Reflection on sharing and responding to other's blogs

By looking at other people's views on the same topic as what I have also carefully considered, different perspective of understandings did inspire me a lot. As I am responding to them, many new thoughts and  ideas are developed naturally. What's more, I also found that a lot of my classmates share the same passion for Literature as me. This blogger activity helped me to know better about my classmates.

Quick snapshots of novels I have been studying

Lord of the flies:

The hunters have masks. They used the masks as a cover and excuse to indulge in their desires. It is an extremely decisive factor that caused the breach of the civilization. In the modern society, the same concept is or was used by some governments, such as Hitler and Chinese communist party. They have heart-stirring slogans and high-sounding contribution, but the fact that they could not destroy is always foul. Thus, it can be seen that the greatest threaten to human is not the evil that we are able to see or feel, but it is the evil under the mask of hypocrisy. The greatest enemy that stands in your way of advancement is yourself. The greatest enemy that stands in the way of advancement of culture is the culture itself. The reason, which caused this, is the lack of the acquaintanceship of the original evil that generally exists within people. This is the enemy that we have to fight with until death.

Macbeth:

Blood is a major symbol in Macbeth. Once Macbeth stabs his dagger into Duncan’s chest, the blood comes to symbolize Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt that cannot be washed clean. Macbeth cried after he murdered Duncan. Washing off the blood from their hands does not change the fact that they killed their king. The blood permanently stains on their hand and the guilt hunted them to death.

Light Bulb Moments

Literature:

     The reader: The expression of love and guilt, and how strongly can emotion affect people.

     Lord of the flies: Human nature is not perfectly good as Confucius said.

Physics Class:

     I realized how small and tiny I am to the world. And the world has such complex but artful    mechanism.

Calculus Class:

     When I learned how the first principle of derivative works, I was so shocked by Newton's intelligence. It is completely derived based on the things I have already learned. I suddenly felt how profound math can be.

Studio Art:

     I realized that the process of making art is also a performance. A painting can reflect an artist.

Economic Class:

     The complexity of the society and economic system. It is like a huge web that is affected by these infinite strings that are attached to it.

My definition for education

Through learning, to be inspired and gradually form our own views of the world, our own values, so we can live our lives meaningfully.

Poem

I am from the toy cars lining up beside a small bed,

a Bookshelf so tall that I could never reach its third row,

and a south-facing window that gives me warm, golden sunshine.

I am from the sunflower trying to grow out of my window,

            and the apricot tree, whose long gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.

I am from the willows that never stop dancing,

the breeze that gently hugs everyone who walks by western lake,

and the delicate, slender hand that never let go of mine.

I am from the lamp that is still on at 4 am,

            the watery sunlight shining through chink in the curtains,

            and the long crow of rooster splitting the gray morning sky.

I am from the roar of the huge airplanes,

            the steel wings that pierce through the sun,

            and the moist, worm Shanghai air, the smell of home.

I am from the a slide so long that never end,

a swing so old that it is swings and sings,

and a bicycle always silently lying in the back yard, with a wheel that had twice the size of my head.

A letter to William Golding

Hello Mr. Golding:

I am writing this letter to say goodbye, because the novel “lord of the flies ” are being taken out of the curriculum. I came to study in Canada for grade 11 and grade 12. “Lord of the flies” is the first English novel I have read, and the first time I have studied a whole novel.

This book inspired me to think about human nature. Ancient Chinese philosophers, like Confusions, adhere the idea that human is inherently good, which is also the concept that I had been inculcated, but this book overthrows my mind. You took an objective narrator’s perspective and descripted a children’s world: Ralph’s braveness and rationality, Piggy’s self-pride and self-abasement, Simon’s insight and probity, and jack’s ambition. But all these are corroded by bestiality and savagery; the gradually losing humanity of those pure little kids makes me scare. If I am also one of them on the island, can I still keep calm, rational and adhere to what I have believed? This exposure makes me question my perspective on human, including myself.

Thales once said that know oneself is the hardest thing in the world. Throughout the studies of Lord of the Flies, I think I had known more about myself. I am sorry for those who might not have the chance to experience the subtleness and the profoundness of this book anymore. The book is going to be replaced, but the combat, which happened on the island, between civilization and savagery, a performing of history, also an alluding of future, will never end.

Farewell, Mr. Golding. I will always have Lord of the Flies on my bookshelf.

Sincerely

Charles Ye

Reflection on “Catcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum”

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9729383/Catcher-in-the-Rye-dropped-from-US-school-curriculum.html

It says in the article that seventy percent of American literature classics are going to be replaced by “informational text” in US classrooms, in order to ready pupils for the workplace. I do not think this is applicable.

Throughout the studies of literature, we have learned much more than a language. Reading a good book is like talking to an erudite philosopher. The things that literature implies will gradually pervade every aspect of our lives, and gradually change our comprehension of the world, the society, and ourselves. We are taught how to be a man. If  “informational texts” take place of literatures, if we only read in order to obtain information, the school will just become an assembly line that produces workers. I think this mechanized method of study violates the original principle of education---- how to be a man.

In China, the way of studying literature is different from North America. Different kinds of Argumentative essays, informational text, poems, ancient Chinese proses, short stories, and abridged novels make up a text book for our literature classes. Memorizing poems and ancient proses is a major part of what we studied, because the main purpose of all four years of high school in China is to prepare for “Gaokao”, the test that get you into universities. We never studied a whole novel, because we have to get through the long “test curriculum” list. This is mechanized and meaningless. I think this is the direction America is moving forward to.