Author Archives: YANYAN CHEN

In the essay And of Clay Are We Created, the reporter Rolf Carle tries his best to save the girl Azucena from the volcano eruption under the screen of many medias and this story spread very far. In the situation of nature disaster, people all over the world wants to help this little girl although she finally dies after several days of starvation and fever. Screen plays a role in spreading the story and in helping the girl to obtain equipment and food. Although people are far from the spot of eruption, they can see the scene through the screen and feel this heart-breaking accident. In fact, I think the earthquake that I experienced in 2008 in Sichuan is more similar to this situation than this pandemic. I was near the earthquake epicenter at that time and I spent more than two months living in the tents on a football field. Television, newspaper and internet enable the world to know our difficulty better and we really get assistance and essential equipment. In this way, the media play a positive role in reconstructing. But when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, the media is like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps convey the latest information, warn the people about the potential risk and makes the donation more efficient. On the other hand, some misleading information on the media triggers anxiety and spreads the rumor which harms people both mentally and physically.

1. On page 1184, Twyla and Roberta have a quarrel about Maggie. It is noticeable weird to see that Roberta insists that Maggie is kicked down by Twyla and that Maggie is a black lady which later turn out to be a lie. Why does Roberta do this? Why does she intendedly make up the race of Maggie? Why does she impute Twyla as the offender who kicks down Maggie? I think she just transfer the conflict between two races to two individuals. Therefore, I perceive that Twyla is a white and Roberta is a black. Roberta lines herself with poor Maggie who she thinks is a black. Moreover, Maggie plays a role of victim here and Roberta might want to use this as an example to show that whites hurt blacks.
2. I participated in a program called conversational partners program at Baruch last semester where I was matched to an upper-middle class white girl for conversational partners. Basically, we were supposed to meet twice a month and have an hour-long conversation. Our races are different. We come from different cultural background with different socio-economic status. So, it’s unavoidably for us to have some arguments relating to life attitudes, behaviors, politics and even food options. But once we had different opinions, we would always listen to the ideas from another one. Though we did not fully agree with each other even after hearing what other people says, we still made the question open to discuss in our next meeting. She invited me to her thanksgiving party at her home in financial district. Although we didn’t meet this semester because of the pandemic and might also because of the current US-China relationship (I don’t mind it, but she might mind that), I guess we can still get in touch later and she said she want to come to Chengdu for traveling in the future. And if she comes, I’ll be very pleased to be a tour guide haha.

I think all of these texts are all great works (otherwise there won’t appear in our class haha). But I want to share my thoughts on In the Wineshop. At first, modernism seems difficult for me to read compared to realism because there rarely is plot and interesting story. I was pretty confused when I read the In the Wineshop at the first time. It seems that it’s a story in the story—the main plots come from conversation with the friends. In this way, the central theme is harder to find because it’s not that obvious and directly. This text reminds me that learning English and introducing western education system starts early in China and the well-educated people during that period all have some overseas study experience. This tradition of learning advanced knowledge in developed countries, especially the U.S. and the U.K. continues at present. And for my own perspective, this is also the reason for me to study in the U.S. and to pursue a doctoral degree later. You may not know that being a professor in China in the top-tier schools require an overseas PhD degree now, and the U.S. PhD seems to be best appreciated. Although the U.S.-China relation seems to be not as good as ten or twenty years ago, people still find that studying in the U.S. is an optimal choice. Lu Wei-fu and Lu Xun have their dream roughly 100 years ago and their dream is to study hard and then create value for the country. But their dreams are blocked by the reality. When Lu Wei-fu compromises himself to still be a Confucianism teacher, he leaves his passion to try to find Ah-Shun, but still fails. Perhaps this is the greatest sadness for him. Compared to my situation today, I feel lucky that I can learn whatever I like. I can teach finance and economics when I finish my PhD and enjoy my own interests. I am free to love and marriage. Heart-breaking results happen to Ah-Shun should no longer happen to contemporary girls. Great works depict the social situation in a literal way and can be good sources for us to taste the development of the society.

