Reading Journal #2: What Succeeded from Naoko to Toru

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

11 November 2013

“A deep well … You could fall in and that’d be the end of you.”

“Somebody disappears all of a sudden, and they just can’t find him. So then the people around here say, ‘Oh, he fell in the field well.’”

And this is how Naoko lost Kizuki and her sister. The day he died, Kizuki played pool with Toru, and although he was more serious and enthusiastic than usual, he showed no sign of committing suicide. Naoko's sister was such a "bright, steady girl", who shut herself up in her room for once in two or three months, but was otherwise perfectly fine. She used to listen to Naoko's words in every detail and "make comments and suggestions", but before she hung herself, she made no statement to Naoko.

What would have Naoko felt about their sudden run-in into the field well? They were closest people to her – before the deaths, she must have felt that they were openly communicating and deeply understanding each other. But when the deaths occurred, without no motives or reasons Naoko can think of or be persuaded by, Naoko realized that it was her vanity to believe that she fully understood Kizuki and her sister, and felt guilt for not noticing any hints of their collapse into the field well.

To prevent herself from experiencing same confusion, Naoko seems to decide not to fully engage in interactions with others. She is worried that if she opens her heart once again to Toru or Reiko, they might just leave her someday without any explanation, as Kizuki and her sister did. Yet she does not space out herself completely, which guarantees perfect contentment of not being abandoned. She needs relationship, communication, and resulting comfort to some extent. So she lets Toru stay besides her, but always with a distance between them – on her birthday, for example, she lets Toru sleep with her, but the very next moment she runs away from him.

Although Naoko's attitude seems justifiable, considering "five or six minutes [of] a total blank" – or should we say, emotional instability and confusion – she experienced while staring at her sister's hanging body, it conclusively was a very selfish act. What she did to Toru was better than what Kizuki or her sister did to her, because Toru definitely was aware of the fact that he could not fully understand Naoko, and thus felt less guilt and futility after she died; yet she did wrong, because she gave Toru futile hope that if there is time, he can “come to understand [Naoko] … better than anyone else in the world ever can”.

So this time, when Naoko leaves Toru without fully explaining reason, it is Toru who suffers just as Naoko did after her sister and Kizuki’s deaths. Toru admits that he didn’t understand Naoko completely, thus was less hurt than Naoko once was; this helps him able to continue forming empathizing, intimate relationships with Reiko. Yet he is hurt, too, and experiences problem interacting with Midori. At the end of this novel, Toru describes the place he stands “the dead center … that was no place”, which clearly shows his isolation caused by Naoko’s struggle to defend herself from the slight possibility of Toru abandoning her. (541 words)

Reading Journal #1: Norwegian "Wood"

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

28 August 2013

One exotic characteristic of Norwegian Wood is that there appears a lot of three-people relationship. Watanabe reminisces his old days when he used to hang out with Kizuki and Naoko. Population three appears again when Watanabe dines with Nagasawa and Hatsumi couple, and when Watanabe visits Naoko’s sanatorium and stays with not only Naoko but also Reiko.

Three people hanging out seems “odd” (30); after all, it is often hard for an individual to have same degree of affection and sense of comfort toward two people, so one who scores lower degree is easy to be alienated. Still, Watanabe asserts that this odd relationship is “the most comfortable combination”; he feels “a little awkward” (30) about inviting one of Naoko’s friends as a fourth member and splitting into two pairs of couples. Same for Nagasawa: inviting Watanabe to he and Hatsumi’s dinner, Nagasawa says, “I’d be more comfortable [to be with you at the restaurant], and so would Hatsumi.” (267) Same for Reiko and Naoko: the sanatorium bans “[Watanabe] and Naoko … to be alone together,” and obligates “an observer” (132), the third person, to be present.

On contrary, two-people relationship – a much more common and ordinary status at a glance – seems quite unstable and shaky. Watanabe and Storm Trooper definitely are not the friendliest roommates in the dorm; Watanabe occasionally makes fun of Storm Trooper to Naoko and other dorm residents, and Storm Trooper does not make effort to reconcile with Watanabe regarding his Radio Calisthenics. Instability appears even more evidently in relationship between Watanabe and Naoko; when Watanabe promises Naoko that he’ll stay next to Naoko all the time, she gets confused and claims “It’s just not possible for one person to watch over another person for ever and ever” (9).

