Poem

Chapter 15 of the poetry book talked about how poems could be simple or complicated, as in one can take it literally or there can be hidden messages to it. I’ve noticed that I enjoy more of the literal poems. Maybe this is because I’m not really a creative type but rather a logical type of person. Like “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams is very simple, very straight forward and easy to interpret. I enjoy this type of poem, I guess also because of my culture. The most famous type of Japanese poetry is Haiku. Of course not all haiku is literal but most are. The point of haiku is to describe the season and that to me is much easier to understand and I can feel the connection with the author.

Closing up to Finals

With all the trouble with my fiancé’s condition, the semester is finally coming to a close. This semester had been one of the more difficult one considering I am taking 18 hours with tons of absent due to my fiancé’s condition. But just because we are at the end doesn’t mean it’s any easier. I have 3 papers to write, 2 presentation, and final coming up. My senior year was suppose to be my easiest year but ironically I had to take 2 history class (which I dislike history the most) and oral communication (which I get nervous when I have to do public speaking). So in fact, this semester turns out to be the most difficult semester for me. But in a week or so I will be done.

Christmas Carole

Last Friday, my fiancé and I went to see the Christmas Carole at the Theatre Memphis. I am really not the biggest fan of theatre (live theatre or movie theater) because I feel uncomfortable sitting in one position for a long time. But Jason M. Spitzer, the director of the play, did a tremendous job. I especially liked the fact that Ghost of Christmas present was played by a female character, whereas I am used to it to be a large male character. The special effects were wonderful and acting was stunning. I still am not the biggest fan of theatre but I sure will not regret this show.

Procrastination

After the long break, I have a tendency to forget about school works (which I am sure a lot of people share the same problem.). So the night before Monday, around 11:30 at night after helping my boss move, I noticed I had a take home exam in my comparative politics class. Of course this wasn’t just a careless mistake; I knew I had it at the beginning of the break but decided to procrastinate because the test looked rather easy. Well, some wise person said, never judge by look, because this test was just awfully hard. There were 102 questions and it took me 6 and half hours to finish. I think I learned my lesson after staying up until 7 and had to wake up at 8.

Moving

My boss that I work for, one of the professor of the Foreign Language and Literature Department moved to Mud Island, Downtown. Since she lived close to where I lived, I’ve visited her often to help her research and also I worked on her webpage. Anyway, so during this break I spent my whole Friday and Saturday moving her stuff out of her apartment to her new house. This new house of her is just gorgeous. It’s actually a condo but its right by the Mississippi river, and gosh the sunset is beautiful. But the work load was definitely not beautiful, after going up and down the stairs to the 3^rd, 4^th floor, it seemed like I had my work out for at least a month.

Thanksgiving

This year, I celebrated Thanksgiving at my fiancé’s parent’s house. The lunch consists of her family, her aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, grandfather, and couple of my friends. The event was wild as usual with superb feast and lots of drinking (yes, I am legal thank you very much). We decided to play “UNO attack” (typical UNO game with a device that shoots cards at you when button is pushed). That was definitely an experience, especially because the games took average of 30-40 minutes with all those people. Afterward, the niece and nephew wanted to play Pictionary but I had to retire from it.

Internet

Finally out of the hospital as of Monday! Such a relief. Back to your bed, your couch, your place… and my computer (ok I’m a nerd. That’s why I’m a Computer Engineer major lol). Is it only me or are we not dependant with our technology?? I was seriously dying at the hospital because of the unstable internet connection! By looking at The Matrix and all of these movies that technology takes over the world, I can seriously believe that is going to happen eventually. It’s coming to the point that, when I don’t have I feel like I’m cut off from society. Is this only me?

