Harsh Words

Many words related to people’s race, family, character and background that provoke strong emotion are often referred as harsh word. These words are often bad words that condemn your race, background or personality or just sarcastic statement that often let people feel uncomfortable with. Words that usually make me angry are words that sarcastically criticize me or my family due to stereotype. Also words that condemn me as an individual with profanity and hostile slang words make me mad. Besides the wording, the tone of your speech can also be harsh. When a person is sarcastically saying a word that usually has a neutral meaning, one might feel offended by it due to their misunderstandings or it’s deeply related to their strong emotions. For example, if someone sarcastically say that you are a genius, the first thing you are thinking of is not that he or she is complimenting you, but instead saying it so that the word has a second meaning which is condemning you. Finally words that’s related to people’s political view or nationality may provoke strong feelings too. For example, it may be offensive to say that all Asians who are speaking in mandarin are considered as Chinese. Some people may interpret the “Chinese” as calling them as citizen of China.

Mockingbird So Far

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a woman’s childhood. The narrator is a young girl nicknamed Scout who lived in Maycomb, Alabama along with his father and brother. The story was set during the Great depression, when people were generally all pretty poor and still discriminating the African American. The chapter starts out describing Scout’s background that she lost her mom when she was only 2 and she spent most her time playing with her brother Jem and neighbor Dill. In the summer, the children would play games such as imitating the Radley family, a infamous family that is disliked by the Maycomb community, and playing dare games. Due to Scout’s precocious knowledge, being able to read difficult stories at a young age, she found school to be boring that it was too easy for her. Scout’s father Atticus Finch is the main focus of the story that through Scout’s perspective, the reader will discover how Black are treated during this time period and realistically depict how not all White are racists. Atticus is a well respected lawyer of the community, who treated everyone equally despite their race. Atticus discussed how black is like a mockingbird that does no harm to human, yet people are trying to kill it.

Response to the Veil

When the congregation first saw Mr. Hooper entering the church with a black veil covering his face, they were murmuring to each other and wondering whether the man is really the minister they have known. Although the minister spoke in a normal, usual tone, people were scared and terrified by his sermon, which seemed more powerful and dark. As if the congregation were paranoid, they felt like the minister is creeping into their minds, trying to discover their sins which they may not even consciously know about. The congregation acted this way because usually black veil usually symbolizes mourns for the dead and to cover their sadness so it won’t affect the other. With a minister wearing a black veil on a happy Sunday, the whole joyful atmosphere is disrupted with a strange atmosphere. Like most puritans in the past, they are extremely paranoid when it comes to the issue of guilt and sin. They think they might have committed sins that they don’t even know about and constantly want to go to church and allow the minister to free and purify their soul with his preaching. In a present world, people may just feel awkward like the congregation but never be scared of being creep upon by the minister.

Parable

One day in the medieval period, a rich knight is searching around the country for a good sword. This knight is a greedy man and loves anything that shines. When a black smith shows him some really nice swords, he rejects all of them because they are all made of iron with a silver metallic appearance on it without any attractive decorations. After meeting with more than 100 black smiths, he finally sees a sword he has always dreamt of. This sword is made of 100% gold on the blade, with red ruby decorated on the handle and fancy designs of dragons on the hilt. As the knight held the sword under the sun, the golden blade makes him feel invincible and magnificent. On the other hand, an experienced knight is also searching around the country for a good sword. Wanting to please him, all the black smiths he has met are trying to sell him fancy swords with diamonds and gold on them. However, the experienced knight rejects the offers and buys a seemly ordinary sword made of iron with a simple and plain design. One day, during a civil war, the 2 knights face each other face to face on the battle field. Before the fight, the rich knight arrogantly declares, “Ha, what an ordinary sword, you shall die under my almighty golden sword.” With only 1 round, the rich knight’s golden sword quickly becomes dull with a chipped blade. Soon enough, the rich knight is defeated by the experienced knight with a simple and ordinary sword.

The Saddest of All Prisons

“The saddest of all prisons is a person’s own heart,” quoted from Nathaniel Hawthorn. Despite all the infamous prisons in the world, the worst prison one can ever find is actually in one’s own heart, where a person conceals his or her deep emotions within themselves. In many of his work, Nathaniel Hawthorn proves how guilt can affect and isolate one from the society. For example, Dimmesdale in the Scarlet Letter, who as a respected minister in the Puritan community, had committed adultery. Instead of revealing his crime, Dimmesdale was too afraid to confess that he concealed his emotion deep within his heart. As these emotion and guilt builds up, it eventually destroy Dimmesdale by driving him sick and forcing him to commit suicide. These prisons of emotion often times can last forever in one’s heart and can never be broken. Would people today still hide away their guilt deep within their heart? I believe it would be a yes. However, we will never be able to find out since they hide their emotion “secretly” within themselves that they may just perhaps perform and act normally without being severely influenced by the emotion. As human, it’s normal for as to hide our feelings to avoid shame and humiliation from the community. It is unlikely that one would confess unless forcefully told to do so.

