#7. Reading Journal: The Body

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 6

Mr.Garrioch

English Composition

October 30 2011

Reading Journal: The Body

Wallace Stevens, one of America's most respected poets in 20th century, wrote "Death is the mother of beauty" in his poem, Sunday Morning. Once writing a short essay about this quotation, I interpreted that death is beauty’s mother due to its presence. To illustrate; people fear death because they don’t know what is after death. That is, the ordinary days of living is ended once dead. Thus, confronting death makes people treat life much more seriously and valuable than before – in other words, their attitudes toward life becomes matured.

These are my rough impressions after reading few pages of The Body, the third novella in Stephen King’s Different Seasons. On the way to find the dead body of Ray Brower, a kid of their age hit by a train, four boys experience maturation; mainly two kinds, emotional maturity and relationship maturity.

First, what emotional maturity means is the process of changing aptitude in expressing own emotion. When the boys first hear about the dead body, they “grinned” over the adventure, and excited that they can “find the body and report it, and be on the news”. Nevertheless, in each one’s heart, sprout of fear also had existed. When Vern suggested the travel, the boys “all looked at him for a long second, no one saying anything” because this sprout was telling boys to keep away from such troublesome, gossipy issue. To add, Gordie, the narrator, confessed he “felt funny—both excited and scared” and this “mixture of emotions made him feel heatsick and headachy”. Still, boys do not discuss any kind of these feelings; this is because they’re bluffing. That is, they’re trying to be shown brave and strong, thus not to be mocked by others as coward.

However, as they continue their travel, boys start to express their emotions much more frankly. In chapter 13, Vern admitted that he “sometimes get nightmares”, and when he wakes up during nightmares, “it seems like there’s somethin under the bed and if he dangled a hand over the side, that thing might grab him”. Vern hesitated on continuing the travel, because if the dead boy is “really bad”, he will have “nightmares about him and wake up thinkin it’s him under the bed, all cut up in a pool of blood”. And Chris indirectly agreed to Vern’s fear, that “it shouldn’t be no good time”. The boys, now, are discussing about the fear and terror they considered as a shame previously. In other words, the boys start to admit own weakness, and sympathize at others’ instead of mocking them for being weak. Acknowledging their emotional vulnerability and understanding others’ sentiments is definitely a sign of maturity, compared to the previous pretentious acts. 

Second maturity boys experience is titled relationship maturity, especially relationship with family and friends. One common point four boys share is that they have a family flaw. Chris has a “really mean” father, and Vern “hated Billy [his brother] like the Arabs hate the Jews”. Teddy had an odd father who made him use glasses and hearing-aid by “shoving … Teddy’s head down against one of the cast-iron burner plates”, and now in “Togus, which is a VA hospital”. For Gordie, he lost his brother recently, and his parents were floundering in the wave of sadness, indifferent to Gordie. All boys, except Teddy, seem to feel hatred rather than affection to their family. For example, Gordie said about Stud City that it was “the first story I ever wrote that felt like my story—the first one that really felt whole”. This infers that Gordie resembled himself to the protagonist of story, Chico, who did not reconcile with his stepmother (who drove his brother to death) and his father (who knows nothing about the truth) to the end.

Maybe such violence and indifference boys received from their parents is what made the boys collaborate. Teddy was the dumbest guy among four, and did crazy actions such as “truck-dodging”. Still, the friends do not ignore or ostracize Teddy; actually, the opposite. They care about Teddy. When Teddy tried train-dodging, Gordie grabbed and pushed him over to save Teddy from being hit the train, by even risking his life. Also, when Teddy cried over Milo’s mockery over his father, Chris calmed him, persuading his father is still a great man no matter what Milo said. Such attitudes toward Teddy shows friends are looking after him, not walking over a dumb boy. This affectionate relationship is contrasted with their callous relationships with parents. Because the boys know how it feels when neglected and ignored by a related person, they don’t do so, instead concern and gather together, even with a dull, slow member.

Only first thirty pages and I already found out boys’ traces of maturation, in emotional and relationship aspect. I expect to find larger and deeper signs of maturity in the rest parts of the book; for example, extending the positive relationship that boys are forging, from friends to family. And I hope the boys finish their travel of maturation safely, until the final moment of confronting the dead body.