So why does Murakami regard three-people relationship more highly than that of two-people? Naoko indirectly tells the answer; she says to Watanabe, “Sooner or later you’d get sick of me.” (9) No matter how strongly Watanabe believes he can completely understand Naoko some day, years of waiting with nothing guaranteed will make Watanabe feel doubts and burdens at least once, and this very moment is what Naoko is worried about.

What can resolve Naoko’s worries is the existence of a third person who can share these doubts and burdens – as Watanabe tried to reconcile Nagasawa and Hatsumi’s conflicts, and Reiko stayed as an observer between Watanabe and Naoko. Norwegian Wood. Norwegian Wood. Wood – remember, wood is not a set of two trees that depend on each other solely, but a bunch of three and more trees, tangled complicatedly, that share depend and support altogether. (437 words)

Reading Journal: The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World and An Old Man with Enormous Wings

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

April 15 2013

Reading Journal: The Handsomest Drowned Man and A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

– How Marquez “Freshly” Delivers Obvious Truth –

   Stories for children often deal with very simple, self-evident truth. Cinderella tells that reward follows endurance, and Snow White warns about the danger of vanity and jealousy. Lessons from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s two stories for children, “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”, also seem quite obvious.

   "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" portrays the power of admiration that changes the community. The name Esteban reminds of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death after delivering a speech about atrocities of Jewish authorities. [1] Considering the status “martyr”, Esteban must have sacrificed for the townspeople, which made them conduct a delicate funeral in return. So what is this mercy that Esteban show on the townspeople?

   It is the transformation of the village. Because of their pure admiration, pity, and love toward Esteban, the villagers cannot forget about him even after the funeral. They are determined to change their houses with "wider doors, higher ceilings, and stronger floors", fronts painted in “gay colors", backs dug for “planting flowers”, just to make Esteban’s memory eternal. The town, once so dry and barren – "made up of … wooden houses that had stone courtyards with no flowers" and "spread about on the end of a desert-like cape" – is transformed into the village where "the Sun's so bright that the sunflowers don't know which way to turn". The process of beautiful transformation through Esteban the martyr, a mythical and magical figure, reminds readers a forgotten value of a single person's power to influence the whole community.

"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" suggests another valuable learning that people tend to ignore easily. At the start of the story, the townspeople judge that an old man is an angel, just because he has enormous wings. With this hasty conclusion about his identification, the townspeople are disappointed when the old man does not fit to the standards of angel they think of. Father Gonzaga, for example, denies the angel because "he did not understand the language of God or know how to greet His ministers”. People then start to act cruelly against the angel; they confine him to a chicken coop, pull out feathers, throw stones, and even burn his side. Even when the man practices “miracles” an angel might do, such as presenting the blind man three new teeth, the paralytic chance of almost winning the lottery, or Pelayo and Elisenda five cents charge from the spectators, the townspeople stick on their once-made judgment that this man is not a respectable creature, asserting that those miracles were "more like mocking fun".

   The woman who turned into a spider for having disobeyed her parents gains much more attention than the angel. This is because the metamorphosis is congruent with people's criteria of what a disobedient child deserves. By presenting clear contrast between the attitudes people treat the spider woman and the angel, Marquez shows how unfair people can be once they decide that something is out of their standards. In other words, the lesson from "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is that it is not reasonable to value something based on subjective criteria.

§

   Okay, readers think, we gained good lessons from his stories. But did he have to employ magical elements to deliver such obvious lessons? After all, Marquez could tell about the change an admirable martyr can bring and the danger of valuing a person hastily without presenting Esteban, the angel, or the spider woman.

   What makes Marquez so special is that he knew the power to present self-evident truths with a fresh insight through noble means. I myself had experienced this power in my junior year: I once participated in the campaign, which sought to deliver “Do not dump trash”, “Try to use personal cup than disposable paper cup”, those mundane messages. The way messages were delivered, however, was not mundane at all: instead of asking for signs to the passengers as usual, we performed a short play that demonstrates environmental damages trash and disposables bring. Despite its common messages, the campaign was successful because they were delivered in such a fresh way that caught people’s attention. I believe this is similar to Marquez’s success; because he used surprising, new, and alien magical elements, readers could gain a new insight.

