Holiday Plans

This year’s Chinese New Year holiday will be an exciting one for me. Right now, my cousins and grandparents are already at my house and they are all playing Wii with my sister. The room is filled chatters of the holiday and catching up on things they happened in the last year. Tomorrow, we will all fly to Okinawa, where we will stay for around 4 days. I’m not sure what we will be doing there, but I heard the food would be good.  For me, what we do on this trip wouldn’t be that important to me. I am happy as long as I get to spend some time with my grandparents and cousins and not have to stay home alone like I did for Christmas break! After we get back from Okinawa, we’re going down south to my grandparent’s place. Although I’ve only lived in Ping-Dong when I was one, I always felt much at home over there. I use to visit my grandparents a lot when I was younger, so the house has a lot of my childhood memories. I look forward to spending another Chinese New Year there, even thought it might be just like any other.

Justice?

People of all gender, races and ethnicity seek for justice. This is why judicial courts exist. When people or organizations feel like they have been treated unfairly, they go to the court to get the issue resolved. In theory, courts are places that will give people the justice or the punishment they deserve, but theories are ideal. Even in courts, there is may be injustice, sometimes, sue to mistaken judgments, but other times because of a biased jury. In To Kill a Mocking Bird, Tom Robinson did not get the justice he deserved. Atticus had provided convincing proof that Tom did not rape Miss Ewell, but because of the long history of racial difference, Tom was still trialed as guilty. During the time period of the story, African Americans were commonly treated as inferiors. To the white people, the African Americans could not be trusted and are usually hated. In Tim’s case, he wasn’t only fighting for his justice, but also the dignity of his race. Even though he lost the case and was later killed because he tried to escape, his case taught Jem, Scout and Dill an important lesson. Even though is seemed as though nothing has changed in the minds of the white people in the community, it is one tiny step towards justice. 

Film v Print

In my opinion, book and movies offer different types of pleasure. For me, the pleasure in watching movies is that I can do it with many people, and afterwards, we can all discuss about it. Reading books is more of a personal thing that I do in a quiet place. However, if we compare the actual contents and of movies and books, I would usually prefer books. I feel like when reading books, I have more freedom to imagine people and places than when I watch a movie. Oftem times, if I watch a movie after I read a book, I get disappointed because the movie is different from what I expected. This is part of the reason why I would prefer reading books before I watch the movie. This way I get to imagine my own characters ad events before I watch a visual representation of it. If I watch the movie first, I images from the movie would pop into my brain when I read the books, which to me, makes it less interesting. Another reason why I would prefer books is that movie sometimes cut off scenes that the book contains. This takes away some of the small but important parts of the story.

American Poetry Today

Poetry seemed to be a lot more poplar in the past.  Before there was free verse, poetry was also a lot harder to write. There were a lot more rules like rhymes and rhythms to poems.  I feel like it’s the rules that create the challenge to writing poetry and also makes it much more interesting to read. Compared to other types of poems, free verse seems to be the most common type of poem nowadays. Although they are also interesting pieces to read, I feel like free verse doesn’t possess as much rhythm to it, which I think is what makes reading poems more entertaining. In American life today, the most popular type of “poem” would be song lyrics. Even in pop songs, there are rhymes and certainly rhythm and beats to them. Song lyrics often strive to be catchy so the lyrics are often written with similar techniques as poems. In the past, people would recite poems for plain pleasure. Today, we would more often hear people singing to all kinds of songs. I think people started to prefer songs to poems because there is a tune to it. It offers the same pleasure of reading a poem, but is even better because there is music that makes it all the more colorful.

Letter to the world

Emily Dickenson, another really great American poet, wrote in one of her poems, “This is the letter my letter to the World/ That never wrote to me.” By looking at these words, she seems to be a pretty pessimistic and lonely person. To me, she feels as though she is trying to reach out to the world by communicating to it through letter, but the world is too big and too busy that the letter just got lost somehow and no letter is returned to her. She feels overshadowed by all the other things going on in the world. Because Emily Dickenson is a recluse, she is not very connected to the rest of the world. She doesn’t have much interaction with people. To me an analogy to this line of the poem is like a person yelling at a valley. There is no response but the echo of your own voice coming back to haunt you and remind you of your loneliness. I feel like Whitman and Dickenson are two very different types of people. While Whitman tries to go out and experience the world through everyone’s perspective, Dickenson stays home and wrote sorrowful poems about life and nature.

Boot Soles

Walt Whitman, one of the greatest American poets, once wrote “If you want me again look for me under you boot soles.”  This is a pretty strange and abstract quote. Why would someone be under somebody else’s boot soles? Is he trying to say that he is so insignificant that we just walk above him and not notice him? That is quite impossible because he is, nonetheless, the one of greatest American poets. I think an idiom that might explain his quote is “don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his boots”. The meaning of this quote is that we shouldn’t judge a person until we think through things in their perspective and fully understand their situation. Here, Whitman is trying to say that he has tried to walk in everyone boots and to understand their points of views behind each person’s stories. Maybe this is what made him one the best poets. If he can write things in many different people’s point of view, the readers would be able to experience new perspectives when they read his poems. By looking at things in other different people’s eyes, we can learn things that we never knew of before. 

