First reaction toward "The Human Stain"

At first I couldn't understand the people's reaction toward the professor. He was well respected man who was a good-natured man. However, he made a mistake calling black people 'spooks'. It was unintentional however, the society around him criticized him so much that he couldn't no more maintain his job as professor like before. As I said at first I thought it was over reaction by the people . It was too harsh to get such blame just because of his stupid unintentional mistake. However, as I connected with Clinton Affair I started to understand. Like the quotes from batman "With great power comes great responsibility" if you have power or well respected to so many people you should be even more careful of your acts. I think both Clinton and the professor failed to recognize this quote. If you have so much power you should be even careful about stepping on a ant.

Gatsby

It took 3 chapters to finally meet Gatsby. As readers learned more and more about Gatsby it made readers to think one person, Jordan Belfort. Jordan Belfort's life was the base of the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Not only they both gained wealth by illegal way but also they walked into similar end because of their greediness. They both had similar thought that money would buy them everything. This greedy thought lead them to both fail in their life and their love. Furthermore, their treatment toward female was also similar. They both thought women as product and thought that they could own women if they have money.

The Memory of Swimming

The first memory of me swimming was when I was eight years old. I was in this huge swimming pool with a lot of crowds. I was kind of scared at  that time. The fact that I never swam in the pool where I couldn't touch the ground with my head above the water made me scared however, the thing that made me more scared was the crowd. Obviously, except my family ever one else was stranger to me. They were loud, ran around the pool and played in the pool like a mad bull. Because I was so young back than everything around me just freaked me out. I wanted to leave that place. I begged my mom to leave. However rather bringing me back to my house my mom brought me into the water which I was also afraid of. I thought she was evil or something. I thought she was making the situation even worst. Then she told me to go into the water telling me that it will be peaceful in there. She said "You will hear nothing and barely see anything." Even though I was scared going into the water I was more frustrated with the crowds around me, I decided to go into the water. I hold my breath and with some hesitation I went into the water. Shockingly at that time I couldn't hear anything and only thing I could see was empty place of water with just some legs around me. It was so peaceful and it made me feel that I have come to different place. I loved the feeling of isolation from the crazy outside world. From that point I swam for more than one hour enjoying that feeling of calm and peace.

What the ending of 'A Clean, Well-lighted Place' tells us

 At first the story "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" seems like its main focus is the conversation of old waiter and young waiter about the old man who tried to kill himself. However as we approaches the conclusion of this story, we can realize that the main character of this story is actually the old waiter who is going through similar situation as the old man but the reaction toward his situation was different. Both old man and old waiter is in situation where there both feel loneliness because there old and there is no one around them. The old man chooses to kill himself to run away from this situation. However the old waiter decides to be in 'well lighted place' where people's always around which is the restaurant for him. However as the night comes and people leaves the restaurant he got epiphany that how hard you try to run away from the loneliness, it will always follow you. The 'well lighted place' was just a little illusion that made him think that he is not lonely. The truth is he was always lonely.

Using Steller To Tell the Story

Three short stories "Paul's Case", "The Chrysanthemums", and "Barn Burning" have different contents however they all possess same themes to each other. Most significant theme that those three stories share is 'isolation.' Paul was isolated by society because he had strange characteristic, the family in the "Barn Burning" was isolated by society because of the stereotype they had, and Elisa in "The Chrysanthemums" was isolated just because she was a female.

First, the picture of disabled man in a jar which is held by the bigger hand represents the isolation of Paul. Paul wasn't physically disabled however he was somewhat mentally disabled. He thought differently from others and couldn't combined with society because of it. The hand that is holding the jar represents the society. It is true that Paul was different from other people but he was not wrong. However just because Paul was different, the society trapped him, like the man in a little jar. That is why that picture represents the situation of Paul really well.

Second, the picture of two women looking outside the window represents Elisa in "The Chrysanthemums." Elisa was intelligent and passionate woman. However she is unsatisfied about her situation. Even though her interest is in the business side, the fact that she is a female makes her to stay in her house and just do house chores. So this two women who are looking outside the window as if they are admiring the outside the world represents her really Elisa really well. Like this two women, because Elisa is isolated in her house from the society, she admires and wants to live the outside world.

Third, the picture of one person getting pointed by bunch of people represents the family in "Barn Burning." Even though people in the town couldn't find the evidence any evidence of the criminal of barn burning they decided to kick out the Snopes family just because the people thought they have done it. So the society is the one who is pointing at the poor little boy and the boy represents the Snopes family who are getting harmed by the society.

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The Great Runaway

In the short story 'The Paul's Case' written by Cather, Paul is shown as a disabled individual who failed to join the society. He thinks he is very different from the society. The fact that he is kind of homosexual and the fact that he doesn't like the poor society that he is living in, makes him even harder to join the society. So the object that Paul is trying to run away from is the society that he is living in. He first tries to run away from society by hiding his real self by lying to other people. Later on he eventually runs away from the society by killing himself. After he realizes that there is no place that he could fit in, he jumps into the train and ends his life by himself. His runaway can be considered successful because, death is always the ultimate form of escape. By sacrificing your life you can get away from everything. That's how suicide works.
Also in the short story 'The Chrysanthemums' written by John Steinbeck, the main character also tries to escape from the situation that she is in. She it a wife of man who is sexist. He doesn't respect what she does and thinks that the work she does is not productive. Furthermore, he isolates her wife from the society. So the wife one day, tries to escape from this situation by having affair with the man who respected herself and her work. However, the result of her escape was failure because that man who respected her wasn't that different from her husband and was actually being kind to her expecting profit. Consequently, this act of escape made her more miserable.

Rebellion in "The Yellow Wall-Paper"

I think the active rebellion in the short story "The Yellow Wall-Paper" was the act of ripping the wall paper that was done by narrator. In the book wall paper meant the control of narrator's husband John, toward the narrator. He told the narrator what to do and what she shouldn't do. He made a cage that she should live in. And the wall paper did similar job. It isolated the narrator in small room from the big world. So by ripping the wall paper narrator showed her feelings that she wants to be free from her husband and do whatever she wants.

02/10/14