Comparing Poem

In The Tide Rises The Tide Falls, it mainly focuses on how human is so insignificant compare to nature that unlike nature which goes in cycle, human don’t. In the poem, it describes how a man’s trace on the beach is easily washed away in a night that the next day it seems as if the man has never walk on the beach. In my opinion, it illustrated that human is so insignificant that our trace on this earth can easily be washed away and vanished. However, on the contrary, in the poem The Cross of Snow, it conveys a feeling that one can never be washed away although the physical body may long be perished. In the Cross of Snow, the poet described how he remembers his wife’s death and his grief is like a big cross on a snowy mountain. Although his wife has passed away for 18 years and her body now longer leaves any trace on the earth, his memory of her still exist deep inside his heart. This is different from The Tide Rises and The tide falls although physically human’s trace disappear as time flies, memories of us will forever lies in people’s heart and can never be washed away.

Image of Grief

Choosing an image of a holy cross on the snow mountain, Henry Longfellow used a powerful image to convey his intense emotion of grief and sadness toward his wife’s death. With a holy cross, this conveys a sense of religious feel into the poem that indicates Longfellow was religious. By saying that he had bear the cross for 18 years and was changeless since her death clearly demonstrate his love for her that he felt probably guilt to be unable to rescue his love and forever grief over her death. An example of an intense image to express the feeling of grief is rain. When you feel sad, often times the rain starts to pour out like water fall from the sky, mixing with lighting and thunder. As you scream out loud “NOOOOOO!” holding someone you dear in your arm, unable to save her from the inevitable death, the thunder strikes the earth to express your anger and the rain to express your grief. Your tears mixed with the rain soak your clothes and wet your face. It seems like the god is weeping with you and sharing the same grief as you. Rain is a perfect example for expressing grief.

Human Life: A Cycle?

In nature, things happen in cycles. The weather turns hot in summer then turns cold during summer as the seasons revolve in cycles. The tides rise and then falls. The sun rises and then fall. Everything in natures works in a cycle. Is this the true for human life? I think in some aspect it’s similar to the cycles of nature. When we are born, we are naïve and barely able to walk. As we age, we begin to walk, talk and fill our mind with information and intelligence. However, as we approach 60s or 70s, our body begins to degenerate that we tends to get Alzheimer and forget things. Also, our physical body becomes weak and vulnerable to diseases that we can’t walk or talk properly. In this way, our human body works in a cycle just like a cycle of nature. However, in a spiritual way, our human life may never be in a cycle. As we grow and age, we experience many different things and intake many variety of information and memories. If we never obtain Alzheimer, no one will be able to take those memories away from us that it will never follow a cycle where we will be memory-less like when we are kids. As we leave this world, our spiritual body continues to exist even though our physical body may have disappeared. If one such believe in resurrection, then our spiritual bodies never walk in a cycle and keep moving on just in a different physical body.

A Realistic View of Life

We all once dreamt of being rich, famous, a movie star, princess, astronaut, pilot, billionaire, race car driver and etc. However, at some points in our lives, we often realize that these are all just fantasy and impossible dreams. When I’m small, I used to imagine that I would become a jet fighter pilot someday in the future. I dreamt of soaring up high in the sky and shot down enemies with advance technologies. However, as I grow up, I realize that being a pilot is not so much fun and easy. It takes more than just being able to fly a plane and have good eye sight. A pilot will have to withstand dizziness and fear while the plane is spinning upside down and traveling at a speed faster than the speed of sound. Also, it’s not so much fun to shoot missiles at people when you may also be easily targeted by other planes. When we are young, we used to believe that all stories end happily with the good guy defeating the bad guy. However, fairy tales don’t necessary happen in real life. Often times the bad guy kills the good guy and the bad guys gets kill by another bad guy and so on. Reality is cruel. Life itself is cruel. As we grow up, people begin to put more responsibility on us and life becomes more complicated than just going through school, getting a job, marrying and dying old. Life is unpredictable and often discouraging, but because of this uncertainty, we are able to treasure every moment of our life and live the best out of it.

Comparing Characters

In the Red Badge of Courage, Henry was influenced by many of the characters in the story, such as Jim Conklin, Wilson and the tattered man. Jim Conklin was a close friend of Henry that they have met each other since school. Jim Conklin mainly serves as a role model for Henry as an example of a courageous soldier. When Henry asked him about fleeing away from battle, Jim’s word comforts Henry that it’s normal for soldier to retreat and run. It gave Henry confidence and strength. Wilson, also known as the loud soldier, is also a classmate of Henry, although he is not as closed to Henry. In the beginning of the war, Wilson talks loudly and externally look like a brave and strong man. However, Wilson is actually quite afraid of death and gives his last letter for his family to Henry, afraid that he will soon get shot. It is amazing of how Wilson has transformed within only one battle that when Henry comes back to the regiment with a head wound, Wilson eagerly help Henry and tends his wounds. In the end, they become good comrades and friends. As for the tattered man, he serves as a reminder of Henry’s guilt of being a coward. The tattered man constantly asks Henry of his wounds and follows him around. For all these character, I’ll choose Wilson to write about. Wilson has the most dramatic change in his character beside Henry that he transforms into a real soldier in the end of the story.