Back in the Hospital

So my fiancé’s condition flips again and I had to go back to the hospital couch. Seems to be her diabetes and her pregnancy is conflicting a whole lot. It’s rather obvious that her body is getting weaker as the pregnancy progress. As her partner, this is rather painful because I just feel so powerless about the situation. I really hope her condition picks up before next April (which Is the due date). But yea, we decided to rent some movies and watch it again at the hospital. Oh my gosh, I know we have so much time we need to kill but, watching 5,6 movies back to back is such a painful thing to go through! We watched “Orphan” (which was a horrible movie), GI-Joe, Star Trek, Babylon A.D., and some other movies that I totally slept through.

Tuesday’s game

…was fun. Of course the activity was fun but, more than that, I enjoyed listening to others made up story. Honestly, I have zero creativity so my story was very much straight forward and did not have much of a twist in it. My group member had a more in-depth story. One had the whole zombie theme, another had the “Law and Order” idea, I had the literal school teacher biting a student’s ear off idea. So at the end, we just decided to combine all of our stories together and made our finished product. The process of making the story was as we were taught in class. Ingredients, Process, and finished Product. This activity effectively taught us the process of making up a story.

2012

Couple of my friends and I decided to go see the new movie, “2012”, at the opening night, Friday. Unbelievably, we were studying rather late so we barely made it to the last showing of the day (yes we were studying at Friday night). Anyhow, the movie was stunning! I was literally on edge of my seat the whole movie. I won’t go into details but I can promise, it’s one of the best natural disaster movies. Originally, my all time favorite was “Armageddon” but this movie tops it easily. But also I will warn that this is probably one of those movies you need so see it at the theater or you will not get the full quality of it.

A Worn Path – POV

The story, “A Worn Path” – Eudora Welty, was told in a third person point of view but the narrator was learning about the story as it was being told. He/she did not know what was waiting in the path of Phoenix Jackson (i.e. the hunter).

In the movie, the story was told in more of a first person point of view, through Phoenix Jackson’s view. More than the story, I feel connected with Phoenix because of this.

I remember we talked about perspective difference from a story and a movie. After comparing two movies with the original story, it is obvious that it is easier to be connected with the characters through movies more because most of the time, the story is told from a single character perspective.

Flag

The other day, after the Fort Hood shooting, I noticed that our flag was flying at half mast. I understand that the flags are at half mast on special occasion such as Memorial Day, Patriot Day, and death of president and other leaders, etc. But this occasion was a shooting within the military base, because of a psychological breakdown (some media persuade us by saying it’s more of a terrorist attack because Major Malik Nadal Hasan is said to have connection with a terrorist group, and also he agreed to suicide bombing). My concern is, though I understand that the half mast was due to the shooting, but couple month ago, similar situation happened at Afghanistan, where our soldier was being under treatment by a military psychologist and went crazy; shot the psychologist and 2 other soldiers. When this happened the United States did not half-mast. If the half-mast is to show respect to the one that died or fought for our country, wouldn’t it be appropriate to do so then and even throughout the war? Considering our soldier, more or less, are dying every day.

Goodbye work?

This December, I am officially graduating and start working! This is an excitement for me because I’ve been offered a job at Hino Motors (a department of Toyota) as an interpreter/translator. Fortunately, because I worked for a Professor here, I had several experience in this field and from that, had confidence. The job starts at December 15th. But there’s one obstacle. I have to quiet my current part-time job. Why this is such a problem? Well, one of my job, I’ve been working for 5 years and another for 3 years. Unfortunately, throughout these long years, I’ve developed an emotional attachment to them. My co-workers are almost like my family and my bosses are like my fathers. It’s just such a burden to have to tell them that I am going to be quitting my current job here for another. But life is harsh and soon or later I have to confess. But I’m definitely not looking forward to that…. sigh

Perspective

So aforementioned, my fiancé is being tutored because she is on bed rest and still had to attend school for insurance reason, which I think is pretty impressive because I really can’t learn outside of class. But more surprising is the tutor. This boy is working on his PhD. Boy? Yes boy. He just turned 18 recently and he is, again, working on this PhD on Mathematics. But he has a great personality and great sense of humor. But listening to his past, to be honest, I really felt bad for him. He was home schooled and pretty much was stuck with his mother until now. Even now, his mother drives him around and why not. I, as someone that went independent since graduated from High School financially, wouldn’t be able to handle being with my parents all the time. Don’t get me wrong though, I love my parents. I just didn’t want to be a financial burden on them. But again, he is working on his PhD at 18. He’s definitely a successor in life. But I guess, this is a perspective difference in life.