#5-1. Miscellaneous

     Once you gaze at the title of this post, it's obvious that the post is minor writing; it is numbered 5-1, not 5, and the title itself is "miscalleneous". Yes, it is minor; I didn't plan to write this post before five minutes. I just suddenly felt strong obligation to leave my trace, on my process of writing 5th main piece.
     My fifth main piece of writing is not about the class assignment. Last week, as the midterm was over, I came back home without any kind of book or material to study. I planned to play the whole weekend, but going to the cinema, eyeshopping, eating with friends, all these outside activities were soon fed up. Lingering at home, I asked for an interesting book to read to my older sister, and she recommended me one book. I won't reveal the title of this book yet, for your curiosity and expectation. =)
     Anyway, the book fascinated me. It was three hundred page; quite long for a capricious girl who is easily wearied like me, but I did read the entire book in three days. And every time I ran to its climax, I felt myself understanding, admiring, sympathizing to the protagonist. As I finally reached the last sentence of the book, I found myself crying. I was so deeply into the protagonist.
     It was definite that I have to write something about this book, so I can keep this first impression forever. I was encouraged even, when I saw Mr.Garrioch's post to write freely, unlimited from class assignments. I took out white papers and pen, and readied myself to plan an outline. Ten minutes later, the papers were still blank, and I was stuck; okay, I know I have to write. So what can I write about?
     And again ten minutes passed, papers were filled with black letters. I decided to write an analysis journal about the book; I divided the contents into the stages of Hero's Journey. Two hours later, I was still writing the "call to adventure" stage. Then I stopped writting. Something was wrong here.
     I read this book very impressively. But it was nothing more than first reading. No matter how much I enjoyed reading, it was definite that I missed some details, some analysis I could make, some questions I could ask myself. It was like this; couples, fell in love for the first sight, still need to learn more about each other before they promise marriage.
     And so here is my conclusion; maybe it would need a long time for my #5 writing to be posted. Maybe it will be #5-2, #5-3, #5-4... I guess it would be series of writing. I searched for some critics over this novel during last few minutes, and even by doing so, I realized this novel is worth my first impressions. It can be interpreted this way, that way... Few hours ago, I had no idea what to write about. Now, my brain is full of perspectives to write. Those include; simple analysis of hero's journey (which I had done a little), analysis based on the physical/chronological setting, comparison with a historical figure, etc, But only before I start writing about these whole ideas I have in my mind, I need to read the book s-l-o-w-l-y again, so I can fully grasp these different perspectives and details supporting them.
     Actually, as I'm writing this post, I'm afraid that I would disappoint Mr.Garrioch by updating one essay barely, or maybe, even forget about this project and post none. Still, I gamble myself with hope. It would take a long time to read the book again (during the harsh schedule of KMLA), and write these essays, but well, it's worth a try. Maybe this can be my term paper or first clumsy thesis =) (though I'm feeling very embarassed at calling few essays "thesis").
     Hope I don't forget about this "trace" - the promise to myself that I won't forget about this book and return with few essays to post. Wish me good luck!

#4. Comparison Journal: Shawshank Redemption, Novella and Film

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 6

Mr.Garrioch

English Composition

October 26 2011

Comparison Journal: Shawshank Redemption, Novella and Film

     Once a novel achieves stupendous success, movie companies scramble to get the contract of filming the book. Considerable numbers of movies are filmed after books; representatives are Harry Potter Series, Twilight Saga, Lord of the Rings, etc. Still, quite many movies are evaluated to be weak, shabby, and inferior to original novels. Major reasons are time constraint and commercial viability. The failure of Harry Potter movies is a great example; for time constraint, the directors had to delete detailed scenes to finish the movie in two hours. The film, then, provided only general flow of the plot, thereby disappointing viewers who were memorizing even the specific lines of the book. In case of commercial viability, the directors added extra scenes emphasizing the love or sexual relationship between characters to arouse viewers. Likewise, since the directors pervert the novel’s original message by deleting or adding inappropriate scenes, movies are usually less influential than books.

