Wesley's Book Blog by Wesley Thang https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6 Love for books~ en-us 2018-09-27 18:58:10 UTC 2019-03-21 04:38:11 UTC hello@padlet.com Blog Post #1 wthang450 https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/292581744 Title: The Good Earth
Author: Pearl S. Buck
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: Wang Lung, an ordinary farmer, marries O-Lan, a slave from the wealthy family the House of Hwang. As a farmer, Wang Lung works in the fields during the day, but O-Lan is not like most ladies of the society: she works with Wang Lung in the fields. Soon after their marriage, Wang Lung and O-Lan give birth to a boy. On the first Chinese New Year after their son was born, O-Lan takes him back to the House of Hwang. To her surprise, the House of Hwang was not the same as it was when she left. She realized that the House of Hwang had spent all of their wealth and is poor now. Being farmers, poor crop season is always one of the circumstances farmers frown upon. One year, after they gave birth to another son and a baby girl, a drought strikes Wang Lung's township and the crops failed. During the drought, Wang Lung's house was attacked by bandits in search for food. He heard that a few of his friends plan to move south, but he wondered that "who knew whether or not even in the south there was food?" (83). Despite the cost to travel south Wang Lung, O-Lan, and their children decided to migrate southbound. What happened in the south? Did Wang Lung's hardship get turned around? Or was the condition in the south as bad as it is in the north? Read the book to uncover the mysteries.
Additional Contextual Information: When I first met O-Lan my first impression of her working in the fields with Wang Lung was that she is very hardworking, diligent, and also persistent with their hardships. However, when I read the part where O-Lan took the life away from her new born baby girl because of the crop failure, I was astounded by that. O-Lan also tried to cover the baby's death by pretending nothing had happened. Wang Lung eventually figured out the truth when he finds "two dark, bruised spots" (82) on the baby's neck. From my point of view, O-Lan killed her own child because she does not want another mouth to feed in her family. Wang Lung might also agree on the same point because they had just killed their ox for meat. If the baby were to survive, she would have starved with the rest of the family. Wang Lung and O-Lan killed their baby out of pure altruism.
Recommendation: If I were to rate this book out of a hundred starts, I would definitely rate it 100 of of 100! The book starts off depicting the living conditions Wang Lung lived, providing insightful details about his family. The theme in this book is very deep, making readers pondering about what would happen next. The course of this book consisted of many blind turns, most of which the plot going against what readers predicted what will happen next.]]> 2018-10-14 19:34:44 UTC https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/292581744 wthang450 https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/307172991 Title: All Quiet on the Western Front
Author: Erich Maria Remarque
Genre: Historical Fiction
Summary: During World War I, Paul Bäumer, a nineteen year old teenager, is inspired to enlist as a soldier to fight on the German front line during World War I by his patriotic schoolmaster, Kantorek. Similar to all the soldiers who enlisted, Paul had to leave ordinary life behind, and with the lack of training, he was recruited onto the front line to combat. While one of Paul’s old school friend, Müller, is desperate for a dying Kemmerich’s boots, Paul realizes that Müller’s nature was changed by the war. During his leave back home, Paul finds that he has not changed but his feelings do not belong back to his hometown anymore. His family could not imagine how difficult it was to fight and survive on the front line. While the English continued to send artillery shells to the place Paul is hiding, Paul finds a French Soldier hiding there. For his survival, Paul decided that he must kill the soldier “only because he had to lie there with the French soldier so long… but after all, war is war” (169). What happened to Paul? Did Paul’s overcome his mental hardship? Did the French and English armies get defeated? Read the book to uncover the mysteries.
Additional Contextual Information: Unlike the war conditions the patriotic schoolmaster Kantorek described, Paul thinks to himself that [he is only twenty years old, yet he knows nothing of life but despair, death, fear” (194). When I read to the part where Paul feels nostalgia towards his lost young adulthood, I paused, and I remembered a similar story I have read many years ago. That story is The Diary of a Young Girl written by Anne Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl is written during the time of Nazi Germany’s occupation in the Netherlands. Anne Frank experienced a complete change to her daily life from being able to run around outside with her friends to hiding in a secret room for five years just to have a chance to live. Frank eventually started her own diary to keep track of her daily life in the secret annex. On the other hand, Paul is just starting to establish his future, and his love life. The war swept all that youthful mindset away, never to be regained. I feel sympathy for both Paul and Anne because their young life is destroyed by something that is not their fault — war. 
Recommendation: I would give this novel ten out of ten stars because it not only provided some perspectives during World War I, but also contained various abstract feelings. Remarque used many excellent examples to pull readers into Paul’s conflicts between his physical and mental stress during the war. Over the course of the book, Remarque crafted many situations where the event that will happen next is completely unexpected by the reader. Even though this book is challenging to understand at the start mainly because we live in a peace world, I agree it is one of the greatest war masterpieces.
Reviewer: Wesley Thang
]]> 2018-11-23 06:17:34 UTC https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/307172991 The Remains of the Day Podcast wthang450 https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/343628172 2019-03-21 04:37:40 UTC https://padlet.com/wthang450/nqs8k4soa9h6/wish/343628172