Take-home assignment #2

November 30^th, 2012

Take-Home Assignment #2 (revised)

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

Make a rational argument for a position you do not support personally.  For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position. Consider an issue that has affected you personally. 

 

We need to regulate our students’ computer usage. (con)

Our school restricts students using computers. Using computers for anything that can interfere with students’ studies is not allowed. However, such regulation should be abolished.

Firstly, computer regulation is ineffective. Students have other things to do than using computers and studying.

But even if the effectiveness of such regulation is verified, it isn’t free from infringing human rights. No man is to be stopped from using his property. Computers are undoubtedly students’ properties, and unless students commit illegal acts with their computers, the school cannot regulate their computer usage.

Above all, computer regulation is very likely to be misapplied. The term ‘anything that can interfere with students’ studies’ is ambiguous. Even reading e-news could be insisted to interfere with students’ studies, and hence computer regulation can be applied at any moment.

Computer regulation is ineffective, violates human rights, and has big potential for misusage and thus should be abolished.

1000 characters!

Where is Waldo?

November 29^th, 2012

In Class Essay-Where is Waldo? (UofC prompt #6)

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

On the crowded Broadway of New York, people dinning and bustling, cars whizzing and hooting, I looked around, visited shops, watched the ‘Broadway musical’, and ate foods from at least three countries of the world. Shops were big, the musical was splendid, and the foods werew all so unique. But what was really in my favor was none of these fancies. It was the Disney shop.

I hesitated a little before entering this colorful shop, expecting all the babies and their parents shooting wondering looks; ‘why is that teenage girl here?’ But why, I wasn’t the only teen; people from simply all ages were in the Disney shop. Some, maybe about one third, were there to actually buy Disney goods for them or for their children. But what about the rest?

Waldo always wears a red-stripe T-shirt and blue jeans. No matter where he is- at the beach, in the street, at the mall, park, soccer field, anywhere- he always wears this ‘Waldo clothing’, making a smiley face. He holds a brown cane in one hand, and with red-white beanie and white glasses, he waits. With this same pose, same clothes, and same face, he waits in any place, waiting for kids to find him. Similar with green-clothed Peter Pan, red-shirt Pooh, and red-pants Mickey Mouse. They have this consistency in character that never changes, that represents them, that makes us recognize them.

Of course this consistency in character doesn’t exist so often in the real world. People change. They update themselves in a way of adapting to switching environments. With college admission officers, we become a decent, diligent student with burning ambition. With friends, we get more humorous and rebellious. And adaptation to certain environment doesn’t necessarily have to be done consciously. As a member of certain society, and as an individual belonging to several different societies at once, human form new identities, willingly or unwillingly. Like the protagonists in numerous literatures of Confessional period, people, after living busy lives conforming themselves to whatever societies they are involved, commonly confront with identity issues.

It is natural for us to have our identities changed. As one professor at Harvard University once said, to belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with. We not only have to follow the explicit rules but accurately imply the unspoken ones as well. This may sound very toady and hypocritical, but at the same time very obvious.

Then doesn’t the concept of ‘finding Waldo’ sound meaningless? There is no such person with a consistent character like Waldo. Waldo doesn’t teach children anything. ‘Finding Waldo’ merely serves as giving adults some spare time while their kids earnestly seek for the most unrealistic character named Waldo.

We need to know why ‘Waldo’ and all the other Disney characters exist, and even more, why they are still widely beloved. Those characters are emblems of our childhood. Looking at thousands of Disney character dolls displayed, we recall a young ‘us’, sitting on a couch and watching a Disney film. We reminisce our sixth birthday when we coaxed our mothers to buy one extra toy. We are able to recall such memories because those Disney characters remain the unchanged. Same for Waldo. Waldo, wearing a red-striped T shirt and blue jeans, makes a happy face no matter where he is, or where we are. And looking at his eternal, friendly appearance, we let ourselves take a few minutes finding Waldo just as we did in our childhood, though we are aware of how time wasting this activity is. Waldo was with our parents in their childhood, with us in our own childhood, and will be together as well with our children. He was, is, and will remain same in any cases.

Reminiscing our vague childhood through Waldo takes us to the most pure, unmodified images of us. His unchanging character lets us ponder on how we were initially.

Earthlings revision

November 8^th, 2012

Earthlings 2^nd Draft

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

Indeed, humans are ‘humans’ and we can learn things, but we also forget things we learn ‘as humans’. We learn to be nice to animals, but forget few minutes later. This is partly why many films and literatures may not have a much less powerful impact than intended. But Earthlings is much more effective. It has successfully affected thousands of people. In fact, about half of the ‘Earthlings review’ videos show how people announce to be a vegetarian from the moment they watched Earthlings. And the other half? Surprisingly, they are those disapproving Earthlings.