Henry's Relationship

In the Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Henry experiences different relationship with each of the characters in the story. Henry was a close friend of Jim Conklin, since they have known each other in school. Jim Conklin primary serves as a role model for Henry. Although Jim is also a rookie in war just like Henry, Jim displays a brave, courageous characteristic that Henry admires. When Henry asked Jim Conklin whether he will flee if other runs, Jim Conklin replied by saying he will do things along with the flow and trend. This comforts Henry that even his role model is willing to flee and retreat from battle. As for Wilson, Henry has also known him in school, yet he is quite annoyed by him. Although Wilson acted as if he is not afraid of battle by talking loudly, secretly Wilson is actually quite afraid of dying. During his first encounter with the enemy, Wilson is so scared that he entrusts his last letter to his family to Henry. When Henry returns to his regiment having a wound on his head, Wilson is a good friend of Henry that he tends and takes care of him. The tattered man deeply annoys Henry by questioning Henry’s wound. Henry is deeply annoyed by the question that it reminds him of being a coward without the “red badge of courage.” In the end, Henry abandons the tattered man, feeling guilty for leaving this lonely, hopeless man wandering in the field alone.

Conscience

What is conscience? According to the Merriam Webster, the definition for conscience is “the sense of moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a felling of obligation to do right or be good.” Basically, it means that conscience is a sense of right or wrong. When one does something that is against their conscience of moral rightness, one feels guilty. Often time your conscience may disobey and interfere with your daily life. For example, if you find a poor, hungry, cute little stray dog on the street. In your conscience, it is right for you to take this poor animal home and take cares of it. However, in your current economic condition, you have no ability in having a pet that you barely have enough money to feed yourself and pay for your rent. You will face a hard decision on whether to go with your conscience or reality. Usually a person may just walk away, however feeling guilty of not being to help that poor soul. This is the same for Henry Fleming is the Red Badge of Courage. In his conscience, he knows that it’s wrong to flee from battle that he is a coward. However, afraid of dying, Henry is unwilling to test his courage. He felt extremely guilty for his uselessness and this emotion overwhelms him when he witnesses his friend’s death, which his friend has fought courageously.

The dark side

“The power of the dark side!” According to the dark Romanticists, they believe that everything has a dark side. Like Romanticists, they believe emotion overweigh rationality, however they focus on the dark side. In many modern literature and movie, dark Romanticists have a lot of influence in them. For example, in Star Wars, the antagonist is described as the dark side of the force that people use this dark power to do heinous acts, such as destroying a planet. Also, in horror movies, they talk about the irrationality and dark side of human nature that people become mass murder and blood thirst lunatics. The dark Romanticism becomes so popular in mass media today because most people don’t think too optimistic about the world. People are often frustrated about their wages, work, relationship and life. These dark movies allow them to release their negative pain that they may think themselves as doing those dark acts in the movie or they will become cautious about how destructive human nature can be when dark emotions is released. As many movie demonstrated, human’s dark side can be so wicked and destructive that it’s impossible for a person to stop this negative emotion. I believe that there always exists a dark and bright side of human nature. The side you decided to take on greatly determines one’s characteristics and personality.

The Transcendentalists

        The transcendentalists are people who believe everything is a reflection of divine soul. It’s a religious group which they believe individualism outweigh authority and rationality. They believed that people should act upon their intuitive rather than rule of the society. It is these ideas that allow some of the greatest leader in the history of mankind to be created. Ghandi, for example, is deeply influenced by the transcendentalists. Believing that India has the right to be independent, Ghandi rose up against the British control using peaceful protest despite the risk of death penalty. Also, Marther Luther King was also deeply influenced by the transcendentalists. Believing with his intuitive that all man, including African American, should be equal, he led a successful campaign in the civil rights movement, which eventually allows African American to gain suffrage right. I personally disagree with some of the transcendentalist’s ideas. It is really hard for me to believe that everything in the world has a divine purpose or soul. I don’t believe that there will be soul in paper, water bottle or my computer. I only appreciate their ideas about how we should use our intuitive over rationality. Although rationality is also very important, some time the right thing to do is not written in the guidebook, that we need to use our intuition to guide a path to the future.

Romantic Values

Romantic values are concerned mainly with feeling and intuition rather than reason. In the American Romanticism, people are romantic in a way that people wrote poetry about emotions and feelings rather than just reasons and logic. Romanticism thrives in America because the writers have the freedom to write whatever they wish to write. It is this romanticism that allow American classic super hero to come to place that super heroes are romantic in a way that they are close to nature, intuitive and innocent. People are able to let their imagination to run free and think of brand innovative ideas. What makes us human is emotion. Although people may argue how good reasons and logic are and emotion is useless, with emotion, a person is transformed into a robot. A robot is excellent in critical thinking and logic. However it lacks a human heart and mind to be romantic. Humanity is created with people dealing issues with their emotion. It is true that acting on merely emotion is disastrous. However without emotion and apathy, one becomes a machine. In today’s world, people treasure romantic value during love relationship. More importantly, we use romantic value in our everyday life when dealing with our family friends and people we concern about. For example, it may be illogical to run into a burning house trying to save your kid. However, it is this intuitive that allows miracle to happen and saves one’s life.

