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Outline and Idea

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The extract I choose for this issue was on page 4, in which detailed an interaction between the narrator and the peasants. The extract demonstrates the divide between class even in time of communalism

Notes on the extract:
-      The divide (inequality) between class will always remain

-      Though the communist strives to “unit” its people (re-education), people are still separated by invisible division of class (there are still leaders that are always superior than others). People are still following the “leader” like he/she is their master they need to impress.

-      In this case may be the headman, who loves power (obsession with the alarm clock)

-      Though the headman's motives aren't detailed, it's suggested that he cares more about maintaining and exerting his power than about either opium or enforcing communism in his village.

P 22, the tailor had lived like kings and the LST as “princess” also shows that there are still invisible class division.

In-text notes:

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The Universality of Culture (censorship) (Balzac Extract)

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The Universality of Culture (censorship) (Balzac Extract)

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The extract I choose for this issue was on page 74, in which demonstrates the universality of art (Country v.s. City)  and its influence to the narrator and Luo.

Notes on the extract:
-      Art and literature are universal(old miller’s songs are lewd but still entertain Luo and N, who played the violin (city) The old miller’s song is erotic, which is what Balzac’s story is (similarity with western work) and can create connections with different people who have different background. N never hear of France before but from reading the story he understands. able to connect with pleasant through “western value”.

-        One of the most important lessons that the narrator and Luo learn is that high and low culture complement each other, and that both can enrich the human soul.

-      The censorship of culture would destroy Lou and N’s understanding of the world.

-      The communism wants to re-educate the younglings but failed to understand what true “pleasant art” is in the first place (erotic and not proper). In the end is the “dangerous” western literature (which is the same as the songs) that “re-educates” N.

-      Conflict of culture: Mao’s ideal: pleasant, Romaic songs V.s. the reality, erotic songs from the miler.

-      Mao’s failure to understand its own pleasant value demonstrates the absurdity of communist ideal (or all censorship).

In-text notes:

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What did you think of the Paper 1 formative essay--both the experience of doing it and what you wrote?

Throughout this experience of writing a paper 1, I had realized that it is a lot harder than I initially thought: most stylistic features that I memorized did not help as much as I imagined it would be (I had realized that I have a hard time identifying features rather than understanding their affect). During the test, I was extremely nervous because I am not familiar with analyzing an article. Thus, my essay structure is a mess, and I cannot even recall what I wrote.

What did you learn from this experience and what would you do differently next time?

I had learn from this experience that I still needs a lot of practice on analyzing non-literary text, more specifically, articles. I had also notice that I could not identify many persuasive techniques, even if I know them. Thus, I will make sure that i practice many non-literary text and trying to identify key features as much as possible before the test. I also needs to start writing an outline before starting my essay.

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Write your response to the interactive oral question: Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of this text that you have studied.

In Memory of Norman Bethune

In the speech “In Memory of Norman Bethune” delivered by Chairman Mao on December 21, 1939, he advocates the Chinese people to share the “true quality” of Communism as a way to enlighten and uplift themselves to became morally righteous beings. Throughout the speech, Chairman Mao established Comrade Norman Bethune as an icon of Communist ideals through diction, glittering generatlity, and emotional appeal that solely focus and promotes the positive and benefit aspect of being a communist. Thus, this speech subtlety reflected the illusion of ideology, as the power of ideology would often lead to the censorship of true realities, and solely focus on the positive aspects to “brainwashed” the audience. For the purpose of this analysis, I will be focusing on paragraph two of the “In Memory of Norman Bethune” speech.

The illusionary nature of the concept of ideology is highly apparent in the first sentence of paragraph two, in which Chairman shares that it is Bethune’s communist spirit: the “utter devotion” to other, the “boundless sense of responsibility” in his work, and the “boundless warm-heartedness” toward all people that makes him the best communist. The word choice of “devotion” and “warm-heartedness” all have extremely positive connotation, conveying to the readers how communism ideology can elevate a person. Thus, further establishes Bethune’s statues as this Communist icon. However, the word choice of “devotion”, “responsibility” and “warm-heatedness” are all glittering generalities in which does not convey anything except to appeal to the reader’s sense of justice and common sense, after all, who can argue that qualities such as “utter devotion” is bad. But, this usage of glittering generalities and positive connotation also emphasized the power of ideology to censor realities, as the people only knows the positive side of joining or working harder as a communist, but not the hard labor of smelting iron.

In addition to the usage of glittering generality and diction to hide true realities. The contrast between a “good” communist to a “bad” one in line two further emphasizes the power of ideology to censor reality. Chairman Mao points to the bad communist as “cold”, “indifferent”, and “apathetic”, in which dramatically contrasted with previous claims on the “good” communist, as it is associated with “warm-heartedness”. Thus, Mao powerfully established an inference that if you are not a communist, you are cold, indifferent and apathetic, appeal to readers’ sense of fairness and given them shame. However, this is again an example of ideology censoring realities, as people who are communist can be “bad” people, while people who are not can be just as kind and loving.

In conclusion, Chairman Mao utilized various persuasive techniques in “In Memory of Norman Bethune” that reflected the theme of the illusion of ideology. Through glittering generality, diction, and emotional appeals, Mao effectively highlights the positive aspect of communism ideology without acknowledging the harsh condition that the people will be suffering in, in which suggests that the communist principles and Mao’s teaching were illusions that are used to cover up reality.

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I believe that I did well in mentioning the historical context of the two text and in analyzing  in a chronological order. However, during my first Oral presentation, I notice that my time management require more attention；I toke 7 minutes to finished my first novel analysis and have only three minutes for my second one and conclusion. In order to solve this issue, I believe I can start timing my self when practicing , in which I will have a better concept of time. Furthermore, I notice that my structure could have been better, as I forgot to mention many things when I was on a timer.

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Oral 1: Censorship of education (Balzac and To Live)

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Oral 1: Censorship of education (Balzac and To Live)

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Oral 1: Censorship of education (Balzac and To Live) Extract 

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Oral 1: Censorship of education (Balzac and To Live) Extract 

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outline+ other work

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Which short story (or stories) made the greatest impression on you and why?

- I think “the man I killed” what my favorite story out of all of them. The way O’Brien repeat the physical description of the dead man’s face such as “his jaw was in his throat” in places where Kiowa is telling him to “forget it and move on” really paints a vividly image in my mind; the author staring at the boy he just killed, unable to think and move, the image of the dead man’s face forever burning in the back of his mind. All of those detailed description directly reflect the cruelty of war and presents the soldiers not as murders but as victims.

* What are some of the major themes (and therefore potential global issues) in Things They Carried that interest you the most?

- I really like the theme of art, more specifically on the power of storytelling, where O’Brien uses story true to present an argument and an idea.

- There are also other theme such as gender, justice, courage, race, and masculinity that interest me as well.