great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Rebecca:

We chose to do the scene 25 minutes into the play. Watching this scene, in specific, the acting of the actor who played Clov, really helped me conceptualize the character of Clov. In the story, I felt that Clov was in some way subservient to Hamm, but not in a very submissive way. It was apparent that he was stuck there, and serving Hamm, but I thought that he would have a more confident and strong nature. In the play, Clov appears as a very low esteem and submissive personality, never standing straight, and with scared facial expressions. Every time that Hamm tells Clov to stop, or “Wait,” or move to another place, Clov gets a panicked anxious facial expression, which was not clearly portrayed in the play. Even when Hamm asks Clov to “finish him,” I imagined Clov answering in a more powerful way, but even then, he answers in a scare tone and expression.

Songyun:

Hamm asks Clov to move him around on his chair and, as he can not see for himself, to hug the walls. Hamm directs Clov to return him back to his spot in the exact center. From the movie we can see Hamm is the protagonist of the play, though his unlikeable demeanor at times makes him the antagonist to his servant Clov. And Clov is the other protagonist of the play, the servant to Hamm despite his own infirmity. The movie is more actively than text. Hamm controls everyone in the play while having absolutely no control over himself or his environment. But from the text, we can feel more details expression from characters. Hamm’s great fear is that existence is cyclical. He wants to be left alone, but clings to Clov and does anything he can to pull him back into the room. He believes that nature is changing, though all evidence indicates that it has”zero” change.

Michelle:

One can describe The Endgame as a different and ‘weird’ play. The scenery of the play is really dark, dull, and plain. The costume of the characters contribute to the scenery of the play because it adds on to how ‘dull’ the play is meant to be. In this scene in the story, it doesn’t really describe how the characters are dressed, facial expressions, or make up looks that help the reader understand the appearance of Clov and Hamm. As for the movie, the costume designs definitely allow the reader to understand and feel how and why they are dressed and look the way they are. Hamm is wearing a thick coat in a dark brown blue-ish color with a grey blanket over his legs. He is also wearing a dark brown hat, with small, black tinted glasses. His hair is long, grey and all messed up. Clov is dressed in a navy blue cardigan with a light blue shirt under and black pants. Both Clov and Hamm’s clothing look dull and worn out which allows the reader to understand the kind of feeling Beckett wanted the express which in my opinion, with the costume design and the scenario he chose, I get a depressing and anxious feeling.

1) Who is responsible for Georg’s decision at the end of the story?

At the end of “The Judgement”, the story ends up with Georg committing suicide. Although suicide is never the right choice, his father ultimately pushed his buttons and even ‘condemned’ him by saying “I condemn you to death by drowning!” One can agree that in this case scenario, there were two people who are responsible for Georg’s decision at the end. First, the father is the responsible because one is more vulnerable to make rash decisions when they’re at a low point at their lives but also Georg is responsible because he chose to do what he did which was commit suicide. Willpower and strength play a factor in his decision where apparently he lacked.

-Michelle

2) What is the significance of the very last line of the story: “At this moment, almost endless traffic rolled across the bridge”?

I think that the significance of this line is that it shows that life moves on. He may have killed himself, but the traffic is going to continue. After Georg lost his friend in Petersburg, he stopped his own life, not being able to move on with his own life. This is ultimately part of what made his life miserable. While it is undeniable that his father is why his life was so miserable, his being caught up in his friend from Petersburg was part of it. He also was not able to move on from being a child of his father’s, into his own adult. Georg’s father had a similar situation. After he lost his wife, he stayed stuck in memories and her life, not being able to move on with his own life. I think that the significance of the line is showing the importance of moving on.

-Rebecca

3) Many people see this ending as somehow unrealistic. Do you agree? Why or why not? How does it being realistic, not entirely realistic, or both contribute to your understanding of the ending?