Peaceful Sunday Afternoon

I thought summer changed to winter really quick, leaving fall out of the group but I was wrong. Sunday was the best day to spend outside of the house, on the patio, reading book or even sleeping. Well, my fiancé, because of her condition, had to meet with a tutor (since she is on bed rest). So 9 o’clock Sunday morning at starbucks, I was watching the car pass on Germantown Parkway in front of the Wolfchase mall. It’s so funny because I rarely spend time without doing anything, but this day was different. I was just watching people drive by, people going to bestbuy and coming out of it. Very peaceful indeed. There was actually a couple that was yelling and screaming at the parking lot, which got my attention. The driver lady totally pushed the guy out and drove off, guy left in fury. That was definitely entertaining. Anyhow, so my Sunday pretty much consist of me being there, meeting with my friend at Sonics (again outside) and talking to my friend ‘til dinner, forgetting that I have to study for my tests for this week.

Another Hospital Visit

So Halloween was supposed to be fun and why not… well that could have been the case if my fiancé didn’t have to go in the hospital again that exact day. Unfortunately her diabetes decided to act up on her while she was out and next thing you know I got a call from a paramedic officer saying she is going to be admitted to Baptist East. Great, so within this 1 year, I have almost conquered the big hospitals in the Memphis area because of her diabetes. St. Francis, Methodist Germantown, Downtown, Baptist Bartlett and now East. Let me tell you though, out of all those hospitals, Baptist East had the best facility. Anyhow, we weren’t in there for long this time around, which is awesome because I have about 3 tests this week and honestly sleeping on those hospital guest bed (well, chair I guess) is not the most comfortable feeling. During this visit, though, I was thinking about the oddest things I ever thought of. The only one that I can really tie to something literature related was the religion of the hospital. So, all these major hospitals in the area are under some sort of Christian branch. So for those that are Buddhist or Muslim or whatever other religions, I wondered where they go for delivering babies (since my fiancé is 4months into it). But again, we do live in the Bible belt; I guess this is really not much of a concern in this area. So for some odd reason, I was thinking about O’Connor, probably because of her Christian views and her grotesque writing we talked in class. Then again, I tied the grotesque to horror, and from there start thinking about recent horror movies I watched that was… grotesque. So great, Halloween, in the hospital, dark, random nurses coming at random times, thinking about O’Connor and horror stories. Thank you for a great horrorific Halloween.

Paranormal Activity

So the day before Halloween, my fiancé and I decided to go watch, the current number one movie, “Paranormal Activity”. There may be people that haven’t seen it and are planning to, so I will do my best not to spoil it. Basically the story is told in one location and 2 characters, boyfriend and girlfriend. The girlfriend experiences some weird stuff and the boyfriend is trying to solve the problem. The boyfriend does some stupid stuff to stimulate this unnatural thing and ends up not being able to do much about the situation. (It’s really hard to explain the movie without spoiling it). Anyhow, this may or may not be because of the analyzing practice of literature we do in class but, as I was driving back and that whole night, I started thinking, “Why did he do that at that moment”, “What did the author really wanted to say”, “Was it suppose to be scary or was there some other moral hidden to it”. But because of all this thinking, I replayed the movie in my head over and over and over, the movie that I thought was not really scary at all turned into a horror by the end of the night. So some literature, it’s best to not think too deeply. lol

Religion vs Reality - "Good Man is Hard to Find"

