In the reading, “The Judgement,” Georg’s friend never replied to any of his letters, except once when Georg tells his friend about his mother passing away. I find this to be very odd as to why he never replies, since friends typically do when communicating with one another. I also find it strange that this friend does not have a name and not much is known about him. From reading the story, we know that this friend had virtually fled to Russia and isolated himself from society. This seems to be a reflection of Kakfa’s own life; he is able to write when he is secluded. Although this text was very confusing to me, I find that this friend may represent the author and his own internal conflict. In the story, the friend is described as an unsuccessful and lonely bachelor, which is the exact opposite of Georg, who was successful in his business and was engaged. The friend may be the part of Kafka that he wants to suppress by trying to live the life that Georg has: social and successful. This is why Georg is conflicted about telling his friend about the engagement; he himself is unsure as to whether or not he wants this friend to come back because the friend is a hinderance to his “successful” life. Also, if he tells the friend about what is happening in his life, his friend would not feel happy and miserable because of his failure. Although Kafka wanted to become a writer, this would hinder him from having a “successful life” and his own father also opposed of him writing. But as we read the story, we realize that although Georg is living as a prosperous businessman, he does not seem to actually like his life; he is not able to live out his desired life of becoming a writer.

I also don’t fully understand why his friend only replies to his father. His father, who seems very overpowering over Georg, mocks Georg by comparing him to his friend; “he knows everything a hundred times better than you do yourself, in his left hand he crumples your letters unopened while in his right hand he holds up my letters to read them!” (Page 70) This reflects Kafka’s own life, where his father also was overpowering and did not approve of him writing .

When I first looked at the picture that we were  assigned to do, my first impression was that the topic related to science and technology, because this group used a lot of newspaper parts to do their collage. Most of the content seems to relate to technology; for example, they included headlines such as “Science,” “Technology,” an article relating to Uber, and a picture of a car.

However, when I went home and looked at the picture again, I saw something that I had not noticed before. I was able to look at the whole picture since I had taken a picture with my phone. I saw that the parts were all assembled into the shape of a ram/buffalo, so now, I believe their topic may relate to animals.  I think that they had purposely assembled these parts in this way in order to help us realize their topic by looking at the picture as a whole.

From this activity, I learned that we shouldn’t only look at anything at only one angle; sometimes, when you look at something from other angles, you may see a totally different view.

Realism is used to reveal to readers the everyday, real life activities in society. In contrast to Romanticism, a movement in which authors liked ot write elaborate stories, realism depicted the common experiences of people. It is based on a worldview that bases its foundation on experiences, science, and reasoning. Naturalism stems off of realism; authors that use naturalism usually write stories that take place in a destitute and oppressive environment in order to show the poor social conditions and pressures that people faced in real life during those times. Readers are able to get a sense of the daily experiences and hardships that people actually faced. For example, the story “Separate Way” uses naturalism and realism to show the realistic hardships that many people faced in Japan during the nineteenth century.

In the story “Separate Way” written by Higuchi Ichiyo, the two main characters, Okyo and Kichizo, represent two different parts of the author’s life. One night, Okyo tells Kichizo that she must move away; although he does not want her to, the author shows the readers that Okyo has no choice in what she wants to do; in order to live a better life, she must become someone’s mistress. This reflects the author’s life because at the age of 11, she was forced to leave school since many girls living in nineteenth century Japan had very little education and were expected to work at home. This incorporates Naturalism because it shows the reality of the experiences and lack of choice that many Japanese girls had.

The other character, Kichizo, had birth parents who had died a long time ago and was taken in by the former umbrella factory’s owner, Omatsu. Unfortunately, Omatsu died two years ago by jumping into a well. Therefore, Kichizo was very upset when he learned that Okyo was going to move because he had so many expereiences of being abandoned by his loved one. This reflects the writer’s life, as well as many others, who have been abandoned by their loved ones. When Higuchi Ichiyo was 17, her father died, leaving her responsible for the family. This also relates to realism because this is bases on a real life experience.

Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

In this poem, Dickinson used a popular theme, death, for her poem. She did a good job in describing death; the poem shows you that death is horrible but can also be peaceful. She didn’t waste anytime on getting to her point in the poem, she lets us know the poem is going to talk about death at the very beginning.

In the first stanza, she capitalized “Carriage,” “Ourselves,” and “Immortality.” We can probably imply that they have a special mean to the writer, For example, I think “Ourselves” on the third line represents death and herself.

In the second stanza, she states that “We slowly drove, we knew no haste;” this shows us how death is a kind gentleman who gives his passenger a pleasant ride. I think it’s an interesting way to describe and personify death as a gentleman suitor who drives a horse-drawn carriage. Also, it is a way to say that death didn’t hurry.

In the third stanza, she describes the view that they are riding past. They see children playing in the playground during recess. I am guessing that these views are coming from her own memory, because many say that people tend to think of important events that happened in their lives when they are close to death.

In the fourth stanza, she states “ He passed us;” which represents the sun passing them. The sun passes her because of the sunset, which means the the sunshine and warmth is leaving. When the sun falls below the horizon, it also shows the night is coming; darkness and cold is the symbol of night. Obviously, she is talking about death; the cold and darkness are always used to refer to death.

The final line of the poem reads“I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –” It seems to recall the horse-drawn carriage mentioned previously. It shows us that they are not regular horses, It refers to her whole life, she was bringing out her life to us through the horses.

The reading I have chosen to write about is The Rights of Woman by Olympe de Gouges. It was published in 1791 during the French Revolution. It follows the struture of Declaration of the Right of Man and of the Citizen, as seen by the 17 articles that are present in each of the declarations. For example, the first article of Declaration of the Right of Man and of the Citizen mentioned that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility.” Likewise, The Rights of Woman says “Woman are born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may only be based on common utility”. It is quite interesting how The Right of Women seems to directly challenging the Declaration of the Right of Man and of the Citizen.

The author of this reading is Olympe de Gouges. She was writing this because the French Revolution never addressed the rights of women but only declared the rights of the men. Moreover, The Right of Women exposes the irony of the war; it was supposedly fought in order to establish gender equality, but Olympe de Gouges wrote this to show the failure of the French Revolution.

The main argument of this piece is that men and women should be equal. At the end of the reading, she asks the women what advantages they had receive from the Revolution. After the Revolution, men gained their rights, but in turn, treated the women injustly. The higher authority of the French government believed that the rights of woman should not be the same as those of men. She also try to motivate women to stand up for the own rights in the reading.

The strong point of this reading is her usage of Declaration of Men and of the Citizen as a model. It clearly show the situation back then, how the rights of women were different from the rights of men. This is an effective method that encourages women to stand up and fight for rights that should be the same as those of men. The weakness of the reading is that she didn’t exactly mention specific steps in order to obtain their own goal of achieving these rights.

I think it is successful in conveying its message; it clearly lists out the rights that should be established by stating the seventeen article. Doing this, she is able to directly communicate to the women the injustice that they were experiencing and also question the men and French government. She is successful in showing how the current position of women did not make sense; for example, she writes about how women are punishable under the law but were not given equal rights.

Looking back from 2015, I think progress has been made, but it still can be better. Although there is currently still gender inequality, the situation is much better than that of the period in which this was written. For example, women had no say in politics and could not vote, but now women have voting rights. Unfortunately, we can stilll see gender inequality in today’s society when we look at the lower salaries that women make compared to men when doing the same job. Also, we see that the higher positions in companies are mainly composed of male figures and it is difficult for women to enter even with the same qualifications. As you can see, the goal of gender equality is still not reached but is slowly progressing. If Olympe de Goughes was alive today, she would probably be happy with how women have progressed in their rights but would agree that more can be done.