Monthly Archives: April 2019

–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?

One of the things I find very interesting about the text is the attention to detail that Henrik Ibsen puts into it.  One of the things that Henrik writes about is that Hedda is constantly playing with her pistols and I can relate somewhat to what she is doing.  In my opinion she is playing with the pistols out of boredom almost like ADHD. I do this constantly and I feel like I am always obsessively playing with things with my hands in order to keep myself entertained.  I think it tells a bit about what kind of person she is even from this little detail.  Another thing I can relate to is causing issues and then only apologizing to try to stop the situation from escalating.  In the text Hedda mistakingly makes fun of Aunt Julle’s hat which she thinks is the maids and apologizes immediately in order to make up for her accident.  I feel like Hedda has a hard time interacting with people in general throughout the play causing arguments and generally being somewhat rude to others.  Hedda overall seems like a very care free character who does not worry about much and enjoys just fiddling with her pistols no matter whats going on.  I can really relate to her because I mostly enjoy just doing activities by myself like working out or playing video games.  I feel like for me its hard to relate the overall text to myself but the character Hedda seems like she has a very similar personality to my own through these few details specified by Henrik.

Lu Xun’s, “In the Wineshop”, explores political as well as societal issues with its simple tale of two old friends. This story seems to highlight the division of China between north and south, as well as differences in belief systems. The narrator specifically describes the differences between Northern China and Southern China by illustrating the flowers that peak through the snow in the South. He paints a grim picture of the North, but also suggests that the South has lost its potential since he’s last visited. Furthermore, we see a difference in opinion on the death of Ah Shun. The first-person narrator believes it was her fate, while Lu Wei-fu attributes her death to “futile affairs”. Lu Xun seems to weigh the two approaches and implement his opinion through the actions of each character in the narrative.

Personally, I always consider the conservative approach in my own affairs. I really believe that I am an old soul as I favor traditional approaches to familial as well as life affairs. Like traditional Confucian values, I believe in social order and virtue. In his narrative, Lu Xun seems to touch upon these Confucian values as well as ideas about faith. I believe the term “conservatism” mirrors much of what Confucianism stands for. Much of my conservatism can be attributed to my culture and upbringing. As a child, I spent much time with my grandparents and often had many conversations with them about morality. Much of what they taught me is engrained in the Yugoslavian culture, but also practiced through out many generations in my family. Growing up, I held on to these traditional values and never seemed to question them or take on a new approach.

Lu Xun also touches upon the idea of “fate” which correlates with ideas of superstition. This is what divided my grandfathers from my grandmothers. My grandfathers always applied logic to affairs while my grandmothers would often use religion and faith to explain events. As I grow older, I battle with these two ideologies. Sometimes I want to apply reason to situation, while other times I want to apply faith and superstition. Upon the death of my grandparents I found myself in a dilemma. I tried to attribute their deaths to their medical conditions, but at the same time I believed it was their fate. I tried to apply superstition to the events surrounding their death, but then I would undermine these ideas by analyzing the reality of the situation. I believe many of us battle between faith and logic which seems to be historically controversial.

I picked this session because of my interest in music. I thought it’d be interesting to dig a little deeper into music theory. Strengthening my understanding of music would help me become a better musician in my past time. I play guitar in my free time and music theory would help me connect my hands and my mind. I also chose this session because I think music is such a great form of art. It’s essentially a universal language that the world can understand without having to actually know how to speak it. Music is not only thought provoking, but emotion provoking as well. It’s a great way to express your own feelings to someone else as well, whether it be happiness, sadness, anger, etc.