   Bruce Holland Rogers, an American short fiction writer, said: "[Magic realism] ... remind us that the world is surprising and seemingly full of design and purpose." [2] In this sense, Marquez truly deserves his title as a master of magic realism. Through the use of magical elements, Marquez successfully reminded people the valuable lessons that are so self-evident, yet so easily forgotten.

(778 words)

References

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen

[2] http://www.writing-world.com/sf/realism.shtml

Reading Journal: The Dead

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

March 26 2013

Reading Journal: The Dead

Epiphany – Finite Disappointment, but Infinite Hope

When two pennies “fall against the sixpence in [his] pocket”, the narrator of “Araby” experiences a break in his firm belief about romantic, idealistic, even holy love. Gabriel, the protagonist of Joyce’s novella “The Dead”, experiences a similar epiphany – he realizes something that he has once believed wholeheartedly is wrong.

Gabriel, an intelligent, educated gentleman, is highly respected in the society. He is “[Aunts’] favorite nephew” who carves the goose and delivers an oration at party “as usual”. Confident in other’s acclaim, Gabriel values himself as a superior person. He worries that Aunts’ party guests would not understand the lines from Robert Browning. When Miss Ivors criticizes him of writing for the Daily Express, he does not try to reject her charge, thinking that she, not one of “friends of many years’ standing … [with] careers … first at the University and then as teachers”, would not understand his counterargument. In his dinner speech, he disregards the Irish for “lingering … to the names of all those great singers of the past” and urges them to stop living in the past. Gabriel almost sounds like an enlightened pioneer who laments about ignorant crowd lingering in “sad memories” and “gloomy moralizing intrude” of the past.

But a closer look reveals that Gabriel is not that superior as he seems firsthand; Gabriel is, actually, very tenable. At the very start of the novella, when Lily angers at Gabriel’s remarks, he does not explain his original “gaily” intention but instead tries to resolve the issue superficially by thrusting a coin into her hands. Similarly, when Miss Ivors calls Gabriel a “West Briton” and denounces him for knowing nothing of his own people and own country, Gabriel retorts suddenly: “O, to tell you the truth, I’m sick of my own country, sick of it!” Although his emotion toward Ireland is not that extreme, he does not know how to logically argue himself against Miss Ivors and responds according to his spontaneous emotions. If he were really superior, he would have suppressed momentary embarrassment and refuted to Lily’s misunderstanding or Miss Ivors’ unfair accusation with clear reasoning.

At the end of the story, Gabriel goes through an epiphany that makes him realize such fault. As he heads to the hotel with his wife, Gretta, he feels a strong desire to control her, to prove that “she was his”. When he learns that Gretta is thinking of her first love, not him, Gabriel gets furious at her that he “coldly” interrogates his wife, “Perhaps that was why you wanted to go to Galway with that Ivors girl?” But as time passes, he calms down and realizes that he will never be her “master”. This is the moment of epiphany to Gabriel; he has been thinking that he was superior to others, just as he believed that he could control his wife’s thoughts and mood, and then realizes that he actually cannot.

§

If the narrator of “Araby” experiences the break of his innocent notion about love, and Gabriel experiences the break of his superiority, I experienced the break of belief about formality. 

When I was young, I defined myself as a liberal, form-unrestrained person. I scorned ceremonies, from ordinary morning assembly to grand events such as Entrance or Graduation ceremony, thinking that all those lengthy conventions were waste of time and energy. I believed that what mattered was essence, and only if the core message is delivered clearly, the means of conveyance did not matter. I, maybe, looked down on adults who seemed to pay so much attention on strict procedures. And I used to make small rebels toward such formalities; I often stayed silent while others sing National Anthem, let the words of speakers flow out my ear, and sometimes ran away in the middle of ceremonies.

My epiphany took place two weeks before, when a junior made a speech at the morning assembly. He attempted to raise questions about how the school is administered, but was stopped before finishing his words by teachers who judged that the speech was being practiced in improper place and time. From a “liberalistic” perspective, the student’s act was something to be praised and the teacher’s act to be blamed; anyway, the student tried to deliver his message to teachers and students, although he did not keep some formalities. But what I felt at that moment was totally different. I almost panicked over the situation, and felt strong need to stop the student’s words before the situation grows serious.

