I visited the Museum of Modern Art on May 02, 2017. It was very hot that day. The back of the ticket is a paint, and I will collect this ticket. After I visited most of the works in MoMA, I was shocked by this abstract work which medium is oil on canvas. This work is painted by Elsa Gramcko, who was born in 1925. This work is untitled, and was painted in 1957. It is 39 3/8 inches long and 13 inches wide. It exhibits at “Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction” in MoMA. This work is geometric painting. The background is black. In my view, there are two axes in this painting. The whole white one is a big ax, and the red one with a green tape is a small ax. Those two axes are leaning together. In my opinion, those two axes represent the status of men and women in the male dominated art world. The big ax represents men artists in the male dominated art world, and the small ax represent women artists in the male dominated art world according to the introduction of “Making space” exhibition in MoMA. “Making Space shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). In the postwar era, societal shifts made it possible for larger numbers of women to work professionally as artists, yet their work was often dismissed in the male dominated art world, and few support networks existed for them” (MoMA). The big ax has only one color— white, and the small one has four colors— red, green, white, and yellow. In my opinion, Gramcko use diverse colors to show women artists achieve a great and wonderful success in the male dominated art world. I think this picture shows art works of women artists can be a significant part of the art world and play an important role in the male dominated art world.

— Yu Qing Wu

In my opinion, it’s effective that the manifestos use radical language. For example, The Black Panther Party Platform is very straightforward, and the reader don’t need to guess the real meaning of the sentences. The reader can understand the manifesto very well by the radical language because it’s clear expression. The manifestos need clear and direct expression. In Black Panther Party Platform, it uses radical language to list what Black people want and what they believe clearly. In Black Panther Party Platform, the passage use parallelism to show the radical language. It’s very clear that everything that black people want and believe. The manifestos need to let people have a sense of identification with the manifestos. The radical language can arouse people’s sense of identification because the radical language in manifestos point out something straightforward. You will think that is what you think and agree exactly. Or you will think that is what I need absolutely. The radical language can lead you to agree with the manifestos because the radical language can direct yourself. The radical language also encourages people because the radical language usually use intense words to inspire people and let people have a sense of belonging. The radical languages usually have an exciting tone to encourage people. Clear and direct expression and exciting tone, those are necessary for the manifestos. So, radical language is effective for the manifestos.

YuQing was awakened by the alarm clock on her IPAD at 8:30 AM. She closed the alarm clock and started to dressed herself. After she washed up and ate breakfast, she left the house alone at 9:00 AM. She walked straight along 80^th Street to 17^th Avenue, then she turned right to walk straight along 17^th Avenue to 79^th Street. She took D train at 79^th Street. It was rainy and the D train is late, so she was a bit wet when the D train arrived. She sat down and took her phone out to read the post in the social media which was called Weibo. “This is Manhattan bound D train, the next stop is 36^th Street” YuQing noticed that the D train arrived 9^th Avenue, and there were a lot of people in the train right now. She felt the air in this D train became worse and worse and she felt hotter and hotter. The D train has been more and more crowded since many stations of N line was closed for renovation. The crowed train recall the memory of her student life in Guangzhou. The subway in Guangzhou was more crowded than the D train, especially the 3 train which cross the center of Guangzhou. The passenger had to form a line to wait for the subway. YuQing also experienced the 3 line. She was pushed to the train. Inside the train, people is very closed and can feel other’s breathing. The smell was very bad. When the 3 train arrived Zhujiang New Town, YuQing wanted getting off the train, but she was pushed out the train. This was a bad experience. “The next stop is Grand Street” YuQing Noticed she arrived Atlantic- Barclays Center and the train would arrive Manhattan after the train crossed over the Manhattan Bridge. She met her friend, Yihui, at this train. So demure now, Yihui Feng who sat next to YuQing thought her (Yihui Feng knew her as friends); very kind, happy because of contentment, and loving to read comic books.

“This is Broadway-Lafayette” YuQing had to say goodbye to Yihui and got off the D train to transfer to 6 train. She took off 6 train at 23^rd Street and walked straight along 23^rd Street to Lexington Avenue. Then, she walked straight along Lexington Avenue to Vertical Campus of Baruch at 24^th Street.

