March/April MOR-- Invisible Man

Hi May! Thanks for reading this book with me! I don't know why, but Invisible Man just reminds me of Crime and Punishment a lot, probably because its length (both 550+ pages :[ ), its lonely protagonist, its countless symbols, etc. 

One of the reasons I like Crime and Punishment is its sophisticatedly designed symbolism, like the crossroad and the Bible, which convey its connotations so well. Invisible Man achieve this purpose too and this makes me like the story. Among all symbols that are used in the Prologue, my favorite is the basement where the invisible man lives, a place with 1369 light bulbs. On page 13 the invisible man says, "Before that I lived in the darknessinto which I was chased, but now I see. I've illuminated the blackness of my invisibility--and vice versa." I think this quote, together with the symbol, are so powerful because it shows the invisible man's ultimate goal. This is the best designed symbol as it reflects on the man's desire of being seen. The invisible man calls himself invisible since he is ignored by the world and white people. He is a victim of racism. Because of this unfair treatment he suffers, he escapes from the world by locking himself in a basement. This action shows his twisted action under social injustice. However, the society could not suppress the invisible man's most natural desire of being seen, of being a successful, intelligent person. In order to satisfy this desire, the invisible man steals electricity from Monopolated Light & Power Company to light up the 1369 light bulbs in his little room. Through lighting up his "small world", he feels that he can finally be detected by the "blind world" and be someone's attention. The juxtaposition of locking himself in a small room and lighting up countless light bulbs show the internal struggle the invisible man is going through. It also symbols the struggle between the suppressing society and the suppressed self. Besides, I also find out that the bright lights in the small isolated room can be interpreted as the tiny last hope the man has in his heart. I am really curious of what is gonna happen next. Will the invisible man finally be seen? Will this hope come true? I can't wait reading the next chapter. But before ending this entry, I would like to ask you what other symbols you have found in the story? Do you see anything special in the symbol of 1369 light bulbs in the prologue?

Death of a Salesman Discussion with Lens (Deconstruction)

In the end of the play Death of a Salesman, Linda says to Willy in his funeral, "I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there'll be nobody home. We're free and clear. We're free. We're free... We're free...", as a conclusion to Willy's miseries. Throughout the entire Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is struggling with his tragic life. He is not free, because apparantly he is bound by so many problems like being fired, being hated by Biff, being unable to support his family, etc. As such problems arise, we see Willy then always fall into flashbacks and nostalgia, where he seeks comfort and temporary shelter. One of the significant example is when Willy starts a duologue with Ben, asking, "Oh, Ben, how did you do it? What is the answer? Did you wind up the Alaska deal already?", in p.83, immediately after being fired from his company, but without any knowledge of his previous anger. As shown in Willy's tone, escaping into Ben's shelter and nostalgia gives Willy happiness and frees him from his burden and sufferings in reality. However, it seems like Arthur Miller's design is not as simple as we think, that the words Linda says in the end contains deeper meaning. During Willy's duologue with Ben, as mentioned above, Linda joins the conversation of the two men, interrupting their discussion about venturing in Alaska, and says to Ben, "Don't say those things to him! (Venturing in Alaska) Enough to be happy right here, right now. Why must everybody conquer the world? ... Old man Wagner told him (Willy) that if he keeps it up he'll be a member of the firm, didn't he, Willy?" (p. 84). It is ironic that Linda would mention about Willy's prospect of becoming a member of the firm (that has just fired him in reality) in Willy's flashbacks, where he usually seeks comfort. From this sequence of events, it can be pointed out, that Willy, at least subconsciously, blames Linda for not letting him venture in Alaska, which results into him being fired finally by Howard Wagner. Willy regrets not joining Ben, and Willy gets upset even more, because of this comparison between how successful he could be and how bad he is.