At that moment, I realized that there were moments that formality is needed. Almost every students and teachers there were not expecting such a speech that raises somewhat abrupt and blunt questions. A proper procedure – maybe a beforehand implication of what he is going to do – would have helped that junior be a little more successful with his speech.

We all know that admitting the faulty of some claim that one has strongly believed once is not very pleasurable. Still, it is definite that epiphany widens the range of the world we can see – as the narrator in “Araby” realizes that not only pure love exists in the world, as Gabriel understands his un-superiority, and as I recognizes the significance of formality. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” So let us accept finite disappointment at the moment of epiphany, but never lose infinite hope that these epiphanies will, at last, help us gain a better view of the world. 

Reading Journal (Paragraph): Araby

First Draft (499 words):

From a distance, James Joyce's "Araby" might appear as a simple formation novel about a boy who realizes harsh reality and loses his innocence. After all, when the nameless narrator goes through his journey to Araby, he learns that his precious “sixpence” is too little to buy anything, and confronts a flirting woman who breaks his fantasy about love. Readers, at first gaze, observe this novel is a Bildungsroman. However, on the other hand, Joyce's "Araby" is not just another common Bildungsroman because it closely describes its setting, contemporary Ireland, in detail. James Joyce is an Irish writer, and in his days, Ireland was largely acknowledged as a subservient nation to Britain, ignorant and vulgar. Joyce believed that Catholic Church was one factor that stopped Ireland's emancipation and development by denouncing rebellions and excommunicating those who rebelled. Because of the Church, Joyce claimed, Ireland reached a state of cultural paralysis in which people fail to move forward and stuck in place. In other words, even when the Church lost its original purpose of faith and politically deteriorated, Irish, who already had been paralyzed by the Church, stopped to rebel and kept meaningless faith. This reality is portrayed in "Araby" here and there; the former tenant of narrator's house, "a priest", who had been “very charitable" and academically erudite as "a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp" indicates, is dead. This shows that the original intention of the church - benevolent and academically influential - is gone now. Still, Irish meaninglessly believe in the Church, just as the aunt hopes that Araby is not some “Freemason affairs” and old Mrs. Mercer collects stamps for “some pious purpose”. Even the narrator likens Mangan's sister to a religious concept ("chalice") whose name "sprang to [his] lips at moments in strange prayers". Joyce criticizes such tendency of unconditional religious belief by describing the reality is not holy, sacred, nor noble at all - "dusk fell" down the "blind" street "jostled by drunken men and bargaining women", the uncle is drunk and "had forgotten" about his niece's romantic plan, and train to Araby is "deserted". At the last part of the story, the narrator "allow[s] the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in [his] pocket", which was precious money to buy present for his lover, and this act shows that the narrator admits the breakdown of his romantic, idealistic, even holy love. All these gloomy descriptions and dark conclusion Joyce employed, which do not fit to the image of sacred, honorable, noble religion at all but rather contradict it, are in accordance with contemporary Ireland, where Catholicism was ubiquitous but meaningless. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that "Araby" is not a mere Bildungsroman, but a more deepened story that effectively uses details to reflect Ireland. In this sense, Joyce is a great writer who does not only catch an individual's epiphany but also understand the world he lives in and reflect it in his story.

Comments:

Those who commented on my first draft liked how I “put in the background of Joyce’s time and tried to link that” with the whole plot. (Nuri) However, they pointed out that this was “too long” and that I should shorten “my introduction and conclusion because they are a bit too repetitive in their ideas” (Jane) and “the historical summary” because “most people who read anything about Joyce won’t need the historical stuff” (Mr. Garrioch). Also, some pointed out that I was being too “radical” (Flora) with my claims, so that I should use a bit more careful words. Accepting those comments, I tried to 1) clean up my introduction, 2) summarize the historical context in one sentence, and 3) use careful diction such as “seem” or “somewhat”. 

