1

I'm Jeremy

This is default featured slide 2 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured slide 3 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured slide 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured slide 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

2015년 3월 16일 월요일

Two stories from "Dubliners" : "Araby" and "Eveline"

"Araby"
 At first glance, James Joyce’s “Araby” might appear the short story of a boy’s love and disappointment. After all, when the boy says that his body is like a harp and Mangan’s sister’s words and gestures are like fingers running upon the wires, we can easily see his enthusiastic love toward her while we can see his frustration when he sees himself as a creature driven and derided by vanity. However, on the other hand, his intense wordings implicate that the motivation of frustration is not just derived from the emotion of love. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that “Araby” is a boy’s observation of paralysis in society, Dublin, and the gap between reality and ideals rather than a diary about his love story. In this sense, the repeated usage of “blind” in the description of North Richmond Street or O’Donovan Rossa, a ballad about the troubles in the boy’s native land, demonstrate the “paralysis” in Dublin. Also, “an Eastern enchantment” shows ideals of a boy while “the gallery that the light was out” and “completely dark” symbolize the reality, paralysis, in shelter, Araby. Finally, we can interpret the last sentence of the short story as the expression of a pain from the epiphany that he cannot escape from this paralysis.

 "Eveline"

 People easily evaluate James Joyce’s “Eveline” as the short story about the patriarch society and repression of women. Indeed, Eveline, the main protagonist, sometimes felt herself in danger of her father’s violence while his father restrains her in various ways like occupying wage. Also, the will of her mother makes Eveline sacrifice for family, a traditional role of women, and interrupts Eveline’s new life. It is doubtful, however, that Eveline’s abandonment of her future is not related to “paralysis,” which is the main theme of “Dubliners.” Then, the possible interpretation of the short story will be the description of “paralysis” of bravery. Actually, the examples of this kind of “paralysis” are easily found throughout the story. For example, her thought about her father, “he would miss her, sometimes he could be very nice” suggests that she is afraid of breaking traditional manner. Also, Eveline who “sets her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal” demonstrates the lethargy, or the paralysis of bravery. More interesting point is that young character, Eveline, suffers this paralysis of bravery, which symbolizes the skeptical view about the courage of younger generations in Ireland.

2015년 2월 9일 월요일

"The student" Anton Chekhov

 “The student” by Anton Chekhov is a short story which describes the protagonist’s realization about history and human nature. Ivan Velikopolsky, the son of sacristan, encounters two widows near a camp fire. Then, he tells the story of Apostle Peter to them. The widows respond to the story unexpectedly emotionally and intensely; this respond allows Ivan to find the connection between past and present and the new perspective of human life.

 This short but strong story leaves numerous interesting features. First of the features is the insight about human’s nature. Even though the story describes the setting realistically, it does not explicitly state the actual historical setting. The readers just can assume it by the era of Anton Chekhov. However, rather than focusing on historical context, the author explores the human nature. By observing the responds to the life of Saint Peter, Ivan finds the connection between the biblical story 1900 years ago and the current reality and the fact that there is a no big difference between the great saint and ordinary widows. Ivan’s observation of a human’s fundamental nature such as weakness and anguish makes an interesting point that all people are basically similar.

 Furthermore, “the student” makes readers interested by revealing the anxiety and despair of Russian People at that time. There is no specific mention about the era but we can find some clues such as the time of Ivan the Terrible and Peter and the era of Anton Chekhov. Anyway we can conclude that the historical setting of the story is around late 19th century to early 20th century which was full of chaos, social injustice and revolutions. The phrases like ‘the lapse of a thousand years would make life no better’ show deep despair and defeatism about the future of Russia. However, not only this threatening ambience but also the bright hopes about the future by final realization make the short story much more interesting.

 Unfortunately, we also can find the weak point in the story which makes the story not interesting. The process of realization is too fast. The lesson of the story is good, and the biblical analogy is good but the narration is so fast that it even seems awkward. The link between the event and the realization is not refined. Moreover, the lesson of the story is too explicit. The protagonist explicitly states the lesson and this makes me feel that he forces us to accept the lesson. Maybe this is the limitation of a short story because its length is too short to plot sufficiently.


 Overall, I felt “the student” was a quite great work. The focus on the fundamental human nature and the scent of anxiety and despair in 19th century Russia make the story much more rich despite its short length. However, the abruptly rapid realization of the protagonist is still too artificial and it hampers the best quality of the work.