The Metamorphasis - 2nd Book Reflection Part 2

 

In the previous reflection, I mentioned the first chapter illustrates Gregor Samsa's, a traveling salesman, plethora of mundane and inconsequential problems as he is faced with the transformation of a monstrous vermin (huge insect). What seems a terrible turn of events cannot be more horribly handled and executed. As the clock strikes 6am in the morning, which is overpassed his usual wake-up time by an hour, there are a number of people trying to get inside Gregor's room unassumingly thinking he has not yet gotten up from his sound sleep. As they were to try their best to get inside the room, Gregor's metamorphosis has begun to take place. The moans exuding relentlessly from him were enough signs to alert the family even more. 

Gregor's Relationship With His Family

The Samsa family was a family of 4, consisting of Gregor, his sister, father, and mother. Throughout the whole entire novel, apart from the main protagonist, the other family members were not given a name. They are always called "father" and "mother." This writing tactic was a clever way to have a better point of view of the main character, to actually be in his shoe. After the whole altercation at the front doors of Gregor's bedroom, they have finally seen what a monstrous vermin Gregor has become. While remaining conscious of his human past life and the inner complexity of human emotions, the metamorphosis initiates the indifferences with his family. Which cause another plethora of problems that made Gregor's relationship with his parents grow bitter, only seeing him as a 'challenge' or an 'impediment'. 

This reflects the author's relationship with his own parent. Having not the best father figure in the whole world, Franz endured indifference with his father. Franz was good at writing, but his father wanted him to follow the family business and attribute it to capitalism. He, then, suffered through years of drudgery. Only writing stories on the sidelines, never seeing his own potential. As we dissect even further into the name Gregor Samsa, the Czech meaning for "I am" translates to "jsem", and "alone" to "sám". If we put the words together, it generates the sentence "I am alone." As it was like in the novel for Gregor. As it was like for Franz in his own life. 

Reflection

Having my own indifferences with my own family, I could not help but feel at home at Franz Kafka's writing. In the book, Gregor lost his ability to speak human language but still remains his human consciousness. In some ways, I have felt the same thing with my own parents, and they have as well with me. A lot can attribute to the mutual silence, like the generation gap, idealogy differences or we are just not fit into talking the emotions out. Nonetheless, my personal unfavorable experience has become the backbone of my relatability and fondness over Franz Kafka. He remains my all-time favorite underrated writer of his own time. 

TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY (part II)

This is my second part of the reflection, about 13 reasons why. I'm going to discuss the teenagers' suicide problem in this log. Also, I want to point out the issues of peer bullying. 

Book Intro

Hannah Baker is a high school student who suicided because of being bullied in the school. More specifically, Hannah's classmates spread rumors about her, laughed at her, excluded her from the class, what's worse, she was once raped. Hannah used 7 tapes to record the 13 reasons why she ended her life. There will be 13 people in the recording. Hannah explained about what role that person plays in her death. 

Reflection

In the previous log, I talked about some features of the book and the importance of helping. This time, I'd like to focus on the problem of teenage suicide, which is the biggest issue in this book. In the novel, Hannah is bullied by her classmates, so she chooses to kill herself. And I think this is also a serious problem that usually happens in real life. We see many news reports that there are students who jumped off a building. This may be because their peers isolate them or are under a lot of pressure. Actually, as a teenager, we cared about our peers very much, even sometimes more than our family. At this young age, our mentalities are not mature enough. One word or one action can have a big influence on our minds. That's why so many unfortunate things happened. People usually say that those who commit suicide are very selfish or don't cherish their lives. They don't think about their family or people who still love them. However, in my opinion, if I were Hannah, I won't care about other people. I know that's selfish, but I was painful and suffering. I will choose to end my life and release myself rather than live tragically. We don't know how desperate they were when most people decided to die. We can't keep blaming suicide people, and we should try to think from their perspective. We meet many setbacks and failures in our life. If we can turn them into motivation and continue life, that will be better.  

