“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf, Woolf stated that ” here then was I (call me Mary Beton, Mary Setion, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please – it is not  a matter of any importance)” in the chapter one. (340) It showed the readers that the narrator was a fictionalized character instead that she was not her. The lack of identity of narrator gave the readers that everyone could be the narrator. It also made the narrator more convincing. By using “I”, Woolf emphasized the fact that women were not treated equally as men were which due to the sexism and traditional bonds.

In the chapter one, the narrator had two expulsions because of the sexism in Oxbridge College. When the narrator was warned off the university lawn, instantly a man intercepted her. After she realized that the man intercepted her only because she was a woman. The man said that “Only the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me [narrator]” (341) In addition, she was forbidden to enter the library. “he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction.” (342) Two expulsions could explain to the readers that the narrator was treated unequally just because  of her sex; It also was a symbol of education culture which was a invasion to the women’s mind. After that, Woolf used personification to describe the library which slept forever, moreover, the narrator made decision that she would not come back to the library at all in order to show how angry she was. (342) In the of period time, Woolf described the sound of music was sorrowful to set off the emotion of narrator because she was not treated as the same as men.

Woolf was carefully not to blame men for the unequal treatments towards women in the chapter two. Instead, she considered the reasons caused the gender inequality, such as women were not independent in finance. The narrator got five hundred pounds a year by her aunt, as a result, she did not need to do hard works to earn money and survive her life.  Instead, she thought that “I need not hate any men, he can not hurt me.”(360) She forgave men for their injustices to women when she was independent in her finance. She claimed that when she enjoyed the luxury of finance, she also got freedom. On the other hand, she thought that it was a reason for a woman why they could not write well because of lack of independent finance.

Woolf also found  that how unequally women were treated in history.  First of all, she stated that “Wife beating” was a right for men; then what effect was when a daughter refused to marry the man of her parents’ choice. Even though women who lived in upper class family,  they rarely were allowed to choose their husbands by themselves.(362) She thought that women were considered as the property of their families or husbands. How could they have ability to write well in the situation?

She conjured the imaginary character of Shakespeare’s sister to show that women could not be as well as men because they were treated in two different ways. Both Shakespeare and his sister lived in the same background. For Shakespeare, he could do what he wanted to do and people would support him. Compare to Shakespeare, the sister could not get education. Even though she read books, her mother would ask her to change her mind, instead of caring about housework. Woolf also described how other people reacted when they knew that a woman wanted to be a player in order to explain why a woman could not have the same achievement in any areas.

Do you agree or disagree that a woman has to be independently wealthy in order to write well?why?

In “Diary of a Madman”, Lu Xun began with an introduction from someone. The introduction gave the readers contents that those were journals about mental illness man. Though the journals, Lu Xun described the madman who suffered from paranoia thought people around him would “eat” him. Lu Xun used metaphor to connect cannibalism to explain a critical issue in society. By using the words “eating” people, the author exposed the nature of Chinese feudal ethical was ignorant.

In the first diary, the madman expressed, he “haven’t [hadn’t] seen it [moonlight] over thirty yeas” (244). It sounded that he talked in nonsense. That was because that it was impossible that human beings had never seen moonlight for three decades years. However, it was a symbol of spiritual awakening for madman. It made readers pay more attention on reading journals in order to know whether the man was actually mad or not. On the other hand, as a human being, the madman was afraid of Zhao family’s dog only when the dog stared at him. This demonstrated that he lived in panic.

Lu Xun used first point of view to describe how panic the madman was when people looked at him because he thought they would “eat” him.  Of course, the fact was that the people did not want to eat him; instead, all of images were his illusions. It expressed the madman’s spirit was destructed. Moreover, madmen described how people “ate” people from Wolf Cub Village by using verbs “beaten”, “gouged” and “fried” (246). It helped the madman infer that those people were cannibals.

As a result, madman stated leafing through history books to find why people “ate” people. He realized that every page educated people should “benevolence, righteousness and morality” (246). However, he began to make out eating people was filled in every simple lines. in addition, madman thought it was a very common thing to “eat” people in the period time. Shizhen Li stated that “fresh can [could] be eaten” and his older brother also explained “exchange [exchanged] children and eat [ate] them”(248). He was not sympathy when “a son, in order to count as a really good person, should slice off a piece of his own flesh, boil it and let them [ill parent] eat it”(252). Instead, he satirized the Chinese people were ignorant. They only followed statements form last generation or history books in order to expose the nature of Chinese feudal ethic was ignorant.

The diaries referred to corrupt Chinese government. Actually, the madman was distinct form others by opposing to “eat” people;  He was a symbol of courage to challenge the traditional secular society and anti- feudal democrat. In third diary, madman described that  “some have worn he cangue on the district magistrate’s order……by creditors” (245). For those people, they did not rise up against people who bullied them, instead they decided to imitate them and bully other people. the madman felt confuse and angry. He cursed cannibals and started with his brother (249). At the end of diaries, the author deeply hoped that there were some children who still had not eaten human flesh and appealed “save the children …”(253).

There was a fact that Chinese people did not have freedom of speech in the period time. However, the author used metaphor to connect cannibalism to explained that human’s spirits were destructed by last generation or history books without an obvious assault on the government.

If you were Lu Xun, how did you express the human’s spirits were destructed by Chinese feudal ethical without an obvious assault on the government?

In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” by Frederick Douglass, Douglass shows that white slave holders controlled slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant.

First of all, salves did not know about their basic facts. For example, the slaves did not have any ideas about their day of birth. Douglass reminded that “I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday” (236). Compare to white children who knew their birthday, Douglass was unhappy and confuse that he did not know his birthday. It was a pity that he did not allow to make any inquiries. In addition, Douglass did not know who father was although he knew his mother named Harriet Bailey. Douglass expressed that “Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extend, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (237).  It shows that Douglass did not develop familial feelings toward his mother because his master separated him from his mother after his birth. In addition, the objectives “soothing” and “tender” to restate that he only knew his mother had been present. All of these show that the white slave holders did not want their slaves to have any ideas about their personal identity.

On the other hand, slave holders prevented slave from learning how to read and write. Douglass points out that Mrs. Auld taught him in learning alphabet when he lived with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. However, Mr. Auld “at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me future” when he realized that his wife taught slave to read (250). The phrase, “at once” shows that Mr. Auld pressed that his wife stop to teaching him. On the other hand, it also shows that Mr. Auld extremely worried that Douglass would be out of his control even though he only could read some alphabets. He also explained that “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable” (250). First of all, Mr. Auld used “nigger” to describe Douglass which shows that Douglass did not be treated as a men. From the Mr. Auld’ statement, it also shows that knowledge would be a path for slaves to freedom. However, Mr. Auld knew that once slaves got educated, he would not easily control slavers. As a result, he prohibited his wife to teach slave to reading.

All of these, Douglass explains that slave holders kept slaves ignorance of personal information in order that slaves thought they were valueless in the world. Slave holders prohibited that slaves had any chances to have education. Once slaves had no ideas about their personal information and without educated, the slave holders were more easily to control slaves.