Archives

Nongbo’s Journal on the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Apr19

Meet Nongbo, a 19 year old living in Beijing, China, a college student who has dropped out of college and became a Red Guard. He was extremely devoted to Chairman Mao and would do anything to be on Chairman Mao’s good side. This journal recounts the experience and conflicts of the fictional character from the rise of the Red Guards to the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Instead of a whole communist government, which was what the Chinese government was aiming for during the Cultural Revolution, capitalism has been re-introduced to China. This is because the Chinese government found out China was way behind the global superpowers and needed to boost their economy. The effects of the Cultural Revolution could be both good and bad. On the good side, China had established a one-party system that controls every government affair. On the other hand, a whole generation of people did not get their completion of education.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution in Plain English

Mar29

This film was made by George and Maggie (me). It showcases the events during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Using the knowledge of revolutions from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and Animal Farm, something I learned about revolutions is that if people are too oppressed by the government, these people would do anything to gain freedom, no matter the price. Since there are so many revolutions that happened in history, and many revolve around communism, this clearly shows that leaders will keep on thinking they need power for themselves, and communism is a pipe dream.

I am Malala-A Story with a Powerful Theme

Jan21

“I am Malala”, an autobiography of Malala Yousafzai herself, retells the life of Malala when she lived in Pakistan. As a young girl, Malala values her education, so when the Taliban arrived in her homeland and started to enforce that girls should not go to school, Malala speaks up. She wrote a secret diary with a pen name, and spoke in interviews, promoting the right that girls deserve an education. However, she got shot by the Taliban and was treated in Birmingham, England, for her actions. A theme of this book is that one should stand up for themselves and others when they are oppressed

 

            There are two reasons why people should read this book. Firstly, this book teaches those who are unhindered by other people to get an education that they should be thankful for what they have and appreciate it. Secondly, Malala is a source of inspiration, being the youngest Nobel Prize winner, to other people showing that society can accomplish things peacefully .

 

Something I learned while reading literary nonfiction is that it can be beneficial to have another person read the same book as me. We both could have different ideas on how the context in the book can be perceived. The partner(s) could also be an excellent debate assistant in helping me form a better argument.

 

The Boxers’ Reputation

Dec1

During the 19th century, a gang of delinquent farmers called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or the so called name, Boxers, came from the province, Shandong, arrived at Beijing. They at first just intimidated random people. Next, they start killing innocent foreigners and Chinese Christians. The boxers did deserve a bad reputation because they destroyed property and endangered people’s lives. The boxers cut the railway and the French Post Office to prevent communication. This may be a smart and tactical way, however this infringes the right of ownership concession, since the boxers didn’t own the place and destroyed it. The boxers also threaten many lives, including those who work at Customs. The people in Customs work with foreign powers, which rankles the stubborn, borderline racist boxers, whom they think their culture is the best. The boxers will hurt any citizen wants to know what the outside world is like. Yes, the boxers do want to conserve their culture, however the best way they could have done it was to peacefully protest, since words are much more powerful than actions in this situation.

Helena’s Twitter Account

Nov17

In Shakespeare’s comedy, “the Midsummer’s Night’s Dream”, two couples run into the woods where they meet the magics of the fairies who live there. A girl named Helena is obsessed with, a boy, Demetrius, sad that she couldn’t have her way with Demetrius, and jealous of her friend’s, Hermia’s, beauty. Helena is head over heels in love with Demetrius. The more she wants to be with Demetrius, the more he wants to get away from Helena: “The more I love, the more he hateth me” (Line 199). Helena doesn’t want to give up on Demetrius, even though he had given up on Helena once he saw Hermia. In fact, Helena’s plan to make Demetrius fall in love with her. Helena is sad that she couldn’t get her ending with Demetrius, unlike Hermia running away to elope with Lysander. She complains that some people will always be happier than others: “How happy some o’er other some can be!” (Line 226). She is implying here that even though she is beautiful, she still won’t sway Demetrius’s heart. Helena is also jealous. Helena wishes to be beautiful as Hermia so she could make Demetrius fall in love. Helena even remembers the time Demetrius really loved her, but when Demetrius saw Hermia, he forgot about Helena: “For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia’s eyne, he hailed down oaths that he was only mine” (Lines 242, 243). This makes Helena jealous of Hermia’s beauty because now Demetrius is committed in making Hermia his wife, and scorns Helena.

