Reflection on "A way you'll never be" and "Big Two-hearted River"

           After experiencing hardships or a shock, it is natural for people to seek for their own therapy. Some of them seek for drugs for their temporal pleasure and escape from reality while others try to overcome their hardships in a more “pure” way (like doing an intellectual work like painting or writing or going back to the nature). However, no matter what choices people make for a solution, they want their scar to be fully recovered, without any traces.

           Two stories of Hemingway, “A way you’ll never be” and “Big Two-hearted River”, which are connected in the context, express the scar the main character gained and the process of curing it. In the story “A way you’ll never be”, the gruesome atmosphere in the town where the war had occurred was depicted well. After that, in the story “Big Two-hearted River”, Hemingway insists that the “full recovery” cannot happen sometimes. Nick, who experienced the horrible war, walked away from the burnt town and went to the riverside in order to cure his scar obtained from the shock in the war. His situation and his desire to cure his pain are well-depicted in the part where Nick observes the black grasshoppers, wondering how long they would stay that way.

           In the nature, Nick works hard to overcome his pain “fully”. Although experiencing a series of failure, he kept trying to catch a “big trout”, which can be interpreted as a tool for full-recovery. However, after all, Nick satisfied on a medium sized trout. 

           Actually, I was surprised about the conclusion of this story because I thought Hemingway would have ended the story in a manly way. But still, I really like this ending. This ending is more realistic, still being hopeful to those who want to cure their scar.

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Yeji: Understand the time limit. So, next time when I see your revised version, hope that you added detailed explanation why “grasshoppers” is symbolizing curing treatment, etc. And it would be more interesting if you try to define what “full-recovery” is and what “medium-recovery” is. For instance, the latter can be defined as ‘remembering’ the war memories, but try to remember less..? I’m not sure. But well, you will be able to make better definition than mine lol Good job!

Sol Kim: Nice view about “total recovery” because it seems to make sense throughout the whole story. I partly agree with your example, and I don’t think the story was surprising or something unlike Hemingway because the failure Nick kept experiencing was also part of the world that worked against him. But Nick did not surrender; he caught grasshoppers and he caught two fish. Anyway, to say about your writing… I could see you were running out of time because there was a big lack of explanation. What is the “full recovery”? Why did you like the ending still? What does it mean to be “manly”? Nice work, still, because I liked your point. You just need to focus on that point more and elaborate, I think.

Reflection to "The garden lodge"

            It is always interesting to read works of modernist authors’ literature. As they were created in the 20^th century, which is usually called as the Age of Anxiety, modernist literatures are about how people react when they fall into materialistic lives. Many modernist literatures depict the self-destruction of those who became materialistic: all the guiltiness and regrets from what they have done.

           However, what is interesting about “The garden lodge” is that the main character, Caroline is not “destroyed” by her materialistic life, the affair with Raymond d'Esquerre. In the story, when Harold suggested her to tear down the lodge (where she had an affair with Raymond d'Esquerre), she accepted his suggestion. (As it can be seen in the story, tearing down the lodge is not just destroying the garden but also it means that her past is destroyed. It’s quite important for her.)

           Caroline accepted Harold’s suggestion, but when looking into the story, it is easy to figure out that though Caroline decided to let her past go, she had a hard time deciding to do it. She seemed quite daunted by the “magnificent” Raymond d'Esquerre.

…..And d'Esquerre was a man to reckon with. Caroline did not deceive herself now upon that score. She admitted it humbly enough, and since she had said good-by to him she had not been free for a moment from the sense of his formidable power. It formed the undercurrent of her consciousness; whatever she might be doing or thinking, it went on, involuntarily, like her breathing, sometimes welling up until suddenly she found herself suffocating. -quote

             I think her reaction is quite reasonable because being materialistic was not her innate personality. (She grew up in Brooklyn. That explains a lot.) As having an affair is kind of a deviation from what she experienced in the past, she definitely had difficulties dealing with it. After all, Caroline somewhat overcomes her dilemma by letting her affair go. This can be interpreted as Caroline accepting the materialistic life, which was common at that time, as a natural thing.
         Actually, while reading the story, Caroline reminded me the character "Jenny" in the drama "Gossip Girl". In the drama, Jenny at first was an innocent teenage girl from Brooklyn. When she first entered the materialistic elite world in Manhattan, like Caroline, she had a "culture shock", bewildered at the others' materialistic lives. However, soon Jenny accepted that lifestyle, and became the so-called "insider" in Manhattan. This process of adjustment is very similar to that appeared in "The garden lodge". 