Putting more thought about who was the main character in the story "Good Man is Hard to Find" (class discussion), actually I felt like both the Grandmother and The Misfit are both the main character of this story, where Grandmother was representing Religion and The Misfit was representing Reality. As I mentioned on my reading assignment, the Grandmother was the wise (wo) man of this story, predicting the future (the ending of the story). She was an old fashion, typical southern woman, deeply influenced by Christianity (As with O’Connor). The Misfit, in the other hand, was sunk in reality. He mentioned he used to believe in Christianity, but after his father’s death (him causing it or not) he could only think about running away and perhaps killing. His mind was fogged his past, even confusing reality at times. SO the grandmother gets shot at the end of the story. Does that mean reality conquers religion? I don’t think so. This is how I interpreted O’Connor’s religion vs reality. Before grandmother was shot, she was comforting The Misfit by her, in a way, persuasion to believe in god again, and that god will forgive him for what he has done. The Misfit felt the comfort until she actually touched him. He all of the sudden got scared of the fact that his mind was clearing up by this godly figure and shot her. It is obvious that his action was unintended. Grandmother’s whole family was shot in the forest because The Misfit and his crew did not want leave evidence in such obvious location, so if everything was as planned, The Misfit wouldn’t have killed the Grandmother until she was taken into the wood. But instead, he shot her before the fact. Therefore I sense that it was his fear that made him do such thing. So at the end, I would interpret that Religion won the game of Religion vs Reality.

“Parker’s Back”

- Parker married Sarah Ruth because she wouldn’t give into him unless they get married and she married him because he provided her a husband and a way out of her house.
- He could account because she was textbook and what could be consider fashion/Christian woman. He himself was a wild child who didn’t know where he was going.
- His employer thought he was lazy and wasn’t very intelligent, which he was lazy and had low work ethic.
- Basis of him getting a tattoo is a child fantasy of being looked at with amazement like the man in the circus. He seem to get a new tattoo every time he traveled somewhere new or did something different with his life.
- This statement makes you think that he did not want to be combined by the government, religion, or navy. It also gives a explanation of his lashing out behavior.
- He went to get his tattoo on his back to try and manipulate Sarah Ruth to like the tattoo that he got.
- It shows that Parker is aware that he is acting irrational and he will regret his decision.
- By him making that statement, Parker shows that he does deserve some sympathy. He feels like a man should stand on his own feet and live his life with his pains.
- Sarah Ruth did not want him to come in with only his initial because she felt he should take responsibility by saying his full name. This humbles parker.

“Revelation”

- Mrs. Turpin is a high self righteous woman who believes that she would give up things for anyone, no matter their position in life. She is totally contradiction to what she says and thinks such as she feels sorry for the people around her because they were of lower status.
- The author seems to simply let Mrs. Turpin think what she wants without changing her words. The author doesn’t seem to agree or even logically find a path through Mrs. Turpin’s thinking but represents it in a direct view from Mrs. Turpin.
- The teenager and her mother have the same angry mother – teenager resentment relationship many moms have with their daughters, just a bit more violent with the daughter. The mother feels as if the girl should be grateful where the daughter doesn’t seem to care about anything truly. Mrs. Turpin seems to anger the girl when she talks about being a happy person or trusting in Jesus or just being positive in general.
- The basic plot of this book is to see the thoughts of a self-righteous woman and see how they don’t seem to change even after violent events happen to her. The turning point is where the girl threw the book at Mrs. Turpin. It was the point in which she starts questioning her ideals and thinking on life. The conclusion was where she saw the souls like her and Claud going up but they were the only ones on key which shows she didn’t change at all.
- Mrs. Turpin is only nice to the black farm workers because she wants them to work. She shows her mean side by shunning them for trying to say anything nice to her or about her. She feels like their flattery is worth nothing and shouldn’t be even spoken because it’s basically a waste of her time.
- With the atmosphere of the story it was supposed to be the presence of God. The change of the setting and the different colors of the world was supposed to show how Mrs. Turpin sees the presence of the Lord.
- Finally every person is equal in the eyes of God. Mrs. Turpin still say her and Claud as the only two people singing on key.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”