The American Romantic Hero

“It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s super man!!” This is what people usually think of when asked who is an American Romantic Hero. There are many heroes today, either fictional or non-fictional. According to our text book, the definition for an American Romantic Hero is one who is youthful, intuitive, usually innocent and close to nature. My hero, Superman is one of the classic American comic heroes. Superman possess a super natural strength, which he can lift a thousand ton tank easily and destroys it with his super laser shooting out from his eyes. He can also fly and survive up in space. To hide his superhero identity, he disguised himself as a journalist in the Metropolis newspaper Daily Planet. He will also heroically save the day and fight to bring justice to the world. According to the book, it also mentions how heroes are uneasy with. With superman, Luis Lane, a reporter, is his weak point that he is willing to sacrifice anything to save his love. There are many other American Romantic Heroes such as Spiderman, Batman, Ironman and all those Marvel comics’ super heroes. All of them share the characteristic of an American Romantic Hero that they are young, often make mistake due to their innocence, but eventually save the day in the end. American Romantic Heroes inspire the world and bring people hope that our world is peaceful thanks to these hard working selfless heroes

Freedom and Equality

The American Ideal is truly represented by freedom and equality. It is these values that the American wanted to earn in their independence. In the history of mankind, no other country except United States of America has achieved democracy in its political system. In its independence war, the Americans’ goal was to fight and die for freedom and equality. It is these values that they treasure the most. Without freedom and equality, the whole country will lose its original purpose as a land of freedom. In Taiwan, a democratic country, I take freedom and equality for granted, assuming that we are born to keep this right until our death. However, fearing the future of Taiwan, presently I’m taking these right preciously. Taiwan can be taken over tomorrow or in a week easily by China if the Chinese government wants to do so. Taiwan is now in a vulnerable state that with thousands of missiles China is currently pointing at us, Taiwanese stands no chance against such a powerful enemy. Although our government is currently trying to establish a peaceful relationship with this communist, hostile nation, who knows how long this peace is going to last. After all, as our economy is becoming overly dependent on China, our country is basically being under control. If China one day decides to kick all of Taiwanese companies out of China, which it can, Taiwanese economy will definitely fail and eventually we will have to become part of them in order to survive. Freedom and equality are fundamental values that all democratic nations treasure.  

The American Ideal

“We will walk on our own feet. We will work with our own hand. We will speak with our own mind.” This quote means that we shall be free and independent. People shall be able to work and act on their own will. People will be able to say thing with our own mind without being limited by anyone. This again reflects the American Ideal that all man shall be equal, never be persecuted and limited. However, this idealistic idea will never work in reality as long as humanity exists. It is in human nature that we discriminate others and use power to control over others in order to survive in this world. After the Americans have won their independence war, it is assumed that all man will be equal that no one is obligated to follow a single ruler. Everyone can act on his or her own accounts and do everything with freedom. However is this really true? It takes nearly 200 years for African American to win their freedom and right in this supposedly free nation and 150 years for woman to gain equal rights as man. In reality, no one can be equal. If everyone is equal, the world will become communist where everyone lives happily with equal rights, wealth and everything. This disobeys nature itself that in order to live, one must make sacrifices. It is true that we can speak with our own mind, do thing with our own hand, but can we really do anything we wanted to do? Is it legal to publicly declare that you want to assassinate the President or saying that you carry a bomb during an air flight? This is all ideal that we are always limited by the society and rules. However, it is these rules that keep our world balance today.

What i like about this class

In this class, there are tons of things that I love. First of all, it’s the window. These magnificent windows protect us from the vigorous winds of Hsinchu and flooding rains during Typhoon days. Although it’s not so much as sound proof that it protects our ears from the noisy traffic, it gives the class life and energy that the traffic noises reminded us that we aren’t just study in an enclosed boring white class room. The window gives us beautiful views of the park across from our school and an urban sensation of the Hsinchu City. The special chair and desk arrangement is also one of the main attractions for this class. Unlike conventional arrangement where students sit in rows facing the white board, we sit in a C shape with rows of chair in the middle of the C. This way, wouldn’t have to face the board all the time that we can be facing the beautiful view outside the window or looking at the empty white wall for meditation. However, the major attraction that really makes High School American Literature fun and interesting is our classmates and teacher. Since we have a happy clown in our class, our class is always filled with laughter and noises. We have an interesting teacher who makes funny jokes and interesting remarks during class to keep us from falling asleep. The overall class atmosphere is enjoyable that people have fun while filling their heads with fruitful newly obtained knowledge.

What I don't like about this class

What I don’t like about this class?? Actually, it’s the English class itself that I dislike. I’m not really a guy who really thrives at linguistic abilities. For example, I have trouble learning languages such as French, English and even Mandarin. However, I shouldn’t say such thing because language is like a tool. In science fields, language plays an important role in allowing scientist to communicate their ideas through words. Unlike mathematicians, who create a new set of numerical languages themselves, biologist and psychologist communicate their theories and idea through language. Although it’s something one may dislike, it’s a basic tool that allows human to communicate with each other, a symbol for intelligence in animals. Although it may seem not be so important to learn Shakespeare with his elaborate style of writing or historical accounts of some protestant’s sermon, this kinds of study actually enhance our social skill and make us human. Without literature, people will be bored and loss humanity this way. In conclusion, although I find studying literature uninteresting, I have to deal with it because it’s a fundamental tool that enables me to survive in this world. Overall, for Mr. McCool class, I can’t really find anything I dislike about. I believe we have efficient amount of homework and test with good length and materials.