Some students gave me additional details to add on my essay (“Another aspect … related to religion in “Araby” is when the boy depicts the girl as a “white” figure … [with] a halo” (Nuri)), and I tried to add these in second draft, but the paragraph got too long again. Maybe I’ll write a longer essay about “Araby” so that I can explain further about history of Ireland and add more details that substantiate my thesis. (:

Second Draft (413 words):

From a distance, James Joyce's "Araby" might appear as a simple coming-of-age story about a boy who realizes harsh reality and loses his innocence. After all, when the nameless narrator arrives at Araby and encounters a young female clerk flirting with two men, he is disenchanted with his idealistic view on love. However, on the other hand, Joyce's "Araby" is not just another common Bildungsroman because it closely depicts contemporary Ireland, its setting, in detail. Joyce believed that the Catholic Church disturbed Ireland’s cultural development and emancipation from England by denouncing rebellions, and asserted that continued suppression paralyzed Irish to keep meaningless faith even after the Church lost its original purpose of faith and exercised political leverage. The troubled civil and religious history of Ireland is portrayed in "Araby" here and there. The former tenant of the narrator's house, "a priest", was "very charitable" and academically erudite as "a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp" indicate. But the priest is dead. This shows that the original intention of the church - benevolent and academically influential - is gradually fading. Still, many Irish, and especially those on North Richmond Street, seem to believe meaninglessly in the Church. The aunt hopes that Araby is not some “Freemason affair” and old Mrs. Mercer collects stamps for “some pious purpose”. Even the narrator likens Mangan's sister to a religious concept ("chalice") whose name "sprang to [his] lips at moments in strange prayers." Joyce criticizes unconditional religious belief by illustrating that reality is not always holy, sacred, or noble - "dusk fell" down the "blind" street "jostled by drunken men and bargaining women", the uncle is drunk and "had forgotten" about his niece's romantic plan, and train to Araby is "deserted". At the last part of the story, the narrator allows his precious two pennies that he planned to use to buy a present for his lover to "fall against the sixpence in [his] pocket"; this act shows that the narrator admits the breakdown of his romantic, idealistic, even holy love. Through all these gloomy descriptions that Joyce employed, we can see how contemporary religious Ireland is criticized for its delusions. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that "Araby" is not a mere Bildungsroman, but a profound story that reflects Joyce’s somewhat negative perspective toward contemporary Ireland. In this sense, Joyce is a great writer who does not only catch an individual's epiphany, but also understands the world he lives in.

Reading Journal: The Lady with the Dog

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

February 26 2013

Reading Journal: The Lady with the Dog
- “Love” and “Need” -

We sometimes have a problem distinguishing one emotion from another. We confuse love and admiration. Sometimes we do not clearly distinguish love and friendship. In some cases, we are not sure about the difference between love and hatred. In The Lady with the Dog, Chekhov suggests another pair of confusing emotions – “love” and “need”.

The Lady with the Dog, basically, is a story about one couple who just can’t stop committing adultery, despite of social blame and humiliation that would follow if divulged. In this sense, it reminds of Romeo and Juliet, the most famous love story of a couple who submits to all kinds of danger just for love. But any reader who reads The Lady with the Dog would hardly agree that this story is synonymous with Romeo and Juliet. Why?

The answer is simple: Romeo and Juliet “loved” each other, while Dmitri and Anna “needed” each other. 

Let’s go over Dmitri first. Chekhov introduces Dmitri’s wife as a “tall, erect woman … staid and dignified, and, as she said of herself, intellectual”. She “read a great deal, used phonetic spelling, called her husband, not Dmitri, but Dimitri”. Dmitri, married to such a sophisticated, noble, and learned woman, “was afraid of her, and did not like to be at home”. This description indicates that Dmitri is, consciously or unconsciously, feeling inferior to his wife. Dmitri’s inferiority to his wife is again indicated in the later part of the story, when his wife "twitched her black eyebrows, and said: "The part of a lady-killer does not suit you at all, Dimitri."” Dmitri has been cheating on his wife for years, and he believes that he is one of the “attractive and elusive” guys who “allured women and disposed them in his favour”; yet his wife’s remark shows her disregard for something her husband is proud of, thereby inferior-izing Dmitri.

Nobody wants to acknowledge his/her inferiority. Humiliated, indignant, one wants another chance to be superior instead. This is what Dmitri seeks for in his relationship with Anna. When he first meets Anna, he is attracted to her “diffidence, the angularity”, her “first time … alone in surroundings”. Dmitri knows that Anna is an inexperienced, weak, “pathetic” fellow who he can easily be superior to.