- O’Conner begins to foreshadow at the very beginning when the grandmother begins to complain about the trip to Florida and wanting travel in Tennessee instead. Her reasoning was even the notorious Misfit. She continues with the foreshadowing through the unfortunate events and complaining of the children. She again remarks about the Misfit and even says it’s hard to find good people in the world today.
- She both young and old at the same time. She is young in the sense she gives excuses and becomes selfish about what she wants to do about the trip. Then she even takes her cat although the entire family didn’t want to bring the cat along. She is a wise woman in the fact she knew the Misfit was someone to stay away from and know that people in the world can be evil. She also is old in the fact she talks a lot about her past and what things were like. She is the same woman at the beginning of the story as she is at the end.
- She sees that he was not necessary an evil person but a person that made bad decisions. He could be one of her own children or grandchildren that misbehave but are not evil. That he went further with his misbehavior.
- The Misfit was a person that was lost in the world. He was smart but lead the wrong type of life. Although one could not be sure if he would have been better had he had someone to help lead him in the right path.
- I think that they would be wrong. The idea of evil and good or bad and nice people run deep throughout this story. Once looked at deeper the issue turns from black and white to a grey. Its hard to label someone bad or good or evil or nice.

Naomi

In my Japanese History Class we were asked to read this book called “Naomi”. Naomi is a waitress at a restaurant, very poor, post WWI. One day, this westerner guy came to the restaurant and decides to “hit” on her. Telling her, come with me and you will be much happier. So she did, considering that she didn’t have much to lose any way. Pretty much the whole story talks about her being spoiled, then she gained too much self-confidence and starts cheating on him. Then at the end they broke up but she seduces the man back to her. He was trapped In her world I guess. Reading this I hoped that Japanese wouldn’t think, considering this is a book about Japanese westernalizing, that all westerners are like this nor the Americans think that Japanese women are all like her. Reading these novels definitely makes me hate to be the one in the middle (like in US History, when we talk about WWII, I feel this unneeded tension in the class).

The Horror of the Little Family Farce – Stephen Hancok

Recently I went to the University of Memphis Theatre to see a production called “The Horror of the Little Family Farce”. The setting is in the not so distant pa, up to the present; in a living room and kitchen. The house hold included Mother and Father, son and daughter (about 25-30), and the family of the son and daughter (4 children). The story was talking about a typical country side house hold where the mother had more power (well I shouldn’t say typical). The whole play was rather comedic, focuses on Mother-Father argument, Brother-sister argument, Mother-Father-Brother-Sister argument, Mother-grandchild conflict, etc. The story gets very interesting at the end of the play where the mother past away. The son and daughter ends up shooting all of each other’s children and spouses. Then as they were shooting each other, their mothers voice comes down from another door. The son and daughter stops shooting and start blaming the situation to each other as they undressed to a rather childish cloth. So I went out in the lobby and was asked by couple people if I understood it. Well it was rather simple, the whole play was like playing with a doll house which the title makes more sense (well at least a family with 10+ member, to me, is not little.). I enjoyed the play very much, reminds me of “Glass Menagerie” that we read recently.

Matrix?

From the short piece “Harrison Bergeron” author Kurt Vonnegut brings to mind a lot of different controversial issues. The most obvious issue is technology versus human rights. In this story it is not the fear of AI that readers feel but the fear of fellow human beings. The reason this story, however short it is, is able to draw so many emotions is the extinct of what humans can do to other humans. Although the head gear and the mechanical utensils to keep people from thinking outside of the box are scary and overwhelming it’s the idea that other human beings can place so much force over other people and see it as justified. Like the evil power Hitler held, the Handicapper General abused the power entrusted to her. The fear of this story comes from the idea of placing someone in power that will only serve destroy the country.