1. A tall, grey-haired woman who has just arrived on the “transport” whispers, “My poor boy,” to our narrator.  What does she mean?

I think she means although our narrator doesn’t have to go to the gas and go for death now, he will also die after his value is exploited. From this point, the narrator is more piteous than the woman because he works for the people who will kill him at the end with no compensation and even no respect. After he finish his work and his tired and sick body can no longer create the value as a free labor, his death will come.

2. “Are we good people?” asks our narrator.  What is this exchange about? What do you think?

This scene reminds me of the prison experiment and also of what Chinese people suffer in the World War II. In my point of view, perhaps those crazy Nazi are just ordinary people before the war and before hearing those incitement slogans and ideas. Gradually, they become furious after they witness too many deaths and become indifferent about lives. They no longer view others as equal human beings, but rather, animals under the human just like pigs. Therefore, they kill people with no feelings or sympathy. In the prison experiment, ordinary people start dehumanizing the “prisoners” once they believe these “prisoners” are inferior to themselves. Japanese troops also did lots of crazy things to Chinese people such as Nanjing massacre and 731 bacterial troops. Before they were sent to war, many of them are actually kind people but their brute-hood were stimulated by the environment of war.

3. Explain the significance of the story’s title, “This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.”  What seems strange about it?

This title is so strange and sorrowful because “This way to the gas” simply shouldn’t be put together with “Ladies and Gentlemen” just as “Let me kill you” shouldn’t go along with “my dear guests”. Using this title is astonishing to show the calm and indifference of Nazi when they kill harmless people, and the latter even don’t know they will face death shortly, many of who “think now they will have to face a new life in the camp, and they prepare themselves emotionally for the hard struggle ahead” (707). But my dear ladies and gentlemen, it’s not the camp, this way is just to the death.

1. Gregor emerges from his room one last time when he hears his sister playing her violin for the lodgers.  What is the significance of this scene? What meaning does music hold for Gregor here?

The scene shows how music can cure a painful soul and it reveals that what Gregor lacks most is caring since he suffers from mental instability. Even though Gregor loses interests for everything includes food, he is still longing for music. “It was as though he sensed a way to the unknown sustenance he longed for” (236). This sustenance of sprit is more valuable than food, the sustenance of physical body.

2. Ultimately, what do you think Gregor’s metamorphosis means?  What does it Look at the final paragraph of the story. How does it shape or alter our understanding of the text?

In fact, the final paragraph surprises me but this is just Kafka’s style—always turning into surprise at the end—as I have read other pieces of his works before. His family’s altitude is the central theme of the story. In my view, this is a story to show people’s indifference and even disgust to the disabled, unfavorable family member. Kafka just exaggerates the disability and unfavorable physical appearance to depict it as a “monstrous cockroach” (210). When Gregor transforms into a cockroach, brings trouble to the family and can no longer earn money to support the family, his family’s love for him fades away, and turns into disgust and abhorrence. If Gregor hasn’t transformed into vermin but just gets ill or becomes disabled, what will his family act? Well, they will certainly not try to kill him with apples as his father does in the story, but they might also eventually hate him and even wish him to die because he brings no value, only troubles to the family.

As Professor states in the lecture, the opening of revisiting the old place has some common points with the poem Line Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey as both of them express the feeling of nostalgia. Lu Xun finds that everything has changed during his revisit. “When I passed the gate of the school, I found that too had changed its name and appearance, which made me feel quite a stranger”. Not only does he feel strange to this city, he also feels strange when he encounters his old friend Lu Wei-fu in the wine shop. Revisiting is part of the central theme of the story since this is a story about how people have changed during the time after their dreams are defeated by the reality. Revisiting the old place also enables me (Lu Xun) to revisit my old classmate’s life.