           To sum up, from my point of view, “The garden lodge” depicts the relatively smooth process of a character accepting the different ideology.

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Hyejoon: I liked your idea that this story is about how a person accepts the change in ideology. However, other modernist novels are also about the changes; the difference between the others and this (I think at least) is the illustration of ‘how well’ the characters accept the change. Unlike many other typical modernist stories which seem to indicate that the change happens violently and inevitably brings destruction, this story suggests that it happens rather peacefully and fosters a more mature stage.

Haeuk Ko: Is tearing down the lodge same as destroying her past? I rather thought it was an act of putting a seal over her memories. Rather than ripping the memory into pieces and burning them so that no trace of them would be left in her mind, I viewed the action as a line she drew herself for the purpose of moving on to other things. Also I thought the opera was not a product of disturbed mind but a final act of cherishing her memories-to put an end to it.

Reflection of "A Dark Brown Dog"

           The relationship of human and his environment has always been the issue in numerous literatures. Some of the writers expressed the dominance of human over the nature while others tried to debunk it. And in the story “A Dark Brown Dog”, the power (or the dominance) of environment over human is well-depicted.

           The good example that can explain the claim can be a child. Children are usually said to be “innocent”. That is, children are less influenced by the environment (or social orders) than any other people. Although there is still a natural brute in children’s mind, it is usually hidden in the childhood, and the extent of the innate brute expressed is decided by the environment. The child in the story shows the example of the child affected by his surroundings. (No offense to lower-paid class but) Surely, lower class people are mostly prone to savageness. They didn’t have much opportunity to learn how to hide their savageness with a slip of ‘civilization’. And the insecurity in dealing with critical situations being transmitted from the parents, a child might have become much violent than he might have been under the educated parents. Although he loves his dog in the base, having a natural affection towards the animal, (“The child, crying softly, took his friend off to a ~”), he anyway displaced his ‘savageness’ and anger to his dog (“Sometimes, too, the child himself used to beat the dog”). These two contradicting behaviors of the child shows that even the child, who is known to be “innocent”, can be tainted with the environment.

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Seungwon: I literally never thought of the child as being innocent. I saw him for a miserable little prick that couldn’t be better than his good-for nothing father and ultimately shows his true colors. But you’re right. He does “love” the dog, or, to be more precise, “has an emotional attachment” to the dog (I don’t believe a child of his age is fully capable of feeling love). Maybe in that sense he still has an untainted shred of him.

Inhee: Wow I find so many different views today. J All these gives me the idea but at the same time sorta confuses meL

Anyway, your view of how ‘child’ was used in the story was interesting. Taking ‘naturalism’ into mind, I thought this ‘child’ somehow showed human’s basic nature of savage. Civilization in this sense can be just a way to hide this. But reading yours, I think it also makes sense that this child’s violence was the influence of his father. But I would have liked your writing more if you specified the reason why you thought this way. Father’s violence might be one way, but this does not sufficiently explain how can you eliminate (or just debunk) the possibility of this as a human nature. Anyway, I really enjoyed this!

Yeji: Interesting essay J

I think (though I’m not sure) what you’re trying to discuss is the “influence” of environment to mankind, rather than dominance. If I’m right, I think that you can develop your essay in this way: 1) specific case of human being influenced by the environment, 2) general human brute. 1) is of course the part you wrote about a boy, For the second part: well, as we discussed in today’s class, it is proved (or at least, naturalists seemed to prove) that there exists “potential violence” as a part of human nature. That is, when given the right situation-impoverishment and violent father in the boy’s case- humans can develop and exert their violent nature. You can give general example of World War, the chronological background of naturalism, when writing this part. Anyway, great job, and look forward to your revised version J

Reflection in "To build a fire"

         In 18-19th century, people certainly achieved a lot of goals like doing a massive production in their life stocks or making a giant airplane for traveling. As they developed, and discovered new, astonishing things, people became confident about their abilities. They thought that they could achieve everything with their "free will" and their scientific, logical reasoning. (This can be the mixture of Enlightenment and Romanticism)

         However, when time reached to 20th century, people started to experience several crises like Great Depression or two World Wars. And as people found out the malfunction in the system which they used to think to be stable and firm (economic system or technology used to aim for helping people), they got confused. This period is called as "Age of Anxiety", compared to the prior period "Age of Discovery". They started to look things what they achieved skeptically, and in a long run, actually lead to a far more development of human.