Difference in PoV

Coming from a male’s perspective this poem may not bring up the same empowered feelings as from a woman’s point of view but it does put in perspective the idea that girls growing up in today’s world are becoming much more interested and allowed in the world of math and science. As a computer science major and a soon to be father it is interesting to think that instead of going into a male dominated field there will be more women and that my possible daughter maybe more interested in calculators and beakers rather than boys and Barbie dolls. This transition of thought is not a major one or an offending on just a new thought that I had never seriously considered. Women have the same rights as men but to see girls growing into women that will stand next to that idea is something I can truly hope for the future and my daughter.

Cont. Heroism - Rite of Passage

This poem represented heroism from the small host of the story but before that it presented a violent side of children that has grown only worse in the passing years. It is scary to see seven or six year old boys talking about how simply they could kill a two year old child or even a seven year old child threatening a six year old. To make the violence even more disturbing is the fact the situation was diverted by concentrating this anger away from the current guests to someone much younger and weaker. This is seen in today’s politics with wars going on in Africa that many Americans do not look into. Many of the Somalian warlords in Africa grouped together to try and annihilate the Isalmists in 2006. Although this boy’s thinking of bringing peace to the group saved the party he did not resolve any resentment. Is that not the same thing that these warlords are doing? They are giving to their own people and finding peace within the group but at a price of enlarging a war.

Cont. Heroism - A & P

Although A & P shows heroism from this teenager by him standing up for what he thought was right by walking out on the job. By showing his heroism he lost his job and also showed no business etiquette over three young women in bathing suits. The idea of him standing up for what he believed in was strong but sometimes people do not chose the most beneficial ways to make their points. For example, PETA members that throw red paint or even animal blood on people wearing fur does get the attention of the media but instead of spending money on helping animals they spend the money on trying to get out of lawsuits and jail.

Harrison Bergeron Questions

1. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the present day “equality” is portrayed but in an extreme sense. In order for all people to be “equal”, citizens in the story are forced to be “handicapped” to be lowered in their potential skills (i.e. control thinking process by using a device to cut thinking processes, covering face with mask to not show beauty, etc). The story tries to argue if this “equality” is really what we desire. In most case, people want to keep their characteristics, which is represented by Harrison Bergeron, who rebel against this “equality” law. The theme is the destination and destiny of pure “equality”, though since there is the Handicapper General that acts more like a dictator; it is hard to call it pure equality. (To be honest, when I read the first paragraph, I thought the story is going to talk about world full of cloned beings.)

2. To me, the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers was a flat character. When Hazel talked about how if she was the Handicapper General, she would make the “rings” like a chime, which explains Diana is a very merciless person, since she use a very violent sound track. Also, when Harrison went on a rebel run, she came in the room and shot, not only, Harrison but the ballerina as well, because she chose to side with the rebellion. I feel like Diana is rather realistic in such situation of pure “equality”. Since there is someone that needs to enforce the law, Diana had to be a merciless dictator, since everyone else is “equal” but her, which puts her in a more powerful position.

3. The story is told by Harrison Bergeron’s parents, Hazel and George Bergeron. It is important for the author to write this story in Harrison’s parent’s point of view because the tragedy of this story is that even their son’s death can be easily forgotten under this pure “equality”.

4. I think this is best described at the end of the story, when Harrison gets shot and Hazel is in tears even though the next moment she forgets why she is crying. I think, more specifically, the critics are talking about the nature of wife, husband, and child (ren) relationship.

5. Lem’s opinion talks about how natural events should be the core of these stories but I believe humans are natural and what a human produce, even though the products are artificial, is natural since a natural human made it. Therefore, I do not think this negates the story at all.