The Unknown quality

Everyone has an unknown quantity, waiting for people to discover it through challenging events. In normal circumstances, those hidden qualities may not be revealed. However if a person is challenged, often times in a life or death situation, people reveal their true inner-selves, whether they are their strengths or weaknesses. For example, there is once a fictional movie called The Hundred Million Box. A person will be subject to a box with a red button on it and told that if the button is pressed, a person immediately gets a hundred million dollar. However, the down side will be that a stranger will die as soon as the button is pressed. Through the box, most human beings will tend to press the button in order to earn the prize money, despite the fact that someone is going to die from it. They naively think that it’s a stranger who is going to die, so it has nothing to do with them being murders. Those people reveal themselves as being cold hearted and selfish. However, if a person who has a strong religious background or firm moral beliefs, he or she may not want to touch the button in order to save life. These people show their strength in being heroic and selfless that they wouldn’t be swayed with money to do heinous selfish act. Although the movie becomes bizarre at the end, which reveals aliens as the experimenter and the one who presses the button gets punished and killed, it demonstrates how people show their unknown quality when deciding a tough decision, often those that determine life or death.

Persuade Me

“Mom, do you want a new phone, perhaps an i-phone 4?” We are constantly trying to persuade people, either fawning or coaxing people in order to achieve our ultimate goal. In the case of having a new material, unnecessary luxury good, the best way to persuade people it to turn unnecessary into necessary.

        After seeing so much commercial and news about i-phone 4, it seems impossible for me to stop wanting it. New functions on i-phone, such as better internet quality, more applications to install, and better video quality, make this new phone so popular that people are willing to line up for days in order to be the first person in the world to own it. Although I already have a phone, which is pretty functional, I want to own an i-phone just for entertainment purposes. However, I know that I won’t be able to get one because I’m still a child. The only way I can have it is by letting one of my parents want it. So I start to tell me mom that “Mom, do u want a new phone? Look at your phone, you have been using it for more than 5 years. Don’t you want to change your phone?” By showing her how cool i-phone can be and promising her that she won’t need to worry about installing applications and things on it, slowly my mom accept the idea that she probably should get a new phone. After she finally gets the phone, I will finally be able to hold this long desired treasure on my palm and enjoy its wonderfulness.

Give me Liberty or..

“Give me liberty or give me death!” quoted by Patrick Henry. This is a very classical quote that all American will be passionate about. Through shedding bloods of young American patriots and battles with Britain, America finally won its dependence in 1776. According to Americans, it is freedom and liberty that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for. Since the independence war, United States of America forever becomes a living symbol for a land of liberty and democracy.

        In the world today, words like “Freedom”, ”Democracy”, and “Human rights” are still often heard in places on earth such as Afghanistan, China and other unrest regions. For people in Taiwan, our political status in the world is very complex and uncertain. As Taiwanese, we lived in a democratic country where people have freedom of speech, freedom of petition, freedom of religion, and many freedom that are shared among democratic places. However, our international political status is very uncertain that even democratic countries like USA and Japan fail to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation. With China’s pressure in the UN, Taiwan fails to enter as a UN member and is often considered as a province of china. Unable to be globally recognized as a country, we fail to obtain true liberty and freedom. It will be quite difficult for Taiwan to be “officially” independent unless we have a war with PROC or we can wait for PROC to collapse like the Soviet Union, which is unlikely in the near future.

My own sermon

Always be prepared for the consequences for every action you take. Sin is an ultimate ticket to hell that it’s impossible to be cleared off of. As one committed a sin such as killing, stealing and lying, he or she will face the wrath of God and suffer in hell for eternity. We are all born to be sinners, bearing the sins of our ancestors, Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden apple. However, it’s because of them that make us different from all other animals that we obtain intelligences to praise and recognize the existence of the Almighty. We shall pray every day to express our gratitude to God that the sins we bear from our ancestor are cleared away by our savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we shall live according to moral rules and live a good life by not trying God’s patience. Once one committed a sin, one earns a one-way ticket to the raging fire of hell where one burns in pain with outcry of devils and sinners echoing in his or her mind. Be calm my friend, that these thing will never happen to you if you never commit a major sin such as ending one’s life. It’s morally right to end a life if there’s a justified reason behind it, such as defending yourself during a fight. However, always be prepared to bear the consequences. Be strong, don’t hesitate, keep on moving and never stop or else death will end you. Live a happy life and remember the teaching of God that God will never forgive you if you are to make someone else or even yourself suffer for the action you take.