         And to interpret the story "To build a fire" in a historical context, I think what Jack London tried to do is to boost people's awareness about the potential danger that might happen by their actions done under the name of free will and scientific reasoning. This story was published in 1908, definitely before the "Age of Anxiety", and I think Jack London was one of those who were already aware of people's overconfidence in their free will and logic.

         Although the man in the story was too stupid to be the representative of the people at that time, Jack London was quite effective in portraying the overconfident man who after all failed. In the story, the man was able to get a sign of danger, the extreme cold. He felt his red beard and mustache “likewise frosted, but more solidly, the deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with every warm, moist breath he exhaled”. However, he held steadily on, just thinking that he would eat lunch at the forks and that at six o'clock he would be in camp with the boys. And when he succeeded making a fire, he was very pleased to refute the old-timers who said that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. However, after all, he died alone because of extreme cold, failing to make a fire.

         Overall, this portrayal can be thought as a warning to the people at that time. At that time, people were very confident about their logic or free will, and they enjoyed to debunk the absurdness or timidity their ancestors had. By writing a story of a man who failed because of his overconfidence on his ability, Jack London might have intended to make the people aware of the consequence of their attitude.

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Comments!
Rhee Jiyoon: I like your analysis of "Age of Anxiety" that appeared after "Age of Discovery". You introduce the term after some explanation, and this is effective and more interesting. However, what I thought was that you are being a bit conclusive about Jack London's intention of writing "To build a fire". How do you know that his original intention was "to boost people's awareness"? I think it is more right to say that people were boosted by his piece of writing. You know, some writers write only because they love the beauty of language while others want to change the world!
Anyway, I loved your analysis. I look forward to your final essay!

Nuri: First off, I loved how you wrote about the historical background-the link between the 19th and 20th century was very smooth and it flowed well throughout your essay, and I liked how you made use of this to explain what you thought throughout your essay. However, because you wrote such an astonishing intro, your body paragraph were somewhat weaker.
1) You wrote "Although the man is too stupid~". I think you should change this part. He is the representative of 'the people' you mentioned in your essay, and thus even this 'stupidness' can be the characteristic.
2) Boost people's awareness of their actions by free will&scientific reasoning.-> There's a lack of info here so it was confusing for me to understand what you were trying to say. (Although this idea itself is very interesting) I think if you develop this point further, you could make your essay more awesome!

Sol Kim: Nice ideas:) I liked your historical background also. But it would have been better, I think. It you included more specific example or directly from the plot...but I understand the lack of time so. Awesome~

Reflection on Eve's diary: What Twain wanted

              Generally, there can be four types in the writers' attitudes when dealing with the social bias or problems:those who are obedient or unconscious about the bias, those who try to defy the bias, those who are neutral, and those who try to escape from the problems. And for the case of resistant, some of the attempts actually "changed the world". In human history, equality in gender was always the big issue. A lot of people including feminists tried to establish the equality between man and woman.
               In the story "Eve's diary", Mark Twain certainly depicts on the 'stereotypical' women and one's harsh reality. And he might have intended to reflect the normal woman in that period, making them aware of their status in society.
              To briefly say about the story, "Eve's diary" is a story literally written like a diary of Eve. It portrayed Eve as a 'woman'. She loves a lot of things ("I already begin to

realize that the core and center of my nature is love of the beautiful,

a passion for the beautiful"), she cares about the other(in this case, Adam), and importantly, she is interested in knowing something(" I learned a lesson; also I

made an axiom, all out of my own head--my very first one; THE SCRATCHED

EXPERIMENT SHUNS THE THORN.."). Definitely, Mark Twain portrayed Eve, the representative of women, in a positive way.