Those deprecating Earthlings say the film is too graphic. The film IS indeed graphic. A pig is hung from the ceiling and slashed its neck so that the blood could spatter as it writhes in pain. Scrawny cow, staggering from bachaching labor, is put peppermint into its eyes. A white fluffy fox is skinned alive and left uncured, with blood seeping from all over the body. These all are surely more than simply unpleasant, they are awful. The graphic images blow human’s vulnerable mind so hard that they make humans feel like barbarians whenever eating a mouth-watering meat loaf. How wicked it is to show ignorant (or even innocent) consumers like me such a horrifying footage. I mean, I don’t play any role in that barbaric meat packing process. I’m a mere consumer, and am totally unrelated to evil matters. I don’t deserve such nauseous uncomfortableness that makes me want to throw the meat I had this morning up.

Earthlings is also blamed for being excessively one-sided. In fact, it takes than five minutes to notice how biased this film is. No, a two-minute trailer is enough. The film, from its start to its end, quite explicitly shows its strong conviction to human evilness. It categorizes how humans act their evilness on animals into three sub sections: eating, cloth, pet, entertainment, and scientific research. The film then devotes whole two hours illustrating how these are done. We all understand how Shaun Monson, the director, intended to accuse human’s egoistic sins on animals, but despite this clear intention, he should have put some human goodness into the film. Dystopian literatures are okay to solely convey a rather ‘biased’ theme of human evilness, but Earthlings is not okay, because, maybe, it is a ‘film’.

The last accusation against Earthlings is that it is meaningless. The film contains invalid information. Most of the footage used in the film- slaughterhouse actualities, circus exploitation, and all- is from 1990s. All the footage is invalid because it is now 21^st century. The world has changed. Though we use more animals for scientific research (actually, we use 17-22 million annually[1]), and though we consume more meat (more than 120kg per capita every year[2]), we kill those animals more hygienically, more humanistically. Even more, the film doesn’t have any solution. We, humans, need to sacrifice millions of animals for the nature’s good as a whole. We, as creatures, need to consume more than 300kg of meat every day. We need to consume leather products to avoid freezing from death, keep pets to avoid unbearable loneliness, and visit zoos to make our children happy. And the film doesn’t give a perfect solution for these inevitable acts. Many essays, films, TV programs, and speeches all deal with animal rights issues, and none of them actually gives any good solution (because if they had, there won’t be any more animal right issues going on). The Earthlings, however, SHOULD know the solution that might not even exist, and offer that solution to us.

I shut my eyes tight in the most brutal scenes and frowned in less brutal scenes. I was depressed in spirits after watching Earthlings and passively practiced vegetarianism for next couple of days by not eating meat dish (yet still having meat soups). But it was a huge change to me-since I never changed behavior so significantly. Apparently, I wasn’t alone to be temporary vegetarian, and Earthlings successfully affected millions of people. But it was very unsuccessful at the same time: because the film displayed so barbaric scenes that it almost seemed unlikely, omitted how good humans innately are, and didn’t give the perfect solution that no other source actually have ever given till now.

---

[1] http://www.animaltestingfacts.zoomshare.com/

[2] http://coolgeography.co.uk/Alevel/AQA/Year%2012/Food%20supply/Patterns%20and%20intro/Patterns%20of%20food%20supply.htm

Take-home assignment

November 25th, 2012

Take-home assignment

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

Make a rational argument for a position you do not support personally.  For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position. Consider an issue that has affected you personally. 

Argument: Literary works by politicians shouldn’t appear in national textbooks.

Textbooks, especially national textbooks, should always remain politically neutral. But the prohibition of publishing literary works by politicians in textbooks wouldn’t offer political neutrality to textbooks, and therefore, shouldn’t be passed.

The term ‘literary works by politicians’ is ambiguous. Depending on the application of the law, the term may refer only to literatures an incumbent politicians then wrote, or it may refer to any literatures written in a once politician’s life.

Also, the effectiveness of such law is very uncertain. Politicians’ literary works often contain no political intention, and non-politicians’ literary works often contains clear political bias. Thus, banning publication of literatures by politicians in textbooks has great loophole and large room for abuse.

The prohibition of publishing literary works by politicians in textbooks, with its ambiguous standard and uncertain effectiveness, may only make textbooks a political battlefield.

Flash Fictions

November 22nd, 2012

10 Flash Fictions

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

"For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."

