The Dead

         At cursory glance, James Joyce’s “The Dead” may appear sexist. Indeed, the narrative revolves around Gabriel Conroy, a male protagonist; thus it is difficult to fully appreciate the emotions of female characters. In a similar context, Gretta is continuously viewed as beauty itself and merely as a subject of lust; Conroy wishes to “master her strange mood” and feels “a keen pang of lust” as he stares at Gretta. However, at the same time, the dearth of emotions of female characters expressed in “The Dead” functions to highlight Conroy’s lack of the sympathy and builds the tension to his epiphany. The encounters with Lily and Miss Ivors rendered him conscious of his incapability and eventually enabled him to fully appreciate Gretta and her emotions. In the last scene, he is enraged when he realizes the distance between himself and his wife and that he will never be able to “master” her. However, after Gretta falls asleep, Gabriel softens; as he no longer feels jealousy, but sadness in that Michael Furey once experienced love much more intense than he himself has never known. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that the myopic perspective of Conroy distorted the emotions of women. In this sense, “The Dead” is not sexist, as all female characters play a crucial role: to guide Gabriel Conroy, who, as his illusions are dispelled, realizes the shallowness of his love for his wife.

Araby

At first glance, James Joyce’s “Araby” might appear simply to be an emotional short story of a nameless boy in Dublin who has a typical crush on the sister of his friend. After all, the protagonist is infatuated with his neighbor’s sister and imagines himself heroically returning with a present from the bazaar, as if the word Araby “casted an Eastern enchantment” over his dull and changeless life. However, the enlightenment is a bigger theme that encompasses love. Once he arrives at Araby, he finds the bazaar dirty and disappointing. Two men are “counting money on a salver” as the protagonist listens to “the fall of the coins.” Moreover, the scene of the young lady, interested in two men who are flirting with her, shatters the “Eastern Ideal” that Araby once held. His love and his quest to the bazaar end as his blindness is stripped off by a sense of reality which was prevalent in Dublin 1910s. Thus, it is more accurately to assume that “Araby” is the story of a boy’s discovery of the disparity between the real and the ideal. Taking into account that such discrepancy was common throughout Ireland, “Araby” can also be in itself a portrait of the world that defies the ideals and dreams, soaking the newcomers with a bitter burst of reality.

A reflection on "The Student" by Anton Chekhov

             Having learned that “The Student” was renowned as one of the most perfect short stories to be written, I couldn’t hide disappointment during my first read of the story. I had been anticipating a shocking twist that would render me somehow convinced that the book deserves the title. However, the book was far from my expectations. As a matter of fact, “The Student” was completely devoid of the element of surprise.

             Of course, the descriptions were quite impressive and every detail very touching and beautiful, yet it didn’t strike me as special. In trying to speculate why to me it was not such an astounding piece of work, I came up with a few explanations: my lack of understanding of biblical allusions and the apathy towards the tears shed by the widow and the self-satisfaction of the protagonist. However, in the process of contemplation and reexamination, I did realize that the work had a taste all its own, that it had something beyond simply articulate prose. The characters were vivid and three dimensional.

             Ivan is the most interesting of the characters. Ivan was initially full of contradictory. He was no sage, but a mere cleric student. Yet his speech implied that he had knowledge beyond the skies. However, his grumpiness at the start of the story and his complacence after he had “touched one end and the other quivered” seemed contradictory to his supposed knowledge.

             However, as I read more, I realized that he had been affecting a sagacious tone or attitude. To explain, he learned that “The past is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events” and that “life is full of lofty meaning” through a revelation. Indeed, a young man may experience an epiphany, and itself is no surprise. Yet his shallow interpretation of Vasilisa’s tears and his complacence makes me think otherwise, and doubt the knowledge of the immature young student.

             Finally I came to wonder why the title was “The Student.” Why not “The Sage,” or “The Missionary?” Students are not perfect. They are beings that continually change. Such volatility is a common factor of two characters mentioned in the story: Vasilisa, the old widow who was nonetheless moved by the preaching of a 22year old boy, and Ivan, a student of arrogance and pride evident in the complacence after a speech of revelation, which he had never undergone. As far from perfect as they are, they are capable of change. It is notable that Vasilisa shades tears and Ivan experiences a change in his worldview. Indeed, both Vasilisa and Ivan may be students after all. 

30 Things about John

1.    I’m the first chair clarinet in minjok orchestra; I’ve played the instrument for two years when I was in elementary school. But I don't like practicing my instrument as much as many people think. I sometimes skip practices for other priorities that seem more important.

2.    Although I am still a newbie, my favorite sports is swimming. I participated in the Gangwon swimming competition as a member of the swimming club, while, in fact, I only learned to swim during the winter vacation before I came to KMLA. I believe my love for swimming must be in my genes; indeed my parents both know how to swim and so does my sister. Perhaps Busan, my hometown, is running through my veins.

3.    I have an older sister who will graduate college this semester. She lives in the states and I believe she will at least for the next three years. Pity on her that she can’t have legal alcohol in the states before she graduates.

4.    My favorite color is blue. Many people relate my favorite color to where I had been in the states, but I’ve always had a craving for the color blue like the ocean that would stretch beyond my eyes long before I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

5.    Dorian Gray is one of the best books I’ve read in my second year of high school. I think I like it because Dorian Gray seems a lot similar to me. This indirectly means I am willing to sell my soul to a portrait for eternal youth and maybe break some hearts of young and innocent girls.