During this session, we learned about some basics regarding sheet music. The professor essentially gave us a crash course on sight reading and a run down of some simple instruments. After we learned how music is written to be a legible syntax, we used our names and the corresponding letters to the musical scale to create a “tune” that represented ourselves. She called it a light motif. Unfortunately, my name is Phillips and there is no notes that correspond to any of those letters, therefore I guess the tune that would be associated with my name would be silence. Although I did not have much to contribute to in terms of that activity, I found it pretty fun to learn about some of the instruments as it expanded my horizon on how different instruments can be and how it can really bring about a different feeling/tone. Much of what I learned in this session was already things I had learned throughout my time in high school because I was in band, and middle school/elementary school when I was in glee club. The things I learned though were refreshing and kind of made me excited to play instruments more often. I have been meaning to pickup piano again in my free time. We didn’t really get to making the Spotify playlist by the way, but it was still a very cool session. I had a ton of playlists based on motifs already so it was alright that we didn’t.

As I was reading the poem and learning about Prufrock’s anxiety and indecisiveness, I couldn’t help but think about my own problems with anxiety. There are definitely times when I stop myself from acting because I am overthinking or worried about what will happen. In Prufrock’s case, his anxiety leaves him virtually paralyzed. He hears that there are women talking about Michelangelo and finds this enticing, but can not bring himself to join the conversation like the yellow fog stuck outside the window pane. The last time I overthought that much, I was in middle school. I grew up really poor and had a lot of insecurities. I didn’t have the best clothes and wasn’t always well groomed. I specifically remember an event where the teacher adjusted the seating chart and a girl I liked had to sit next to me. I was overwhelmed with joy, but like Prufrock, I kept thinking and telling myself that I had time. I would go a whole day without talking to her and at the end of the day, I would make myself feel better by reinforcing the belief that I had a lot of time. In reality, I was really shy and worried that she would judge me based on my looks. I didn’t have a lot to offer, but she was my first teenage crush and I was eager to impress her. The social anxiety finally wore off when the school held its annual talent show. We were both in the art program and it let us be together and work on something we both loved. While Prufrock may seem like a weak and foolish man, he suffers from the same emotions we do. He knows that he is not young anymore and lets that worry override his thoughts. It is hard to be confident when you are not happy about yourself to the point that you don’t think “mermaids” will sing for you. He describes himself as an insect being scrutinized and judged by people and wishes he were a “crab scuttling along the seafloor with his ragged claws.” There are times where I also feel judged and would rather be far away in a place like the seafloor. This feeling usually subsides and I get on with my life, but it seems to really affect Prufrock to the point where he’d rather be an animal and not be a part of society. I assume that I will deal with similar issues when I’m middle-aged especially if I start to bald. I don’t think it will make me paralytic, but it will definitely remind me of the feelings that Prufrock expresses throughout the poem. He, just like any other human, wants a partner that he can connect with and feel happy around.

As the story suggests, there was extensive mistreatment and dehumanization both with male and female characters in the story by Tagore. However, I noticed that Chandara Rui was the one who suffered the most which reminds me of Du Tenth from Feng Menglong’s story in a way that even though other characters in that story such as Li Jia had gone through ups and downs of life too, such as choosing between his family and the love of his life, Du tenth was the one who was caste aside twice, first by her family and then Li Jia. Similarly, I observed that Chandara was the one who had to suffer betrayal by her own love, in fact, for a sin she did not even commit. This represents how the two characters from both the stories had to go through unfortunate circumstances at a degree higher than other characters. Another problem that I have observed in the two stories is the issue of inequality between males and females in the sense of replaceability.  I have come to this conclusion based on facts such as when young Master Li was convinced by Sun Fu that he should let go off Du Mei as his father will not accept her and that how he should focus on going back home in a good style to impress and make up to his father; on the other hand, in “Punishment”, when Chidam says, “Thakur, if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace?” These evidences interprets how females of the family (or regardless) were accepted to be caste aside or replaced but males were not. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure inequality was not that big of a deal back in the day in respect to either texts. Furthermore, I think that Chandara confessed for a crime she did not even have a hand in because of helplessness as she knew that without even knowing, everybody including the magistrate, police, and people of village have believed perfectly that she is the one to kill Radha. Whereas, Du Tenth eventually commits suicide as she realizes that there will never be any freedom, love, or respect in her life no matter what. Overall, both stories depict stereotypical issues of the early decades such as inequality, discrimination, and dehumanization majorly against females which were surely widespread throughout the world.