                                                                                                 -E. Hemingway

1.     She learned to speak at the age of two; she learned to listen at the age of thirty.

2.     Seoul is the 6^th densely populated city, Korea is quite populated in general as well, and Asia is the continent with biggest population. Above all, Earth is perhaps the most populated planet in the whole universe. But I see no one around me.

3.     I talked, and you spoke in silence. We stared each other for a moment. I sighed and stood up, and you followed, open-mouthed.

4.     She thought she abhorred porn addicts, until she dated a game addict.

5.     A stout, middle-aged man with a Gap Kids T-shirt on said, “Tall girls are unattractive. Short people have cuteness appealing to anyone.”

6.     The bride tossed the bouquet into the air. The bouquet, with its red rose petals swirling around in the wind, flew over all the crowd holding their arms upwards, and landed on a flat, even ground.

7.     He was dreaming for a dramatic coincident with his first love on the street, assuring that he could recognize her right away in any time any place. But there was one thing he missed: she was constantly updating her appearance.

8.     A girl reads the message a blind man is holding out loud, “It’s a beautiful day, and I can’t see it.”

In tears, she empties her pocket and puts all the coins she has in a paper box in front of this haggard, worn looking man.

The man, with his eyes shut, says, “thank you, girl”, and the girl shouts, “give my money back, you fraud!”

The man smiles, mildly, yet somehow sadly.

9.      A rockstar asked, “Why wouldn’t I ever have a girlfriend?” 
     And the greatest ladies’ man in town answered: “You get rid of your beloved guitar, buy a nice car instead, and groom your frizzy hair.”

10.    The diary I had written when I was eight taught me one thing: how good your writing is may depend on how good your handwriting is.


11.  She was a lady when he was 5 feet tall, but when he grew up to 6 feet tall, she was a mother.

Teenage: The Freest Age [Ben X Review]

November 15^th, 2012

Reflective Essay on the Film [Ben X]

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

Belgium film [Ben X] deals with a highly universal issue: bullying. The outcast being bullied in this film is Ben, a teenage boy suffering from Asperger syndrome. He undergoes every spiteful mischief and even physical abuse done by his classmates, without a single successful defiance. The only way out he has is online game ArchLord, where neither appearance nor sociability is required. He is an outcast in his school, who finds comfort in his fake world of online game.

Bullying is a social problem. Outcasts created by the bullying majority exist in any sort of society, not to mention schools full of immature and impetuous teenagers. It of course seems logical that companionship cannot exist without ostracism, and therefore outcasts are inevitable for certain society to exist. Anyone distinguishes between crimson and red, scarlet and orange. On a generally red piece of paper, people can tell which part is red and which isn’t. But let there be one blue dot on that reddish paper. It becomes meaningless to distinguish reddish from red any longer because blue is the apparently least red color on that paper. Crimson, scarlet, and orange all go within a boundary of red, with the existence of blue. Without that blue dot, however, the ‘generally’ red paper isn’t just red anymore. This applies similarly to the real world. Excluding the most different minority brings strong solidarity to the society, letting otherwise substantial differences among insiders become negligible.

Clearly, bullying isn’t so conspicuous any more. America’s Jim Crow laws and Nazi’s Holocaust has become a disgrace in human history. No more color bar is admittable. Women, children, blacks, Asians, Mormons, and any former minorities all have equal opportunities, equal rights today. ‘Equality’ is an important keyword, and excluding certain group from the majority, depriving rights and suppressing them is against this mainstream value. People with innate disadvantages are not those who are to be left subordinate but those who are to be aided and assisted. Though people still crave to pursue the stability and comfort they get from ostracism in the very deep, at least on surface they all endeavor to help the weak and do virtue.

What we see in this Belgium film [Ben X] is, ironically, undisguised ostracism and naked violence. The classmates have Ben stand on the table and take off his pants so that anyone in the classroom can see him mortified. They videotape this vicious prank, upload on internet so that anyone can access this video. Ben’s self-styled ‘friends’ beat Ben nastily by one tying his both hands and the other punching his stomach. They further extort Ben’s newest Nokia and force him to swallow their spit. The classmates’ open bullying acts severely on Ben’s state of mind, driving him almost schizophrenic. But why is this school violence so explicit?

There is a common perspective viewing teenagers: immature, impulsive, irrational, and rebellious. Adolescence is a period between childhood and adulthood. Teens witness irregularities and learn the reality, but are yet vulnerable and somewhat naïve. They fight against conventions and undergo identity crisis. In many ways, teens are insecure and unstable. .And this conception, true or not, allows teens to behave in the way they want. Our society is especially generous to teens. While adults chide and coax young children to behave, they indulge teens and condone all their misdemeanors. They often reproach teens for rebellious and defiant attitudes, but that’s all. They do not endeavor too hard to scold teens, to shape them up, because teens are insecure and rebellious. They do not punish teens’ misdeeds too harshly because teens are immature. Beating someone on the head is something to be severely reproached for a child and something to be legally punished for an adult. But for teenager, it is something we have to overlook, or otherwise something a parent has to beg for forgiveness. Teenager is expected to behave in such way and isn’t to be punished. And teenagers, aware of the impunity they have, let themselves behave more irresponsibly, impulsively, and irrationally. 

