Author Archives: HUASHAN JI

The film is generally close to what I’ve imagined in my head while reading the written version. With detailed set ups and intentional body languages and facial expressions, the film does a comprehensive interpretation of the play. The main character like Hedda Gabler is portrayed accurately in the film. Through her scenes, I can definitely sense her meanness and pride, especially when she mistakes Aunt Julia’s hat as Berta’s and makes an unpleasant comment about it. There are some parts in the written version that are cut out in the film. For example, the conversation between Aunt Julie and Tesman regarding the honeymoon trip is not in the film. In my opinion, this conversation is fairly important as it shows how much Tesman is a “suck-up” to his wife Hedda Gabler. Tesman is crazy in love with his wife that he’d do anything to please her. This “need and feed” relationship between Tesman and his wife is critical for the development of the plot.

Although the film does give me a better understanding of the plot of the original play, I still find the written version more appealing. The written version allows me to construct the scenes, the appearances and emotions of characters in my head based on what I imagine. I find it more descriptive in this way than watching the film. A big difference I notice during two different experiences is the written version narrates the story through a colored lens while the film is played through black and white film. The written version talks about the color of the characters’ hair or beards etc., which makes the story more vivid than the film.

One of the main themes of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the suffering of female slaves during slavery. Comparing to Douglass’s An American Slave, Jacobs took a more emotional and sentimental approach when writing her essays. She portrays a female slave, who is threaten by the aggression of men, struggling to live and achieve freedom. Besides working long hours in the plantation like all slaves, female slaves were constantly under the fear of getting sexually abused by slave owners at the time. Jacobs, just like any other female slaves, dying to find protections for themselves. Jacobs mentions that after she ran away from the plantation, she spent almost seven years hiding in an attic at her grandma’s. This novel has opened more perspectives towards slavery for me. Prior to reading this story, though I was familiar with things like gender inequality and rape that occurred during slavery, I never had a chance to read anything like Life of a Slave Girl to learn more about them. One of the most unforgettable quotes from this novel is “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women,” which in my opinion sums up the center idea the author tries to convey. While Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs took different approaches when documenting their experience during slavery, they both hold the intention of pushing the abolishment movement forward. They both thought that it was necessary to write so people can be convinced that slavery needs to be eliminated. Fortunately, many people were influenced positively by both essays.

While slavery was abolished 150 years ago, different forms of contemporary slavery still take place in our society today. Human trafficking, forced sex labor, forced child labor are only some examples of critical Human Right issue that are going on today. In fact, according to the International Labour Organization, there are still over 40 million people are in some form of slavery today. It is our responsibility to demand and fight for equality and justice for every human being of this world.

“I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night.  She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home.  She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day’s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary — a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master.  I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day.  She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us.  Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master’s farms, near Lee’s Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew anything about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, 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.”

This passage hits deep in my heart. The author Frederick Douglass was separated from his mother since he was an infant. It was the slave owner’s intention to break the bond between a mother and a son. However, despite the difficulties of visiting her child, Douglass’s mother committed to walk twelve miles to be with her son. Douglass recalls his only times with his mother, quoting “I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day.  She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us.” (Douglass 237) Douglass’s mother shows preserving love for her child, risking her own life to take care of Douglass. The maternal affection of a mom for her child is manifested through the hardship of being a slave, though very little communication occurred. It indicates how dehumanizing the slavery was to attempt to destroy the natural affection between the bloodlines. The slave owners were callous to empathize their slaves’ emotions and acknowledge them as human rather than properties. When Douglass’s mother passed away, Douglass had not yet developed the capacity of understanding love nor the sadness of losing his mother. He says, “I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.” (Douglass 237) He was numbed by the long absence from his mother’s nurture. When she died, Douglass showed little emotion. His malformed affection towards his mother caused by slavery is very sad. Additionally, Douglass reveals that he wrote a lot of parts of the essay by using his imagination. It is easy to tell from his diction such as “soothing”, “tender”, “watchful.” He was not able to understand his mother’s love for him at the time, but still tried to depict her affection for him through idealization. It makes readers extremely sympathetic to read about his life.

In order to discuss whether a text should be considered as a “great work,” I ought to define the term “great work” first. In my opinion, what makes a piece a great work is its timelessness and high relatability. The ability of connecting to readers regardless of the age readers exist in makes a text memorable to me. And I believe An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope fits into this category.

When first reading the piece An Essay on Man, I found it hard to understand. It was written in poetry with profound information. However, as I dig into it more, the central idea of poetry became clear and interesting to me. In An Essay on Man, Pope argues mankind’s place in the universe. He claims that all existence is fated as it is God’s design. He uses the metaphor of the universe being a maze to explain this idea, which resonates with me well. As one finds him/herself in a maze trying to find the way out, he/she will always end up running into dead ends before finding the right path. This just symbolizes our lives perfectly. As human being, we always question where lives will lead us and hopelessly wish for some guidance, but we often get confused and make inevitable mistakes. Pope argues that we can’t understand the things that happen to us because we simply are unable to perceive them through the perspective of God’s creation. God has a plan for every living thing in this universe, and only him knows the reason of things happening to one. Pope pushes his argument further, saying since we have no control of our destiny, we should just submit to God and have nothing but faith in him. Knowing “whatever is, is right” (294), we should cherish whatever happens to us, including the good and the bad.

Although Pope wrote this piece partially as a response to the rising popularity in science at the time, anyone can still relate to the idea he conveys in this essay today. As human, we whine for the unfortunate events in our lives; we complain about the luck not bestowing on us; we envy others’ happiness. However, understanding that we are all just part of God’s plan, we should be content with what we have. “Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.”

Hello everyone! My name is Ryan. I am a junior at Zicklin and a transfer student from Fordham University. I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Finance. After graduating from Baruch, I am planning to go to a graduate school in New York. Unlike most of the people at Baruch, I come from outside of New York. I was originally born in Japan and lived there for eight years. My family decided to move to Shanghai after that, and I attended school there until I was sixteen. I went to all-boys Jesuit high school in Connecticut while staying with a host family. During my time in high school, I was able to pick up and adjust to American culture and made a lot of friends here. Aside from my school life, music has always been one of my biggest passions in life. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with listening to music, and I still spend most of my time of the day doing that. Realizing that just listening to music didn’t satisfy me, I started writing songs in high school and soon learned how to operate the digital audio workstation to produce/compose them. Because of my interest in music production, I got to meet a bunch of people who are either around or active in the music industry. Additionally, I was able to have the opportunities to learn from professionals. Music production has opened so many doors for me that I could’ve ever imagined. I am looking forward to pursuing a career in/related to the music industry after I graduate.

Here are just some of the artists I’ve recently been listening to on repeat: Tame Impala, Beach House, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, N.E.R.D, Amy Winehosue, etc. Feel free to come up to me and talk about music as I always enjoy those conversations!