–Yu Qing Wu

The movie “To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters” is a story about the Bronte sisters insist on writing novels and poets even the women would be judged when women wrote novels or poets, then they decided to use another name for their poets and novels to submit for publication. I admire the Bronte sisters. In this movie, Charlotte Bronte said, “Why is it that a woman’s lot is so very different to a man’s? I’ve never felt inferior. Have you? Intellectually. Why is it that we have so very few opportunities?” Charlotte pursues the equality between men and women. She persuaded Emily and Anne to publish their own work. She is very ambitious with publication. I think Emily Bronte is very talented. The work that Emily wrote (Emily also recited in this movie) make me feel that this is a very magnificent work! The word that Emily used in her works make a very wide world. For example, “High waving heather neath stormy blasts bending, midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars; darkness and glory rejoicingly blending, Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending, man’s spirit away from its drear dungeon sending, bursting the fetters and breaking the bars”. In my view, Emily’s writing style is bold and unconstrained. For Anne Bronte, I think she is good at listening to others and communication. She is gentle and soft. In my view, The Bronte sisters were very brave to challenge the views to women’s writing at that time. They are great writers.

–Yu Qing Wu

In Freud’s Family Romance, Freud pointed out that a class of neurotics can be determined by children’s failure in the liberation of an individual. Then Freud analyzed the reason of this neurotics. First, Freud said, “For a small child his parents are at first the only authority and the source of all belief. (Freud 237)” I completely agree with this idea. When we were little kids, our parents are the persons who we could always come into contact with. It can be said that our parents are the first teachers in our life. Our parents can influence children in many ways. The little kids wished to be like his father and mother. Freud thought that kids started to compare his parents with others and even to criticize them because of the small events in child’s life which dissatisfied him and make him feel unloved. Then, Freud stated that the estrangement between the neurotics and their parents lead to the beginning of ‘the neurotic’s family romance’. Child revenged parents through phantasies. I agree with Freud’s thinking. In my view, children are very sensitive to small event and easy to misunderstand their parent’s behaviors. So, I think Freud’s thinking is correct. It isn’t useful or helpful to understand my own family relations because I am the only child of my parents and my mother often talks with me about my problem. But, the point that the children wish to be big like him father or mother is useful. When I was a little girl, I wish to run a grocery store in the future because my mother ran a grocery store at that time.

—-Yu Qing Wu

In my opinion, untranslatable self means that everyone is equal and just be yourself. In “Song of Myself I”, the poet describes that everyone is the same through the first sentence. “And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” (Whitman I) This sentence is like what I should do you shall do, everything belongs to me and it belongs to you too. People have the same thing to do and own the same thing. In “Song of Myself II”, the poet points out that you shall get something by yourself. Look at the last part in “Song of Myself II”, “You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from yourself” (Whitman II) The last part in “Song of Myself II”, especially the last sentence, “You shall listen to all sides and filter from yourself”, these state that you should take things by yourself, don’t get things from others, observe things by using your eyes, ears, hands, etc. You have your own idea, just filter what you observe by yourself. So, just be yourself, don’t follow others. In “Song of Myself VI”, the poet mentions the grass and he give a lot of guess about what the grass it is. Yes, these are the poet’s observations about grass. The poet express these observations about grass through poem. Just express your idea and your observation, this is something you get from yours observe. Just be yourself. In “Song of Myself LII”, the poet wrote “I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable” (Whitman LII). The poet was accused by the hawk because his gab and loitering. But, the poet mentions “untranslatable” to show the himself is different. So, just be yourself.

