Month: May 2012

During this semester, I tried achieve a goal as the title of my blog is, the individualist idea in literature. As covering many famous writer’s works, I came up with some astonishing analysis and a better understanding of the works. Since the works were based on a human being, same as us, there were common aspects that could be found while reading the works. Also, since generally the aspect of human is essential it was related to certain events at the current time period. One thing that amazed me the most, was the power of passion that could be found in many of the literature. The desire, eager, ambition and craving of the unachievable was the most amazing because, the power of this will was transferable by words and description; so that i could relate to it. This is a video clip that could be somewhat related to what i was referring to.Clip

In class we talked about two poems that had a relative topic, which was death. Death in general, has a dark, mysterious and inevitable characteristic. As we first talked about Emily Dickinson’s poem “712” the one thing that caught my attention was how she describes death. In the first two stanzas, she personifies death as a person and refers it as “he” rather than an event. by doing this, i felt like there was a conversational relationship with the author and death, and that death itself was more closer than anybody thinks. Death in general, is thought to be the end of everything. Since nobody can experience the stage of death or describe it, many authors differ in the way they describe death. In case of Emily Dickinson, I felt that the overall tone was somewhat calm and steady. Also by describing death as an inevitable event, there is a sense where she tries to swallow in the reality, rather than panic and rage about how death can be avoided. But one thing I personally think is that death itself is a stable stage. The procedure towards death; all the suffering, agony, sorrows and sadness is what describes death but death itself is a closure and a stage of calm. After that, all is left is the eternal darkness.

As we discussed “When you are old” by William Yeats, this was an interesting work because the discussion we had during the class. As we went over specific wordings and try to interpret the meanings behind them, the background of Yeats writing this story to his lover helped in many ways. By understanding the real reason of why he was writing this poem maded the reader, and me as well, more related and feel the sorrow and heartbroken feeling. While the discussion went through, the one question that made me think alot was “what is true love?”. This is a million dollar question, as many people struggle to find answers and solutions to this issue. As the theme for my blog is trying to focus on individual aspects, it is inevitable to neglect the one main aspect of human beings, which is love. This overwhelming effect cannot be explained in words. The uncontrollable will and passion is somewhat similar as fire, which is mentioned in the work. The complexity of this is that their is no blue print to the answer, because all people are unique and come from different backgrounds and experience. But one funny thing of this is that, every people tend to think their situations are the most heart breaking compared to others, since their point of view is purely subjective. It is a common thing when you talk with others about the heart breaking moments, and everyone will say their experience is the most. Yeats work shows this as well. The words and expressions make it able to picture his devistation and loss. Another thing interesting of this work is that the sudden change of  attitude toward the end. As Yeats is denied, he declares “he will not be there when u need me”. This is somewhat childish act whining, which is somewhat similar in the story we read early this semester “The Barrelmaker brimful of love”, when Kyushichi rejects Osen’s request for help.

I personally think that love is also related to hate. The more you like a person, when you are disappointed at them, you will hate them more. The feeling of hate roots from love, which you really care about someone. The opposite feeling should be ignorance, which doesn’t have any feeling existing, wether what they do. Because of this, I believe Yeat’s will still have the desire of love, no matter what he says and complains about, it is just visible that way.

As toword the end of the semester, we have read literature which expressed feminist ideas throughout their works. One thing that interested me the most is that, one common theme was used among these works, degrading the men. As the author tries to express women as independant and strong, they express men as naive and selfish or even animals. It might sound odd but I support these feminist idea, but the way they profound men is seems offensive sometimes. The reason that i support feminist ideas is that, I believe that all people are equal and that just because of the bilogical difference, there shouldn’t be a barrier to doing what they really love. The funny thing is that, this is a common method used in some of Korean soap operas. Soo-hyun Kim is a writer who shows a lot of this method, by portraying the men as weak, naive and indecicive. While women are strong, independant. The reason why this interested me is that, should this be the only method of expressing feminism? Can’t there be any other way? Because of Soo-hyun Kim’s method, she offended many men, making the whole idea of feminism offended as well. I just believe that if it was expressed in a way not so offensive, the whole idea of feminism will not be treated that way.