It's all about death

The second book I read is “Pet Sematary” written by Stephen King

    The whole story started from the day the Creed family moved to Maine. There were four members and a cat in this family, Louis(father), Rachel(mother), Ellie(daughter), Gage(little son), and Church(cat). They moved from a big city to a suburb due to the new job of Louis’s to run an infirmary at the University of Maine. In front of their new house was a big road where a lot of big trucks ran through, and behind was a path stretching far away to a wood. Both the road and the wood played such an important role in this book that everything that happened in this book had something to do with them.

    Jud Crandall, the Creed family’s new neighbor across the road, in my speculation, must have been an important role given the fact that he was the only neighbor who was mentioned by the author in the first two hundred pages. He was an eighty-five years old man and had a wife called Norma. Jud and his wife had been living there through their whole life. When Jud saw a new family was moving in, he came across the road to offer help initiatively. Even though Jud not only helped deal with Gage’s sting by a bee but also accepted Ellie’s request to navigate their way through the path behind their house to take a look at what it looked like inside, I still feel iffy about this man because the way he grinned described by the author seems eerie to me.

    As he had promised, Jud took the Creed family walk along the path and up into the wood. There was a pet cemetery located in the wood, and its arch said “Pet Sematary”, which was misspelled by children. The visit there was the first time Ellie touched the issue of death. After they got home, Ellie started to ask Louis tons of questions about if Church will also die one day and why it cannot live as long as humans do. I noticed that Louis had a positive attitude when being asked these tough questions by his daughter because he as a doctor, thought that death is as a natural phenomenon like birth. Therefore, he answered these questions as honestly as he could. However, when Rachel heard Louis’s conversation with their daughter, she was totally pissed off. I was pretty shocked by how overreacting Rachel had been. I understand that some parents’ concerns about telling the truth to a young kid about death, but the degree of Rachel’s reaction was totally out of my imagination. It turned out that Rachel’s unwillingness to face death problems had something to do with her older sister who died young. I haven’t read the details about how Rachel’s sister died and how did this affect Rachel’s perspective of death, but I know this incident must have traumatized Rachel seriously.

    Here comes the main part of the story, when Rachel bought Ellie and Gage back to her parents’ home on Thanksgiving while Louis decided to stay due to his unpleasant relationship with his father&mother-in-law, something bad was going to happen. “There is a dead cat lying on my lawn. You may want to come over and make sure if it is Church” Jud said when talking on the phone with Louis. Oh my, this is out of the blue. A few days ago, Louis was comforting her daughter with an assertive statement that Church wouldn’t die within these recent years after his daughter knew the fact that Church would die one day. What a slap in the face, I thought. When I started to think how Louis was going to tell his daughter and how disastrous the process would be, how the plot proceeded was totally different from what I was thinking. Jud offered to take Louis to go somewhere in the wood to bury Church. Surprisingly, this “somewhere” wasn’t the Pet Sematary, where nearly all dead pets were buried, but was somewhere far deeper inside of the wood. What’s the point walking all the arduous way through the wood to another cemetery, I wondered, so did Louis. During the process of their march to that cemetery, I felt Jud suspicious again, due to the unclear purpose of doing this. It looked like to me that Louis was likely to die any minute on the way. After Louis buried Church, he asked Jud the purpose of bringing him here, but Jud didn’t answer directly. Wasn’t that worth suspecting?

    The answer revealed itself the next morning with the return of Church, the alive one. It didn’t surprise Louis too much because he had more or less figured out by himself that something like this would happen. In contrast, I didn’t expect this at all, which was ridiculously interesting that I was more excited than Louis. 

    I’m looking forward to getting to know how this incident would change Louis’s life and how the story would proceed.

A New World – Embrace it or Criticize it

Hello, everyone! This is Judy’s new post – log 4. Since I finished reading the novel “Pet” a few weeks ago, I am going to share a new book called “Brave new world.”

It is written by Aldous Huxley. The topic of this novel is the same as my last novel which is about “utopia.” Nevertheless, there are still a lot of extremely different descriptions and points of view among these two books.

At first, I wonder what the exact definition of utopian and dystopian literature is. I personally suppose that whether the novel is utopian or dystopian depends on how you think because perspectives vary from person to person. Even if the author writes in the tone of sarcasm, readers may be unable to recognize it. Hence, from my own perspective, I think that this novel “Brave new world” is a dystopian story.

“Brave New World” was a science fiction novel published in 1932, which was between the time of World War One and World War Two. At that time, themes of the literature in the aftermath of World War one centered on serious issues, especially political and social aspects. After reading some information regarding this dark time, I found that the aversion to war, a fight for something such as tyranny, and abuse of technology were actually the popular topics for the writers. Basically, at such sorrowful time, there was no so-called happy ending like the story of hero-and-heroine rescue, and this novel I was about to share as follows was no exception.

At the beginning of the story, the setting of the story timeline was in the future. It was a world beyond our imagination. The authority made every effort to create an ideal society. They regarded “stability” as the most crucial element to accomplish it. First of all, they made use of genetic engineering like artificial wombs to control the number of newborn babies. Besides, based on intelligence and labor, they also automatically divided all citizens into five groups before birth called the caste system. The higher level a baby was designated, the brighter future he or she would have. At such a level, s/he would be cultivated as a future authority who had the supreme authority. In contrast, the lower level a baby was, the less power s/he had. They were bred to be menial laborers. Secondly, to achieve a stable society, the authority still needed to control people’s ideas. This was still not too perverted to believe. What’s worse, they even adopted a disgusting strategy of making people lose the ability to think and judge such as the obstruction on the transportation of oxygen to the brain. In short, the authority thought that not until they controlled the general populace’s interests, hobbies, occupations, and so on did they dominate a society.

After reading a few pages of this novel, it occurred to me that there was a similar unequal caste system in our real world in India. In terms of the Indian caste system, each level of people had corresponding occupations they needed to do. In my opinion, such an injustice and discrimination couldn’t be eliminated completely even though the policy had been abolished by Indian law long time ago. When it comes to the disadvantages of the caste system, most people should be able to come up with a few viewpoints. For example, people at the lower level were excluded from a lot of things. What’s worse, the lower level of people was likely to be pushed to a state of lower than of an animal. Enmity and hatred had increased gradually amongst the members of high and low caste. Nonetheless, wasn’t there any merit of this system? I suppose not. To some extent, the caste system had provided a definite professional career to each individual. Everyone basically got at least a job whether he or she liked it or not. Apart from this, other scholars had claimed that the caste system was the main cause of stability and contentment. Thus, back to the story, I would like to ask myself “in comparison with the caste system in the real world, was the caste system in this story suitable?” I would probably still answer no because a number of demerits indeed needed to be solved and improved. Besides, there still should be another acceptable way to create a stable society.

When it comes to the power of the authority in this novel, I personally considered that the authority just wished for their own happiness by causing pain to others. They enjoyed dominating and controlling others. In contrast, the lower level of people was born to be inferior to others. They did hard and tough work as well as relatively unskilled manual labor. They felt neither happy nor satisfied; instead, the authority was happy but “never” satisfied. Everything was destined. Nothing could be changed even if people at the lower level were hard-working.

To sum up, in terms of the descriptions of this novel, I strongly feel the fear of losing individual identity. In addition, with the advancement of technology, such technologies as artificial wombs mentioned in the novel might appear in our world in the future. As AI has appeared in our world and replaces a lot of humans’ jobs, who knows what technology will also appear in our future.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

The second book I am going to read is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator which is the sequel of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was the first book I have read. Since the first one was insanely interesting, I decided to choose this one which I am looking forward to knowing what will happen to this lucky little boy and his family.

The last scene in my first book halted at Charlie’s home where Mr. Wonka picked up Charlie’s whole family and moved them by glass elevator. Since they had to go back to the chocolate factory, they now needed more gravities which will be produced by dropping from a higher place. When Mr. Wonka was trying to control the sufficient heights the elevator should achieve. At the moment, the anxious Grandma Josephine shotted out a wrinkled old hand and grabbed Mr. Wonka by the coat-tails and yanked him backwards to stop him control the heights. Then the tragedy happened, the elevator went too far away and it laid on the orbits at last. Here began the cool journey they were going to adventure.

The book in the front page was mainly describing what happened when they lived in the space which was non-gravity, and I found it very interesting to share with you. Because of non-gravity, they were all floating in the glass elevator, when Charlie was trying to move, he didn’t know how to make it. Therefore, Mr. Wonka taught him, first, took a deep breath, then you made a small round hole with your mouth and you blew as hard as you can. If you blew upward, you jet-propel yourself down. If you blew to the right, you shot off to the left, like you had to imagine yourself as self-controlled jet craft. Suddenly, all of the people in the elevator started to practice this business of flying, and the whole elevator was filled with the blowing and snorting of the passengers, as for grandma Georgina who hated being here was no exception, she could not resist blowing and she kept crashing around. This part really makes me laugh, because of grandma’s contrast, how hard she had tried to blow, whenever I read this part, I can imagine the scene and atmosphere which always makes me laugh heartily.

The last part which I think is the highlight and the most exciting one is that Charlie’s whole family and Mr. Wonka were all mistaken as eight aliens by the cabinets in the government of the United States. You must think how come can people be mistaken as aliens, right? It is because that when the government of the United States was trying to freeze them because they think there are 8 Astronauts trespassed to their property. When it came to the crunch, the genius confection producer Mr. Wonka who was trying to protect eight people’s life made an unearthly sort of scream, and the scream totally scared away the others who were listening to this on the earth. Finally, Mr. Wonka made the government believe that he was alien, and the government didn’t dare to make a move to hurt them now but try to butter them up to prevent “aliens” to be too cross to attack the earth.

I find what Mr. Wonka have done in such crisis which would possibly took eight people’s life is intelligent and clever. Don’t have to mention make such high frequency sound is definitely not normal people can achieve but electrics. Besides, when he was facing crisis, he still can spin his brain unlike people usually would mess their tempo of thinking and be anxious. Hence, the way he behaved in such crisis is what I have to improve and learn since if the same scenario occurred to me, and I have to face such dangerousness I might be more agitated. Thanks to this book for amazing me again with both interesting and educated side.

Brave to love.

 

Hi! Welcome to Maxine’s blog post ：）

The perks of being a wallflower is the book that I am reading. The reason why I choose this book is not only because it’s similar to the last book, but because I love to read content written in a diary version. When enjoying the fantasies, I feel closer and related to the words since keeping a diary is what I will do in my daily life. Also, the story is mainly about a teenager turning from a shy boy to be an outgoing person, which has a lot of similarities when I go through my learning stages.

 

The character named Charlie is a so-called “wallflower” boy whom people will not notice. Due to his shy personality, Charlie can hardly figure out how to talk with others. Once, he beat his classmate, Sean, because of Sean’s provocation for Charlie’s timidity to fight with him. And then, Charlie indeed hurt Sean, but he turned out to burst out crying. It is until he meets the siblings, Sam and Patrick, that he gradually opens his mind to people and makes friends with others.

 

I’m not sure whether my assumption is correct since I haven’t finished the novel yet. But In my opinion, it seems that every character has their own secrets like every friendship in our lives. What an authentic fact!

 

Patrick looks like an ordinary human as others do. However, he falls in love with Brad, which means he is a homosexual. Both of them keep it a secret since they don’t dare to make it public for fear of getting criticisms. They need to pretend to be strangers when encountering each other at school. It reminds me of my friend, who is also a homosexual but acts differently from the story.

 

I have known him since junior high school. He is popular with the whole students for not only being interesting but also being a “homosexual.” Yes! Don’t doubt yourself! Almost everyone knows that he is gay. My friend is proud of being gay because he considers it a general thing. In fact, it is actually usual to be a homosexual since no one can decide their sexual orientation. We are born this way, so all we need to do is embrace and cherish this gift. However, most people tend to discriminate against homosexuals because they think homosexuals are different and disgusting, which upsets me very much. Why do people need to see others with judgments and stereotypes? Whenever hearing the news regarding people protesting against the legalization of same-sex marriage and roasting their existence in society, I always wonder what if they are homosexuals? What will they feel if people judge their sexual orientation and think of them as whom mislead others’ children? For me, everyone has the same right to live the life they want. We don’t have the power to interfere with others’ lives merely based on their sexuality. They don’t harm us or commit crimes to influence society. They are only humans who desire to have the same lives as we do.

 

The most unforgettable sentence during these pages is “We accept the love we think we deserve.” At first, I think it doesn’t make sense to me since love is equal and reasonable. It is like an equation. I always ask for something in return if I spend lots of time and strength remaining our love as the original, which is filled with freshness and affection. But now, it is until I meet my boyfriend that I realize love is not based on what I receive and give out. By contrast, it is about whether I can keep my self-esteem and let my guard down when spending time with him. Choosing the one who you deserve to love is critical because you won’t feel pressure and compare with him at all times. Last but not least, love should keep by both of the two people. They need to put lots of effort to nourish their relationship. So, accept who you are and who he is and pursue the love that we deserve.

Reflection on 13 Reasons Why (p.174-288)

 

Hi! This is Tina again, and I’m going to share my reflection on the following chapters. And this will be the final reflection on 13 reasons why, too.

Reading to the end, I gradually figured out the whole story. The reasons, stories connected with each other one by one as the tapes playing. As Hannah mentioned, rumors, jokes, and misunderstandings became bigger and bigger as the butterfly effect. The things which seemed small combined with each other and then getting bigger.

As saying goes, it’s the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. To Hannah, the last straw are Mr. Porter and Clay. For Mr. Porter, a counselor, I personally thought he was too careless. The note that suggested him to discuss “Suicide” in class and the talk with Hannah were clues for him to know there were something wrong on his students. However, these were all afterword. Since they didn’t find out that Hannah needed help, they didn’t give her a hand in time. As a teacher and counselor, Mr. Porter must want to help her, but sometimes, it is hard for students to reveal all the things to teacher or seniors. So, until Hannah died, they finally knew the reason. On the other hand, clay didn’t insist to stay when Hannah asked him to leave, which let him lose the chance to help and understand her. Reading to this, I considered it as a reminder for me to be concerned about people around myself. It is important to show your concern, love and care in time. No one know what the world it is in the next second. Avoiding regretting, cherish every person that appeared in one’s world and cherish every moment to stay together.

The bad things happened on her one by one which damaged her reputation. Even though she knew that was not her, she ran out of strength to fight back. Just like what she said, “How could I tell someone—someone I was really talking to for the first time—everything I was thinking?” Sometimes, we were too shy. Sometimes, the occasion didn’t fit. So, we lost the opportunity to ask for help. And sometimes, this could lead to awful consequence, like Hannah. In my opinion, asking for help wasn’t a shame, but a relief. A relief for ourselves. No one could deal with everything on their own, and that’s why we needed friends, family, and someone we loved. It wasn’t meaning to show our weakness on them but it will a chance to tie us up.

Besides, I like the way the author arranged the story. Using Italic for Hannah’s recording in the tapes helps readers to distinguish the content in the tapes with others. I think this is an effective way to let readers know what’s going on in a short time, which is also creative, comparing with using “Hannah said in the tape, …”. Writing it directly will be so boring and repeating the same sentences for too many times will annoy the readers. Also, there are some icons between lines, like pause and stop. (Picture below) Although there are none of the illustration in this book, readers can still visualize the words in their minds thanks to the icons. In my opinion, these two are just suitable for the content. Not too many, but enough to make it better.

This book is so inspiring and worthy reading. Teenagers always did something stupid and hurt others accidentally. For many, teenagers in this period are the most childish and unable to guess. It is hard for teachers and parents to teach them the principles and rules. I think this book can be a good material to remind them that being careful on your behavior and words, or the consequence might be horrible.

As a conclusion, I want to encourage all of you and myself to ask, “How are you recently?” to people around us. As the disease and technology bring the relationship far away, we seldom have spare to be concerned about those around us. But remember, just a simple question can send our concern and give warmth and happiness to them! I’ll be the first one to begin.

How are you recently?

Things to do on 10/27

 Dear all,

I am done reading your draft 1 for essay 1. I'll return them to you, and our individual conferencing will begin soon after appointments are made. My work schedule is extremely tight this week, so some appointments may have to proceed during the evening or even the weekend. That could be counted as your workshop hour. 

Tomorrow, after your sharing, we'll read another narrative essay that the writing style is not only fluent with a nice flow of narration, but captivating in the plot arrangement. 

Then I'll use one of your senior's midterm projects and my own presentation as examples for your midterm presentation. 

The following part will be about your writing: 1. I'll return your draft 1 for essay 1 with my comments. 2. Then we'll review quickly "how to write effective descriptions," "topic sentence" and "thesis statement," because I don't mind reminding you again and again until you know how to produce them in your essay, :)!

Because I will have to attend an international conference right on 12:00. I may have to leave a bit earlier. But, I will post a table of appointment time slots for you to fill in, OK?

PS. Starting from your draft 2, please submit all works (in WORD, not PDF) via MOODLE. I'll do the printing.

See you in the morning!

An important reminder!

 Dear all,

You were surprised that there seems no work to do for this week! 

Sorry, I was wrong!

Please check our syllabus: you shall be working on your outline for your Narrative Essay. As we read Helen Keller's writing, one student sample essay, and my short reminders on the principles for a narrative essay, please do prepare to share your first outline for Essay 2!

Thank you! 

Happy reading, thinking, and planning!

How Humanity Ruined the Perfect Economic System

 Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

  In the past two weeks, I have been able to dig deeper into the theories of Marx’s theories. For example, I know why it failed – for the most obvious reason: Marx overlooked humanity. Humans are greedy, selfish, aggressive and competitive. While Marx’s economic system is a dream of utopia, it is yet only a dream.

 

  As I was reading, I thought to myself: why human beings cannot refrain oneself into their greedy desires and try to make this utopia society come true? After all, resisting this small temptation might benefit human society as a whole in the long term since in Marx’s vision, society would be in peace, free of war and corruption, discrimination and inequality. Any rational person would agree that Marx’s theories regarding the economic system is the most ideal situation that the human society can develop into. Then why do so many people oppose of this system?

 

  In the perspective of the working class, it is difficult to put full trust into the ruling class that they will act accordingly to how they should when applying this economic system. I have heard many stories from people around me which they complain that their manager or company do not give them a fair amount of wage regarding their work. In order for Marxism to work, people need to have full trust in each other, but trust is hard to build and easy to break. In modern day society, trust between the ruling class and the working class are significantly lacking and people might fail to act according to Marx’s theories leading to a failure in achieving a utopian society.

 

  In the perspective of the ruling class, Marxism definitely harms their privileges. Under the current economic system of capitalism, the ruling class can gain more and even enjoy more rights than those of the working class. Their future generations may enjoy these privileges as well. There is no direct reason to why they would act according to Marxism and live their lives as equals to the working class. If I was a member of the ruling class, I would like to keep my privileges and fortune for myself and my loved ones instead of making sacrifices for the majority of the society in which I have no blood relation or emotional linkage to. It just doesn’t seem beneficial to me in any way.

 

  Then I ask myself, why do people support Marxism if it really is as not-beneficial as I find it. Till this day, there are still many people who support it and some countries who still see Marxism as an ultimate goal. How did that happen? Or is it just a lie to make those who are underprivileged feel better?

 

  According to my memory, China praises Marxism and adapts an economic system that is a mix of Marxism and modern Capitalism. Originally, it was pure Marxism but corruption reeked the governmental offices and people were not satisfied with how things went. Later on, the government allowed private ownership in order to compete with other large and strong countries like the United States and Britain. I see this as a failure of trying to apply Marxism to an entire country. But I like to think that if education was properly conducted among all people while corruption didn’t exist, it might’ve worked out. From what my grandparents mentioned to me, during the old times, China faced serious corruption and the people faced starvation. My grandmother’s youngest brother starved to death when he was still a child. It breaks my heart to know that. If Marxism was implemented as how it should’ve been, they might not have needed to face poverty and he might have survived and succeeded in life as a person today.

 

  In the end, humanism caused all of this but humanism can fix this. The more I know about Marxism, the more I hope it could’ve been perfectly implemented. Though I don’t think it would happen in my time, I hope it’d happen in the future where everyone is united and determined to be better and create a better environment to live in.

 

  Do I support Marxism now? Not really. I still think it’s too childish and more of a daydream than an economic system. But do I wish for this daydream to come true? Maybe, when the right time comes and we can prevent Marxism from failing again like how it did in the 20^th century China.

Log 3

Hello everyone, this is a reflection on chapters 4-6 of pride and prejudice and I will state important points of each chapter. So, in the following story, Jane expressed to Elizabeth that how much she admired Mr. Bingley and how much she was flattered by Bingley asking her to dance a second time. For Jane, she was not surprised at all. She is quite confident in her sister. In their conversations, I see that Jane is five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. Also, Elizabeth said that Jane is "Never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in her eyes, and never speak ill of a human being in her life." which makes her seem angelic but also naive. When I was reading, I was thinking about whether we should be like her? "blind to the follies and nonsense of others, and always take the good of everybody's character and make it still better and say nothing of the bad." That is a question for me to ponder.

 

Bingley and Darcy's friendship is explained as a very steady friendship, in spite of great opposition of character. Bingley has an easy manner and Darcy has a more stringent personality. Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared, Darcy was continually giving offense. After the ball, Bingley was delighted with the locals (especially Jane) but Darcy considered them plain and uninteresting.

 

Everyone agrees that Bingley likes Jane. Then the conversation quickly shifts to Darcy. Apparently, he offended everyone who tried to speak with him. Charlotte (Elizabeth's intimate friend) consoles Elizabeth about Darcy's insult and wishes he would have agreed to a dance, but she adds that Darcy's pride may be forgiven because of his high standing and fortune. Elizabeth responds that she could forgive his pride if he hadn't insulted her own. What Charlotte suggests also makes me ponder again, which is "Pride isn't always bad. Indeed, pride can help protect a family's reputation, or can provide the motivation to help people" She is right, in my opinion, Pride has pros and cons. It can prevent you from being underestimated, but it may also make you an enemy.

 

Jane could not like Bingley's sister because although they are kind to Jane, she thinks it is all because of the influence of their brother's admiration. She also saw superciliousness in their treatment of everyone. She thinks that they are well-educated but conceited. During the conversation of Elizebeth and Charlotte, what Charlotte said is worth thinking " We can all begin freely_ a slight preference is natural enough, but there are very few of us who have heart enough to be really in love without encouragement." In chapter six, we finally see the progress of Darcy and Elizebeth's relationship. As he spends more time with Elizebeth, Darcy begins to notice Elizebeth's beauty and verve. He even wanted to invite her to dance at a party, Sir William Lucas also tries to set up Darcy and Elizabeth to dance, unfortunately, she refuses.

Before I end my vlog I would like to share one idiom that I learned from this chapter Keep your breath to cool your porridge" which means focus on yourself and your life, rather than other people's lives and issues.

 

This is all about the story I read. The most helpful thing for me to read this novel is to learn more vocabulary. I feel like I can only get a surface message because of my shortness of comprehension, So if you feel that you don't get anything deeper from my description, please excuse me. Thank you.

The old man and the sea

"I tried to portray a real old man, a real kid, a real sea, a real fish and a lot of real sharks," Hemingway said. However, if I can write realistic enough, they can represent many other things. The story tells me a lot of things other than that. The most important thing is to learn from that perseverance. Everyone is their own brave, never expect any help and comfort from others, only with their own perseverance to challenge their goals, that goal will be closer and closer to their own. In fact, when you work hard and try to do one thing, the result is not so important anymore, because from the process you can enjoy a lot of different things. At the end of the day, the old man caught the fish, but at the end he came ashore with only one bone left. Can you say he didn't get anything because he didn't get a good result? In fact, he gets much more than you see. In this journey, he has gained not only that fish, he has gained a strong heart and the spirit of never give up. He is not afraid of the others’ eye, nor is he afraid of ridicule of public, he chooses to do what he wants to do and insist on what he wants to do. No one will not encounter setbacks in his own life, the most difficult is how to stand up in frustration and start again, and still maintain the original share of the original heart. After reading this book, I actually got a lot of inspiration, he let me know that not only having good results are successful, the process is the point to determine how much they can get in this journey of life. If the old man had succeeded in the beginning, the book would not have been so interesting. It is because he succeeds in his efforts and fearlessness that his success seems to be so meaningful. Old man and sea, one is huge one is small, when a small thing triumphed over this huge, such a victory would become more meaningful and wonderful. Everyone backs down in difficulties, and as long as you can hold on, that ultimate success is yours. There are many different crises in seemingly calm days. Sometimes in life, when you try your best to do something, it doesn't have to be good. Even if you've done your best, even if it is unfair, not everything will follow your own ideal blueprint because there's so much helplessness in life. We must have a belief in ourselves, never be defeated by difficulties, and insist on what we really think is right. Sometimes others may not understand you, but as long as you think it is right, then go ahead without hesitation! The vast and boundless sea is like a long journey of life, sometimes something would accidentally happen in your life. We are always fighting monsters in the deep sea and try win the fight for ourselves. Life is an endless pursuit, it is very long and difficult, but as long as we learn to enjoy it, we can like the elderly, overcome himself to get only his own treasure.

 

A Piece of Home: An Ethiopian Refugee Remembers the Home She Left Behind

An example of video narrative. But, I think you can do better!

Things to do on 10/18

Dear all, 

One-fourth of the semester is gone, and I am expecting to see any type of progress from you. Too quick? Well, time waits for no one!

For tomorrow, one of your peers will be sharing something. I expect that you share not only your selected passage or quote, but your deliberate thoughts and insights after reading it. 

Second, I'll begin talking about our next chapter on writing: Narration. Reading together is always a must. I found you keen on discussing the structure of essays, which is very good! I hope you'll be even more expressive during the discussion. Again, we'll have one student sample essay and one professional essay. A good grasp of the structure of the reading materials definitely impacts your own way of organization. And, also, please note how language and word choice are practiced in these essays to enrich the description and enhance the storytelling.

Therefore, let's see your draft 1 and see for each other how we can improve on our own writing. Remember, I hope we can help each other check if a sound thesis statement and proper topic sentences exist. If needed, a quick review of  thesis statement and body paragraph will be conducted (we skipped it as some said there is no need to repeat the lesson, remember?). 

I'll also deliver my own sharing at the end. 

ps. From today on, you'll have two weeks to give feedback to three of your friends' reading logs. 

See you all tomorrow!

Lord of the flies

        Finishing the first chapter, more and more characters are being revealed. The author brought out some characters with stronger personalities, in the assembly which Ralph gathered them by blowing the creamed pink colored conch.A choir appeared wearing cloak, the leader Jack seems to be an arrogant and overbearing person that he wouldn’t let the choir to seat down or even take off the cloaks under the burning sun. The kids started to voting for the chief of all of them, and Jack step out to be the leader without any doubts, since he was the leader of the choir. However, the kids finally chose Ralph to be the leader for being the one that blew the conch and gathered everyone together. Unexpectedly, Ralph handled the situation very well, he brought Jack, Simon, the kid that passed out once in the heat, with him to go on a mountain to find out whether this is an island or not. During the climbing, a piglet were stuck in creepers, screaming and throwing itself at the Islamic trace with all the madness and terror. The boys were trying to hunt it. Jack took out his blade, and raised his bony arm in the air. However, he paused at the moment he was going to stab it, and the piglet escaped from the creepers and ran away. The boys realized the enormity of a downward stroke, they were terrified. When they finally got on the mountain, they found out it was really an island, that has no smoke, no village, no people living on it. I think that was the very first time for them encountering the reality of surviving on the island. 

There were one sense that I found interesting, is when Jack called the fat boy “Fatty”, Ralph correct him with “Piggy”, and the kids were laughing to Piggy. Later on, when Piggy asked why did Ralph tell others about his nickname and laugh about it, Ralph told him that Piggy is better than Fatty, and apologized for making him felt bad. Also, when the kids found out that they might be no one coming to rescue them, they started to panic, but again, Ralph used a strong and passionate voice to encourage the assembly to try to live by the resources they had found on the island, and  meanwhile have fun. From the conversation I feel like Ralph is one person who can be a great leader that knows how to raise or ease peoples emotions. I myself think it is very difficult to be a leader of a group, even though I’m not a quiet or shy person, being a leader still makes me feel stressful and pressured. I'm the kind of person who can be the noisiest person in the group but sometimes in different groups I can be very shy and wouldn't have the courage to speak up, it usually depends on whether the surrounding people are close to me. Because of the personality, I was often be assigned to be the group leader, but don't know how to speak out. The main reason may be the lack of confidence I have makes me don't know how to lead a team. Therefore, reading about a 12-year-old boy being able to manage a group so well, even when they were in such a dangerous and unsure situation, really makes me admires him. I have been imagining if I was one of the kids on the island, then how would I reacted to the condition and reality. I might be the one crying for wanting to go home, and couldn’t stand taking the bath in the river, or hunting meals by ourselves, sounds dirty and exhausted to survive in such place. It is still hard for me to picture a bunch of kids that were under 12 to live on the island by themselves, really looking forward to se how they get through such a hardship. I’m guessing that some of the kids may be dead in the story, I should be prepared for the fact of their death.

So far the book seems to becoming easier than before, because of the repetition of the words that I don’t know, and the deeper understand of the whole plot. The story is becoming more interesting and exciting at the same time, more and more different people have talked and interacted with one another, the personalities were characterized even much clearer from the multiple conversations. I'm looking forward for the plot to continue rising in the following story, and the changes between the relationships, or maybe some detail stories from some main characters backgrounds.

The most distinctive and courageous woman to be a doctor

 

Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910)

     In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in history, achieved her medical degree in the United States. She had been through so many insurmountable obstacles on her path to obtain the recognition in school. Although she overcame them and her efforts paid off eventually, the hardships to practically work as a physician in society overwhelmed her more than the ones did in medical school.

     At first, she wanted to rent a doctor’s suite to open an office, making professional visits to patients. However, there’s no one admitting a woman physician. All she could receive is always the same point, she is a woman and women could not be physicians. No matter what she said, she never got a different response. This plot reminds me of the problems of graduate employment and the difficulties of women’s status in workforce nowadays. As a college student, who’s going to have a job in the society within years, I can particularly understand how despaired and helpless she was to confront such a difficulty. Even if I am majoring in Applied Foreign Language, which is studied by mostly females, when it comes to workplace, the lack of gender equality is still a controversial issue that gets me feeling worried. If I were Elizabeth, who was discouraged and frustrated when just entering the workforce, I could probably be overwhelmed by the tremendous stress and becoming more than ever anxious. However, Elizabeth was never ordinary as she not only overcame it again but also set up her own lectures, entitled The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls, inclusively for ladies, which was the first step for her ambition to build a school to train nurses.

     “What’s the use of half-measures? When a thing has to be done, it has to be done!” The words are said by Elizabeth Blackwell. She said it with much anger and determination when her sister showed a frightened look for her idea of setting up a school for nurses and a woman’s hospital.

     Here I want to take up the statement above made by Elizabeth. The meaning of it is quite similar to my own values. Like Elizabeth does, I hate half-measures. In my perspective, they are all pointless and unhelpful. Some people may possess the idea that there is still some value of half-measures such as the experience acquired through the process. Nevertheless, couldn’t the work which is completely done bring people more useful experience? Apart from that, Elizabeth’s words also remind me of one of my mother’s idea of raising kids. Once she said that she doesn’t want me to have good grades; instead, she wants me to absorb and comprehend the knowledge I have learned. There’s a same connotation of Elizabeth’s statement and my mother’s words. That is the responsibility of doing anything. Once we start getting the ball rolling, we should and we have the duty to have things done no matter how good or bad the consequence is. In other words, the last thing we should do is giving up.

     At last, I still want to point out Elizabeth’s courage again. When she had no patients to treat owing to her different gender, instead of seeking help from others or giving up, she stepped out of her office, finding people in need of medical assistance in ghettos on her own. This independent woman and her action indeed touched my heart. Moreover, what she did shows that her ambition is no longer merely opening her school and hospital, or fighting for women’s rights of medical education. Her will and her aspiration have a strong bond with the welfare of the whole society, which could never be found if she was not Elizabeth Blackwell. As a result, this distinctiveness enabled her to have a life that had never been lived by others before. Even though she could only live against every species of social opposition at that time, the influence she brought to the society is more immense than anyone could expect.

Pain demands to be felt.

 

Augustus stepped toward him and looked down. “Feel better?” he asked. “No,” Isaac mumbled, his chest heaving. “That’s the thing about the pain,” Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. “It demands to be felt.”

Let’s talk about pain. How do you usually deal with it?

Pain could be of many forms. 

For patients with cancer, they go through physical pain that is beyond description and inevitable every day. Some people, like those people in the Support Group, face their pain positively and receive the treatments periodically with doctors’ instructions. However, pain can also be hard to aware of by people, or even neglected, which is the worst thing that could ever happen, reminding me of a drama I recently watched called Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. There was an elder who refused to receive treatment from the dentist because she didn't want the dental implementation fee to be a burden to her son, even though she could hardly chew and her son is rich as an accountant. The dentist, whose mom is dead early owing to the neglect of her pain, told the elder, “It is parents’ responsibility to take care of themselves. You have to face the pain and resolve it as long as you can. Do not think that your pain can be troublesome to children. You’ll make children guilty if they are not able to give you the best medical support.” People tend to pretend that they are fine instead of confessing their discomfort because they deny facing their weakness and helplessness. Nevertheless, facing your weakness is an obligation. It does not necessarily mean you are worthless if you got a disease. Like what Hazel’s father told her, “You’re not a grenade. You are amazing. The joy you bring us is so much greater than the sadness we feel about your illness.” To summarize, when it comes to the unfamiliar physical pain, face it bravely, fight with it, and feel nothing terrible about it, for yourself and for people who care about you.

         As for emotional pain, it is even more complicated. In the story, Isaac, who was a mutual friend of Hazel and Augustus from the Support Group, was dumped by his girlfriend because she could not accept the fact that Isaac is about to become blind. Hence, Isaac started blaming himself with tears keep coming out of his eyes, and then he started kicking, throwing, and breaking anything in his sight. Yet, these actions did not relieve his pain, as Augustus indicated. Reflecting on ourselves, we must have some moments that we suffer from emotional pain, but we don't feel like trying to stop the wound from bleeding. Rather, we seek other distractions or ways to vent our feelings, which is like simply put a band-aid on a deep wound. The problem is that underneath the band-aid, the wound is still there. That’s what pain is like. You attempt every method to escape from the truth, but there is no denying that the wound still hurts. Maybe there is no specific way to help soothe the suffering because "pain demands to be felt." 

DILEMMA- The Difficulties of Making Decisions for Our Lives

 

Hi guys~ It's the one and only Felix again.

    I have to confess one thing, I didn't really read through many chapters this time, but the reason behind it is that the chapters I've covered focus right on the inside voice of Connell, he conveyed his worries about the relationship with Marianne and also college applications. The chapters are very interesting and relatable, so I really want to have an in-depth reflection on these paragraphs. (it sounds like an excuse though) He had two choices, one is, to stay at his comfort zone and didn't need to worry about his social life and the drastic changes of his life, but on the other hand, he will lose Marianne eventually, because Marianne will move to another town and the chances they can get closer will be gone, and this is the last thing Connell would like to let it happen. But if he chose to major in English, he'll have to go to the same university as Marianne, but it means he will lose everything but Marianne. 

    He chose to conceal their relationship at school because he didn't want to put Marianne under the spotlight, but most importantly, he didn't want to lose friends and his social status. If their relationship got exposed, he'll become the boy that have sex with weirdos. He didn't want to break the balance between his socialize personality and his romance for Marianne, but college forced him to make decisions. He then fell into a dilemma which he wasn't able to find a way out. This setback had disturbed him for a long time and every time he wants to come up with a solution, it'll push him toward a deeper loop of self conflicts. Until one time, he invited Marianne to his house to "have fun", they had an in-depth conversation after about their upcoming college life, he finally made his decision. He didn't really tell Marianne about his worries but after he saw the reaction of her when he spoke about his thoughts of college application, he eventually found out that he cared more about Marianne than all the challenges he was going to face, his current determination is to not let Marianne down, and his biggest fear is the potential of him losing his love. 

    His dilemma got me thinking about the moment when I got the chance of auditioning for a big entertainment company in Korea. When I received the email from the company, I was thrilled and extremely excited. But after a short while, I fell into a dilemma just like Connell, it was always a dream for me to become a singer, but I'll have to sacrifice everything I have right now, boyfriends, school, and even my family. Also, the uncertainty of being successful in the entertainment industry pulled me back. This is when my anxiety hits me so hard, I can't imagine the life without my boyfriend, it sounds very childish for a 20-year-old college student to say such thing, but our bond is very strong to a point that I have already dragged him into my future blueprint of life, and becoming a trainee means I have to "ditch" him and it's just not in my plan, also, I'll have to quit school to focus on becoming a singer, but if I didn't survive from the monthly evaluation for trainees, I'll have to go home, if so, how am I supposed to continue my previous plan. I convey my thoughts to my boyfriend and he said to me, why are you being so worried even though you haven't even try it? So I finally went to the audition, as soon as I finished, the company told me to sign the contrast with them to make sure how things are set, I told them that I need to think more about it. They gave me three days to reconsider and I need to contact them three days later whether what my decision is. 

    I went home and my boyfriend was waiting for me to tell him about the result, just as I imagine, he told me to go try it, but his face told the different. I asked him once again what should I do, he became silence, and he looked straight into my eyes and asked me, what's really in my mind. That is the moment I decide to turn down the opportunity of accomplishing my dream. I wasn't brave enough to give up everything I have currently just to chase a dream that maybe won't come true. I'm happy to stay in the current situation where my surroundings are full of energy and happiness. I then came to realize that I put my boyfriend as my priority in front of anything else, it can sometimes be toxic, but in my opinion, this is my respect to his ideas and thoughts. But I have to tell myself all the time that I'm living my life, if we got into the similar situation like this time, and he told me to do the things that isn't my intentions or I don't want to, I'll have to come up with a solution that can balance my actions and his expectations.

    After I read through more chapters, I can realize why some people call this novel as their life story, the plot itself is very relatable and fun to read, every chapter has some little things you can reflect it to yourself and can some how help you to solve your difficulties in any ways. Another thing I want to point out is that the author is very good at portraying the scene, she can describe the scene in details and it really helps me immerse into the story, as I'm reading the content, it just feels like the movie is playing in my mind so I can really reflect my life onto the plot. 

    The time flies very fast in this novel, the chapters can be stories that happened months or years later, which I'm guessing the next chapter will mainly focus on their college life. I want to see how the two character deal with the drastic changes in their lives and the challenges they are going to face, I'm looking forward to seeing how their relationship will go and their reaction of it. Also, this novel had been adapted into series which you can watch it online, if you want to know more about the story, and can't wait to see it since I'm uploading my log once two weeks, you can search it up online and watch the series. I bet it's amazing, but a quick disclaimer, the plot in the series maybe a little different from the novel, so if you watched the series, we can discuss the plot in the comment section below, I'll be very happy if you do so. <3

    See u in the next log, love u guys~

Freedom is being disliked by other people

    Finishing the following chapters 2 and 3 of the book ”The courage to be disliked”, I have something to share with you. Connected to the first part, the content is also between the dialogue of the youth and the philosopher, the youth still can not accept the concept of what the philosopher said about trauma and teleology theory. Thus, the youth came to meet the philosopher again to argue for his stand of point.

    In the beginning of their communication, the youth refute the teleology which is the study of purpose by asking what is the purpose of not liking ourselves, and he thinks there are no strong points about himself. Knowing the youth’s question, the philosopher said that not liking himself is a virtue to the youth, and he sees no strong point is the way to achieve the goal of not liking himself. The thought beneath it is that people tend to escape the truth that the disadvantage of you or the thing you don’t like of yourself is created by you because these are beneficial to you, and thus creating an image that if I did not have these weaknesses, I could achieve the things I wanted. Keep going on, the philosopher introduced the concept of “encouragement” in Adlerian psychology, which is focused on how to accept “yourself now”, and pointed out the youth’s fear of being refused by people and further got into the idea that all problems are interpersonal problems. In order to describe this idea more clearly, the philosopher mentioned another two nouns “inferiority” and “inferiority complex”, which have different meanings but are usually misapplied by people. Feeling of inferiority is a term that has to do with one’s value judgement of oneself, and the reason for it is that humans have the instinct to pursue superiority, and the inferiority complex is that people use the feeling of inferiority as a kind of excuse. Based on the Adlerian psychology, the inferiority is all out of subjective explanation not a comparison with others, and elicit the life is not a competition. Besides, Adlerian psychology denies the need to seek recognition from others, and the interpersonal relationship can be simple by separation of tasks and discarding others tasks.

    Overwhelmed with all the new viewpoints of Adlerian psychology, I did every effort to comprehend and accept these ideas which totally turned my thoughts, but I still found it difficult to do in some parts . First of all, the teleology theory can tell we sometime fall into a situation that we create a excuse to achieve the purpose to dislike ourselves, but we could do nothing to deal with it even we understand the reason. I believe it is not easy to transform the thinking of oneself in these few words, and as what was mentioned in this book, you are the only one who can change yourself. For those who are not willing to take action to make changes, or in other word, not having the courage, all of these are out of fantasy. Additionally, I understand that writing the log, how I feel about this book, is the most convincing provement that I do not have the encouragement to step forward, but no change in the feelings that I hate myself. Secondly, I have the question of how we balance fulfilling life tasks well between keeping our world simple by discarding others tasks. What’s more, I found it difficult to practice because we can not ask others to do so as we finally achieve how to discard others tasks, but our life tasks are connected to others. It comes to me as a classical example in modern society, emotional blackmail. Finally, the reel freedom is an attitude to push yourself from below and freedom is being disliked by other people is much easier for me to accept but I think it takes time not only to practice having the courage to enjoy the freedom. It is really hard and tough, sometimes it reveals all the recognition in your mind but you do admit that is right.

Reflection on 13 Reasons Why (p.54-173)

 

From these chapters, I want to share some points that are worthy sharing to you.

“But it’s more than just a scratch. It’s a punch in the stomach and a slap in the face. It’s a knife in my back because you would rather believe some made-up rumor than what you know knew to be true.”

I personally thought it was a successful description that used imaginable action and feeling to describe the abstract hurt. The author used scratch, punch, slap and knife to describe different degree of harm to make readers be able to imagine them in their mind. If the author just wrote “it makes me so painful that you…,” the effects must be smaller and readers would feel hard to relate themselves with how hurt it was to be misunderstood intentionally by those who actually knew the truth.

On the other chapter, the author used “driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you off the road” to describe the moment that Hannah realized what the world really was. She lost control of everything in her life and no one understood her; not to mention, stood by her side and supported her. Following with “Yet no matter how tightly you grip the wheel, no matter how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side.” This visualized how disappointed and helpless Hannah was. Though how hard you tried, the reality just kicked you and your effort away easily. I thought it was another great description to express feeling.

 

Besides, there was a specific chapter that I could feel and relate to most. On cassette 2: side B, Hannah revealed that one of her classmates, Tyler Down, stared through her bedroom window at night when she was alone and expected to see some secrets of her. And Hannah didn’t have any idea that she was watched by someone. Tyler must have prepared to do that, so he chose the day that Hannah’s parents weren’t at home. But what was he thinking to be a peeping Tom. When reading to this, I stayed and lived alone in my rented apartment at almost mid-night. With a window upper behind my head, the feeling of being scared suddenly swallowed me down. I couldn’t imagine if this happened on me, what could I do? Should I call someone for help? Should I pretend nothing happen and call the police in the bathroom? Or should I let he/she who stared me knew I noticed that and warned them? I had no idea.

 

There was another paragraph that inspired me since I would like to be a teacher in the future. One of Hannah’s teacher, Mr. Bradley, created an activity to let students concern about each other while other teachers cared about students’ grades more than their mental condition and their relationships. This activity encouraged them to write notes to others in order to show your concern which may be too embarrassed to tell face in face. In my opinion, it was an interesting and helpful activity for students to learn to keep their eyes on people and things around them. It reminded me an activity, “little angel” that I had attended in the elementary school. In the activity, there were two characters, little angel and master. Little angel should unconsciously take care of the master, and master needed to guess who his/her little angel was. Each participant would be the little angel and the master at the same time but to different person. Both these two activities, encouraging students to be concerned about others, were good for kids mental growth which I thought was even more important than the numbers on the paper. If one day, I become a teacher, I will conduct this kind activities on my students to make them learn from each other!

Log 3

 

Log 3

Greeting all the way from Taoyuan. Hello joyful people! it's Quinn again. Log 3 will be also about my reflection after reading the book Thirteen Reasons Why. And this time, I will be focusing more on the plot in the book (as you wish) and what I feel about it.

In case you didn't catch up last time, I'd like to do a short recap for you referring to the plot.

This book is about a girl, Hannah Backer, committing suicide and left a box of tapes telling the miserable reasons behind her death. And since Hannah died, Clay Jenson, the second main character is now listening to the tapes that Hannah left for them, or should I say: people who paid tribute to her death. The last log, log 2, was mainly talking about the backgrounds and the Netflix series comparison. I rarely mentioned the plots. So here it is!