This is the #1 NEW YORK TIMES and international bestseller; I highly recommend this book to teenagers. Maybe after reading this novel, there will be some changes or inspirations. I read the comments on my last blog post, many classmates have read 13 reasons why before. This is really a popular novel! I will try to watch the NETFLIX series when I have spare time. I hope that the series will make me feel something different from the book.

The Midnight Library part II

Hello, this is Chiho! This is a second reflection of The Midnight Library, if you are interested in this novel, I suggest you to go to the first reflection and come back here, so you can get to know the story better ! 

Summary

 Nora is now trying a new life in Australia where her best friend Izzy is living. When she transferred from the library she was in the pool. She swam some and recalled that she used to love swimming a lot. In the water, it disappears everything. Her focus had always been very unmixed that she thought of nothing else. In this world, Nora has friends, Nora loves to write a poem, and the relationship with Dan was going alright. Everything seems to go smoothly. However, Nora noted that a different life didn't mean a different planet. A couple of hours later, she went out of the swimming pool and headed to her home. She was expecting that she lived with Izzy, but she couldn't find Izzy even at the home. Instead, she met one flatmate. When Nora was chatting with that mysterious flatmate and asking her what happened to Izzy. That mysterious flatmate gently told her that Izzy was dead in a car accident on Nora’s birthday. 

Nora immediately was sent back to the library. She told Mrs. Elm that each life, she was stuck by something, so she would like to have a life where she isn’t stuck, and a life where she is successful with something. While Nora was talking with Mrs. Elm, she started to wonder about the life where she did everything that her dad wanted, and she reached the Olympics by swimming. 

The next moment, she woke up by the phone alarm. It was 6:30 am and she was in the luxury hotel room. In this new life, she was a swimmer who had won a gold medal and a silver medal at the Olympics. She even held a world record for women’s 400 m freestyle at the World Aquatic Championship. When Nora was strolling the room, somebody called her. It was Nadia, who Nora’s father was having an affair with. Different from her root life, her dad was still alive, however, he was having an affair, and due to that Nora’s mom died earlier. Although she was dedicated to swimming and was doing all the things that her dad wanted her to do, her dad was still as cold as he always was. After the phone call, Nora was back in the hot’s vast conference room and giving a speech. Instead of giving a speech like how she succeeded or how she trained, she discussed how depressed she is, how much frightening this life is. Right after she finished her speech, she was sent to the library. 

For the next life, Nora chose the life of being a glaciologist which Mrs. Elm kept encouraging her to be and Nora wanted to be in her original life. Is her life finally going to end? What is a spotter? 

Reflection

Damn, I love this novel a lot!!!!! This is the best English novel I've ever read before!!!! I wish I had more time to read this book. Nora is definitely a symbol of negative emotions. I can have sympathy on every feeling she expresses. Unlike fantasy novels, all the wounds she had had are very real ,all of the terrible incidents happened to her can might happen to us. But on the other hand, I am bit intolerable to see her life. Every life, she needed to face some tragic events and felt sorrow and disappointment. For instance, if she didn't try life being a swimmer, she didn't need to realize that her dad never cared about Nora like he used to do in her original life. When we faced some tragic events, we instinctively delete those memories, however, Nora has to face these again! Imagine, you need to try a new life that you don't know whether you can live life happily ever after, it might harm your heart again or might let you face new events that harm your heart. It's like you can try a new life based on the movie but you can't know whether it is a happy ending or not. And what's more, you need to try again and again until you find the life which is perfect for you. Hell no, for me, it’s just like I’m tortured unlimitedly but never die. 