I think this ending is realistic.The most serious paradox is the absolute incompatibility of Georg’s guilt and his punishment. Particularly in view of his love for his parent, which is present throughout the story and is repeated in a prominent position at the end. Georg and his father is a complicated relationship.The story’s conclusion, instead of answering the multiple questions raised by the text, Georg’s father ends his stream of accusations by pronouncing a formal judgment over his son, “So now you know what else there is in the world besides yourself, till now you’ve known only about yourself ! An innocent child, yes, that you were, truly, but still more truly you have been a devilish human being ! And therefore take note: I sentence you now to death by drowning.” Given that the judgement itself appears to be the immediate cause of Georg’s death.

-Songyun Hei

Songyun:

Writing is a process that takes lots of time, commitment, and understanding to really help us develop our ideas and put them on paper. Through our English Class I have learned about a lot of valuable topics which have helped increased my knowledge about world literature. I am a slow learner and English is not my first language, so sometimes I am not very active in the group discussion and class conversation, that is the one I need to improve, increased confidence in the oral presentation of ideas. The writing process of paragraph form of four steps helped to organize my ideas so I was able to write in a more clearly and effective manner. I really love reading literature works, like fiction and drama, but I need to understand more deeply the relationship between different genres of literary texts and the multicultural environment from which they spring. Also I need to increase ability to write a critical essay employing a strong thesis statement. I really appreciate Rebecca and Michelle every week’s assignment reminding, and Rebecca always put her assignment first in our group on Google Docs.

Rebecca:

English has never been my favorite subject, to say the least. But this semester I found myself actually liking the work I’ve been doing. I find that my favorite part, and the part that I see the most improvement in personally, is the analytical skills. I read a piece with a different mindset, mentally breaking down every phrase and interpreting it. I’ve also realized I’ve gotten more comfortable free writing and sharing with the class. Another thing that I realized I have been improving on, due to the setup of both the in person and online classes, is responding to other’s work.  The way that our class discussions are set up both in person and online lend for me to have to respond to other’s work and comments, at first I found it more difficult, but I think that I have warmed up to it and become better at it. I want to improve on expanding on my arguments in essays, and making clear concise arguments.  

Michelle: 

Throughout this semester in English class I learned valuable skills that helped develop my writing skills. One of the most important is free writing. Free writing is when one is given a topic and is able to write whatever is on their mind with no restrictions or limits. This allows the writer to write down everything possible without giving them the second to forget it and allowing them to establish their thoughts. Another valuable skill is working with group members and being able to comment on their work. This benefits both of the writers because it allows one another to see mistakes we personally don’t see ourselves. It also allows us to view the story or topic from different perspectives other than ours which opens our “horizons”. One section I do need to improve on is summarization. When writing an essay, including information from the text is definitely important but sometimes I do get carried away and start summarizing.

Rebecca:

Both Bartleby and Monkey contemplate life and it’s purpose- and come to a conclusion. However, they react in different ways. Show how these two characters react in contrasting ways, and provide evidence from both stories.

Michelle:

In both Journey to the West and Life of A Sensuous Woman, both characters go on their own different journey. These journeys had an impact on both character’s growth from the beginning to end of the story. Include two quotes and/or examples that demonstrate the growth of each character, one quote from the beginning and one from the end.

Songyun:

Compare Journey to the West and Bartleby the Scrivener, are they different kinds of “heros”, or the same kinds of “heros”, traditional hero, anti-hero, satanic hero or no hero at all. Explain and using some quotation from the text.

Monkey King was born from a mythical stone formed from the primal forces of chaos,located on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. After joining a clan of monkeys, we can see the “actions” of Monkey King. He earned their respect by discovering the Water Curtain Cave behind a large a waterfall and then made for their new home. “We didn’t know where this water comes from,since we have nothing to do today, let us follow the stream up to its source to have some fun.” We can see Monkey King’s action is very decisive, and charismatic. He soon realized that despite his power over the monkeys, he was still only mortal, here his “action” is decide to travel to the civilized lands. “Tomorrow I shall leave of you all and go down the mountain. Even if I have to wander with the clouds to the corners of the sea or journey to the distant edges of heaven, I intend to find these three kinds of people.”

Songyun Hei