Handmaid 5 response

    This novel comes to an end. However, this end is a mystery. Finally, Offred made love with Nick and our debate last class came to the result! But what's her fate and the society's fate next, the auther leaves much space for the readers to imagine. It is annoying for me, but it is  why literature is attracting.
    When we reflect the whole story, which is about a wired and unrealistic society named Gilead, we may infer that the purpose of this novel is to alarm the nation to pay attention to the Islam extreme. It could be really dangerous if power of religion gets too strong. If so, the true society will get into Gilead.

The Handmaid tale4

  In this part, there are some surperising plots which is unexpected by me. People have the tendency to disobey the rules of the society. The commander took Offred to a club and to have fun, which is not allowed in the society. And the commender's wife tells Offred that she can be pregnent with Nick, which is also against the rule. As for the commender, maybe he is unhappy with the rule of the society, which makes him not able to find true frendship, love, and so on. And for the handmaids, they also may get tired of the society. However, one thing which is sure is that the rule of Gillead is breaking down. Maybe big changes will happen in the future.

Respond to "Boy Marries Hill"

  This is an interesting and a little bit weird drama made up by only dialogues. However, there are emotions and rhetoric behind the dialogues and this is the special design of the auther. The story is about a boy named Tapesh who wanted to bereak up with his girlfriend Darshini and marry a hill, in order to honer his mother's wish. Darshini pretended to be pregnant to save Tapesh, but finally when Tapesh decided to stay with her, she changed and didn't want to be with him.

  The centeral of the drama is "marring a hill". Firstly, I'm confused about why he insisted on marring a hill. When I know that Tapesh was an indian american whose mother lived in India, and a doctor. It is possible that he came from India to America for education. The "hill" probably stands for his hometown and family. He wanted to marry the hill is a metaphor of Tapesh to go back to his motherland and family.

  As for why the girl finally decided not to love Tapesh, I'm still confused. Is that because of his weird logic, or because she thought Tapesh love something else more than her? I think I still need more background imformation...

 
 
 

Response 3

The Bible is the most classical and influential book for the western culture and people who believe in Christianity of all time. Unfortunately, for me, as I don’t believe in any religion, the Bible is idealism in philosophy to me. However, though I think it is illogical, people accept it because of their cultural belief and this belief makes a big difference.

From chapter 1 to 9, the Bible tells us how was everything created by god step by step and why people shall get married, how people born and die. 

The Bible tells us to be kind, like god gave life to all creatures and like Noah made the ark to save creatures from the flood. When human's thoughts were full of evil, the LORD decided to destroy everything from the earth.

The Bible strengthens its rhetoric by attaching great authority to god and giving an example of “not listening to god will be punished”. Eva and the serpent were punished hard when Eva was tricked by the serpent and ate the tree which the LORD commanded not to eat. 

Anyway, I’m getting interested in this book and I would like to know more about the Christian culture by the Bible.

Schedule

Step	Completion Date
1: Determine text	APR 6
2: literary review	APR 13
3: determine element	APR 15
4: Meeting with Dr. Marquardt	APR 17
4: determine sources	MAY 8
5: determine quotes from primary sources	MAY 8
6: determine quotes from secondary sources	MAY 8
7: Outline	MAY 11
8: Draft 1	MAY 16
9: Peer Review	MAY 18
10: Draft 2	MAY 23
11: Final Draft	June 5

Lights

1.  “He gets all teary telling about the good times they had together, how her brother made the war seem almost fun, always raising hell and lighting up villes and bringing smoke to bear every which way.”

Light up means bringing happiness.

“A nature hike, they thought, not even a war, so they went off into the shade of some giant trees—quadruple canopy, no sunlight at all—and they were giggling and calling each other motherfucker and playing a silly game they’d invented.”

“Up in the canopy there were tiny white blossoms, but no sunlight at all, and I remember the shadows spreading out under the trees where Lemon and Rat Kiley were playing catch with smoke grenades.”

Sunlight means peace, hope and wished to end the war.

“And if nobody chickened out, the grenade would make a light popping sound and they’d be covered with smoke and they’d laugh and dance around and then do it again.”

Light is an adjective here, meaning quiet, not loud.

“There was a noise, I suppose, which must’ve been the detonator, so I glanced behind me and watched Lemon step from the shade into bright sunlight.”

“Then he took a peculiar half step, moving from shade into bright sunlight, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree.”

Sunlight is the light come from an explosion, as sharp as the light from the sun. Lemon stepped into sunlight means he died in the explosion, but also light is a metaphor of a relief from the war and going to the paradise where is peaceful.

“All the while the baby buffalo was silent, or almost silent, just a light bubbling sound where the nose had been.”

Light means not loud, which indicate that the water buffalo was almost dead, also reflect Rat was so cruel to shoot the water buffalo.

Response 2

    “How to Tell a True War Story”is a meta-literature according to what we learned in the first week's lecture. It is made up by several little stories.

    I have to say that this essay made me confused, but what is obvious to get is that the author used thoses stories to argue against wars.
    Curt Lemon was exploded and Rat lost a good friend because of the war. Those who doing listening-post operations cannot speak but listen to their enermy's movement in the mountain, which can be regarded as a torture to them. And the war made people cruel. Rat shoot the water buffalo and people felt amazing about it, rather than show empathy to the water buffalo.

    Those were all brought by the Vietnam war. The war made people lose frendship, love and empathy. The author mentioned "a true story" for many times, but he also said "a true war story is never about war". It seems that those terrible stories are unbelievable, but they were all really happened in a war. That is how the author used those stories to convey an idea that wars are terrible.