Log 4, Flipped

 

Hello, this is Carolyn again. In my free time this week, I finally ushered in the end of this book, and the most important thing is that this is the first English original novel I have completed in this study process. After reading this novel, I was deeply indulged in Juli. From the beginning of the book, we know that Juli has been approaching and adoring Bryce since the first sight of him. However, Bryce has always avoided her as a "plague" and believes that Julie has deeply affected his life. However, after reading the entire novel, I discovered that Julie is a near-perfect existence, even perfect that I am very envious. Next, I will present a few points that I have observed for a brief exposition.

 At first, we were offended by Juli's crazy behavior towards Bryce; however, as I said in Log 3, the incident about the sycamore tree taught me to get to know Juli deeply. From my perspective, she is very self-confident and bright in learning, which shows in comprehending the notion beyond her ability.; Also, she is brave and dares to approach the people she likes. Moreover, she is kind and knows how to take the initiative to apply to her father to visit her uncle, who is mentally disabled. The most appealing thing is that Juli loves and is eager to be close to nature, and she knows how to appreciate the beauty of nature, who will talk to sycamore trees and chickens that she has cultivated. As mentioned above, those show that she has an intense curiosity and enthusiasm for everything, and also the drive that she had are qualities that most people lack these days. Obviously, she still retains this quality, which makes me believe she is completely attractive. Likewise, we can find in the novel that the sycamore tree incident also seems to be the turning point in Bryce's discovery of falling in love with Juli. From the incident, he may have discovered the advantages of Juli, such as freedom, bravery, kindness, firmness, and so on. To my knowledge, Julie was also full of magic for Bryce, and he began to be deeply attracted by Julie.

Nevertheless, he felt despondent when he found out that Juli didn't like him as much as before. Thus, this is the evidence that revealed Bryce fell in love with Juli. Although he initially only avoided and feared Julie, when Julie continued to show her charm and kept her enthusiasm for life and love for various things, he finally couldn't help but fall in love with her.

Therefore, what I want to share with you in this reflection is "the importance of having one's own charisma." In today's society, we will find that everyone is pursuing the so-called "standard beauty" regardless of gender. Still, they gradually lose their original self in blindly following "standard beauty." Imagine that is such beauty really attractive? When there is only one form of beauty in the world. Back to my experience, I used to try to change my image and behavior under other people's opinions, which led me to lose myself in the process. It is no exaggeration to say that I don't know who I am at that time. In my opinion, we can accept other people's suggestions to us. Still, we can't be attracted by a person's partial charm all the time, such as the handsome and beautiful face, fashionable dress, and so on. Thus, we should respect our individual nature traits because there's useless to change ourselves with one word. As mentioned in the novel, "the whole being greater than the sum of the parts." We need to cultivate our own charisma, maintain curiosity and enthusiasm for life, and even constantly invest in ourselves to make ourselves more valuable. Thus, instead of trying hard or making the other person like you, it is better to cultivate your abilities, build your own personality charm, and form a certain degree of irreplaceability when you have someone you are attracted to. Finally, the person who suits you will come to you and maybe meet someone better.

From my perspective, a good relationship should be two people who appreciate each other, make progress together, and continue to become better people for each other. Of course, the focus of cultivating your charisma is not only for a good relationship but also to make yourself more robust and more confident. To sum up, everyone is unique. Only when we find our personality traits and show them in time can we enjoy our belonged life.

Atomic habits (Part II)

 

Hello everyone, this is Christy. The following paragraph will taking about the second part of this book, atomic habits.

Key things that I have learnt in this week:

To us, we all believe that goal is somethings that lead to our happiness. Therefore, we always chase for goals in our life. However, when we reached our goal  we will keep on finding the new goal for us. Life is just like a process of chasing goals one and one over.

1. Three layers of behavior changes

For each behavior, there are total three layers, which are outcomes, processes and identity.

Outcomes layer: 

This focus on the result of the habit. For example, if you want to keep fit, and outcomes layers means the result which is having a slim body.

Processes layer:

This layer focus on changing the habit and systems.

Identity layer:

This layer means that focus the belief and change your personal identity.