In the text, “The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock”, we are exposed to Prufrock. A man who is insecure, procrastinates and is lonely. His physical features are brought up multiple times. His bald spot, age and legs are specific features that are brought up. He seems to never be able to make decisions. Women are constantly brought up which is probably because he has no one by his side. His excuse is always that “There is more time”, which highlights his procrastination. The character of Prufrock can relate to many real-life people. I’ve personally had to deal with my aunt who was very ill. She ended up being in a wheelchair and at first it was difficult for her. She was insecure because she never thought she would end up in a wheelchair and it was embarrassing for her. She did not like the fact that she had to ask other people for help and was insecure because of this. She also procrastinated because of her illness. She held things off and didn’t have the same motivation she used to have. Everyday activities were suddenly pushed to the side. She was not able to go out for walks like she used to and didn’t get the same exposure to people. She became very isolated and lonely because of this. It was a difficult transition for her. Prufrocks character is not ill, but both go through similar obstacles such as insecurities, procrastination and loneliness.

–The poem opens, “Let us go then, you and I….” Whom do you think the speaker is addressing here?
–What is Prufrock’s relationship to time?
–Look at the description of the yellow smoke in the second and third stanzas of the poem. What do you make of this description?
–“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons,” laments Prufrock. What do you think this line means?
–Describe the overall mood of the poem. What feelings does it leave you with?
–In the final lines of the poem, the speaker shifts from “I” to “We.” How do we explain this shift?

In the short story Punishment By Rabindranath Tagore, Tagore makes a point to depict the very real issue of the oppression of women. Punishment takes place in west-central Bangladesh in the late 19th century. The mistreatment of women takes place all over the world, but it was extraordinarily bad in the middle east in this time period. In Tagore’s story characters Dukhiram and Chidam were returning home from the fields like any other day when Dukhiram screamed at Radha, his wife, for food. When Radha responded sarcastically about Dukhiram not bringing anything home to cook, Dukhiram stabbed her in the head, leading to her death. Throughout the entire story blame is being placed upon women. Chidam even made his wife take the blame for the murder and wanted to oust Radha as the aggressor in the incident something that Chandara could not bring herself to do. In doing so, he was shifting all of the blame off of men and onto the women who were inferior to them in his eyes. In the end of the story justice doesn’t win and Chandara loses her life because even the law would not believe the eye witness testimonies of Dukhiram and Chidam, who had finally realized what they have done and told the truth. Radha chose to take the full blame to die with her pride and to finally escape. These horrifying scenarios exemplify the struggles that women continue to go through today in these regions. One of the many pressing issues in the Middle East today is that of widespread sexual assault against women of all ages. In many of these countries’ women are subjected to arranged marriages, and older men often marry very young girls who are too young to consent. There are still plenty of stories involving brutal physical violence like those in Punishment, whether it be acid attacks, beatings or even cold blooded murder. Women in many middle eastern countries still cannot vote, enter certain establishments, leave their homes without a man and are also forced to cover almost their entire bodies. Rabinranath Tagore, being a humanist as well as a womens rights advocate uses the theme of dehumanization upon women to bring light upon it as it’s a very real issue that still occurs quite often today.  

–How does justice work in the world of “Punishment”?  What happens when one tells the truth? What happens when one lies?

–What do we make of Chandara’s choice to take responsibility for the death of her sister-in-law? Do you see her as a hero or as a victim?

–Explain the significance of the details Tagore offers about the marriage between Chandara and Chidam.  How do they help us understand the events of the story?

–How do you understand the title of the story?

–As she approaches death, Chandara both says, “to hell with him,” and maintains that she loves her husband.  How do you reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements?