Sunday, June 9, 2013

Poem Project

Growth

 On a nameless beach in Victoria,
 A small tire was hanging from a tree,
 Waiting for young children to play with it.

 A vivid image of me playing on a tire rising in my mind,
 I excitedly ran to the tire and slid my body through it
 As if I were once again a young boy...

 Without the help of my father,
 Who used to lift me up to such high places,
 That day, I could reach the tire easily by myself.

 Sadly, my body became stuck and couldn't get out!
 There, I was standing with the tire around me like
 A finger suffering from a small ring that wouldn't come off.

 While I stood there with a silly look,
 I eventually realized that I had grown up

 Since I last played with a tire.


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Conch, the Mirror of Ralph's Authority (pages 16~36, 46~49, 89, 166~200)

"What's that?"
"A conch he called it."
"How did your friend blow this?" "He kind of spat."
Immediately, a deep, harsh note
Echoed back from pink granite of the mountain.
"There's one!" Signs of life were visible on the hot, dumb sand.
"Johnny." "Sam, Eric, Sam, Eric."

"Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing."
"Hold the conch when speaking. And he won't be interrupted. Except by me."
"I haven't finished yet."
"But you've talked and talked!"
"I've got the conch."
Jack sat down, grumbling.

"I got the conch, you let me speak!" "The conch doesn't count on top of the mountain."
"The conch! I got a right to speak!" Twins giggled.
"And I've got the conch-" "It doesn't count at this end of island."

Piggy lost his temper.
"I got the conch. I'm going to Jack an' tell him I am."
"You'll get hurt."
"I'm calling an assembly."
"Who says?" "I say! You voted for me for Chief!"
Piggy fell forty feet.
His head opened and stuff came out and turned red.


Video and Image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6NmwjKQjl8

Thursday, February 28, 2013

The English Patient- Last Reflection!!!

 Whoa... I doubted in the beginning if I could finish reading this book on time, but I finally did... It was a hard fight with myself to finish it a day before the test. As I have always felt, I realized that I should be more planned before starting the book and read it everyday little by little.
 The English patient, who is now discovered to be a Hungarian geographer Almasy, keeps telling the story about his lover, Katharine. After the disastrous event in the plane, Almasy brings Katharine to the cave and promises her that he will be back soon to rescue her. However, because of his mysterious identity, he is considered a spy for Germans and arrested for a few years. When he goes back to the cave, he finds the decaying body of his lover.
 After listening to all puzzles of his story, Hana no longer romanticizes him as an English war hero who fought for the country. She is still responsible for taking care of him, but she does not feel respect and love she felt before. Unlike her imagination of him, Almasy is in fact a selfish person who cheated on another man's woman, and he actually helped Germans find ways in the desert. Furthermore, Hana's scar in her mind is eventually healed when she writes her stepmother, Clara, about the death of her father, Patrick, and her emotional suffering.
 Significant change also comes to Kip. After he hears the news that the atomic bomb has been thrown to a Japanese city called Hiroshima by Americans, he becomes furious about the racist attitude of the Whites. He strongly believes that if Japan were the country of White people, Americans would never throw such powerful bomb to kill innocent citizens. He suddenly becomes suspicious about what benefit does his service for Britain bring. He starts to avoid white people, including Hana, and eventually leaves to go back to India. In India, he becomes a doctor and marries a woman and bears children. He occasionally thinks about Hana and still loves her, but he does not dare marrying her because she is Caucasian and he is Indian.
 In the past reflection, I wrote that unlike other war novels, <The English Patient> deals with new kind of intimate relationship that only war can bring. Regardless of their physical conditions, nationalities, and races, main characters in the villa get along with each other very well. However, at the end of the book, most of them end the relationship, even though the reasons are all different. The only reason that I did not feel depressed while reading this novel was because of the warmth I could feel in the villa, but this intimacy ends suddenly, which makes me disappointed. However, in general, I enjoyed reading this book. If I re-read this a few years later, I think I will be able to grab more subtle and deep messages, because this book is full of them.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The English Patient-8

 The story has moved on to Kip's. He explains how he came to be a bomb defuser, the relationship with his mentor, Lord Suffolk, how he was killed and how he came to flee to Italy. Lord Suffolk, who taught him Indian man Kip not only about how to defuse the bomb but also about English culture, died during the mission. He was then promoted to the leadership position, but refused it and moved to Italy. While working under Lord Suffolk, he began to like English and their culture. Lord Suffolk has been kind to him obviously, but I personally cannot understand how he likes the country which conquered and devastated his own country. By the time the story was taken, India was under British control, and Britain did unimaginably cruel deeds to Indians. Relating this to me, I do not hate the country itself that invaded my country a few decades ago, but I still cannot forgive it for what it did to my country and ancestors. I do not hate it,  but I do not like it, either. While reading this part of the book, I thought that maybe Kip is more forgiving and flexible in nature than I am. He easily melts into foreign culture and likes it.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The English Patient-7

 Today, I read about half of chapter 6 of <The English Patient>. Almasy, or the English patient, keeps telling others the story of his past. While listening to his story, Caravaggio becomes suspicious with the fact that the English patient is English. Instead, he begins to think that he is a spy who worked for Germans. His belief is strengthened when the patient brings up the name "Cicero" for the villa dog, which is a code name for German spies. Caravaggio is eager to know the truth related to the English patient, so he keeps asking questions, even though Hana disagrees with him and thinks it does not anymore even if he is German because the war is over.

Friday, February 22, 2013

English Patient-6

In chapter 5, Katharine Clifton dreams of a man who turns out to be the English patient. And later, she falls in love with the English patient, even though she knows she should not because she is already married to Geoffrey. And later, she is so nervous that their affair will be caught by Geoffrey and make him mad, so she declares that she cannot keep the relationship with him. I researched about the plot already, so I know that this forbidden love affair will bring disaster to both of them. Therefore, my opinion is that if she knew that the relationship was wrong and was going to break up with the him anyway, why didn't she even start it? Temporary inability to suppress her sexual desire and the English patient's wrong obsession with her ruin their lives completely.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Pecha Kucha plan-5

Our inquiry question is that can people be truly altruistic. To reflect the topic in the video pecha kucha, our group is planning to support Vancouver Sun Children Funds by donating items such as necessities (clothes, food, et cetera) and books. We are going to go from door to door asking for residents' donation. We will start collecting items this Saturday and actually start handing out our collection to the needy. To do this, thorough planning will be necessary. We will have to find out who and what school needs help, listen to their current situation and find out exactly what donations are most necessary to improve their lives. The influence of our charity activity might be very small, but as I said in the last pecha kucha, I think that as long as we do something to help others without expecting rewards, it is worth doing it, even if the action is very trivial. And then we can try bigger charity projects later.