And this is why he meets Anna – he needs Anna to confirm the fact that he himself is a valuable, superior, powerful person. If Dmitri truly loved Anna, as Mr. Garrioch argued, “he would walk away from her, reflect on the affair as a cherished memory, and go home to his family and provide them with the love of a true father and husband”. But he does not leave her alone, and return to his wife, because he needs Anna, an inferior being, not his wife, a superior.

The reason Dmitri returns to Anna clearly reinforces his motive. Although he sometimes remembered Anna and missed her, he lived quite few years in Moscow without contacting her. Then, one day, he was insulted by his officer’s “degrading and unclean … savage manners”. He “did not sleep all night, and was filled with indignation”. He realizes that without Anna, he is again the inferior – not only in family but also in his work now. This is why Dmitri decides to take a journey to Petersburg; he needs Anna more than he did in usual because he was severely insulted.

All these evidences clearly indicate the emotion that Dmitri possesses toward Anna – not “love”, but “need”. Then, how about Anna? Does she love Dmitri, or need Dmitri? Although described far more vaguely than Dmitri’s case, I believe that Anna’s emotion is also closer to need rather than love – need to run away from her dissatisfied life.

Chekhov illustrates Anna’s husband as “a good, honest man”, but Anna does not love him and defames him as a “flunkey”. When asked reason why she married her husband, then, she answers “I have been tormented by curiosity; I wanted something better. ‘There must be a different sort of life,’ I said to myself. I wanted to live! To live, to live!” This answer implies that Anna married in hope that marriage would bring her a new, exciting life. But her expectation was not accomplished; actually, her life became even duller. Her second life is “grey”, just like the “stretched long grey fence adorned with nails” across her house which drove her to “run away”.

This may be a good reason why Anna stays near Dmitri. Anna is a delicate, emotional young lady, and her sensitivity would have noticed that Dmitri is not truly in loved with her at least once. In fact, her continuous inquiry about “the same questions” that “he did not respect her sufficiently” implies that she does suspect of Dmitri’s sincerity. But despite these suspicions she has on Dmitri, and anxiety and fear she always feels of her adultery being divulged, Anna does not leave Dmitri because she “needs” him so badly as a source of pleasure that deviates from her ordinary mundane life.

It is the end of the story that “love” and “need” is distinguished. Dmitri, as always, was not paying attention to Anna, crying in guilt: “Let her have her cry out. I’ll sit down and wait,” thought Dmitri. Then he looked inside the mirror, and noticed that “his hair was already beginning to turn grey”. He suddenly seemed “so much older, so much plainer during the last few years”, and as he stared Anna, who had been with him for years, “still so warm and lovely”, he confessed that “he had fallen properly, really in love – for the first time in his life.” Grey hair is a clear indication of Dmitri’s inferiority to young Anna. This is the moment that Dmitri realizes that he, who actually is older (inferior) than Anna, was using Anna to fulfill his need for superiority. He feels gratitude to Anna, who has loved him for years despite his selfishness.

This realization is reflected in their following conversation about “how to avoid the necessity for secrecy, for deception” and “how could they be free from this intolerable bondage”. Dmitri (and perhaps Anna, too) has been satisfied with temporary meetings up until now, because these were enough for him to satisfy his need of superiority. But now, he hopes to be with Anna all the time, publicly, because he loves her and love cannot be satisfied with few times of surreptitious trysts.

Personally, I’m not yet certain about whether the emotion of “love” is stronger than that of “need”. But as a teenage romanticist, I hope that “love” is an I-will-always-be-next-to-you emotion, while “need” is an I-am-satisfied-with-few-purposed-meeting. I hope love to be stronger than need, so that Dmitri and Anna, despite of “a long, long road before them” with the “most complicated and difficult part … just beginning”, would finally find their way into love.

Reading Journal: The Student

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 12v1

Mr. Garrioch

World Literature

February 13 2013

Reading Journal: The Student

- Universal Truth Of Empathy -

“I know this is so childish and immature, but I can’t stop envying my roommate. She looks so superior to me; she is pretty, she studies real hard, she knows so much about music…”

“Need to work harder. Stop sleeping until 11 a.m. Stop going to Sosa. And just stop doing computer!!!”

