Lord of the Flies - Essential #11

1. What survival techniques or strategies are used by the boys? They do not have to be only physical.

1) Ralph:

• Blowing of the Conch - structure, rules, and authority
• Fire - hope to be rescued and back to normalcy
• Shelters - protection & a symbol of civil behaviors

2) Jack:

• Hunting - basic animal instinct within human & survival of the fittest
• Roasted Pig - temptation, which he uses to manipulate others' (stomachs and spirits)
• Beastie - a common enemy everyone hates and fears, which made Jack rise as a heroic figure among the boys

3) Piggy:

• Specs - logic, civilization, and human intelligence

4) Simon:

• Nature - a connection to the wilderness, which did not bring violence and savagery to him, but eternal peace, enlightenment, and morality from within.

5) The Others:

• Simply follow the leader (Ralph or Jack) as a guide, as well as a grown-up figure of authority and rules, to survive.
• Do what others do in order to prevent being an outcast (like Piggy) and survive in the "island society".

Jane Eyre - Essential #10

1. Rewrite a 5-10 sentence passage from Jane Eyre in third person.

Original Text:

• "There was I, then, mounted aloft; I, who had said I could not bear the shame of standing on my natural feet in the middle of the room, was now exposed to general view on a pedestal of infamy. What my sensations were, no language can describe; but just as they all rose, stifling my breath and constricting my throat, a girl came up and passed me, in passing, she lifted her eyes. What a strange light inspired them! What an extraordinary sensation that ray sent through me! How the new feeling bore me up!... Helen Burns asked some slight questions about her work of Miss Smith, was chidden for the triviality of the inquiry, returned to her place, and smiled at me as she again went by. What a smile!" (63-64)
  

My Re-write:

• Jane was there, up on a stool, aloft; she, who once said she could not bear the shame of standing on her natural feet in the middle of the room, was now exposed to general view on a pedestal of infamy. What her sensations were, no language can describe; but just as they all rose, stifling her breath and constricting her throat, a girl came up and passed her; in passing, that girl lifted her eyes. Jane felt inspired by a strange light beaming from the girl's eyes, which bore up a new feeling from her heart... Helen Burns asked some slight questions about her work of Miss Smith, was chidden for the triviality of the inquiry, returned to her place, and smiled at Jane as she again went by. "What a smile!" Jane thought.
  

2. How does this change the characters, the plot, and your interpretation of the novel?

• Without the connection that was made between readers and the protagonist through the use of first-person point of view, the text appeared to be rationally sober but emotionally numb. We, as readers, are excluded from all the sentimental changes of Jane and therefore became outsiders of the story. A good novel is supposed to make its readers' hearts echo; but here, the use of third-person point of view casts an impenetrable shadow over our protagonist's mind. Completely lacking of emotions, Jane became merely a painting on a fresco, with no dimension at all; thus the character lost the sympathy from her readers, which she originally deserved. It is true that writing from a third-person point of view can make the narration unbiased; but the sarcasm is that we are, in fact, reading a novel at leisure, not judging an indictment in court - trying to be the judge of any characters in a novel is, in the first place, nonsensical.
  

Frankenstein - Essential #9

1. How do Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein compare and contrast as men, scholars, and scientists?

• Robert Walton, though started as the narrator of the book, is actually the mirror, as well as a foil character, of Victor Frankenstein.
• First of all, both men are lonely and friendless. For Frankenstein, it was his "temper to avoid a crowd, and to attach myself fervently to a few" (19), which shows that he is somewhat antisocial. Walton, similarly, was so lonely that he "bitterly feel[s] the want of a friend" (4). Although they might be giants of intellect and endeavor, when it comes to interpersonal issues, they were as fragile and isolated as a falling feather which was left in desolation.
  
• They are also both extremely restless in discovering nature and unveiling the secret of life, though in different ways. Walton captains an exploring ship heading to the North Pole, a place where he refers as "a country of eternal light" (1), which symbolizes the human desire to overcome mortality and to follow the guidance of the eternal light beaconing from the tower of human power. When Walton was trying to conquer the extremity of nature, Frankenstein focused himself on mastering the philosophy of nature: "It was the secret of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my enquirers were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world" (19). Nevertheless, although focuses of Walton and Frankenstein may appear to be different, since one is exploration and the other is science, the desire of them both are essentially the same - to override nature with determination and knowledge. Their ruins in the end thus convey the author's warning to the world that excessive pursuit of knowledge and rebellion against nature will be disastrous or even fatal.
  