Most people would like to process the habit formation from outer circle to the inner one. They would first making an expected outcomes. However, scientific proved that creating the habit from the inner one to the outer one will truly successfully build up the habits.

2. Four steps for creating a good habit and remove the bad ones.

The fours steps that lead to a good habit including cues, craving, response and reward. We 

would talk a bit more details about the fours steps on the following chapter. But for this week, I have read more about the steps on making cues. Cues is something can help to trigger your brain to do something. Therefore, for good habit, you should make the cues much obvious while the bad habit, try to keep it more unnoticeable. 

Feedbacks:

    After reading several chapters for this week, I have learnt several skills that can improve my life. Sometimes we would have the crave for making a new habit. For example, I always want to become such a tidy person. From time to time, I would tidy my working desk, my drawers and makes everything are organized after that big improvement. However, I would find out that my desk starts to be untidy after several days. This looks like an unstopped cycle for me and that's makes me feel kind of frustrated.

   Then, at this points the skills that I have learned in this books really work!!! I use the first steps for changing my identity by two simple steps in this book. First is that I have decide the type of person that I want to be and then I prove it myself by a small wins.

   Therefore, I try to think of becoming a tidy person, giving myself small rewards. Days by days, it works!!

Beowulf and Grendel

 

    From line 703 to 982, It talks about the fight between Beowulf and Grendel. In summary, knowing that Grendel is envious, resentful, and angry toward mankind, and Grendel especially resents the light, joy, and music he observes in Hrothgar's beautiful mead-hall called Heorot. Therefore, Beowulf and his warriors sang poetry and music to kind of spice up the vibe in Heorot. During the night of, Grendel bursts into Heorot. He tears the door from its hinges with his bare hands and immediately devours a Geatish warrior while Beowulf carefully observes. To me, this is probably the most excited part, because in my previous log, I have mentioned, in the story, it didn’t specify whether Grendel is a male or female, but the story made Grendel sounds like a man, so it's quite hard for me to imagine a giant man eating another man in the bloody way so easily. 

    Then when Grendel reaches out to snatch up Beowulf, he is stunned to find his arm gripped with greater strength than he knew possible. He was terrified like a cornered animal, Grendel was about longing to run back to the safety of the swamplands. But Beowulf took him down just in second. The combatants crash around the hall, rattling the walls and smashing the mead-benches. Grendel begins to shriek in pain and fear; the sound terrifies all who hear it. Beowulf’s men heroically hack at the demon as Beowulf fights with him, but no weapon on earth is capable of harming Grendel. Beowulf summons even greater strength and rips Grendel’s arm completely out of its socket. Fatally wounded, Grendel slinks back to his swampy home to die. Back in the mead-hall, Beowulf holds up his glory trophy in triumph. He proudly hangs the arm high on the wall of Heorot as proof of his victory.

    In the battle against Grendel, was so full of determination that he was willing to bear arms and fight with Grendel. When Beowulf fought Grendel, he fought with a courageous and confident attitude, and I believe that his attitude is what made him win, because his attitude gave him the confidence that he needed to stand in front of a huge monster and fight for victory. But when Beowulf won the battle he wasn't satisfied with just knowing his victory, because after the fight, which I didn't mentioned, he actually  cut off Grendel 's arm and mounted it as a trophy of his victory, showing the world how foolhardy his attitude was, proving that a victory isn't enough to  satisfy his needs. So my conclusion is that, is good to show that you are a courageous and confident person, but make sure to stay humble too, otherwise it will make others think you are just too hypocritical.

The Lady In the Lake

 

The lady in the lake is a detective novel written by Raymond Chandler. This novel is about Detective Philip Marlowe is looking for Derace Kingsley’s wife, Crystal. Is she dead or not? Marlowe finds more than one dead body and learns about women, drugs, men in love, and a police cover-up. Who killed The Lady in the Lake and why?