Sound Effects in "The Raven"

One reason that Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven” became so popular because it was pleasing to read and listen to. The sound effects and he rhythm of the poem make it very much like a song. The sound effect that stood out the most is the repeating use of the word “Nevermore”. It is the last word of many of the stanzas. The repetition really gets into the reader’s head like an echo. The word gives a feeling of sorrow and hopelessness. Another important sound effect is the rhyme of the poem. Throughout the whole poem, Poe used the same rhyme -ore. This brings an overall connection with all of the stanzas. He also had a few examples of rhymes within the lines like “But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping/ And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door”. Poe also used alliteration which” is very evident in the first stanza in phrases like “while I pondered, weak and weary” and “while I nodded, nearly napping”. Another interesting sound effect that made the poem even more life-like is the use of onomatopoeia. He used words like “rap” and “tap” to describe faint sound of knocking the door. He describes the “rusting” sounds of curtains, and “flutter” of the raven, the narrator’s “mutter”.

Symbol of the Raven

In Western culture and in Christianity the raven is a symbol for complex and contradictory things.  Because of its black color, ravens are connected with negative things like death, destruction, impurity and solitude. It also represents darkness and evil. However, it is also a symbol of some positive things. Because it can learn to talk, the raven is a symbol of wisdom. In Christianity, ravens are also the protectors of prophets. I think Edgar Allen Poe choice of the bird as the symbol matches the ideas of the poem very well. The bird in the poem is also signifies something quite controversial. It has connections with the narrator’s solitude, Lenore’s death, and the narrator’s sadness over her death. The events also happen to be at night, which gives the feeling that the raven just came out from the dark. Another important characteristic that the raven has is that it can talk. In our textbook, it mentions about Poe’s writing process and how he was choosing the bird he wanted use. He was deciding between a parrot and a raven because both birds can talk. I think that the raven is a much suitable bird to use. Because of its color and some of the stories and symbols behind it. It gives the more sorrowful and dark tone the poem is aiming at.

Ugly Reality

In to Kill a Mocking Bird, Scout, Jem and Dill sneaks in the court to watch the Tom Robinson case. Atticus didn’t want to children to be at the trial because he did not want the children see the ugly reality. Atticus had known in the very beginning that the chances of Tom Robinson winning the case would be very low. He did not want his children to get their hopes up and then get hammered down by the results. Atticus as a parent believed in telling the truth to children. He would explain with patience the questions his children have about the world. However, he does not want young people to witness the harsh reality of discrimination and race inequality. I think that it is not a great idea for young children to witness criminal trials. I think presenting them harsh realities at such a young age would shatter a lot of their dreams. On the other hand, it would also be impractical if we let children believe in a perfect world for too long. I think whether a person is appropriate enough to witness a criminal trial depends on their mental age and knowledge. Although Scout is young, she is very knowledgeable and mature for her age. For her, even though it may hurt to know the truth at an early age, I think she should be allowed to witness the trial with her choice.

Licked

When talking about defending Tom Robinson, Atticus said, "we were licked s hundred years before we started." He means that Black people have been treated as inferiors for years before and to defend a black man would be a very hard job. Even thought the trial has not begun, they are unready behind at the starting line. Black men were not seen as descent men. According to Atticus, there have not been trials where the black had won a court case. Although this is true, Atticus is still firm in his decision to defend Tom Robinson. He said that there are times in a man’s career where he just had to do things that would impact his life and this is one of these cases for him. He feels the obligation to defend Tom. He even said to Scout that if he did not take the case, he would no have the right to make his children’s listen to him anymore. I believe that he reasons for his strong feelings on the subject are caused by his objection to inequality among white and black people. Even though he knows that people in the county would be mad at his decision and that his children might have to go through a hard time, he still decided to help Tom because of his strong belief in equality.

I Dare You

“I dare you to drink this.” “No, I double-dare you.” This is a game that my sister and me use to play when we were young. When we were bored after a meal at a restaurant, we would mix a disgusting drink. It usually starts off with the usual things: tea, orange juice, soup. Then we would start adding things like soy sauce, pieces of vegetable, rice and even tissue. Although we would try and make each other drink it, neither of us ever did. We never felt the pressure to have to respond to the dare. However, one day, we were eating lunch with a friend when we started this game again. We dared him to drink the drink we made and he actually took a sip! Both of us stared at him with huge eyes, but he just smiled and said it didn’t taste that bad. Then all of us started laughing.

I have heard people do crazy things because of dare, but I never understood why. I get that people don’t want to be called chickens or cowards but the taunting can’t last too long. Maybe they want to prove themselves to their friends. However, I do admit sometimes dares are fun to watch. It might not be something big, but its fun when a whole group of people starts screaming or laughing after the dare is done.

Welcome Back!

This year’s winter break had not been a very interesting one at all. For the whole first week, I had to stay home and do math while my sister got to go on a tour to an Indonesian island (I think). I realized how annoying it gets to stay home pretty much alone (my dad comes home at night). I didn’t have anyone to talk to except my dog, which is not that great of a listener. Though one good thing that I did get out of all this was that I got to sleep. A lot. I woke up at around noon everyday and it felt good to not have to wake up at seven in the morning.

In the second week, my mom, my sister and cousins came back. What a relief! The house is finally noisy again. I got to go shopping in Taipei on Monday. I was so happy to be out of the house! Monday was pretty nice. I got some new clothes and a very warm scarf. The rest of the week was pretty much the same until Thursday night. That night, I ate dinner with a friend that came back from the states and then we went to her house to chat and relax. Then on Friday, I woke up early to go to Taipei again. I went to paintball with a huge group of people and then went another friend’s house to count down. It is 2011 now and might be the busiest year for me, so I hope that this year will go well.