Respond to Edwards

Jonathan Edwards, who gives you in the name of God to condemn everyone as a sinner? Are you a messenger from God, or even perhaps Satan? I agree with you that people should express their gratitude to Jesus and accept him as all mankind’s savior. However, just because people didn’t say “Jesus Christ, I believe you to be the savior of all human beings!” in front of a group of witness, you are implying that they will all end up in hell? How will you know what’s hell like? Perhaps you have visited hell yourself? If not, then you are just a hypocrite who pretends to be pious and a true follower of God. You are creating public fear among people by implementing a vision that everyone is condemned to hell for disobeying God. I know you are just trying to make people follow rules, however who gives you the right to do such heinous speeches. It sounds like you are actually the true sinner who has experienced the wrath of God and miseries in hell. The God I believe in wouldn’t tell his messenger to terrorize his sons and daughters. Instead, the messenger should help leading God’s daughters and sons into the right path through calm and encouraging methods. I appreciate your method that fear is a strong motivator. However, it makes you look arrogant that you are never a sinner and a mere human being like you can command others with no proof that God has instructed you to do so. Jonathan Edwards, you are truly an imposter from hell.

Sin

What exactly is sin? According to the Merriam Webster’s definition, sin means “an offense against religious or moral law.” Simply put, it means to do something that is against either your own or society’s moral laws. To commit a sin can be very serious. For example, everyone will agree that murdering other living beings will be consider as a sin that is against any moral laws. However, is it a sin to eat pork? For Muslim, it’s a sin to do so. However for most people in the world, it is perfectly fine to eat pork. We can BBQ pork, add them in hamburgers, pasta, noodles, and basically anything we eat. To me, sin is something specific to themselves that varies among people’s religious and moral beliefs. For vegetarian, they may say that it’s sinful to eat meat because we are killing lives. However, for me, to survive in this world means to sacrifice others, including plants, animals and other organism. It will be illogical to say that it’s a sin to kill things for food. However, it’s sinful to kill things for the mere purpose of entertainment.

 Also, is it sinful to avenge your love and murder the killer? For most people, we will consider it as sinful because killing others is morally wrong and it’s wrong to be consumed by vengeance. However, for someone who have just lost someone whom they dear the most may consider it even more sinful to sit around peacefully and not to avenge for the dead. For them, it will be justice for them to kill other human beings. People varying with different religious background and experiences may have different interpretation for the definition of sin.

Fear as a motivator

I believe fear does indeed work in some cases and often times motivates people to do thing. Fear is a great tool that ancient empire such as the Roman Empire often used to control people. An example will be public execution, which its purpose is to implant fear in people by making an example of a criminal. Fearing of cruel death, people tend to follow the law and try to prevent from committing a similar crime. However it isn’t such a great motivator because some other greater motivations can cause people to act. If fear is such a great motivator, why do people still fight with war and battles that causes great casualties? It’s true that countries try to negotiate with each other to prevent wars from happening, but battles and violence are inevitable once a single violent event erupted. Forgetting fear, people are willing to fight, risking their life, to protect their pride and carry on their sense of justice. They could also act due to vengeance or mental disorders. Fear is a strong tool that prevents one from acting a certain way. However, often times, the effect of fear as a motivator only lasts temporary when people forget the fear in it. For example, if people are not reminded all the time that more than a thousand people died a day in the world from car crashes because they didn’t wear seat belt, people often time forgets the importance of wearing seat belts while driving.

Church?

I have never really entered a Christian or Catholic Church. I remember I only visited some grand cathedral in New-York or England where it’s intentionally for tourist to visit. However, I often visited the special Taiwanese Daoist+ Buddhist temple. I think it’s in Taiwanese culture that we said we believe in Buddha, but in reality we did most of our ceremony like Daoism. Anyway, I visit temples during holidays such as Chinese New Year or before important events such as SAT tests.

        The first thing I notice when I enter the temple is this strong distinct incense smell. With the smell, the whole temple turns sacred as if I have entered into a new world. You will soon realized that you are surrounded by people who have one or two incense stick in their hands who tries to bypass you to get in front of the Buddha or Daoist god statue. Often time people will accidentally burn each other with their incense. The statue is often placed inside glass container to prevent thieves and shined with bright light to show off its golden brightness. It seems like the statue is emitting light itself as if it’s alive. Kids like us are told to follow our elders, mimicking procedures such as closing our palms, praying to the statue, saying wishes and expressing gratitude to the god. Being not a really pious kid, I often time joke around during praying that I play with the incense smoke and mimic my grandparents saying “ A Mi Tofu”  I always get scold by my dad, but I guess he isn’t really that pious either because he is just trying to follow rules of the temple.

        I imagined being a monk for the temple must be extremely hard. You have to get your head shaved and live in a simple life. You will be extremely pious to the teaching of Buddha because Buddha will be watching and protecting you at any time.

Motivation

In the Scarlet Letter, characters in the story are mostly motivated by their feeling of guilt and sin. Hester is motivated to do charity work due to her sin of committing adultery. Bearing public humiliation by wearing a scarlet letter A on her chest, Hester wanted to show the kindness side of her by donation and actively participating in the community through charity. On the other hand, Dimmesdale is motivated to torture himself because of his guilt and being unable to confess. Dimmesdale whips himself and goes on fast because he wanted to simply punish himself for his evil acts. In Roger Chillingworth’s case, he is motivated by vengeance where he wanted to torment Dimmesdale for having an affair with his dear wife. Chillingworth is driven so bad by vengeance that eventually he loses his humanity and becomes a devil with a burning red eye.