Now look back into Linda's requiem. She mentions two things before she says she and Willy are free: she just made the last payment for the house, and nobody (but her) lives in that house anymore. As I pointed out in the previous paragraph, Willy is apparantly bound by his real-life financial burden and family disharmony which made him "not free", but Willy gets more troubles and pain in his flashback and dreams then due to over-expectation. As both reality and dream seem to have harmed Willy, we will never know what Linda mean they were free. Does she mean Willy is freed from his real-life financial burden because the mortgage is finally paid off? Or does she mean Willy is freed from his dream and expectations, since Ben, Biff, Happy and every else are gone? What does Arthur Miller intend to convey in this play?

February MOR--The Tempest

(Act 1)
I have longed for reading a Shakespearan's comedy, and now I finally get the chance! Thanks for reading The Tempest with me Patsy.
The Tempest was the last play written by Shakespeare; because of this special status, it includes both comedic and tragic elements. For example, Like many other tragic stories, The Tempest begins with a storm wrecking up a ship and a power struggle between royalties that results in exile and hatred. However, the play then develops in a comedic direction, where it is revealed that the exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, actually knows magic and has schemed for the shipwreck mentioned above with his elf Ariel. Though it is told that Prospero hates his brother Antonio for exiling him on an island, Prospero does nor kill Antonio in that shipwreck. Instead, Prospero saves him, but mysteriously he sets up a relationship between his daughter Miranda and the Prince of Naples, Ferdinand. Apparantly Prospero does not like Ferdinand because of the past disputes between Milan and Naples, but Prospero still does it for some reasons that he does not receal to the audience. All he does is to let people know that he has a plan, but for the details of the plan, it is not explained.
So far I like The Tempest very much, because its adventure style arises my curiosity. Shakespeare really does a marvellous job in attracting readers to continue reading, with techniques like aside that bring suspense to the plot. Throughout Act 1 Prospero uses aside inumerously. For instance, in line 500, after seducing Ferdinand with Miranda, Prospero says to the audience with two simple words, "It works." This two words, though simple, contains unlimited meanings in it and allows readers to imagine what's going to happen themselves. As a person that favors interaction between actors and audience, I really like the technique aside a lot. What about you? Do you think aside functions positively in the story? And is there any specific line with the use of aside that you find significant to the whole play?

Quotes and Discussion on Death of a Salesman

"I just thought you'd like a change--"

"I don't want a change! I want Swiss cheese. Why am I always being contradicted?"(p. 26)

These two lines are from the conversation between Willy and Linda in the opening scene, where Willy blames Linda for not buying Swiss chesse, what he usually eats.

Although this quote may sound very daily, I think it exactly points out the prblem of Willy and the story: old people do not want to change. Everything was going so well in the 1950s, and Willy has already got his house paid off, and have two handsome sons and an obedient wife. These all should have satisfied Willy, but he is not. He gets irritated because of the change from Swiss to American cheese. He cannot accept that he no longer earns hige profits for his company because of his age. He still misses the old days of driving a brand new Chevy. Willy hates changes, and he does not understnad that changes in society are unavoidable. It seems to me that the only reason of Willy's sufferings is his stubborn attitude. But because I don't want to be stubborn like Willy, thus I want to know what you guys think about the reason of Willy's sufferings.

2017 New Year Photo Walk

2017 New Year Photo Walk and Journal

2016 had been a busy year for me, from Americanizing in the beginning to college applying in the end. 2016 had also been a good year for me, I wouldn't call myself an American in January 2016, but I would definitely, and proudly call myself an American now. 2016 had also been a sad year for me. Though I have known more people than before, I also had some really bad conflicts with my friends and lost some of them. Overall, I would not say 2016 to a perfect year for me, but I am glad I have undergone this year. Even if I get the pills that can erase my sad memory of 2016, I would not take them, because every piece of memory is valuable, though sad, but true. We may learn from the mistakes in the past, we may refresh from the wonderful things in the past, but we should always believe that, our best days, are still ahead of us, and bravely face our future. Undoubtedly 2017 will be a year of departing, I will have to say good-bye to a lot of my high school friends, but I am not afraid. At least, most of the tears I dropped in my high school days are happy tears.

January MOR--Wuthering Heights

(Chapter 1-8)

New year with new partner--Julia. Thanks for reading this book with me.