From my old diaries, I frequently find out the stories that reveal my failures and weaknesses. Thinking back, I realize why I used to keep those stories secretly in my diary and avoid telling even to my closest people; I was afraid that they would laugh at my dilemma. I was anxious that they might scorn my troubles, saying that it is not a worry-worthy problem, and not empathize with me.

Anton Chekhov
Author of The Student

People sometimes need someone who would understand and empathize with their concerns. Anton Chekhov points out such universal necessity of empathy in his short story The Student. Ivan Velikopolsky, a student of the clerical academy, stops by the garden of two widows on his way to home. He starts to narrate what happened to St. Peter at the night of the Last Supper to Vasilisa and Lukerya. As the student tells the story – St. Peter denying Jesus three times – Vasilisa “suddenly gave a gulp, big tears flowed freely down her cheeks”, and Lukerya’s face “became stained and heavy like that of someone enduring intense pain”. Returning from the garden to his house, Ivan realizes that the Vasilisa’s tears and Lukerya’s anger is not originated from his eloquent rhetoric but from their secret empathy with St. Peter’s betrayal.

Chekhov is renowned as one of the greatest realism writers; Maksim Gorky even claimed that Chekhov “[is] killing realism” by writing so realistic pieces that no one would be able to write an ever more accurate representation of reality. The Student is not an exception from Chekhov’s lists of realistic writings. Common characteristics of realism in literature, such as chronological plot development, third person narrative, or common imagery, are employed in The Student. Chekhov, however, uses two more special attributes to emphasize this work’s realism by underlining that empathy is a universal theme.

The first attribute is Chekhov’s comparison of widows and Peter. Vasilisa and Lukerya are widows, poor (that they need to "[wash] a caldron and spoons" by themselves), and not pretty (Vasilisa is “tall, fat old woman” and Lukerya is “a little pock-marked woman with a stupid-looking face”). On the other hand, Peter is a Saint remembered and praised throughout history. At first gaze, this comparison – insignificant, impoverished widows understanding admired holy man – looks quite unrealistic. However, considering that one characteristic of realism is to convey universal truth, it may be explained that Chekhov intentionally uses this seemingly unreal comparison to emphasize that empathy is “universal”. Empathy occurs regardless of status, wealth, or other secular factors; the poor, vulgar women can indeed understand and empathize to the serene, respectable saint. In short, an apparently unnatural setting contributes in presenting the reality that empathy is achievable anywhere, anytime.

The second emphasis on university of empathy is revealed from Chekhov’s set-up of Ivan. Some people express their skepticism that the story is not realistic because Ivan’s emotional change is too dramatic. At the start of the story, Ivan feels “desolation”, “darkness”, and “oppression”. However, as he realizes that all people share some kind of experiences and thus empathize with each other, just as if one end of a chain quivers when the other side is touched, he feels “joy suddenly stirred in his soul” that he even "stopped for a minute to take breath". On the surface, such drastic emotional change seems unrealistic, especially because Ivan’s joy is from recognition of a "chain … that when he touch[es] one end the other quiver[es]", which seems very abstract and not directly related to him. However, this doubt is easily refutable when it is realized that to Ivan, the enlightenment is actually quite personal. Chekhov indicates that Ivan’s family background is not that rich; his father lies on the stove "coughing", his mother sits "barefoot" on the floor in the entry, and Ivan is "terribly hungry". Considering Ivan’s status as a student, he must have contemplated about serious issues, such as the omnipresent existence of "poverty and hunger, ... ignorance, misery”. But he would not be able to share his thoughts with his families who are suffering to prepare a day’s meal. Ivan, himself, lacks someone who can understand him. In this perspective, it is easily understandable why Ivan presents such extreme joy when he realizes that all people are related to each other somehow – in other words, that there must be someone who can empathize to him. To Ivan, universal empathy is not a far-distanced, abstract theory, but a hopeful promise that guarantees the existence of soul mate.

My Emotional FB Status :P 

Whenever I put somewhat emotional status on Facebook that reveals a bit of my personal story, I pretend not to pay attention but I must admit that I am satisfied when people click “Like”. “Like” in Facebook is a signal that there are some people who can understand my status, because they have somehow similar experience. Although it is sometimes hard to admit that one needs and secretly wants someone who “Like” my status – in fear that someone might scorn one’s worry and regard it trivial – we must admit that empathy is a universal theme that any man needs, as Chekhov tells in The Student.