In Ken Liu’s short story, “The Paper Menagerie,” paper animals are used to represent the mother’s love. When the main character, Jack, was a young child, these animals were made by his Chinese mother to soothe him crying, becoming his best friends for the following several years. What is astonishing is that the animals could move around by themselves: “I didn’t know this at the time, but Mom’s kind was special. She breathed into them so that they shared her breath, and thus moved with her life (Liu 3)”. This quote shows the uniqueness of the Chinese mother’s love. Although cheaper and plainer than the Obi–wan Kenobi action figure, these animals were created with her delicate touch and the heart for her son, thus bringing them to life. It is the liveliness of animals that made them special among all the factory-made toys, and that helped him have a happy childhood. In other words, the uniqueness of his mother’s way of loving and caring, despite being different from all the other American mothers, is what made him a good memory of the past. Later in the story, when Jack begins to hate Chinese culture and tries to crush all of his mother’s beliefs, the paper animals stop moving. However, when he recalls his mother after her death, Laohu, his most loved paper animal among all the others, immediately springs back to life. This incident indicates that the love his mother tried to give, along with the memories created by that effort, still connects him with his mother. Although love seems fragile like a tiger made of paper, it persists to finally become a medium to get to her son’s heart.
Matthew
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein
In Ken Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie”, the main character’s understanding of his identity changes and develops through the author’s use of characterization, symbol, and point of view.
In Evan Hunter’s short story entitled “On the Sidewalk Bleeding,” the main character initially believes that he is not hurt but later realizes that he is dying. His changing understanding is revealed through symbolism, his thoughts, and his actions toward other characters.
Evidence
- “He did not know why his voice had deserted him, or why there was an open hole in his body from which his life ran readily, steadily, or why the rain had become suddenly so fierce” (Hunter 1).
- “Andy listened and thought: I love you, Laura, Laura, I think maybe I’m dying. Larua, this is stupid but I think maybe I’m dying” (3).
- “He wanted to say, “Hey, I’m alive! Hey, look at me! I’m alive! Don’t you know I’m alive? Don’t you know I exist?” (6)
I am good at forming a logical structure of information and presenting my idea through an essay with pretty good language usage. However, I am a slow thinker yet a perfectionist. I consume a lot of time for every task, revising it over and over again until it is satisfying. My indecisiveness and excessive carefulness often hinder me from turning in assignments on time.
This year, I will be working on eliminating at least one of these drawbacks that slow me down. Also, I will try to minimize the waste of time and maximize efficiency.
These are extracts from Hugo’s Journal, a man who was exposed to a series of events during the French Revolution. It illustrates his emotional changes while undergoing several mental shocks, mostly because his revolution goes way beyond than expected.
The French Revolution happened in 1789 in France by the people who were sick of the unjustness and inadequacy of the current system. Through the famous Tennis Court Oath, they succeed in establishing a new constitution along with the rise of new supported forces. Things seemed to go well, until it became a venue for a bloody massacre…
Collaboration with my teammate was pretty easy. We could work together for a good amount of time and communicated via chatting platforms to give each other feedback, suggest modifications, distribute left work, etc. It was hard to work on the weekend, though, because we both didn’t have much time and couldn’t give immediate responses and amendments to each other’s work that was done in a rush. Still, I think the result is of a decent quality.
“Trapped” is a short nonfiction book written by Marc Aronson that introduces an incident of miners being confined inside the mine. While showing the rescue operations proceeded above ground and the systemization and dispassionateness of the miners below ground, it goes through the ideas of discrimination, hope, empathy, and survival instinct. The theme I found in this book is that humanity tends to occur only in extreme circumstances, but we should always have it in our minds.
I think this book tries to emphasize its theme in a way that readers could feel boring and wordy, so it is easy to lose interest soon after you start reading. Sometimes, I even found myself reading the same passage over and over again. Also, the story itself does not unfold very dramatically. Therefore, in general, I don’t recommend this book for readers who want excitement from the book.