—- Yu Qing Wu

When I read “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”, I have a strong feeling that that Jane may have felt something like the feeling that this poem expressed at a moment. In my opinion, the scene that Jane told Mr. Rochester that she had have as much soul as him and they are equal. (Chapter 23) Jane said, “I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; —it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, —as we are!” “It is my spirit that addresses your spirit”, this sentence shocked me a lot. I suddenly realize the communication between Jane and Mr. Rochester is the communication between soul and spirit. Not the appearance and custom make them to attract each other, it is the soul. Jane also said she was obscure and plain. In my opinion, Jane attracted Mr. Rochester because of Jane’s strong, active and independent spirit. I think this is communication between soul and spirit. So, when I read “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”, the first sentence is “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”. The first sentence makes me suddenly to understand that Jane admired Mr. Rochester’s soul and spirit, not the appearance, status, and property. Exactly, this is the soul selection. The soul chooses the partner (lover). This is similar to Dickinson’s idea and Dickinson’s idea help elucidate feelings Jane may express explicitly. Therefore, I think Jane may have felt something similar for this sentence.

—Yu Qing Wu

In my view, it’s necessary and important that you say something to express yourself. If you do not speak out to express your ideas and your feelings, others can’t understand your opinion. Jane chose to speak out her thinking to show her oppression and resistance.  In Lorde’s analysis, “Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don’t speak it out one day I will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.”(Lorde 42) There is a scene in Chapter 4, Mrs. Reed mandated Jane to go out of the room and return to the nursery after the talking with Mr. Brocklehurst. There is a direct description of Jane’s oppression and resistance in this scene. “Speak I must; I had been trodden on severely, and must turn: but how? What strength had I to dart retaliation at my antagonist? I gathered my energies and launched them in this blunt sentence: — ‘I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed; and this book about the liar, you may give to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I.’ ” (Bronte) This paragraph describes that Jane decide to resist and speak it out her oppression. Jane thought that she had been trodden on severely, so she broke out to show her oppression and resistance. Therefore, Lorde’s analysis is helpful to explaining Jane’s oppression and resistance.

In my daily life, I have the sense of sublime when I saw people doing something that seem trivial but for the convenience of people and when I saw the glorious nature landscape. This is the concept of the sublime as I have experienced it in my daily life. I often saw the New York Subway went wrong because it is old and huge and the maintenance workers would fix the problem soon; I was shocked by the professionalism and hard work of subway maintenance workers. Someone may say that this is just their duty, but, I think the subway may be worse without them. I often saw the police directed traffic at the crossroads. Even in a heavy snow condition, the police still direct the traffic. Without their work, people won’t have a safe and convenience life. I am really shocked by these trivial but important things. I was astonished by glorious nature landscape too. Even you see the pictures; you can be astonished by its wonderful scenery. You will imagine how to create these beautiful and spectacular scenes in the nature, and then you will concentrate on thing about this issue. Yes, these magnificent scenes are created by nature. At last, you will be shocked by nature’s work. Just like this sentence, “In this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object that it cannot entertain any other, nor by consequence reason on that object which employs it. (Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (excerpt))” The nature is the most amazing and the most shocking.

I feel so lucky that I live in 21^st century after I read “Introduction to the Enlightenment”. “The question raised by Enlightenment thinkers about human powers and limitations have left a legacy so lasting that it is hard to imagine our world without the Enlightenment. (Norton 5)” Yes, without the Enlightenment, I think that the great advances cannot have been made in our social life. I am a woman. I can’t imagine that women had less opportunity for education, service in government, and the political and economic rights than men before the Enlightenment period. “Among the privileged classed, men had many opportunities: for education, for service in government or diplomacy, for the exercise of political and economic power. (Norton 7)” Looking around women’s social life, women can get a better job after she graduated from colleges, women also work in many departments of the government, women also can support themselves through their work. I can’t bear such situation, “Both men and women generally accepted as necessary the subordination of women, who, even in the upper classes, had few opportunities for education and occupation beyond the household. (Norton 7)” I can’t imagine that the women only can stay at home. It’s unfair because “If God have given all human beings reason, the women were just as entitled to develop and exercise their minds as their male counterparts (Norton 7)”. “The emphasis on education in virtually all of the period’s tracts about women provides proof that the concert of rational progress offered a device that could be used to gain at least rights for women – if not civil rights, which were long in coming, at least the right to thought and knowledge (Norton 7)”. Women started fighting for theirs rights. For women contemporary social life, the Enlightenment legacies are the equal opportunities for men and women and the struggle for women’s rights.