Questions

Group 1 #3 Connie is the protagonist and Arnold Friend is the antagonist. Arnold was the antagonist because he was constantly bugging Connie, regardless to her will.
Group2 #2 During the piece “Where are you going, Where have you been?” one of the most compelling character would be Arnold Friend. His traits of being incredibly to knowledgeable about Connie’s life, and wanting even could say lusting after her sets him up as a character that steals much of the focus. Arnold Friend, just in his name you can see untruth. A. Friend tries so hard to be close to Connie but underneath a mask of false that is gilded with a “friend”. The nature of Arnold is nothing more than that of the normal teenagers flaunt, but his style has an oddity. Slang terms written on his car that were outdated, strange codes and string of numbers beside it, but yet he had a car, even a convertible. His language sets him to reveal true colors. What he says, of offering her safe ride with him is hidden behind a sweet voice and calm demeanor that quickly becomes violent. Arnold Friend is the creep that is good at getting what he wants and is planning on taking it without a fight.
Group3 #3 the ending could be strongly influenced by the movie “Smooth Talk” we watched and/or the article we read about the teenage murder case. Preferably I would like the “smooth talk” ending where he just really wants to drive her around and give her some freedom and spice to her life.
Group4 #3 This setting is Anywhere, U.S.A. Oates made a great move by bringing the setting of the story into any country home or town that is built in the United States. By this it moves the story closer to the hearts of the reader. Her story could really assist the people’s understanding of the legal cases that happened in towns just like that. Then Oates was about to bring the idea of what trauma the girls endured. The setting really brought many places that were having crazy men taking young woman, to a level that anyone could try and understand and even protect themselves.

Smooth Talk

A brutal crime that happened in 1966 influenced Joyce Carol Oates to write “Where are you going, where have you been?” “Smooth Talk” was a movie of Oates story but with a bit different ending. Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” talked about moving on in life, which I feel can be best fitted to Arnold Friend’s life. The youtube link was a semi-parody version of “Where are you going, where have you been?” by adding a different ending to it.
In 1966, Charles Schmid killed 3 girls in Tuscon, Arizona. The victims Alleen Rowe, Gretchen Fritz, and Wendy Fritz were teenagers, as Oates portrayed Connie as. Charles Schmid was a bit older than these teen girls, as Arnold Friend was. One of the crimes took place in a desert, where Charles Schmid drove the Fritz sisters to. In “Where are you going, where have you been?” Arnold Friend was a very strange character that had a strong lust toward Connie. He threatens Connie to take a ride with him by talking about a lady that died in the neighborhood recently and also compare her house to a cardboard box. These two situations are very similar. Oates version of “Where are you going, where have you been?” , this is where the story ends. In the movie, she comes back safe and finally comes to an appreciation to her families that she, until then, treated very poorly. In the youtube version, she drives off with Ellie and leaves Arnold Friend alone, trying to make a parody ending to it. All three has unique ending to it from the same story background.

Now, Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” can be interpreted a couple of way but I feel like this song can be best related to Arnold Friend’s feeling. The lyric, to me, struck as “you have to move on”. Arnold Friend, aforementioned, had a very strong lust to Connie in “Where are you going, where have you been?” but that is not true with Connie’s feeling. In fact, she rejects him but was threatened to accept his feeling. Arnold Friend had to notice Connie’s rejection and move on but he decides to force her to do what he wants, which can be a victory at the time but eventually there will be a slight loneliness behind. In a sense, the youtube version pictures this feeling of loneliness very well.

Heros

While reading the three pieces “A&P ”,“ Rites of Passage” and “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” there were three different heroes portrayed. Sammy in Updike’s “A&P” was very outspoken and even created conflict with his ideal of being a hero. When Sammy did what he thought was the right course of action by walking out of his job at the grocery story, he made a stand for the girls that were asked to leave, but at the same time created conflict with his boss and even his family. When the little boy of “Rites of Passage” stood up and found a common ground for the boys to stand on, he became the hero by creating peace in turmoil. The girl of “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” is a hero in a completely different manner than the other two characters. She is able to be a hero by just being herself. She stood as a woman and showed the differences in a ways that didn’t show fear. What all these characters did was portray the hero that they were and would become. At similar ages they showed that even the youth could become heroes that should be noticed. These pieces show that anyone, black, young, or female, can be a hero when they chose to stand up.

