Wei-fu, they both returned to their hometown after several years and Wei-fu compares his return home to the ways bees and flies return to their first spot after making small circle. He thought this was foolish and pathetic, but now he finds himself in situations like them. Modernist shows human’s loneliness and irony despite of developed machinery and increased capitalism.
–What is the connection between our narrator and Weifu? Why do you think so much of the story is spent on Weifu’s life, while the narrator shares very little about his own life experiences?
The connection between our narrator and Weifu is what opens up reality for our narrator. Our narrator comes back to the South to find peace and memories but in contrast he finds everything and everybody to be different, making him look like a stranger in a town he knew so well. In contrast, Weifu comes back to do a good deed within his darkness. I believe that we spend much time on Weifu’s life because his life shows reality and how while our narrator is worrying about not finding his colleague, Weifu is trying to find the dead body of his little brother. We speak so little on our narrator because in reality, he has no real problem as compared to those around him and Weifu is who helps him realize this.
The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived. Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.
I think that one of its aspects is change, which is a huge part of modernism. The narrator describes how S Town is different from when he was there in the past, the inn he stayed in wasn’t present at the time he was there, the school he taught at changed its name, none of his colleagues lived in the area anymore.
Wei-fu, who is an old classmate and colleague of the narrator, was once an advocate for modernism as opposed to the old ways of China. He used to support social change, embracing western culture and change in education. Now, he teaches the teaches the traditional subject of Confucius, he represents filial piety by obeying his mother, even going as far as lying so that she will not be upset at events he come to realize; the disappearance of his brothers corpse and the death of Ah Shun, both events would have to be masked to preserve his mothers happiness.
Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
The significance of this memory is that it reveals what kind of persons Weifu and the narrator were when they were younger. It shows that they were revolutionaries and were in favor of modernizing because by disrespecting the statues, they were disrespecting Confucian ideals. The memory was included in the story in order for readers to grasp the character’s past personality versus their current personality and how it has changed with time.
– What is the connection between our narrator and Weifu? Why do you think so much of the story is spent on Weifu’s life, while the narrator shares very little about his own life experiences?
our narrator is an old friend of Weifu that they used to be classamate and colleague co-worker. the story is spent so much on Weifu’s life because the narrator first was not expected to find an old friend that they used to do so much together not only he surprised but he was also exited to share how modernist had made change in the little town they lived in before.the narrator shares very little about his own life experiences because he didn’t have that problem or story about how modernism changed his own life.
–Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is its significance?
An instance of filial piety in the story is when Wei Fu goes back to town to replace the coffin of his younger brother under the request of his mother. This is significant because when Wei Fu was young, he would reject the ideas of filial piety by pulling off the beards off gods from the temple. By now following filial piety, it shows how his mindset as an activist changed while he matured. This shows how Wei Fu is no longer the same person he was ten years ago as how the narrator remembered him.
Describe an instance of filial piety in the story. What is its significance?
An instance that demonstrates filial piety in the story is when Wei Fu went back to his hometown to rebury his brother because his brother’s grave was sinking. This example demonstrates filial piety because filial piety is the respect of parents and elders . Wei fu does it in respect for his mother because he knows she cares a lot about his brother and she was depressed over his sinking grave. He also seems to respect his brother a lot because he was excited and wanted to see his brother’s body. This moment is also significant because it signfies how Wei Fu changed over time. He used to think abut revolutionizing china and pulled off the beards of gods with his friends, showing a more moden than traditional mindset. But now, he is going back just to rebury his brother even when he notices that his brother’s body is missing when he dug the coffin up as a respect for his brother and his mother. His action reflects the change of his perspectives and him as a person.
Apologies for some typos, I meant:
About*
modern*
–Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
This memory shows us how different Weifu and the narrative were when they were younger, where they aspired to make change and rebel from traditional values and ways like practicing Confucianism. However, now old, Weifu conforms to how life is and cares very little of questioning (his brothers disappearing corpse) and allows to let things slide as he sees it as futile in attempting to do anything else with it. Towards the end of the short story Weifu asks the narrative what he is teaching and upon hearing that he is teaching the little girls on traditional women etiquette and “the Confucian classics as before”, Weifu comments “I could really never guessed that you would be teaching such books.” The narrative replies “I don’t even teach mathematics; not that I wouldn’t teach it, but they don’t want it taught.” The narrative too stopped trying to teach and influence change for modernism and conformed in teaching the old traditional values like Confucianism.
–What aspects of this short story seem to you to be particularly modernist?
Some aspects of this short story that stand out to me as particularly modernist include the fact that the story is more of a narration from one character’s point of view. We are reading his stream of conciousness as he revisits a place he once lived in that has significance to his life. The structure of the story itself is different from previous stories we have read since it does not conform to the generic beginning, middle, and ending that we are probably used to.
Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
This memory is significant because it gives us insight on the kind of people Weifu and the narrator were before, and it allows us to compare it to the present. The memory tells us that Weifu and the narrator were interested in spreading western culture and moving away from Confucius beliefs. Being involved in iconoclastic behaviors like pulling the beards off religious statues shows their passion for what they believed in. In comparison to the present, they are no longer interested in transforming Chinese beliefs.
–The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived. Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.
I think the significance of the significance to the revisiting with in this story is the strong emphasis of change. During the narrator’s revisit he notices almost everything with in S town is different, and not in a good way. It seems as though the narrator is disappointed with what he now finds in S town, just as he seems to feel when he runs into Wei-Fu. Wei-Fu also appears different to the narrator, he was thinner, weaker and looked dispirited. All these changes associated with the new visit to S town, are negative, and represent the detrition of this town, and possibly even the people with in it. An association like this can only be made with the knowledge of the original view that was had of this town, the “revisiting” allows the reader an insight to the amount of change that is occurring in the world of the narrator.
Explain the significance of the story about reburying Weifu’s little brother?
The significance of reburying his brother is to have his brother “sent off” in a proper way. The narrator finds himself back in the village to tend to his family graves and to set his mother at ease, he does this even thought there is not much of his brother’s remains. He followed his tradition in accordance to his brother not existing again as a prisoner of the past.
Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
This shows there rebellious ways in how they did not want to spread Confucius beliefs instead they wanted to spread western culture. However, now that they are older they have no interest anymore in spreading western culture.
The story’s narrator is revisiting a place he once lived. Explain the significance that this “revisiting” has in relation to the themes of the story.
There is an significance in the narrator revisiting S Town. When he arrived, he thought he would take a walk to the places where he used to go as a kid. But he discovered that everything about the town has changed. The school he taught at changed and even the wineshop he sat at looked more modern. During the narrator’s revisit, he bumped into a colleague, Weifu. Weifu looked thinner and weaker and in a way, this can be used to symbolize how the change of S Town is also changing for the negative.