         However, still, it seems obvious that Eve is quite dependent on Adam. Whenever she's rejected or get hurt from Adam(although Adam doesn't realize about this fact), she keeps thinking, or more like captured about it("But when night came I could not bear the lonesomeness, and went to the

new shelter which he has built, to ask him what I had done that was

wrong and how I could mend it and get back his kindness again; but he

put me out in the rain, and it was my first sorrow.."). This represents the reality of women; they are smart, yet dependent on men. 

         In the end, Adam says "Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden." This might imply that man would anyway realize the importance or the value of woman. Maybe Mark Twain wanted to tell other men about the importance of woman. 

         Throughout the whole story, Mark Twain tried to express the woman's status in the society(or maybe the environment). Although it is not definite to say that his story directly influenced women suffrage, at least this story tried to show woman itself, helping women to look back on themselves.
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Jiyoon Rhee: I liked your "four types" of writers, and I was hooked by your first paragraph, curious how you'd find relationship between the types and Eve's diary. However, I don't quite see the connection between your introductory paragraph and the rest of your essay. Maybe you tried to put the main paragraphs into four, analyzing the writer's attitude toward women?
I kind of disagree with you on your 2nd point. I agree that women are portrayed dependent on men, but isn't Adam more dependent on Eve than Eve is on Adam? Many events in the story wouldn't have happened if Eve have not take certain actions. As Mr. Menard mentioned in class, I think Adam is portrayed more passive than Eve. 
Anyway, I loved your essay and your analysis! Impressed about your own classification of writers.

Reflection on Poe's stories

         When doing a reflection to a certain art piece, people enjoy relating the piece into the creator’s life or his background. Similarly, it is very interesting to discuss about the relationship between the story and the writer. And when reading the two stories of Edgar Allan Poe, 'The cask of amontillado' and 'The telltale heart’, I found out that two stories are quite similar to the life story of Edgar Allan Poe.

         The first thing that came up to my mind while reading two stories ('The cask of amontillado' and 'The telltale heart') is insanity. Although there would be some issue on defining insanity, conventionally saying, both of the narrators in two stories are definitely out-of-their-minds. They commit murders with vague motives like 'the evil eye' or 'the thousand injuries.' And after all, they confess what they had done before they die. Two stories are almost in the same pattern.

         Those two, similar stories can be linked with Poe’s biography. Like his gloomy stories, his life was full of hardships and difficulties. He lost his parents and aggressively disciplined by his foster family. He also married his 13-years-old cousin who died two years later after that. And after all, he died in the age of 40. (The cause of his death is not known, but it is believed that he died by the diseases like heart disease, epilepsy, cholera and rabies.) Numerous difficulties in Poe’s life can explain the reason why most of the stories of Poe are dark, gloomy, and somewhat insane.

         So, why did Poe want to write such a gloomy stories?

         According to Freud, the father of psychoanalytic perspective, there exist three parts in human's mind: id, superego, and ego. Id is what leads human to have a basic desire while superego is what makes human to act in a socially acceptable way. In between, ego seeks to please the id's drive in realistic ways. And when one follows the id rather than superego, ego displays a lot of methods in order to minimize the guiltiness or anxiety comes from the superego. Some of the methods are immature like fantasy, projection, and passive aggression while other methods are mature like humor, sublimation, altruism, anticipation.

         Personally, I think Poe tried to sublimate his socially unacceptable desire that might have been occurred frequently throughout his life. Sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly converting the initial impulse in the long term. And Poe’s creepy and sometimes insane short stories might have been used to sublimate Poe’s unacceptable desire (It might be murder?).

         To sum up, while reading up the stories, I get to think Poe highly of his act of sublimation, which is a mature way to deal with the stress, and his story telling style which is elaborate and careful enough to express insane elements or events in a quite gentle manner. I should read Poe’s story more.
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-Nuri: I liked your analysis of combining the background of the author to the story. However, your first and second paragraph don't seem to fall in the same order- you first start out by talking about the motive and pattern of the two stories and then just jump to Poe's expression of himself in his stories. If you add a few transitional sentences, I think your essay will be great:) And while talking about Poe's background, maybe you can link what parts of his background was influential in his stories.


-Seungwon: Had Poe had a hunky-dory childhood, such mad stories couldn't have been created. I agree wholeheartedly on that point. I do wish you could elaborate a bit more on the link between Poe's life and his works. A bit of specificity is always good.