Taming of the Shrew - Essential #8

1. Are Katherine and Petruchio in love?

• Love is an invisible string that ties a man and a woman together spiritually for eternity. This bond would stay strong and not break only if the man and the woman are on the same level [equality] pulling the string toward the same direction [common interests] as they journey through their lives together. Therefore, according to this definition of love, Katherine and Petruchio are not in the mist of love whatsoever.
  
• Petruchio, with the belief of totalitarian husbandhood, thinks that he has the right and duty to tame the shrew with "an awful rule, and right supremacy" (V. ii. 122). In order to make Katherine his ideal wife, Petruchio, ignoring his wife's dignity as a person, tormented her physically and emotionally "under name of perfect love" (IV. iii. 12).
  
• Katherine, after going through all those torments, finally surrendered herself to male chauvinism:"thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, they head, thy sovereign" (V. ii. 163-164). When a person gave up his/her dignity to the other half in a marriage, there would be no dignity left in this relationship at all. Katherine was thrown into passivity when she entered the marriage. At first, she was forced to agree on "what you [Protruchio] will have it named, even that it is, and so it shall be still for Katherine" (IV. v. 24–25); however, by the end of the play, she obeys to her husband in a mindless and robotic manner. Therefore, behind the hypocritical facade of marriage, a master-servant relationship is what holding the couple together, not love.
  

Hamlet - Essential #7

1. Do you think that Hamlet has created his own insanity, or has he lost his sense of reality completely?

• Although Hamlet may appear to be insane because of his seemingly irrational responses to others, the incisiveness of his responses shows that he is far more clear-headed than any character in this play could imagine. It is clear that he has control over his insanity because even himself has declared, "I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk form a handsaw" (II.ii.402-403). This means that he is only mad at certain times - he can distinguish between things that do not resemble each other. Therefore, Hamlet's madness is just a disguise he puts on in order to distract people, especially his enemies, from his anguish and despair of losing his father and being betrayed by his friends, his lover, and his family.
• However, from another perspective, Hamlet's insanity is a display of his intense and conflicting state of mind to the utmost. The high tensity of his mind will, in the end, tip the prince over the edge of breakdown, thus leads him into real madness which could be irreversible.
  

The Pardoner's Tale - Essential #6

1. What parallels can be drawn between the Pardoner's Prologue and his tale? How is this tale different from the other two that we have studied?

• In his tale, he talked about how gluttony and drunkenness are "enemies of the cross of Christ" (246); however, in his own life, the pardoner lusts for excessive "money, wool and cheese and wheat" (244). It is also ironic that when he has finished his condemnation of swearing, he began swear himself.
  
• Different from the Knight's tale and the Miller's tale, which the storytellers' identities and beliefs can be found in their own tales, the Pardoner's tale is actually a contrast of the pardoner's identity and his way of life. All the sins the pardoner strongly opposed in his sermon - gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and swearing - were faults that he had either proudly claimed to possess in the prologue or showed through his actions on the pilgrimage.
  
• Off the Topic: Although many people may see the pardoner as a bad person; in my opinion, the pardoner is actually an honest man, rather than a hypocrite. In the Middle Ages, the church became extremely corrupted. Therefore, it was very common for a clergy to preach one way and acts another. The pardoner was just one of the many hypocrites who use religion as a profane tool to earn money or to get other benefits: "Believe me, many a sermon or devotive exordium issues from an evil motive. Some to give pleasure by their flattery and gain promotion through hypocrisy, some out of vanity, some out of hate" (243). When everyone is doing the wrong thing, no one would judge you for doing the same thing. Therefore, the pardoner, in the eyes of the people living in the Middle Ages, did not go against the moral code for clergies - because there are no moral code for them to follow at that time. The pilgrims embraced this hypocritical pardoner because he, at least, admitted his flaws and was being very honest about himself when he was not preaching.