     But the movie Shawshank Redemption, filmed after Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, is an exceptional. Film producers modified the novella, but in proper way. They did grasp the theme of novella, and excluded or included scenes that could contribute in conveying the theme effectively, maybe more effectively than the book. Still, the film did not forget about entertaining elements; modified details created dramatic atmosphere.

     

     First, the theme. Before illustrating what specific scenes the movie added or omitted, the novella’s theme should be defined clearly. In Different Seasons, the collection of King’s four novellas, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is introduced as the chapter “HOPE, SPRINGS, ETERNAL”. The first word of chapter title shows the novella’s theme evidently; hope. To be specific, it is a story about “patience, hope, survival, emancipation, and ultimate redemption and salvation”.¹⁾

     There are three factors that contributed in bringing hope into relief. First is prison violence; prison’s harsh punishment given to deviated prisoners (representatively, breakout attempts) disturbs prisoners to keep hope. As more as the prison’s desolateness is emphasized, the hope Andy had kept so persistently is valued higher. The movie caught this point precisely, and modified the movie to emphasize prison brutality. In the introductory part – Andy’s first day in Shawshank – the film added a new character, fatty guy. On his first night, the fatty guy was mocked by other prisoners, cried out loud and made a great disturbance. Prison guards, maddened, exerted violence on this guy so harsh that he died next morning. This incident proved the severe violence in Shawshank. How Warden Norton dealt with Tommy is another good example; Tommy was a character who might be able to prove Andy’s innocence, but Norton did not wish to let Andy, a fine banker, leaves Shawshank. As solution, Norton compromised with Tommy and sent him to a better prison in the book, but in the film, Norton shot Tommy to keep his mouth shut. Without doubt, killing is a better way to show human brutality than compromising.

     Second factor emphasizing hope is “institutionalization”. Even though the environment is dreary (prison guards cussing and beating), prison has its routine schedule, and prisoners do not need to worry about their life. But once prisoners get parole and return to the society, they confront unpredictable events and miss monotonous prison life. The concept is emphasized in the movie as the paroled prisoner named Brooks fails to adjust to the society and commits suicide – that is, Brooks was so institutionalized that he voluntarily chose to die than to live in the society. Andy also suffered some institutionalization; he lingered after he completed digging, instead of immediate escape. Still, at the end, he broke out; this emphasizes his strong will toward hope to freedom, abandoning predictable, accustomed lifestyle.

     Final factor of showing hope is the direct presentation of hope’s consequence. The book finishes with Red’s monologue to hope meeting Andy, while the movie includes the scene Red and Andy meet. This direct scene shows the fulfillment of Red’s hope, and creates hopeful atmosphere.

     Entertaining aspects of the movie also deserve to be praised. While the book did not mention about the rock hammer’s whereabouts, the movie showed Andy hided it in the Bible. Such dramatic scene was shocking and surprising to the viewers. Similarly, the movie’s content that Andy took away Norton’s bribed money and revealed corruption in Shawshank was also a fresh shock. These fractions helped the viewers to enjoy the film.

In short, the film is a total success since it contributed in elaborating the theme, and also paid attention to entertaining purpose. It seems to me the directors of Shawshank Redemption are very intelligent and witty people; they precisely comprehend the message Stephen King tried to convey through the novella, and developed it by adding dramatic elements. It’s always happy to meet these directors and their films – those who are truly “after the book”, truly revere the original text, instead of those who sorts out improper scenes giving excuses of time constraint and marketability.

1) http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html

#3-2. In-Class: Essay (To Be In Other's Shoes)