        In “Burning down of our house”, Bradstreet is mainly motivated by her religious beliefs. She believes that the true treasure lies in heaven where earthly possessions are useless. Her puritan beliefs help her to withstand depression and sadness by allowing her to let go the feeling of losing a house. A person like me without strong puritan beliefs couldn’t have survived after losing something precious. For me, earthly possession is the most important thing in the world, without it, I’ll die.

       

Compare and Contrast: Bradstreet vs Sor Juana

There are many similarity between Sor Juanna's sonnet World in Hounding Me and Bradstreet's poem Here Follow some verses upon the Burning of Our house, July 10, 1666. Yet there are still some differences between them.

       Sor Juanna’s sonnet theme is basically saying that people should cherish insights more than superficial value because all superficial value fades away. On the other hand, Bradstreet’s theme is saying that earthly possessions aren’t important because the true treasure lies above in heaven where things will never age and fade away with time. Both share an idea that possession or physical value of things will fade away as time moves on. However, Sor Juanna states that the true treasure lies in our mind, not in the mind of setting to win any possessions. In Bradstreet’s poem, she still values possessions, but just not those earthly ones.

        Both poems use the key word “vanity” in their texts which plays an important role in demonstrating their theme. In Sor Junna’s sonnet, the word vanity means to pursue possession and superficial values. She thinks people shouldn’t throw their life away in pursuing the “vanity”. Instead people should set the vanity aside and search for greater insight values. On the other hand, vanity is used to mean crying over the lost of  earthly possessions. Bradstreet states that the very thought is all vanity, and she should think in the other way that the real treasure lies above in heaven. Both of them wanted to throw vanity aside and search for other values, either in heaven or insights.

Theme of "World in Hounding Me"

The theme of the poem is that people should care more about insight beauty rather than superficial value. The author is trying to say that she hated the world for hounding her with conventional beliefs that material possession and wealth are important. In the sonnet, she said “The only happiness I come to find derives from setting treasure in my mind and not from mind that’s set on winning treasure.” She expresses her view that treasure is the knowledge and meaning behinds things, instead of the shinny or superficial value of objects.

I agree with the theme that people shouldn’t care too much about superficial stuff because it makes u look shallow. However I disagree with the part where we should completely get rid of all material possession because all necessary beauty and treasure lies within our mind and knowledge. As human beings, we all love shinny fancy objects and hope to be satisfied once obtaining those items. Yes it is true that we should also value the artistic value and appreciate the knowledge in items such as computers or I-phones. However, in the first glance, people notice its appearance rather than its meaning. People shouldn’t be so limited as to live in a world where owning material possession is evil. We lived on to obtain knowledge and gain material possessions in order to survive and enjoy life. It is possible for us to appreciate insight and superficial value at the same time

How Effective is the Poem's Title?

How effective is the poem’s title “Hounded by the World” conveying the author’s theme or point of view. Although it may see abstruse at the first glance of it, the meaning of it begins to show after reading the poem for a couple of times.

In the poem, the author is indeed hounded by the world that she disagrees with conventional beliefs that the only beauty is thing that can be seen such as material goods and wealth. She argues that her mind and knowledge are more important compared to possessions. I guess she is reflecting the time where women aren’t really allowed to gain knowledge as man because the world, or society, doesn’t allow it. In her background story, she described the time where she wanted to dress up like a male in order to enter the University of Mexico. However, being hounded and limited by the world, she can only self-study in her grandparent’s library. With strong puritan beliefs, she thinks it’s a waste of time to pursue material possession and wealth. Instead, she thinks the real treasure already lies in people’s mind where knowledge and imagination are true beauty. In conclusion, the author is hounded by the world that she is limited by conventional beliefs that material possessions and wealth are important. It's quite a bit different then what i define as "world". My world's meaning is broader and literally means reality

Hounded by the world

To me , hounded by the world means to be obligated and limited by reality. The world literally means the reality we faced today, such as social problems, peer pressure, homework stresses, etc. As human beings, we are always hounded by the world with the world throwing problems and challenges to us. Whether we like it or not, we need to accept the world around us and deal with the issue. For example, we are being hounded by the world for polluting the planet, therefore we are facing global warming which causes all weird weather phenomenons arould the world such as extreme hot temperature in Russia and stronger typhoons in the pacific. Also, we are hounded by the world that we follows rules and society's expectation of us. Although it may be stressful and annoying, the world helps us grow strong, both mentally and physically, and prepare us for more challenges ahead of us. People may sometimes want to break out of the world by using their imagination and innovative ideas to change. However, reality will never stop hounding us. It will just keep beating us back down to reality, destroying our day dreaming. We face challenges and are obligated to take responsibility for what we have done, even if we think we have done nothing wrong. There are no way to escape the world as long as we are still living.

My Personal Disaster

"Where's my laptop!!"

Searching through my room,
Going up and down the stair,
Asking my sister if she have taken it.
"Where is it?!"

Looking through the car,
 the kitchen, basement,
and even the back yard.
"Where's my laptop!!"