I choose another detective novel by Raymond Chandler to see the differences between his works. The more I read, the more I admire how the author designs the plot of crime. Whenever I read a detective novel, I read fast and can't wait to know who the murderer is. When I almost finish the story, there's sometimes a plot twist that reverses what I've speculated. It is the surprise that makes me enjoy the detective novels a lot. 

Also, I found out the law regarding the detective novel. It's complicated relationships. Every character has a slight connection with the dead so that everyone is likely to be the murderer. That's the necessity to keep a story going on. But sometimes, there are too many relationships to figure out in the novel. At this moment, I'll skip those plots and jump to the ending. Am I an impatient reader? I don't know. I just want to know who the murderer is without too much setup. (lol)

The trigger of murder is love in this book. It's somehow related to social issues nowadays. Love can be a driving force behind a crime. For instance, people kill their lovers because they fail to get back together. That's what we call "horror lovers." In other cases, some celebrities get killed by their extreme fans. Love is supposed to be a pleasant feeling between people. How come it would be a potential motive of the crime? To think carefully, when the love toward someone grows stronger, what you will feel is definitely more than jealousy or something else. I can somehow resonate with this kind of situation. For instance, as a fan of BTS, whenever I see or hear people leave hate comments, I always think of replying to those haters by saying nasty words and wishing all the bad things happen to them. But I don't want to be a hater of those haters. I choose to be rational in the virtual and the real world. Therefore, I think whether love becomes the trigger of the crime depends on the rationality of humans. 

1984

 

Introduction

"Nineteen Eighty-Four"(1984) was published in 1949, written by English writer George Orwell. It is a dystopian social science fiction novel depicting the world in 1984, using the protagonist Winston Smith to unveil the dark side of this dictatorial world.

Feedback

The first time I read "1984" was in high school, and I was shocked by the plot and how precisely George Orwell depicted this world. As a result, "1984" was my favorite book during high school. However, I read the Chinese version at that time, so I think it would be a great opportunity to read it again in the original version.

"Big brother is watching you."

I guess it is impossible for people in 1949 to picture such a world in the novel. But for us, who live in 21 century, we would find so many similarities compared to the modern world. The most famous quote in "1984" is, "Big brother is watching you." In Great Britain(book's imaginary state), people are under surveillance by the government. They can not express any suspicion toward the Party; otherwise, their life will be threatened by Thought Police. However, thanks to the successful brainwashing, it is rare that people will show any distrust. The whole story is under a gloomy atmosphere because no one knows whether "Big Brother" is watching or not.

Big Brother is the leader of Oceania, he is idealized and brave, but he never showed up in "1984." In my opinion, he is a made-up person, and the reason why the Party creates such a leader is that it is much easier for people to understand the situation. Besides, people are more tend to follow an "icon" more than the government, just like current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, people adore or even worship him, treat him like God.

In the story, Winston and his lover Julia wanted to rebel but ended up finding the place they hid that was already under Thought Police's control. When reading this plot, I cannot help thinking, "Is there anyone we can trust?" Back to the present, 2022, the era in which everyone has their own smartphone, didn't we just provide a perfect tool for the government or other people with bad intentions to track? 

What is truth?

Winston works at the "Ministry of Truth," and his job is to distort history. Whenever the Party announces something different than previous words, Winston has to rewrite the news and destroy the original one. People should follow whatever the government said, and if they said 2+2=5, that is also correct. 

I have always thought that history is unshakable, but I started to doubt it after reading this novel. Do People really that easy to be manipulated? Independent thinking is essential, but what if the so-called "independent thinking" is constructed on a fake world?

In Great Britain, there have "Thought Police," these people will control and monitor citizens, and if anyone shows any "incorrect" thoughts, Thought Police will put them in jail and "purify" them. Thought Police made me think of China, which only permits one voice. As Taiwanese, it would not be unfamiliar to see the celebrities "admit their faults" and apologize to Chinese people. 