 

Two of her quotes, the lines 226, 242 and 243, are tweets, while the bio highlights and puts emphasis on the part that she is madly in love with Demetrius. There is a tweet written by Lysander, explaining that Demetrius won Helena’s heart, and how infatuated Helena is. I chose these profile pictures by searching up Google using the words pretty and handsome.

Maggie Tells the Theme of Miss Marple’s Story

Sep30

Maggie Tells the Theme of Miss Marple’s Story

 

“The danger with such people is that when anything at all extraordinary really does happen to them, nobody believes they are speaking the truth.” (Christie 5).

 

Miss Marple Tells a Story is a story told in Miss Marple’s perspective of solving a case. Miss Marple learns of a recent murder in Crown Hotel where Mr. Rhode’s wife is murdered. She solves the case by asking Mr. Petherick, a shrewd friend of hers, and Mr. Rhode details about the suspects, considers all the possibilities and proves Mr. Rhode innocent by finding the culprit, Mrs. Carruthers. In the story Miss Marple Tells a Story, by Agatha Christie, the author believes that a person who makes their life sound like a fantasy frequently cultivates disbelief from other people. Mr. Rhode never taken any notice of Mrs. Rhode’s distress of the threatening letters: “’Frankly,’ he said, ‘I never believed it. I thought [Mrs. Rhode] had made most of it up.’” (4). Mr. Rhode knows that Mrs. Rhode likes to exaggerate a lot. From what Miss Marple gathered, Mrs. Rhode would describe her life as almost deaths and whimsical tales. So, it was possible that Mr. Rhode wasn’t aware that she could be telling the truth because it was a habit for Mr. Rhode to discount her statements. When Mr. Rhode attempted to tell the police about the threatening letters that Mrs. Rhode received, the police never believed Mr. Rhode. However, further along in the story, the claims of threatening letters were true.  Mrs. Rhode’s impractical and reckless way of living is why Mrs. Carruthers retaliated against her: “Mrs. Rhode, who was a most reckless and dangerous driver, had run over her little girl, and it had driven the poor woman off her head.” (7). Before Mrs. Rhode married Mr. Rhode, she used to drive without the regard of consequences and killed Mrs. Carruthers daughter. To seek revenge, Mrs. Carruthers hid her madness secretly and sent threatening letters which nobody believed that existed. At the end, Mrs. Carruthers killed Mrs. Rhode. Mrs. Carruthers used Mrs. Rhode’s way of romanticizing life as an advantage, because nobody will truly believe Mrs. Rhode. This is why a person who makes their life sound like a fantasy frequently cultivates disbelief from other people, and all the more dangerous when another character has a grudge against this person.

 

The Last Kiss Found Poem

Sep14

In Humanities/Social Studies/Language Art class, we read 3 short stories as a class. The stories were “The Last Kiss” by Ralph Fletcher, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan, and “Thank you, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. As the assignment, we had to do a found poem, a poem created by taking words or passages from other sources and reframing them as a poem by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and by consequently meaning), or by altering the text by additions of deletions. I chose “The Last Kiss” as my found poem. My poem explains the external conflict of the main character, the author Ralph Fletcher, as a little boy wanting a kiss from his father. However, the little boy is now older and can’t receive a kiss from his father. The conflict is a man vs. nature conflict because the main character is now clashing with how old he is. Him growing up is a natural process, and it conflicts the character himself, thus it is man vs. nature.

 

The poem goes:

My childhood had symmetry

That passed much too quickly

First

Night,

I was stunned

Next night,

I murmured

For clarification of quiet expectancy

With sinking heart

I

Formulate

Loss

This grim truth

Sunk in

I was too old

Not powerful, much more fragile

 

 

The first lines “my childhood had symmetry that passed much too quickly,” explains the theme of cherishing childhood before it is too late. Then the poem explains the two nights of the main character’s reaction getting rejected by his father. He slowly realizes “with a sinking heart,” that he was too old and not feeling “powerful” anymore. The color scheme goes first to dark green, expressing the normality of the routine of getting kissed both by the father and mother. Then the second paragraph turns into dark blue because the main character is sad and stunned that his father didn’t kiss him good night. Then it goes to blue grey, cool grey, and then black, to show the hopelessness of him realizing he will never be getting a kiss from his dad and worries when he won’t get a kiss from his mom.