Starting with the first person Hannah mentioned in the first tape, Justin. He was Hannah's first crush when she moved into a new school. But a rumor ruined her days in that school ever since. Justin made up a extremely "sexual" story about he and Hannah in a park, which was totally the opposite. It was just some ordinary kisses and loves. However, people buy things that interest them. People then view Hannah with a different look. Eventually, the truth under the rumors was buried along with Hannah's love for Justin. Eventually, it's becoming a reason why she kill herself.

The first reason is just "okay" for me. Nothing too much and nothing too special. It's about how influential can rumors be to teenagers. A girl wouldn't die for it, you might think. However, it does make Hannah to put this story into one of the thirteen tapes, didn't she? Then it comes to me that: How do people feel facing a rumor about themselves actually? Furious? Stressful? or just ignore it? Sometimes, ugly rumors do hurt people. However, that's under the condition of everybody are buying it. That's something I got from it. If a rumor got no believer, it has zero effect. But it is just so much easier to say than actually do it. Or there wouldn't be so many rumors flying around all the time.

The next story is also about a boy, Alex. She really didn't mention much about their relationship. Anyways, Alex made a list of girls who are hot and who are not. And expectedly, she was on the hot list categorized as the Best Ass In Freshmen. Thanks to the list, she started experiencing sexual harassment  from boys. People looked at her with uncomfortable whisperings. There was even an incident that a boy grab her ass kiddingly. And that was all coming from the list. Hannah think that Alex is supposed to take the responsibility of all the things happened to her. Because it gave them an excuse to do so.

Judging and tagging, it's just so teenagers' things. People must feel disappointed and upset when they're tagged or criticized negatively. When other people start to act considering these tags, that make you, as a flexible person stereotypical. It will get hard for you to get rid of the name given by other who don't necessarily know you for who you really are. The feeling of trapped inside the name surely hit Hannah hard. And things like this happen in all ages. Judging is surely harmless until you make a use of it unfairly. Here is the question for today: Have you ever judge people unfairly without really knowing them? Then how do you feel when you find out who that person really is?

Everything has two sides - Outside & Inside

 

(Imagine a world that is safe and peaceful. No murders, no crimes, and even no hatred! Would you like to live here forever?)

 

Hello, everyone. This is Judy's reflection on the novel "Pet."

Welcome to a “seemingly” unblemished society!

Ever since the protagonist Jam can remember, she has been taught “there are no monsters in the world anymore” by all the adults surrounding her. With the flying of time, there is something wrong in this society. One day, she accidentally scratches her finger and drops of her blood just drip on the painting that her mother has been drawing. In an instant her expression has turned out to be open-mouthed and stunned. She couldn’t believe what the no-eyed creature in front of her is and couldn’t figure out how everything works out. She has been wide-eyed in amazement for a few seconds. At that time, that creature says that “I am here to hunt a monster in your friend’s house.” Certainly, everything is too inconceivable for her to say anything even if she has a lot of doubts in her mind.

People in Lucille, the city in this story, generally recognize that monsters don’t exist at all. But actually, what is a monster? What does a monster look like? Is Jam’s friend sound now? What can she do if her friend is in peril? These questions occur to Jam one after another. She can’t help questioning what she had been taught about monsters before. Of course, as a reader, I am also curious about those things. Exactly as I guess, lies are full of her growing surroundings. Everyone lies to her, and her parents are no exception. Without a doubt, I would like to criticize how parents can do such things. Parents always play a considerable role in educating and being a role model for children. In addition, shaping the personalities and values of kids is one of the responsibilities for adults as well. However, in actual fact, all the adults in Lucille want nothing but protection for children. They not only establish a “perfect” and “safe” society but also prevent their children from knowing something appalling, hoping their children’s lives are as smooth as possible. From my own perspective, they are definitely so-called “helicopter parents.” Those teenagers always live in an overprotective society.

Nonetheless, even though Jam finds that her parents deceive her, she still has a clear head to know what matter prioritizes currently. She directly asks her mother without hesitation that she doesn’t want to take a risk of her best friend, Redemption’s life. Thus, all she can do is to believe that scary creature’s words and follow its instructions. But at the same time, how her parents are willing to put their daughter’s life at risk. They strongly disagree with her daughter’s decision. Hence, I ask myself when I face the dilemma of parents’ opposition and friend’s life, what actions would I take if I were Jam? I suppose that I will make the same decision as Jam because friendship can’t be overemphasized for me. No friendship, no life. Even if my parents desperately stop me from risking myself, I will still follow my heart due to the value of my own friendship. I will instantly help what I can help and do what I can do with all my might. Just as what Jam has mentioned to her best friend, “we are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, and we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” I really appreciate Jam’s viewpoints and disposition. In my opinion, she always has faith in what she thinks it’s right. Also, she is mature enough to know what life’s and friendship’s meanings are.

When it comes to the actual monsters, there is a turning point in the story. Monster is not a creature which looks frightening. Monster doesn’t have a massive body either. Monster is just the seamy side of humanity, including rapacity, selfishness, abuse to satisfy their own sordid desires. In the story, the real monster is Redemption’s uncle, not that no-eyed creature, Pet. Redemption’s little brother, Moss, has been abused by his uncle for a while. He doesn’t have the courage to leak any information to anyone because no one will believe his words. People in Lucille have been taught “there are no monsters,” so everyone will instead consider that he is out of his mind. Thus, thanks to Jam, Pet, and Redemption, Moss can have the possibility to escape from the psychopath. Pet indeed helps them a lot when finding the truth. It also gives “the real monster” a piece of its mind. With regard to this epilogue, it occurred to me that when I reflect on modern society, monsters exactly mirror our modern society. Pieces of news frequently expose crimes nowadays. Those law-breakers can all be depicted as “monsters.” After all, what they have done is not different from monsters.

Hence, after finishing reading this novel, I ask myself if a world looks perfect and safe on the outside such as Lucille in this story or a utopia, do I want to live there? My answer is “no” because there are a few reasons as follows. First of all, it is hard to keep secrets all the time. I have to keep track of them and make sure that they don’t jump out of my mouth. But why do I need to lead such an exhausting life? Secondly, always being kept in the dark is not pleasurable at all. The feeling of being betrayed and distrust upsets everyone. No matter how worse the situation is, I should have the right to know. Concealment can’t be acceptable all the time. Last, no murders, no crimes, and even no hatred on the onside don’t mean there is no corruption of humanity inside. I can’t only concentrate on the surface.