If we only live in the echo chamber, only listen to the things we want to hear, only watch the things we want to see, then what is the point of living? I think one of the essences of life is to become a better self, but how can we improve if we reject and eliminate different opinions? "1984" is not only a cautionary tale but also makes readers reflect on themselves. 

"1984" is definitely a masterpiece, whether in the past or present. Every time I read it, I will admire the author George Orwell again on how he precisely predicted the future. This novel discussed so many aspects, and each of these is worth diving deep into. I raised so many questions after reading "1984," although I still cannot figure out the answer, and maybe we will never find out, but it is still nice once we start to discuss these issues.  

Symbols I use in my comments

 

Things to do on 3/16

Good evening,

This week might be the easiest one for you this semester. If you have learned some time management skills, you should have done some work prior to the plan on our schedule. :)

For tomorrow, we'll read a student sample essay on a personal story. Please remember to bring the handout I distributed last Wed. No extra copies will be prepared. If you bring your laptop, you can also view it on Moodle. This is an example showing how people find rewards in telling their own stories, in sharing something of themselves with others.

"Personal essays are not simply reports of one's history or retellings of any old stories. Good personal essays render textured experience but also help the reader make some sense of it. Personal essayists don't attempt to nail down every detail of a life; instead, they select key turning points, encounters, and themes that seem ripe for expression. They then bring that selected experience close to the reader, explore the tensions inherent to it, and articulate or imply how and why it can be meaningful." (Deans, 2003, p. 26).  

You will bring your outline for essay 2, but it can always be revised before and even during the writing process of your draft 1. Remember, this essay will later be transformed into a video. Therefore, I'll talk about Storyboarding, too. The handout has been uploaded on the blog. 

The rest of the time will be for you to exchange your outlines and for me to do one-on-one conferencing on your draft 1 for essay 1 (cf. D1E1). Those who still need to talk to me will have to make an appointment first. My assistant will post an excel table for you to fill in your names in the time slots I provide. 

See you and have a good night!

The binding

Log 4

The Binding

Author: Bridget Collins

Publication: 2019/12/26

I am addicted to witchcraft themes, such as Harry Potter, Chilling Adventure of Sabrina, and so on. As long as I start taking up those stories I will literally into the story as if I were in the world of the characters. While searching for books, I noticed this book was on the chart of Elite, and I was appealed to the cover and the introduction. I decided to this read story; however, when I tried to find the original version in the library of our school, the library didn’t collect this book, and neither did the NTU library. What was worse, the book was out of stock in Elite around Taiwan. Therefore, I chose to read the translated edition first and ordered the original version online. I hoped my book would soon be put in my bookcase.

After reading the first chapter of this story, I was strongly convinced that the book was worth buying the original version. For the latter content, I will not mention too many plots in the story, because I recommend my friends to read the story literally and chewing the words thoroughly.

Fascinating, inspiring, and heartbreaking. Those three words are my comments after I finished the story.

Fascinating. The description of the scene is impressive. Through the description, the view of ancient Europe is vivid and distinct. The description is the light that will lead you to have the glance of the middle age Europe.

Inspiring. The effect of binding in the story is aim to archive one’s memory into the book so that the person will not remind it anymore. The witchcraft makes readers ponder about archiving memories that are sorrowful and somber is a way to looking forward to better future or nothing but a way to escape the reality.

Heartbreaking. The relationship is refinement. From the “first” meet of them, the foreshadowing is set. Actually, when I read to the part, I was confused, because I didn’t figure out the emotion that he expresses; however, through further reading, I realize the emotion. It is hatred; meanwhile, it is also love. The love is consisted of misunderstand and pity. The love is too strong that it could not be erased despite of the magic.

For me, the binding is a book to fulfill my imagination to magic world; also, it is a bridge between me and the author. It is a good story literally; meanwhile, it is the book that influences my insight toward love and hate.