Going around the school,
Looking through the lost and fund,
Asking teachers and office staffs
I still can't find it

Sadly giving up after a month of search
Good bye my dear friend,
Missing laptop.

Guilt

Everyone feels guilty about something at sometime in his or her life. Describe a time when you feel guilty. How did guilt change your behavior? How did you get rid of guilt?

        Guilt is a feeling that I believe most people experienced sometime in their life. It’s a feeling that you felt deeply regretful when you did something. It may be because your action causes someone else’s misery or making you felt ashamed. I remember back in second grade I did something that I felt pretty guilty about. At second grade, during the cram school class section, we were doing math or mandarin exercises. After doing the exercise for like an hour, the teacher decided to give us a break. During the break, I saw an exercise sheet on the table. At first I thought it was just a piece of scrap paper because the hand writing on it looks messy, so I decided to draw circles and mess the paper up with pencil marks. When everyone returned back to their seat after the break, I suddenly realized that the paper I drew on was actually someone else’s paper. The teacher was mad and started to ask who did it. After the teacher asked some of the naughtier, suspected students, the teacher gave up and told the student to redo his exercise again. I was lucky to get away with it, but I felt extremely guilty for not admitting my crime. Although I soon forgot the guilt because I was only in second grade, now thinking back, I didn’t really do anything to apologize to the kid. However, after that experience, I learned not to draw on papers that are not mine. If I had a time machine, I would simply apologize to the kid and admit my crime. If I could just explain that I didn’t do it purposely, I could probably get away with a less severe punishment.

Puritans and Possessions

Think about the major Puritan belies as you re-read this poem. What philosophical beliefs about God and the purpose of human life are reflected in Bradstreet’s poem?


In the poem, Anne Bradstreet described how she felt when her house burned down and how she reminded herself that she shouldn’t be sad about it. For Puritans, they believed that they should be grateful for things that god gives them. “It was His own, it was not mine”. The puritans believed that God have all rights to take away or give them things. Although she was sad that all her precious books and material possessions were destroyed and burnt in the fire, she chided herself that she shouldn’t care so much about earthly things because all the great thing are actually high above in the haven, as she described in her poem “My hope and treasure lies above.” By thinking this way, Bradstreet can easily move on in her life that she can restart despite losing all her previous possessions. Puritan believed that what is important is keeping the bond between God and put hopes and treasure high above in heaven. She treasured the time when she enjoyed possessing and using god’s gift for a period of time in her life.

Hester's Punishment

How do you feel about what happen to Hester Prynne?


I kind of feel sympathy and pity for Hester Prynne. It isn’t entirely all her fault that she had committed adultery, a crime that is unforgivable in the Puritan Society. I think the person that should be blame is the preacher, Dimmesdale, who seduced the young puritan women and had an affair with her. Being a respected puritan, Dimmesdale should have known his responsibility better than anyone else that it’s a crime to admit adultery. Dimmesdale should deserve a much more severe punishment than Hester Prynne, for not admitting the crime proudly as a man and committing crime on innocent soul. In order for Hester’s baby be legitimate, Hester should have first married with Dimmesdale and legally have a new family. Being too naive and impatient, Hester thought her husband was dead and justified to have an affair with the preacher. In conclusion, Hester Prynne deserved her punishment and Dimmesdale should be condemn as well.

Material Possessions

How important are material possessions? How would you deal with the destruction of your home and all of your belongings? What do you think you could most easily live without with?




For me, material possessions aren’t that necessary anymore. Although I may felt extremely depressed at first if I lost a certain possession, the feeling may be gone within a few weeks that new possession will fill the emptiness in my heart. However, if my house somehow got bombed or destroyed, the most important material possessions I will be carrying with me are my passport and money. It is important to carry some identification such as social security card or passport with people during evacuation. No one will like to be a nameless person when survivors find your body under some piles of ruined buildings. Things that can be easily replaced such as pencils, eraser, and books are something we can easily live without off. Now a days, most people uploaded their pictures on facebook or other online website. As long as computer and internet continued to exist, those files aren't likely to be gone. There fore it's not necessary for us to carry our photo albums as our most valuable material possessions.

Puritans & Rationalist Today

What exactly are we today, puritans or rationalist? Both of them are religious groups yet share different views of life.
Puritans are extremely pious and believe only a few "Chosen Ones" can go to heaven. Hoping to be the chosen one, puritans live a hard working life. They disclaim anything that is not written in the bible as the acts of devil and Satan. On the other hand, unlike the puritans, the rationalists believe that everyone has the capacity to regulate and improve his or her own life. If people worked hard and used reasons and logics, they would be able to go to heaven. The rationalists believe that God is like a clock maker, who created a system which allows people to use logic to keep the system functioning on its own. Humans are given the power of wisdom and logic to discover scientific and spiritual truths that God created.

There is no exact answer, but most people today are rationalists. By being rationalists, humans are able to use science and logic to create advance technologies such as computers, cars, medicines and etc. Not restricted by the bible, we are able to use logic and morals to create a world today that operates on its own. One with puritan’s idea can claim that God is still actively participating in shaping our world, such as creating Global Warming phenomenon to punish the evil deeds of technologies. Yet, in today’s world, we believe that by doing good things and keeping the system working, God will bless us.