First of all, Lu Xun and Lu Wei-fu has connection with each other because they are classmates and colleagues before. They play together when they are young to go to the temple and pull off the bread of the statue and they share their thoughts on revolutionizing China. This is just their physical connection from superficiality. In addition to that, they have the same spirit for revolution and the longing for a better life. Both of them are supporters of the New Culture Movement where they want to introduce western education system to China.

In the Wine Shop is like a monologue of Lu Wei-fu just like T.S. Eliot’s poem we read last time. I think the narrator shares very little about himself because Lu Wei-fu’s story can represent himself to some extent, and even can represent the majority of Chinese scholars at that time.

For the question of artificial flower that raised in the class, my own opinion is that artificial flower is considered as superior thing over real flower in the story. We can see that, China was very underdeveloped at that time and anything from industrialized world was put at superiority. In the text, sugar is something that can represent wealth because artificial sugar is very scarce. Some logic can be applied to the explanation of artificial flower. Another insight that I have (though may not be correct) is that Lu Wei-fu wants to step out his small city to embrace the bigger world. He also wants Ah Shun to do that. So he goes far away to Tsinan, a larger city, to buy flower for her. It’s like a sign to encourage her to have broaden horizon.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have read the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

(Line 122-125)

This passage means that the author feels he grows old and thus he should behave like an aging man, wearing “white flannel trousers” and walking “upon the beach”. As he grows old, he is even more anxious about his unattractiveness. He is attracted by those beautiful and youthful mermaids, but he thinks they will not sing to him. I choose this passage because I think these four lines are parallel with the main idea of the poem by showing his anxieties, his longing for love and beauty and his thoughts that imagined life is superior than reality (Course Hero, 11:39-12:00). I looked up the word “mermaid” in the dictionary, and mermaid means “an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish” (Mermaid, Wikipedia).

I also learned online the symbol of “peach” has meaning beyond the fruit in the text. In An Analysis of the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. ELIOT, the passage shows that “peach” can mean “marriage and immortality” in China, “two things Prufrock desire” and it can also mean “female genitalia” to show Prufrock’s “feelings of sexual inadequacy” and “ his worry that his balding head and thin physique earn him the scorn of women”. And, from this point, this passage is connected to the central concern of the poem by showing his fear of feminine and his wishes of living in imagined world with mermaids rather than real females.

Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich impressed me significantly since he narrates the thoughts, feelings and experience of death so vividly, and more importantly, he reveals life wisdoms and society problems beneath Ivan’s death. It reminds me of Cao Xueqin’s words about what is a great work “a grasp of mundane affairs is genuine knowledge; understanding of worldly wisdom is true learning”. And this text by Tolstoy indeed is this kind of great work.

The story starts with the description of the death announcement, people’s reactions and funeral ceremony. What attracts my attention and makes me feel strange is people’s hypocrisy towards Ivan’s death. They seem sympathetic to his death, but they are pleased in their heart because of “the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances” (740). And this clue of people’s indifference attitude towards others’ death flow through till the end of story. Rarely anyone shows really pity for the sick people. People tend to care only about themselves, about their own feeling and living status. Indeed, it is people’s indifference, hypocrisy and lies that makes Ivan suffers more besides his physical pain. He feels loneliness and anger at others when they just ask him “how are you?” as a polite language rather than caring for him and learning from his feelings. Ivan says, “It’s all the same to them, but they will die too! Fools! I first, and they later, but it will be the same for them. And now they are merry… the beasts!” (762).

When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, same thing and same logic happens. Even now it’s 2020, one hundred and forty years after 1880, the year when it is “the hardest year of Ivan Ilyich’s life” (751), people’s reaction and performance remain the same to some extent. Death in other countries is none of my business, death in other states has little to bother with me, death in my neighborhood happens, oh, fortunately it’s not me…When doctors and scientists are trying to invent new medicine and applies respirators on patients’ bodies, perhaps all these acts and treatment plans are not as useful as the companion and console from families and beloved ones. However, since this is an infectious disease, no companion is allowed. Thus, patients must suffer more from moral sides…

Also, the coronavirus just warns us that illness and sickness doesn’t recognize people’s wealth, status and name. Whoever you are, princes, prime ministers, or peasants and workers, it can attack everyone, and human beings are equally fragile just as Ivan is tied up by the horrible kidney disease—the disease still happens to him even though his is a respectable judge.