     When I was young, I enjoyed killing ants. Since I was not a “science girl”, I did not burn the ants at the stake with magnifying glasses. Instead, I simply stepped on them. Especially when I was waiting for the bus, and there was nothing to play with (for example, jumping ropes or sketchbooks) in my hands, I took a look at the road where numerous black dots were crawling. I stepped on those dots with all weight a little girl can load, and once I took my foot off, if the ant was still moving, I again and again stepped on it until it showed no movement.
     I guess that I killed approximately one hundred ants during my young ages. Here, young ages means before nine – after I became nine, I stopped killing these tiny creatures. What made me to stop killing ants was a simple imagination. I once questioned myself; what if there is a giant? A giant who is so big and huge that he perceives mankind in little dots, like mankind perceives the ants? Maybe one day the giant will appear on Earth, and step on the human dots without any hesitation or remorse. Maybe the giant would step on me on my way to school. Well then, I’m dead even before realizing what happened. This imagination scared me so greatly that I almost cried. At that very moment, I recognized the giant’s irresponsible, brutal actions are what I had done to the ants five minutes before in the bus station. I was in the ants’ shoes during the imagination, and I sympathized with the ants. After the awakening, I never stepped on ants intentionally. Never.
     This is what happens in Kim’s film, too; the boy tied animals for entertainment and laughed at animals’ struggle. But as he was tied in the same way, he realized and sympathized with the pain the animals would have felt, and howl over the animals’ death sincerely. And it seems obvious that the boy would never harm animals again.
     One of my favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee). Throughout the novel, Atticus tries to give Jem and Scout this moral lesson; to put you in other’s shoes. Only when one puts oneself in other person’s shoes, one can understand the other person’s pain. Then the one would truly “treat others as much as he/she wants to be treated” – just like I did, and the boy in the film did.

#6. Metafiction - Me and Counselor

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 6

Mr.Garrioch

English Composition

October 30 2011

Metafiction: Me and Counselor

     Where was I?

     The place looked similar to Seoul Station. Endless railroad, benches spaced few meters apart from each others, pillars standing next to benches. Everything in the Station was covered with pure white snow except few small red circles. I looked back, and found the lines of red circles. I followed the lines and stopped just next to me. The circle closest to me was the largest; actually, it continued to be larger. I looked down my arm. And there, at my wrist, blood was falling. Tick, tick, tick.

     Right, now I remember. I committed suicide. And I guess I succeeded; this place definitely seems like heaven. I don't feel bad about my decision, though it contained some portion of bad luck. I closed my eyes.

     ... In my opinion, nothing in the world is "fresh". Every time I visit my psychology counselor, she spreads out books and pamphlets about music, traveling, sewing, and those trivial entertainments that common folks. Then, she tries to make me show at least a little bit of interest about these suggestions. But to me, everything is same. I mean, I had never done yoga or swimming before, but these are no different from volleyball or dodge ball PE class played. Everything is mundane. I cannot feel any kind of passion among these boring tasks. I wish something really new, really fresh, really innovative, to appear in my life. (PYJ)

     That "Freshness" can be deviations from this mountanous desolation: anything crazy or frantic considered from the "normal" people. I might do face-printing especially in exotic, flamboyant colors all day, I might ride scooter down to the hill, I might cut my hanbok skirt to the shortest it can be. These mighty possibilities can lead to ... (KHJ)

     "Crazyness". And eventually, this crazyness isolates you from the society. Just get yourself into that "crazyness", and you will be "enlightened". But once you open your eyes to the world, you find no one beside you. Pity, but this is just how it is. This is how this damn world is like. I know this better than you do. (HIH)

     Every time I did crazy things, I felt kind of freedom. And every time on my way back home, drunken in that feeling of liberty, neighbors circumvented me, and some seniors even spatted at me. My parents cooperated with the counselor, and demanded to find something interesting among normal things every time they see me. And I laughed at them. I firmly believed that any normal activity could not make me feel fresh. As more as their recommendation turned into threatening, I did more "crazy" things.

     Once I jumped on the flying swing. Well, it felt hurt, but the wind across my face was so fresh that made me do so. Next time, I hurted myself with my nails. As blood spilled out from the wound, I felt cool through the wound. It was worth a try. Next time, I tried deeper. I felt much freshier than any time before. And this time, when I knew my parents were secretly planning to hospitalize me in psychiatric hospital, I went too far. I think I cut my wrist too deep, much deeper than what I expected. But it does not matter. Death is inevitable, and for me, I just decided to put that date forward. Still, at this point, I feel quite despondent, and a little bit of remorse.

     Maybe, now I think, I was able to find something fresh rather than hurting myself. I now realized; there always had been a premise in my head that all normal activities are mundane. If I was aware of this earlier, I could look ordinary tasks in different perspective and find out better way than hurting myself to feel pleasure. 

