Mark Twain - To The Person Sitting In The Darkness

        This is a pretty fascinating essay! Mark Twain used satire to portray the dark side of the imperialism in the nineteenth century. He is criticizing Imperialism not only America, but also other countries. However, he refers those "sitting in the darkness" as human beings that were considered to be uncivilized, such as China and Africa. Only those with white skin are the "civilized" once, and it is their duty to educate the others. I like the way how Twain wrote it with satire. It makes the situation look even more clearly. 

Ambrose Bierce - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

        Ambrose Bierce is a famous writer in the last quater of nineteenth century. His short stories are held among the best of the 19th century, mostly about the terrible things he had seen in the war. He fought in the American Civil War and had a lot of negative impact on him. 
        In his story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Bierce addressed that the wars are horrible and terrified to both the South and the North. As a northerner, he tended to write the story in the southerner's point of view. His way of telling the story makes it fascinating the the public. 
        I was totally shocked at the end of the story. Never had I ever thought about he will end the story in this extraordinary. Moreover, I enjoyed the movie that was produced. The background music totally make it hard for me to catch up my breath, especially when he was trying the run away from the Union soldiers.
       When we look back now, most of us think that the Union was right and the Confederation was not. However, this story awaken me that on the both sides of the battle/ war, there are all human beings, perhaps in this case, Americans. So, were the northern Union action totally appropriate? Maybe not.....

Emily Dickinson

I felt so familiar when I head this name. We learned about her last year!! [Wild Nights- Wild Nights!]
Our group worked really hard together to fill out the biography about Emily Dickinson. I found most of her poems depressing. From what I learned in class, I think that she is not willing to publish her poems and plays sort of a negative role. However, her poems contains less lines and most of the time without titiles. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality. It was not until her death, did most of her poems were published by her younger sister.

Emily Dickinson

Rappachini's daughter discussion

      I don't really think that this story is as exciting as Scarlet Letter. I was really eager to find out the mystery about the girl, but I am kind of disappointed about the ending. I thought Hawthorne would explain more than just show the death of the girl. However, I do enjoy the way Hawthorne always being mysterious, and leave it for our imagination. (I thought about the movie -- Inception)

      I found it interesting about the appearance of the Professor. He randomly appears in Giovanni's room and already knows what is going on with his student and even gives him the  strange liquid. Perhaps he knows about Rappachini and his daughter? 

       

 

Scarlet Letter Class Discussion

Today in class we read and talked about Chapter 13-Another View of Hester


Seven years have passed since Pearl was born. The society has gradually accepted Hester's "adultery" history, she has been involving in the community. People no longer view her as a marriage betrayer but a person"who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!" Moreover, Hester focuses more on her child, Pearl, and tries to establish what is so-called the woman in the society. 

Scarlet Letter Chapters Review

Our group is responsible for chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. We decided to illustrate the chapters by drawings. Since James and David read faster, they read the contexts and summarized them to Enji and me, and then we draw out the image of the settings and stories.

In these chapters, I found it confusing while reading the book. I understand the main themes of it, (the characters position) but not the details (symbolization). As the time goes by, the community has forgiven Hester's sin, and herself is blessed of having Pearl. However, things are not that positive to Dimmesdale who is suffering of being guilty. He even has an A on his chest.

One thing I am wondering is that "rose bush." I read through the chapter, but still not sure about it....

Scarlet Letter Chapter 5

I.Why Hester choose to stay in the colony?
        After reading the chapter, I think the main reason Hester choose to stay in the colony is that she still feel some connection with the community here in America. I am guessing maybe she does not want to leave her lover here and go back to Europe.The book says that she won't leave because of  her "half a sense of truth, and half a self-delusion." I am not quite sure about this part.

II.How's the community treat her?
        Although the community supports her sometime, it still treats her with different judgement; the letter always catch people's eyes. Hester moves to a house far away from the town so she won't be bothered. People still envy her incredible needle-work.