Think of why our society is in general progressing (at least outwardly) to a more sophisticated, civilized one, yet the teens’ society, school, is stagnated on uncivilized, rudimentary level where the members behave primitively.Teens regard themselves, and are regarded immature and rebellious being. Their misbehaviors are rationalized in society. They easily go unpunished for their conducts.

Bullying is indeed a social problem. It corresponds to the desire to form a stable, strong community, to the instinctive want to be belonged. But there is a reason why bullying is most notable in school. It is that teenage is an age when bullying, no matter how violent and cruel it gets, is natural, and thus, okay. No, it is that people all believe so. No violence is okay. When someone acts violence (physically, verbally, or in any way), regardless of the age, he (or she) is to be chastised and punished. Excusing all his guilt does not keep him guiltless nor penitent. Poor victims like Ben never disappear unless teenagers are rightfully reproached and punished just like others.

Deja Vu

November 14^th, 2012

My Style-#2 Déjà Vu

Mr. Garrioch / Creative Writing

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

 2. Deja Vu.  Write a 500-word sketch of a scene in which a character has an experience that causes her to recall a startlingly similar past experience.  Juxtapose the two scenes, the present one and the past one, on top of each other, writing, for instance, two or three sentences of the present moment, then alternating back and forth between present and past that way.  Show the reader the remembered scene by use of Italics.  Why would a character be haunted like this?  Think of a convincing reason for the deja vu experience.  Or don’t worry too much about convincing reasons—just let some strange set of events impinge on the present moment of your character.  Be playful with the relationship.  Simple advice to beginners: don’t be heavy-handed.  It’s easier said than done, I know, but you can train yourself to relax and honor your readers with difficult and unusual human patterns of behavior.  Always flatter your readers by proposing a complex and unexpected reality.

Rays of light from streetlights entwined together and formed a large bright yellow circle right in the middle of Joyce’s sight. She blinked her eyes several times, as if blinking them would clear her visibility. It of course didn’t do any good at all. The sight was still indistinct with blurry golden lights. She adjusted her grip on the hand bar and slowed her car down a bit. Nervously. The night blindness she earned from Lasik surgery last year had blurred her sight under darkness, and she had to quite anxiously drive to home from work every day. The Lasik surgery she had received a year ago left her with a severe night blindness. But no regret receiving such. She could instead have a much clearer sigh during the daytime. She could see her boss’s face clearly now. She could read letters on street signboards. She did not have to squint any more. She worked for ten good years without stopping ever since she had gotten a job, and she deserved such convenience. On the fifth year she could get nice house from rent to her own, could buy a small car on the eighth ear, and only then she use money more ‘for herself’. Lasik surgery was the first thing she spent money for herself.

A red spot of light suddenly interfered in her yellow sight. It probably was a red light. She stopped her car. The crossroad was still with very few cars on it. One or two maybe. Street in residential area in Christmas Eve was always empty, as far as she had seen for last ten years. People went downtown or at home in such national holiday. They didn’t rove around the street. She vacantly looked whatever was ahead where she and her car were standing.

-Why is there no car on the street now?

-Because it’s late.

-But is the street always empty like this every night?

-No, dear.

A high voice probably that of a little girl asked a man with low voice.

-Then why?

-Because it’s Christmas Eve. People are all in their home with their families.

-Then why don’t we go home too, dad?

No, Joyce didn’t want the next response. She did not wish to listen to the answer. Heavy silence in her car left her with disturbing but intimate noises from deep inwards. She turned up the volume of radio. Golden familiar beat soon filled the car. And a man’s voice hummed along the melody. Quietly, in a low and soft voice. Keep the world in time spinning around like a ball, never to unwind. Just like a father singing a lullaby bedside to his daughter.

-Hey,dad. Stop singing? I can’t hear the song!

The young girl who had pestered the man and Joyce whined. Why would the girl want to stop the man’s voice, Joyce liked the man’s comforting voice. Never to unwind.

-Dad? Dad! Don’t ignore my words?

And the peaceful and mild humming stopped.

-Joyce, do you know what your name means?

Joyce, she got puzzled. Was that annoying girl’s name Joyce?