Hero

According to the dictionary a “Hero” is a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. The definition of “hero” I hold is a bit different from this. To me, anyone that I can truly respect is a hero. That may lower the standard of “hero” to be such a cheap word, but my standard of “true” respect is rather high. For example, the 9/11 firefighter is definitely a hero. One can say it is their job to save people; therefore they are not a “hero”. Well, I’m sure when they knew a plane crashed in the towers, they knew there was going to be great amount of risk. But yet, they progressed with their job. The courage they shown is what everyone should respect and therefore to me, they are a hero. At least at that moment, they did not think about becoming a hero or thinking about how much they are going to be paid. Shammy in A & P, though, failed to be a hero. He was rather heroic to at least be true and responsible for what he said, but he did what he did for his benefit. He expected a reward for what he did. Therefore, in my definition of “hero” he is not respectable and again he is not a hero.

Pg. 6 “The North Wind and the Sun” – Aesop
1. North Wind is a very blunt figure. To obtain its goal, it is very direct and forceful. Also, short tempered. The Sun, on the other hand, is very manipulative and intelligent.
2. Before thinking of the human’s reaction, North Wind revealed his full force.
3. The Sun manipulated the human to take the cloak off rather than forcing him to do so, which lead to the Sun’s victory.
4. The human is only a pawn in the story comparing to the two mighty forces.
5. A pretty obvious moral from the fable. The North Wind’s forceful approach failed to the Sun’s persuasive (manipulative, aforementioned) approach. Therefore, force lost against persuasion.

Pg. 8 “Independence” – Chuang Tzu
1. He exposes his point when he explains about the sacred tortoise and its choice of freedom. Tzu uses 3 sentences to come to his point.
2. Rather than just answering to the officials, the protagonist explains about the tortoise to make the officials understand his answer.
3. Chuang Tzu definitely has courage. Historically, Chinese government revolves around the king’s order. Going against the king’s, in this case the prince’s, order can make one’s life miserable.

Pg. 19 “A & P” –John Updike
1. Product details are rather realistic. Certain action, such as punching in codes at the cashers aslo is very true to life. This makes the reader feel like he/she is part of the story.
2. Shammy reveals himself throughout the story. First, he starts as more of a narator and by the end of the story, he was trying to act heroic. In the fact that he wanted some kind of “reward” for his action, he definitely was less of a hero but the fact that he did kept his word and quit was rather heroic.
3. The first paragraph of the story seems to be the exposition. He introduces the three girls, what kind of job he does, what kind of setting the story takes place. Queenie was extremely detailed because, obviously, she is the key figure of the story. Shammy’s maturity (feelings to her?) grew as he noticed a more positive aspect of her.
4. Yes. In the beginning, they were “just girls” that was dressed in bathing suit. Towards the end, all of them had a nickname and Shammy quites his job to try to get attention from them.
5. The dramatic conflict happens when the girls approaches Shammy and at the same time Lengel came in the store. The crisis starts when Lengel approaches the girls. The climax happens when he says “I quite”, trying to grab the girls attention.
6. He quites the job because he embarrest the girls in front of people and felt that was inappropriate. Also, he wanted to be a “hero” by trying to defend the girls.
7. Yes; 9th paragraph, were the interaction between McMhon, the meat man, and the girls occur.
8. He mentions that his life is going to be harder because Lengel and his parents are friends and he totally quite the job for a rather immature reason. The conclusion is he tried to get attention from the girls and failed.
9. Not only at “A & P”, but in any supermarket store, people go to shop and not expect anything dramatic to happen. If something does happen, they look at it and goes back to shopping.