     Well, whatever, it’s over. No matter how much I remorse, I'm dead, and no more opportunity to find another freshness is already over. I opened my eyes, and gazed at my arm. And I was surprised to see the wound slowly being cured; bleeding stopped, the crack was slowly being covered with new skin cells. A small smile came over my mouth. Maybe I can go back, I can start again.

    I opened my eyes, and the familiar face was sitting in right front of me. It was the counselor. She smiled brightly at me.

    “Hey, I knew you will come back.”

    I smiled faintly at her. I, who was captivated in all-normal-tasks-are-not-fresh bias, always hated her and her brochures. But now, she looked somewhat different. I saw all the brochures stuck in the trash can. As I gazed the trash can curiously, the counselor came close to me and grabbed my hand.

     “I think it’s time to confront you in sincerity, girl. I underestimated your pain… I thought yours is much weaker than what I experienced before.”

    What she experienced before? I raised my eyes and gazed at her. She showed me her wrist. I was shocked; much more scars than mine were remaining in her wrist. She started talking her story in calm voice.

    “When I was young, I thought nothing in the world is "fresh". Every time I visited my psychology counselor, like you visited me, she spread out books and pamphlets about music, traveling, sewing, and those trivial entertainments that common folks. Then, she tried to make me show at least a little bit of interest about these suggestions. But to me, everything was same. I mean, I had never done yoga or swimming before, but these were no different from volleyball or dodge ball PE class played. Everything was mundane. I could not feel any kind of passion among these boring tasks. I wished something really new, really fresh, really innovative, to appear in my life …”

#3-1. In-Class: Hero's Journey (Twilight)

Group Members: Nuri Kim (김누리),  Yeji Park (박예지)

Our Story: Twilight

Why we chose it: Twilight isn't a perfect story-line of "The Hero's Journey", so we thought that it would be interesting to put our point of view to analyse it in a "The Hero's Journey" plot.

Story: Twilight

ACT I

1. Ordinary World:
Bella Swan lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her mother.

2. Call to Adventure:
Bella’s mother wants to spend time with her new husband, so Bella moves to Forks, Washington. There, she goes to a new school, and meets “the cullens”. She develops a curiosity for Edward Cullen.

3. Refusal of the Call:
However, Edward all of a sudden befriends Bella, and Bella decides not to be friends with Eduward.

4. Meeting the Mentor:

Jacob Black, the son of Bella’s father’s best friend, tells Bella about the myth of their tribe; the Cullens are vampires, and that they stay away from each other. Bella finds out that Edward is a Vampire, and Edward warns her.
 
5. Crossing the Threshold:
Bella doesn’t care about what Jacob and Edward says, and dates Edward.



Jacob continues to warn Bella, and tells her that Edward is dangerous. He also confesses his love towards Bella. She is in a state of confusion.
Rosalie Cullen, one of Edward’s sisters, doesn’t want Bella in the family, for Bella may lose her life, and blow up the secret.
While Bella was playing baseball with Edward’s family, she meets three vampires, James, Victoria and Laurent, who’ve been passing along.

7. Approach to the Innermost Cave:
James, Victoria and Laurent find out that Bella is human, and suddenly, the baseball field turns into a state of tension. James is fascinated to Bella’s blood scent and decides to hunt her.

8. Ordeal:
Bella flees from the Forks, and goes around to different states to hide from James.

9. Reward:
With the help of Alice and Jasper, she continues to live in safety.



James threathens Bella, saying that he’ll kill her mom if Bella doesn’t come to him alone. Bella meets with James in a ballet house, gets severly injured and almost killed. (James bites her) Bella tries to escape.

11. Resurrection:
Edward comes to rescue Bella and kills James. Bella gets hospitalized.

12. Return With the Elixir:Bella leaves the hospital, and continues to date Edward. They go to prom together.


Points of contention (ifs/ands/buts):

As we have predicted, Twilight wasn't a perfect story-line of "The Hero's Journey".
There were two big themes of the whole story: First, the romance part (Bella choosing between Jacob and Edward), and second, the life-and-death plot.
We focused on the life-and-death plot of the story.