-Inhee Ho: Surely, Poe's abnormal (though I don't exactly know what 'abnormal' is) life should have affected a lot of his pieces! They are mostly horror, 'killing', mystery, and suffering. I really learned much about Poe's life reading your writing :). I see how much vicissitudes he had in his life. But I sort of don't get how these ups and downs he experienced were taken to his writing. Maybe there was specific disease or motivation he started writing 'Poe-style' stories.

Reflection of 'The Ambitious Guest'

         If someone asks me about the difference between animals and humans, I would say it as ‘free will’. Free will is the ability to control or manage one’s action and decision. While the desire makes people motivated, free will works as a brake and an accelerator which can speed up or slow down their action. The desire to be better also exists in other animals, but it is the free will what helps people to be human: rational, or sometimes warm-hearted.

         'The ambitious guest' is about those who failed to achieve their ambition. The family who used to be peaceful and modest became vain after they met the ambitious guest who talked about the city life and all those ‘leaving one’s name’. Being fanatic about the mysterious, appealing city life, the family rushed out of the house, and they ended up buried by the rock.

         In ‘The ambitious guest’, Hawthorne depicts the tragic ending of those who chased the vanity. It seems like Hawthorne wanted to warn the readers by showing the mountain slide that didn’t happen before the ambitious guest appeared.

         Some might think that this tragic incident was due to the ambition itself. However, what I think is that it is not the matter of ambition. Whether the pursuit of ambition would turn out to be tragic or not depends on the presence of free will. In other words, when chasing one’s own dream or ambition, one should know when to speed up or slow down. In the case of that family, it can be interpreted that they failed to have a free will.

         As for my case, I have done a lot of challenges. I planned to go abroad (England), I learned how to play Haegum (Korean fiddle), and I tried to do water-skiing. Some of them succeeded while others failed. To recall my experiences, I thought that the difference between succeeded case and failed case is the presence of free will, somewhat rationality.

        One of the experiences I want to say is the experience of water-skiing. Last summer, in the school activity, I had an opportunity to learn water-skiing. Being ambitious after watching others enjoy waterskiing, I made a grand plan to properly stand during water-skiing. Because I was too passionate at then, instead of listening some advices from the teacher, I just tried to do water-skiing and start off. And the result was pitiful. After less than 1 minute, I had to stop water skiing and just went back to the pier. I wasn’t able to stand up of course, and I also had to struggle to get out of water. It is the result of no free will, no control. If I had listened to what the teacher said, the tragic, pitiful incident wouldn’t have happened.

         Shortly, I think that free will is crucial in the success or realization of ambition or dream. It is easy to have an ambition, engine, but it is not easy to have a free will, the brake, to control the ambition. This can be the lesson that people should remember. 
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Comments!(before editing)
-So yeon Min: How do we verify that humans are the only species that possess free will? (Even though people often assume this fact as common sense) Also, what do you exactly mean by "free will"? Your writing would have been better if you had developed more on the point that the result of the ambition depends on the purpose. I do personally agree with your point, and I think your writing will turn out marvelous if you clarified on some points above.


-Yeji Park: You said "somewhat misleading will or purpose". How are we going to define the term "misleading"? Do you think that the city life is "misleading"? What is the desirable type of ambition then? You said "the ambition can turn to be (+) or (-) depends on one's thoughts or ideals. So are these thought/ideals chosen by the society or personality? Please clarify the "standards" of what makes ambitions (+) or (-), and I look forward for your revised reflection:)


-Rhee Jiyoon: You implied that chimpanzees have no ambition while people have "a desire to be or to live in better condition." But I disagree with you and I think chimpanzees-among other animals that you have mentioned to not have a free will-may also have some other kinds of ambition, according to your definition of ambition. I think even puppies would want to "live in a better condition"! In your essay, I hope you develop your idea further about how a pure ambition can "turn to be positive or negative", then your essay will sound even stronger!


-Chonghyun Ahn: I would have to say that I disagree on your definition of ambition as "the combination of human desire and free will". In that sense, Hawthorne's description of mountain people is also ambitious, it would be impossible to not to be ambitious. Anyway, great writing :)