­-No. How can I know?

The girl’s voice sounded irritated. Perhaps she was wearied of a long drive. Joyce sighed. She was wearied, just like that little girl. She pressed the accelerator. The car advanced rapidly, and she pressed the accelerator harder. The light was still red, but who cares. The street was empty, and she deserved a breakaway.

-Joyous.

The low voice Joyce loved rung in her ears, speaking a single, short word.

-It means joyous. Dad has always wanted you to always be joyous, dear.

Joyce could feel a beating pulse from her hand gripping a hand bar. She held the accelerator down. The engine started to make some loud, precarious noise. The man’s voice had started to sing the song again, but Joyce could not hear them anymore.

 Never to unwind.

Ben X - 1/3

November 9^th, 2012

[Ben X] part.1 – Reflection

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

The word ‘original’ has two meanings; one is ‘novel’ and the other is ‘primary’. A novel idea at first becomes worn out as it is used repeatedly over time. Through this process, only the very first, or ‘primary’, usage of idea appears ‘novel’- other subsequent usages easily become a hackneyed, redundant application of a novel forerunner. If an idea has a similar precedent, the idea is likely to become an insignificant

After all, the first one-third of the Belgium film [Ben X] was not an original forerunner. The film first features a teenage boy, Ben, as a protagonist. He is game-addicted, and enjoys his own world in the game. For Ben, school is a horrifying place where he has to endure all his classmates bullying him. But school is not the only place he is estranged. Ben constantly has hard time associating with every person in every place at every time. He cannot even look in his own parents’ eyes. And yes, Ben is suffering from autism. Ben has been deeply damaged while living with other people, understanding, and interacting. He views his surroundings in his own very peculiar (yet typical in some sense) narrative perspective. He fails to assimilate into his peer group, and finds comfort in a virtual world of online game.

So far, the film has conveyed one of the most widely depicted themes nowadays-socializing problem of mentally challenged ones. [Ben X] tried to present a particular way of thinking of an autistic child and portray Ben as a very peculiar character. But for the first one-third of the film, it had merely drawn out a rather trite protagonist and the general setting. I hope this unoriginal setting and characters lead to something more original and astounding ending, and look forward to see the rest very soon.

Why autobiography? -[Fish Cheeks]

November 7^th, 2012

Reflective Essay-Amy Tan’s [Fish Cheek]

Mr. Menard / American Literature

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

The main source people rely on is their memories. They write, tell, and read stories about their own and others’ memories. They make judgments and conclusions based on memories. They even try to prove things based on their memories (sworn witnesses do such things in court). What is ironical here is that memories are the most unreliable sources people can have. Memories are oftentimes revised; while some remain relatively untouched, others are totally fabricated. People may consciously or unconsciously attempt to romanticize their past days and heroize themselves. As individual, everyone would also want to try romanticizing and heroizing, or probably already has operated such things on own memories.

In same sense, autobiographies and essays may seem meaningless and valueless. They basically address stories that are solely based on one’s unreliable memories. But still millions of people read these books, write, and reflect on them. But why?

Certainly, what people seek from autobiographies and essays is not a list of the most accurate facts. Why would people want to unmask every single proven detail of others’ lives? People surely are seeking something else than memory when reading those types of writings.

What people can get from autobiographies and essays is a new perspective of viewing things. Autobiography is a self-reflective essay that the author intensely contemplates on his or her life. The author traces back own history, considering every one experience. Grafting this experience and a well-fitting theme, the author then starts to write. Consequently, readers can see real life experiences that they as well are very likely to experience similar ones. Familiar episodes presented with a new viewpoint of seeing them are what autobiographies are for, what readers want from autobiographies.

Consider how an author actually gets his or her subject of writing. Amy Tan, the author of [Fish Cheeks], is another astounding exemplary figure for autobiographers who write highly satisfactory pieces with their novel perspectives of seeing something. Amy Tan specifically got most of her inspirations in China. During a visit to China, once, Tan saw a silent guy on the beach heaping up stones. Stones were all standing on their sharpest ends, all of them directly exposed to rather harsh sea breeze. Tan first couldn’t believe her eyes which were telling her that the stones were all standing on their sharp ends, as if they were unstably tiptoeing. She was amazed when she discovered the stones were all standing by themselves without any other device’s aid, such as putting sticky glue to pile stones together. This inspired her of the idea of balance. So her next few writings were all about finding the adequate balance. On another occasion, Tan visited her mother Daisy’s ex-husband’s three daughters. When Daisy went all the way over from China to the America, she had to leave her three daughters to her husband. Daisy had always missed her three other daughters in China ever since she inevitably left them. As Tan became an adult, she brought her old mom to China, and made her meet her other daughters. This reunion of a mother and her daughters left Tan a strong impression about invisible yet innegligible bond within a family. Since then she wrote about precious family love. Likewise, Amy Tan drove inspirations from any circumstances of her daily life, tried to catch all the inspirations she got, and intensely thought over those inspirations.