Although I planned to read Jane Eyre for January at first, after knowing that Wuthering Heights is a book about cruel love and the darkness of humanity, I switched to reading this fantastic book.

Wuthering Heights has a very traditional Victorian setting, with noble characters' names like Catherine Earnshaw and a small mansion as the place where the story happens. It is a story about the violent love between three people: Catherine Earnshaw, a beautiful but ruly upper class girl; Edgar Linton, a soft-hearted, young gentleman; and Heathcliff, a passionate yet resentful gipsy servant man who has loved Catherine since childhood. Although these three characters form the plot, the story is told by a bystander called Mr. Lockwood, a tenant of Heathcliff twenty years after the love story begins. Mr. Lockwood witnesses the cruelty and rudeness of the old Heathcliff when visiting him in the house of Wuthering Heights, in the beginning of the story. Lockwood also sees a ghostlike mid-age lady named Cathy in the dungeon of the house. Both him and I are so attracted by the weirdness of the haunted house and the unfriendly people, and thus Lockwood turns to Catherine Earnshaw's nanny and Heathcliff's servant Mrs. Dean for more details of what has happened in the past. Then Lockwood is told by the nanny that Heathcliff is a gipsy child adopted by Catherine's father more than thirty years ago, and that Heathcliff is bullied by Catherine's brother Hindley Earnshaw and other upper-class people like Edgar Linton and the servant Joseph. In the last chapter I read (Chapter 8) it was told that the ruly mistress Catherine has ambiguous relationships with both Heathcliff and Edgar, and that the mistress and Heathcliff's friendship keeps worsening as time passes since Heathcliff is growing more repulsive and repulsive against everyone in the world and turning into the thirty-years later anti-social Heathcliff.

Most of the story plot in Wuthering Heights are flashback, but it does not bother my interest in the characters' relationship. I find particularly stuck in the character Heathcliff, because of his twisted personality. He bullies Hindley Earnshaw when the old Master Earnshaw is still alive, and after the master passes away Heathcliff is revenged even more fiercely and severely by the grown-up Hindley, which drives him into a resentful and wicked man, as Mrs. Dean quotes in Chapter 7, that young Heathcliff says, "I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back... I hope he will not die before I do." Despite the fact that I usually pity the villain, I think the seed of Heathcliff's twistedness is planted in his heart since he was borne and that he deserves his punishment by Hindley Earnshaw. However I wonder if I am the only one who thinks like this, and therefore, I want to ask, do you think Heathcliff is borne wicked and deserves to be punished, or do you think he is just spoiled by the old Master Earnshaw and that Heathcliff was borne innocent?

November MOR--Medea

(Line 1-445)

I knew I was going to read Medea when I first heard of the plot: extreme love turned into extreme hatred. This is just my type of story. And thank Jordan for reading with me again.

First an introduction of the first episode, this play starts with a nurse's monologue. She is the nanny of the protagonist, Medea, a refugee woman in Corinth from Colchis. Medea had a husband and two children, but her husband Jason then abandoned them and remarried into the royal family of Corinth. The wife was driven crazy because of this, and her nanny prays for Medea in the monologue. Medea cannot control herself and even shows intentions to harm her children. She blames her family tragedy on the burden society places on women, and she seeks to take revenge on Jason and the entire royal family of Corinth. This angers the king of Corinth, Creon (another Creon), and he demands the exile of Medea. Medea acts pitiful and begs the king to let her stay in Corinth for another day, but later she tells the chorus that she plans to kill them all that night.

Medea gathers all the elements that I love to read: love to hatred, dark side of humanity, poisoning, gender equality, etc. Among all these elements my favorite is the dark side of humanity. Medea the protagonist once loved her husband so much, that she even betrayed her own family and killed people for him, but all she got at last was nothing but abandonment. This basis totally provides for Medea's painful change and her determination to take revenge. If I were Medea I would definitely revenge on Jason too. However I agree that poisoning not only Jason but also his bride and the king sounds not that correct. Therefore I want to ask you Jordan, do you think Medea's revenge on the entire royal family is righteous? What about if she is only going to kill Jason? Do you think this revenge is more morally acceptable and correct?