6.    I really hate bugs. The only time I enjoy interactions with them are when I step(stomp) on them or pound them with a stick until their corpse are ripped into a billion pieces.

7.    Talking of bugs, I think I encountered lots of them during my first year in KMLA. I’ve seen bugs from Dynastinae to roaches and a few inch cricket living depths of the basement. The sight of them jumping at least half my height still decorates one of my most terrible nightmares.

8.    I speak a little of both Chinese and Spanish. However, most of the Chinese letters I once knew have now even lost their scent of familiarity. I’m hoping I can learn more about Spanish in college so that my current knowledge won’t just evaporate right into the sky. In fact it is one of the few languages I can speak that I like.

9.    One of my favorite novel characters is Percy Jackson in the Percy Jackson series. I first read the Lightning Thief when I was in fifth grade. I liked it and still like it because it is cool to accomplish every feat that Hercules or other heros achieved during their entire life times in only a matter of 4 years. How realistic.

10. I once wanted to be a microbiologist when I was in middle school. I thought I was fit for biology. I realized that my dreams were just too far from reality when I took SAT biology in KMLA. I am pretty certain that I will stay far away from the subject for the next ten years. (Maybe my kids will be interested in bio.)

11. I was 140centimeters in my first year in middle school. Even now I seem to be a little smaller than my peers. The milk mythology is jiggery-pokery; there are plenty of counterexamples (including me). Thanks to the marketing strategy of America, whose dairy products hold a huge chunk of the country’s GDP, I've wasted  thousands of liters of milk all for nothing.

12. Speaking of milk, when I was in America I used to think that Martin Luther King Day was a day for drinking milk. It looks the same anyway; MLK and milk.

13. I have a broad taste of music. Though I’m not familiar with the recent KPOP, I enjoy some of them. Maroon 5, One Republic, Bon Jovi, Eminem and Elvis Presley do fit my appetite, but I have not yet listened to all of their songs. Perhaps my lack of knowledge is natural, since I didn’t have an MP3 player before I entered KMLA.

14. I am an addict. It’s really hard for me to quit games. For instance, I got addicted to Maplestory, one of the games that have few static users. Unfortunately, I have never been addicted to the field of academics.

15. I have a secret wish to try out a Mohawk ever since I was in middle school, but so far my dearth of courage quenches my desires whenever I visit the barbershop.

16. I used to play basketball in middle school, but quit as I entered KMLA. It didn’t take long to realize my lack of genius. In addition, my short height seems to me a big burden whenever I do get a chance to play.(or maybe I'm just too bad.)

17. I thought I had very deft hands when I was young, because I just loved origami. It turns out that a preference for origami doesn’t necessarily correlate with adroit hands. I have relatively small thick fingers.

18. I once blacked out when I was in kindergarten. I pulled my grandmother so that she’d buy me a toy, but her hands accidentally (or perhaps deliberately) slipped and I banged my head on the very sharp vertex of the glass that secures jewelry. I found myself in the hospital a few hours later after I had stitched my head a few times. That was the only time I ever gained consciousness in a hospital bed.

19. I watched Godfather a month ago and I think I enjoyed it. It was a shock to observe Mike’s metamorphosis from an ordinary man to a mafia boss. However I don’t quite agree with his decisions, as succeeding his father did not seem to me as a righteous ‘filial duty.’ Overall I thought Al Pacino and Marlon Brando were great actors.

20. I used to bite my nails when I was in elementary school. However, when a lady rhetorically asked me whether the nails are a good source of protein, I quit the very next day.

21. I am not so intimate with little kids. I have a difficult time trying to handle them whenever I do volunteer work. Many times, the kids hate me and punch and kick me even before I open my mouth. I learned from middle school that teaching young children was far from my vocation.

22. I love to travel and hope to travel to the South Americas one day. Sadly, I have only visited the United States, some parts of Europe, and Guam only if sleeping in a hotel for a night for the SAT is synonymous with ‘visiting Guam.’

23. Out of fear, I have set my distance from League of Legends.

24. I am officially catholic, but I am not a martinet of the religion. Actually I haven’t visited the Catholic Church for three months. I plan on returning once I graduate.

25. The only times I went to libraries in elementary school of Michigan was to read (or watch) the Captain Underpants and Garfield. I usually read 'real books' in my room, sometimes the same book at least three times. One of my favorite books were The Giver, Walk Two Moons, Poppy, and Holes. Nostalgia overwhelms me whenever I open the dust covered books, as those books remind me of when I was young and innocent.

26. I avoid speaking in the Busan dialect. The teachers poked at me with questions like, “Did you learn your dialect when you were in America?” I eventually learned to hide it after a few months in Seoul; however, whenever I talk to my parents or cousins in Busan, the tiny bit of Busan soul leaks out of my mouth.

27. I was a big fan of Yu-gi-oh cards when I was young. I would buy a bunch of them and hide them in a huge cardboard box. After months, perhaps years of collecting, the cards surpassed the capacity of the box; in the process of moving into a new house, the cardboard box exploded.

28. Cereals have become a part of my daily life. It decorates the beginning and end of the day.

29. I am a proponent of Capital punishment. I think some people deserve it.

30. I have emotional highs and lows. Right now, I am extremely glad I finished my assignment which seemed impossible at the time.