Autobiographies present fresh ideas through familiar experiences. Readers can learn to see certain occasions from a different point of view by reading autobiographies. And this is why autobiographies, like Amy Tan’s Fish Cheeks, are still a widely written, and widely read book in spite of its inaccuracy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

****************************************************************************************************************************

Yeji: Interesting ideas :) But I think you sometimes are writing according to your flow of consciousness rather than outline.. For example, I think there is no reason to write “I, myself…” in the end of first paragraph because this sentence gives readers impression that you are going to talk about your experience of fabricating memories. Except this, a great essay :) Well-done!

Yoonju Chung: Nice intro. It was impressive to bring the idea of memory that is revised all the time with biases, yet has worth writing about it. As Mr. Menard mentioned during the class, we can’t dismiss Amy Tan because she wrote about memory which occurred 10 or more years passed from now or she is an unreliable narrator. This revised memory, in other words, “faction”, deserves reading it by providing us some opportunities to walk a mile wearing on someone else’s shoes! I would recommend you to write more about Amy Tan in completed version! Except for this, great essay with creative ideas! :)

Tell Truth with Humor

November 2nd, 2012

Essay on Impromtu Speech topic

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”

“Joke” is a magic word. It makes everything laughable. Even the most explicit reproach can be regarded the most trivial and frivolous comment under the indulgence of joke. Say “It’s just a joke!” and a person wouldn’t be able to outspokenly angry, because joke makes those indignant yet natural response a mere overreaction.

This is perhaps why so many comedy shows conveys impunity messages. Making people laugh, comedy shows has less possibility of being inspected. If anyone were a censor, he or she would definitely censor an outwardly criticizing essay with harsh tone than a highly sarcastic and humorous one. Romney Style first presented in Jay Leno Show is one good example. Romney Style essentially accused Romney of being fond of money and women, which is fatal for Romney as a presidential candidate. But at the same time, this highly humorous video is hard for Romney himself to accuse back, because it is a ‘joke’ that makes people laugh.

But come to think about the matter, there are some exceptions for this clear cut thesis that one needs to make people laugh to tell people the truth. Politicians, for instance, are frequently disclosed corruptions. In newspapers, articles severely criticizing and accusing politicians are easily to be seen, and people accept these articles without much rejection.

A 'Type' of Love Story

October 31^st, 2012

Analysis - Russell Bank’s [A Type of Love Story]

Mr. Menard / American Literature

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

    

    

     In dramas and movies, we see lovers breaking up, holding each other’s hand, dropping tears, saying “we weren’t meant to be together. “ The reality isn’t so different. Though not as tearful as in dramas, many couples undergo breakup. Ron and Sarah, two protagonists of Russell Bank’s Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story, weren’t exceptions. The most handsome guy, Ron, was subtlely attracted by Sarah Cole, a very insignificant-looking yet self-assured woman. Ron falls in love (or think he does) with Sarah. They live together, dreaming of blissful life together. But opposed to what they’d initially hoped, they ended tragic, Sarah dead.

     When being in a relationship with someone, everyone wants something from her. It may be comfort one is looking for, dignity, a sense of belonging, or even more materialistic needs. When this is not gratified, the relationship is easy to be broken. Ron and Sarah in Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story also wanted something from each other.

Ron wanted to sustain an ‘unequal’ relationship with Sarah. Though he was divorced because his former wife wanted to ‘pursue her career which he had been interrupting’, he was very self-aware that he ‘was extremely handsome’. He was also aware that Sarah was very homely. Ron never wanted to go public with Sarah. He was fine making love with Sarah in his own house, but wasn’t for going to a Saturday night party together. For Ron, Sarah was like a secret lover who loved him. So when Ron heard from Glenda that Sarah had left with her ex-husband, this ‘unequal’ relationship wasn’t to be sustained anymore. The ‘ugly bitch’ like Sarah couldn’t leave an extremely handsome guy, and when Sarah returned, Ron threw her out.

But what Sarah wanted wasn’t Ron as a secret lover. For her, who was also very well aware how she appeared to others, ‘recognition’ was something she wanted from relationship with Ron. She was unchallengeably the most homely woman. ‘Wearing heavy, tan cowboy boots and a dark brown, suede cowboy hat, lumpy jeans and a yellow tee shirt that clings to her arms, breasts, and round belly like the skin of a sausage,’ Sarah was recognized by others as one very unappealing woman. Having nothing to lose, she approached Ron, the most handsome guy, and by a good chance fell in love. But as Ron would never go public with her, this ‘recognition’ from others was never achieved. She was still the homeliest woman named ‘Sarah’, and at last, when she was called ‘ugly bitch’ by Ron, she gave up her life.