I’d like to make a connection and reflection between the short novel Punishment by Tagore and the Japanese story Bewitched by Akinari. Both of these two pieces come from Asia and they have quite a few similarities. In Bewitched, Toyo-o’s personality differs from his brother Taro: Taro is “devoted to his work, and he carries on the family business” (632) while Toyo-o has “no desire or inclination to devote his time and efforts to the family occupation” (632). In short, Toyo-o is not that successful in running business and his is often ignored by his parents. This contrast between brothers also happens in Punishment. The brothers Dukhiram Rui and Chidam Rui differs in both appearance and personality: Dukhiram is “a huge man” and he seems “not to understand the world very well” (895) while Chidam seems to “have been carefully craved from shiny black rock” (896). In my view, the description of the differentiation between brothers can helps us to better understand the causes of the tragedy. People who are not excellent as their brothers tend to seek for respect and understanding from women, or their wives. That’s why Toyo-o is attracted again and again by Manago and Taro kills his wife just because she doesn’t respect him and even laugh at his futility when she says, “Where is there food? Did you give me anything to cook? Must I earn money myself to buy it” (894). The lack of confidence leads to Toyo-o being trapped by witches and Taro lose temper and senses.

Another noticeable similarity is the act of the villagers. Toyo-o is mistakenly blamed by the villagers and Chandara is unjustly taken into the jail. Both of them suffers from the rumor and the collective behavior from their villagers. When rumors accumulate and are widely spread, the victims of rumors even don’t want to defend for themselves anymore. Maybe that’s part of reason why Chandara commit a crime that doesn’t belong to her and take it for granted. She is just too tired, too astonished and too weak to resist.

In my view, the film version of the opening of the play focuses on depicting Hedda Gabler as arrogant and impolite lady on the one hand and Miss Tesman as a kind lady on the other hand. However, the film version is not the full story of the original text as it cuts many pieces down. For example, the section where Miss Tesman asks a lot regarding the trip and Tesman’s “prospects” (from the bottom of page 784 to the middle of page 785) just disappears in the film. In my opinion, Miss Tesman’s love and care for Tesman makes her a little envy on what Hedda gets——“a long honeymoon-more than five-almost six months”(784). Miss Tesman repeats her concern on the cost and expense for the honeymoon trip and even eager to ask more for their travel details, suggesting that she is not that satisfied with Hedda Gabler who insist on having a honeymoon trip and a big house. On the contrary, the film only keeps the clip when Miss Tesman complain about using her annuity as a security to buy those furniture and expensive carpets, significantly weaken Miss Tesman’s consistent worries on money and Tesman’s future career.

Another noticeable cut is their conversation about Tesman’s competitors, or Eilert Lovborg, to be particular. In the original text, Aunt Julie says, “those who would have blocked your way-they’re at the bottom of the pit” (786). This chat reveals that characters in this play, Miss Tesman, Tesman and Hedda, all cares about and even crazy about the prospect, the career and the professorship competition.

Also, the film version misses the part of the conversation between Tesman and Hedda after Miss Tesman leaves. Hedda refuse to call Miss Tesman “Aunt Julie” which Tesman cannot understand because as he insists Hedda is “part of the family” (789). From here, the reader can see clearly that Hedda doesn’t really want to have too much affiliation with Tesman’s family and more importantly, this is the first foreshadowing for the conflict between Tesman and Hedda because other than the longing for the house, they have nothing in common. Even for the piano’s matter, they shows kind of contradiction when Hedda wants to buy a new piano and keep the old one while Tesman just thinks about trade the old for a new one. All these details are cut in the film which are crucial for understanding the characters.