3rd Reflection: After reading Extracts from Adam's Diary and Eve's Diary[edited 23rd June]

 These stories of Adam and Eve written by Mark Twain are very interesting in a way that he portrayed their feelings in his own way, yet people can sympathize with. Adam's Diary is written from the perspective of Adam, or a typical male who is a narrower and shallower thinker compared to Eve. The Eve's Diary is, of course, written from Eve's point of view, who is much more intellectual and sensitive.

 In these two stories, Adam is present with a somewhat thoughtless image. He does not necessarily care how Eve feels about his actions, and normally does what he desires to do. He also finds Eve a little annoying as she came from nowhere and he has to shared his Garden with her. When Eve meets the serpent and befriends it, Adam is joyful that a nuisance has disappeared.

 Eve, on the other hand, is a much deeper thinker, and she just believes that Adam feels the same way as she does. She cares about Adam's feelings by sympathizing her own feelings with those of Adam's, and tries hard to reduce clashes or friction between them.

 We have to know that stereotypes of men and women of that time period when Mark Twain was alive were passively included in these two stories. Women were "docile", and men were dominant. Males got jobs and became bread-winners of their families while females stayed home, cooking, washing dishes, and doing all sorts of household chores. This is why Adam had to be annoyed when he heard that he has to share what he owns with Eve, because due to the image of men portrayed at that time, Adam felt that he was superior. Eve, who is supposed to represent the image of women, is focused more on the sensitivity, on how women care so much about inner feelings.

 Now, the world is changing. More women are getting jobs than men, and males consider others' feelings as much as females do. Stereotypes are finally being broken down.

COMMENTS


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2nd Reflection: The Cask of Amontillado[edited 23rd June]

For today's reflection, I would like to talk more about the author than the plot of The Cask of Amontillado itself. The author of this story, Edgar Allan Poe, was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, especially acclaimed for his tales of mystery. He often enjoyed writing gloomy and dark stories that usually trapped the readers in trepidation.


Poe was born in Boston on January 19th, 1809 His dad abandoned his family in 1810 and his mother died a year later, so Poe and his siblings were sent to a foster family. To earn his living, he enlisted in the United States Army as a private. While he was in the army, he published few books like 'Tamerlane and Other Poems'. His publishing career began after his brother died. Poe wanted to write proses and short stories as he has already tried writing poems. At first, he started working for a man named George Graham, and soon became one of the most beloved mystery writers in history.


Even though he has started writing for the sake of earning his living, he found his potential in writing. Not all people are as lucky as Edgar Allan Poe; we normally fail to recognize what our greatest potential is, and normally digress into where we have to go. For me, even though I am trying my best to find what my true talents and interests are, it is not as easy as it seems to be. The deeper I go into a specific area, the further it gets away from me. I am afraid that until I graduate, I might remain undecided of my future career.


Although Poe lived a short and tragic life as he died at the age of 40, his contributions to literature cannot be underestimated.


COMMENTS


Hyunseok Lee: Great analysis about background and previous life of the author. Good use of grammer. However, I don't think you made enough explanation about his contributions toward us or development in world literature due to Poe's literary works. I know Poe is a famous, great writer, but I believe you should tell more about what he really did and why he should be acclaimed.


Rhee Jiyoon: Yay I like your essay! The words you used are clear and accurate that I'm jealous ㅡㅡ.. The only thing that I want to point out is that what you're trying to talk about in the essay is somewhat unclear.. At first, you seem to be focusing on Poe's tragic life, but later on, you suddenly talk about your own experience. I think that writing only about Poe's life is not that meaningful since Wikipedia and other sources already had done that before.. Instead, your essay'd be more attractive if you focus more on your personal opinion! I like the part when you say "The deeper I go into a specific area, the further it gets away from me".. I agree TTTT..

The Ambitious Guest[edited on 23rd June]

 After reading this short story by Hawthorne, I was deeply inspired by the concept of ambition. It made me ponder upon the definition of ambition, and I came to a conclusion that ambition might totally corrupt an individual. Although it has to exist in some way in order for the mankind to continue advancing, it might produce a disastrous result if focused too much.

 Consider the family in 'The Ambitious Guest'. They were a happy family who were contented with their lives till the guest came by. After hearing the guest's hunger for achievement, the family started to lose their satisfaction and crave for what they do not own. In the end, everyone including the guest faced tragic deaths, and nothing was achieved.

 How about myself? Did having too much ambition ever affect me in a negative way? I am pretty sure it did. When I was in my middle school, I have won a United Kingdom math olympiad. After winning such a big competition, I began to get all excited about participating and winning more olympiads. I can assure you, I felt as if I was invincible. The results were catastrophic. After failing to win the next four or five consecutive contests, I began to face the reality; I started to think that maybe, I had just been lucky. Such outcomes brought me unforgivable disappointment and hatred, but all I could do was to lament at my own actions. Ambition blinded me, and I was wandering around in my own fantasies.

COMMENTS


Chonghyun Ahn: I really liked the way how you juxtaposed the concept of satisfaction and achievement and showed how the two are inherently different. I also was contented by your last line, where you put "Ambition blinded me", because it was very poetic in a sense that you not only spoke your opinion through the content, but also through the sentence structure of putting "ambition" in subject, and putting yourself in the object position. However, I would like to challenge your concept of "proceed" in the first paragraph. You seem to propose for progress that opposes ambition. How is the two different? Anyway, I liked your writing!

Hyunseok Lee: It was very interesting to connect your personal experiences to the text, however, I strongly believe that you should come up with additional characteristics of ambition. Since you said you were deeply touched about what the author showed related to ambition, I'm sure that you can talk about not only fail of achievement, but also relationship with nature and ambition, why ambition is useless, etc.

Inhee Ho: I sympathize with your personal experience as well! But I was wondering, didn't ambition allow you to see the reality as the final outcome? I viewed the story as awakening the family, living solitary life, to the reality. I agree that resultingly, the guest made the family to lose their satisfaction, but I saw that as letting them know the reality rather than blinding it.