     Not many relations are long-lasting. ‘Lovers’ aren’t alone to easily break up. Even friends ‘break up’ too. As long as people want something from people in relationship, the relationship cannot last long. So-called ‘lovebirds’ are they who are happy enough being together. Their relationship is satisfactory without any honeyed words or presents. Ron and Sarah’s relationship was in the first place ‘unsatisfactory’. Ron merely wanted unpublic relationship with Sarah, having secret intercourses, whereas Sarah wanted public relationship, being together at anywhere public. Their relationship was to be tragic.

    

    

Hyejoon: I really liked your analogy of the two similar stories. You compared well how the tragedy plays out in both short stories. Towards the end, you casted a lot of questions. I hope you elaborate them and find the answers when you post it on blog. :)

Yeji: I actually couldn’t grasp the connection between second and third paragraph. Maybe you can explain more specifically what their ‘scars’ were, how each other (who is a very different person) cure their scars at least partly, then talk that despite this partial cure their scars still remain. I’ not organized about these ideas by myself, so I cannot give you detailed example of my suggestion… But it could be better if you add such connections between 2 and 3. Anyway, good job :D

Earthlings-First Draft

Earthlings

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

Assignment #2 - Earthlings

111150 Ho InHee

Earlier this year, one of the Korea’s biggest food companies had to suffer the lowering of sales. In one of its products, Korean Food and Drugs Administration detected 140,000germs per gram, surpassing the standard with 14 times. People demanded a refund. The company consequently announced its plan to go off stream and recalled 24,030 boxes of products. And few months later, the company released a new version of product, dramatically depleting germs. Apparently, the company couldn’t break away from low sales.

Dreadful images are to stay longer in one’s memory. Astounding news that a number of germs were found in a largely-consumed chocolate appalled the majority, making people be reluctant to buy the products. Even after this product was renewed, the dreadful image of the chocolate company remained for long. A film Earthlings [2005], directed by Shaun Monson, utilizes this fact well for depicting humanity issues. It uses graphic and impressive pictures to accuse unpleasant truth about humanity.

Earthlings is criticized for this aspect-appealing merely to pathos. Earthlings doesn’t stop in portraying this current state by using footages of animal caging, facilitating, and slaughtering but features Rodeos, zoos, scientific research laboratories. Most of footages the film uses make people disgusted and feel self-abhorrent. Shocked, people may pledge not to consume meats and leather products. Many viewers express their impressions on this film on blogs, websites, and even on YouTube through videos. A predominant number of after-notes indicate persuasion about human evilness and boycotting animal products. But does this persuasion actually remain long? Emotions weaken in intensity with time. A death of family member leaves oneself a deep despair. He or she might not be able to handle emotions well and have many impulse of grieves accordingly. He or she might even gain depression. But this despair doesn’t last life-long. As that person gets on in years, he or she becomes more insensible to the death. One may find a vestige of grief when he or she recalls a death of sister few years ago but doesn’t lose control. Logic, on the other hand, remains longer. Once a person is convinced by logos, unless the logic is proven to be wrong, the person usually sticks to the logic for rest of his or her life. But with only pathos, Earthlings doesn’t so efficiently convey its theme.

   

But Earthlings raises another issue: are humans merciless and selfish only to animals? There is a term called [The Law of the Jungle]. This law supposes that in nature, might makes right. It is the strongest who is to survive. This law, recently, is not only applied to survival but also to benefit.  Speciesism can be seen in such aspect-that humans are making unfair profits over animals which are less strong than humans. But are people only taking advantage over animals? Consider social Darwinism and how Earthling features this philosophy. Butchers cut pigs’ throats, dog catchers beat stray dogs to death, and zookeepers and conveniently domesticate zoo animals. The film doesn’t spend too much time featuring wealthy, prosperous people consuming manufactured goods; in fact, it spends few good seconds showing leather jacket consumers in an instant. The rest of the film displays manufacturers who practice barbaric exploitation for their livelihood. Other people not included in this manufacturing process with big purchasing power consume these goods with little perception. Take Indian cowhide industry for instance. Young boys handle big cows, too big for lanky bodies to hold up. For Indian boys, exploiting cows is the only way to keep themselves off hunger. Cow abuse of these boys is clearly differs from complicating in this abuse by squandering money into buying leather jackets. Leather jacket consumers certainly have thousands of other clothes to wear. It is their choice to buy a leather jacket obtained by indigent Indian boys’ sweat and innocent cows’ blood. However, the film dismisses the question of whether it is the Indian boys’ fault to abuse cows or not. Footage of a new trainer in circus being chastised for not being atrocious enough arises this question once more. For sure, India, which ranks 165 out of 227 countries for GDP per capita, and the new recruit in circus unit are comparatively powerless entities exploited by the powers. Director Shaun Monson, on this wise, disregards [The Law of the Jungle] within human society and focuses exclusively on the destitute poor who have no alternative but to exploit animals for livelihood.

