Monday, April 28, 2014

Post # 6 The Obstacle I Faced

Post #6
I faced one of the biggest obstacles in my life at the ending of my junior high school.
As one of the top students in my class, I was considered almost guaranteed to go to the best high senior high school in my city. I met Waterloo in my senior high school entering exam and my results were not high enough for that school. I was so disappointed. My friends invited me to their parties to celebrate their success during that summer. I had to have fun with my friends. When I got home, my parents blamed me because they paid a lot extra fees for me to get into that best senior high school. However, I did not know why I did that bad in the exam because only officers were allowed to see these papers. I did not know how I got over it, neither. It was like a nightmare happened yesterday.

The only thing I could do was to bury myself into studying in the first year of senior high school. It changed me so much. Many of friends said that they felt like I became the one who likes being alone. They spend more time on chatting with me, helping me. To not disappoint them again, I tried to play more games with them when I had rest. Luckily, it took the most of my time to study with my new classmates during that year. We made fun of each other and helped each other. Everyone got so tried when they come to the classroom at near 6:20: in the morning after they finished their homework at near 1:00 am and had some sleep. But the tiredness did not decrease our interest to talk aloud with each other about some math, Chinese, English (nothing like I study now) and other problems. We studied hard and played hard with each other even we know all the classmates will be competitors in the Gao Kao (Chinese university entering exam). I quite enjoyed that year. It later becomes a year I miss.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Post # 10 Research the Oedipus Complex plus Hamlet




First of all, what is Oedipus Complex? Oedipus complex a son or daughter's wish to possess the parent of the opposite sex. This term was coined by a psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud(6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939).

The word “Oedipus” refers to a 5th-century BC male character Oedipus, who had been told, would kill his father and marry his mother before his birth. To prevent that being truth, his father Laius sent him away when he was born. However, the tragedy happened in some way. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. He stabbed his eyes after he knew the truth.

Oedipus was accursed in the story.  It causes a further question- Can a son love his mother?

My personal answer is that kind of love should be understood. From everybody’s birth, parents taught us everything. Therefore, in our subconsciousness, parents are perfect. We love our potentially because we rely on them. However, as we grow up, this consciousness disappeared because we find our loves at our ages. The dependence to parents is transferred to the dependence to our lovers. We understand, rely on and love each other. This is my definition of love. Therefore, the love to parents should be understood.

How does it connect with Hamlet?

From 1599 to1602, Hamlet was written by Shakespeare. In Hamlet, Hamlet thought his mother was perfect. However, he was sad when his mother married his uncle. In some way, it is said that Hamlet was sad because it was his uncle married his mother. He through his mother should be perfect. His mother Gertrude in his mind was stained and he could not stand that. He would kill his mother if his father’s ghost did not stop him. At the end of the story, his mother was killed by his uncle's mistake. The one should have drunk the venom was Hamlet in uncle’s plan. Under Shakespeare’s words, Gertrude saved his son’s life and apologized to his son in this special way, reflecting that the love from Gertrude to Hamlet and the love from Hamlet to Gertrude were tragedies.  

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Post #9 My ISU Book "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

In the book " Their Eyes Were Watching God". The protagonist is a middle-aged black women whose name is Janie Crawford, returns to Eatonville, Florida, after the long absence. She is confident and brave. The book describes the journey that she seeks for freedom and independence.

The major themes in the novel are love, independence and silence. 

The book is connected to "The Book of Negroes" because they both tell the story of a black woman about how did they find the freedom. Aminata has a life that she kept moving around to get freedom. So was Janie. At the end of stories, their lives both become peaceful.

In chapter 2,  "Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid" after she saw the "marriage " between bees and blooms. The "marriage" foreshadows her future life and makes realize the meaning of love, which is mutual fulfillment.