In this unit, I learned some note-taking strategies that can provide me a deeper understanding of the book. I can now more quickly understand the meaning of puzzling paragraphs and effectively organize and look for ideas. Also, when I am annotating and taking notes, I found out that I become more engaged and concentrated so that I doze off less.
Brief explanation about the incident
In 1898, a massive rebellion against the Christians and the foreigners occurred widely across China. It was caused by the Boxers, an association of peasants who would call themselves ‘The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists,’ and therefore is called ‘The Boxer rebellion.’ The Boxers deserve a bad rap because they were brutal killers who were overdriven by anger to move emotionally and unreasonably.
During the rebellion, more than 230 foreigners were killed by the Boxers. They held massacre regardless of age or gender; they wandered around the streets, slaughtering every foreigner they could find. People had to hide in legations or churches and tremble with fear. Not only that, but they wrecked and burned down many constructions, causing a massive economic loss. Although they were in very harsh situations, there are no legitimate reasons for them to exert such violence. In the pretext of ostracizing external powers and supporting the government, the Boxers were trying to vent their anger by committing crimes against the foreigners and the Christians. In fact, foreigners didn’t even use violence first. Why do all the innocent foreigners have to die when they are just trying to make a living outside their country? And why do all the Christians have to die when they simply want to worship their god? I think this is nothing different from racism.
Furthermore, witless and reckless were they to make all the foreign countries their enemy and destroy buildings. It caused massive economic harm for China since they had to pay for all the damage. In the end, they even failed to achieve any of their nominal purposes and left only a huge loss of life. This is the result of them losing their reason and being swayed only by anger. Their actions would deserve criticism even if they started the rebellion for the right reasons.
And this is not even true—one of the foremost reasons why the Boxers revolt was that they felt angry and intimidated. The increase of foreign legations and the forbidden area largened their victim mentality, and Christianity seemed to be threatening their traditional religions and preventing gods from dropping rain for them. However, these are all their misapprehension and illusion. They didn’t even take time to think if their suspicions were right and began their massacre for that reason. The foreigners and the Christians were actually just a scapegoat of the Boxers’ anxiety and anger. Many people probably would have died without knowing why they should. Even though there were minor incidents that could have made them scared, the reasons they had weren’t enough for their behaviors.
The Boxer Rebellion is just a large-scale crime that has taken advantage of the fact that they are peasants. They don’t deserve the name ‘The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists’ since all they have left was the loss of lives, money, and another form of violence. Ignorance and starvation couldn’t be an excuse for their reckless killing. It would be wise not to look at these people with just compassion, but think about what morality is as a human being.
Background knowledge for the Boxer Rebellion
I gave the title firm women because of the characteristic of Hermia. Even though the period she was living in was androcentric and patriarchal and therefore marriages were rarely a product of love, she never bends her will. She instead decides to take risks, planning to run away, even in the threat of death by his father.
For the image of Hermia, I chose Rose Dewitt Buckater from the movie Titanic. They both are in a situation where they have to marry someone they don’t want to, so they try to run away. Also, Hermia is described as beautiful in the story, and so is Rose in the movie.
在春天，意大利是最好的去处。意大利的春天是从三月到六月。在春天，意大利的天气常常是晴天，也下小雨。最高的气温十四度到二十六度。你会喜欢意大利的春天，因为人少也气温很好。
在夏天，巴厘岛是最好的去处。巴厘岛的夏天是从四月到九月。在夏天，巴厘岛的天气差不多晴天。巴厘岛的夏天有点是儿热，最高的气温三十度左右。你会喜欢巴厘岛的夏天，因为海很漂亮。
在秋天，纽约是最好的去处。纽约的秋天是从九月到十二月。在秋天，纽约的天气常常是晴天，有时候多云也刮大风。纽约的秋天凉快，气温十七度左右。你会喜欢纽约的秋天，因为枫叶很漂亮。
在冬天，加拿大是最好的去处。加拿大的冬天是从十二越到三月。在冬天，加拿大的天气常常是晴天，下大雪。加拿大的冬天很冷，气温零到八度。你会喜欢加拿大的冬天，因为雪很漂亮。
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