It is hard to deny that Earthlings leaves an intense afterimage. The film may make people feel self-abhorrent and want to be a vegetarian for a while. But Earthlings cannot be free from the blame of obsessively appealing to emotions. With applausable intention, the director solely focuses on arousing people’s emotion with dreadful images. This eventually leads people to have brief contemplation and introspection. But merely arousing emotion is definitely insufficient to move people in a long term. The director ought to use more logic and hard evidence in order to exert deep influence on the majority. Lack of evidence also causes blurring of the main theme. Overabundant use of graphic images raises the question of Darwinism within human community, as shown above. Shaun Monson has to have profound evidence for clear and effective conveyance of Earthling’s theme: stop terrorizing animals.

Short Faction

September 26^th, 2012

‘Faction’-Identity & Community

Mr. Menard/American Literature

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

  

The school backyard was covered with wet black pebbles. The frostily winter rain had wet the pebbles cold. I was stepping on those black wet pebbles with my black leather shoes, just like anyone else in the backyard.

“So who are going over to Heather’s house this weekend, exactly?” I asked, and the girls stole secret glances at one another.

“Shannon, Lizz, and Charlotte,” Heather answered, after some silence.

“Is she going too?” Lizzie asked, her eyes directed at me. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

“Probably not, my mom told me to bring maximum three. I’m really sorry.”

Things started to go weird when thirty three shots were heard in a university nearby. I had absolutely no idea what that shots were, why they happened, who had done it, or anything about it. The only I knew was those shots seemingly irrelevant to me were enough to make the girls somehow shun me. Whatever the reason for shunning me was, I was confronted by a sense of severe exclusion. The isolation was a little too heavy for an eleven-year-old girl alone in the US all by herself to handle. I desperately needed somebody to share my agony. I needed anybody to have an attached conversation with.

Apparently, I didn’t. I was a total newcomer from a nameless eastern country. On my first day at this new school, all they asked me was how dangerous was my country right under Communist North Korea. Anyhow, they were very friendly and amicable to this newcomer. I learned their culture, and taught them few Korean words.

Then there were the thirty three shots. This one guy who had made these shots was somewhat very related to me. I merely saw his name on newspaper. But he was still very related to me. Because he was Korean. This simple fact was enough for my friends shun me. Friends whom I had woven hands on the day before didn’t wave back any more. Weird words always disturbed me, biting me. The planned sleepover was canceled only for me. The naked ostracism had left me alone in a continent where no one was with me. I felt a desperate need to cut whatever relation was between the guy and me, but didn’t know how.

Another day, we were getting back our math quizzes. Mark, the boy sitting next to me, sneaked a look at my quiz sheet, even before I took a look at mine. Then he burst into laughter, so loud that everyone’s attention was on him. I looked down at mine, too, and noticed I got one wrong.

“What’s a hedgehog?” I asked. One question asked me to figure how many hedgehogs there are when there is a given number of total legs. Hedgehog sounded somehow similar to ‘hen’, and I assumed hedgehog was a kind of bird with two legs. After my question, Mark laughed even more hard. My ignorance was something to cause laughter to them. Or the fact that I, a Korean, got something stupid wrong in a math test was something funny, perhaps.

Similar pattern repeated until the day I returned Korea. By then, I wasn’t alone anymore, at least superficially. The ‘friends’ were not evils who were never willing to accept me forever no matter what. We were all eleven then, and ‘eleven’ wasn’t a number large enough to help us understand what nationality meant to us. I didn’t know then that I was shaping myself to be more non-Korean way, not caring about the grades so much and giving our creative (or even absurd) ideas. The only thing I knew for sure was that there were typical behaviors that made ‘friends’ be with me. 

+) 
Some memories not so pleasant. Anyway, writing this, I noticed I’ve changed a lot in KMLA as well. But the described ‘me’ in this story is what I had frequently heard about me till I was in middleschool.. or even till freshman year. Life in KMLA could very well be a good version2 of this faction about identity, maybe?