¿ What Is Happening to Yeon-Koung Kim ?

You wonder who this magnificent player is, who engrosses all the "Best Scorer" and "MVP" awards every season in every league. You search the list of renowned athletes in your mind, including Yuna Kim, Ji-Sung Park, Se-Ri Park, and few others. Still you cannot find out who this player is; the name, Yeon-Koung Kim, is not in your list.

A South Korean female professional volleyball player, Yeon-Koung Kim, is the heroine of this impressive career. Only 24 years old, Kim is Korea's most decorated player within the last years. Every players, coaches, and fans that observed Kim's play named her as "the Gamova of Asia", "the player of a century", "the top notch hitter", etc. Kim's annual income approaches one-and-a-half billion won, definitely a world-class level. And still most of the Koreans do not know even of her name.

 Yeon-Koung, KIM 

Using such public indifference over volleyball, Heungkuk Life, her domestic club, and Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO) are "enslaving" Kim. According to the local rule, a female volleyball player can achieve FA (FA: a player who is eligible to sign with any club or franchise, not under contract to any specific team) Qualification after playing for six seasons. After she joined Heungkuk, she played for four seasons, then she entered Japanese League for two seasons, and moved to Turkey League for a season. Even though she played in Japan and Turkey, not in Korea, it was as a status of "leased player", not as "FA player". What this means is that she played seven seasons as a Heungkuk Life player, exceeding the required six seasons for FA Qualification. But Heungkuk argues that her three seasons at Japan and Turkey should not be counted for her FA qualification. 

Kim, who already achieved so many things not only in domestic but also in international stage, does not want to remain in Korea; she wants to stay in Turkey, wants to learn more among worldwide players and coaches, wants to become a better player. And now Heungkuk impedes her from achieving her dream, just to keep its team in top place in V-League. KOVO, which should be a mediator between Kim and Heungkuk's struggle, leans toward Heungkuk.

Recently, FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) judged that Kim, even though she is a FA qualified player according to the laws, still belongs to the Heungkuk. FIVB's decision is based on a document that Kim, Heungkuk, and KOVO signed; its first and second clauses suggest that Kim is a Heungkuk player, thus if she wants to run in Turkey league, she needs to return to Heungkuk after spending two seasons in Turkey. However, the third clause mentions that the above articles are valid if and only if FIVB judges Kim to be a Heungkuk player. Heungkuk and KOVO forced Kim to sign this document, promising that signing this document would not impact FIVB's decision at all, and the document would be kept by KOVO, without any circulation. Even though Kim did not want to sign the document, she needed to depart to Turkey as soon as possible to prepare for the following matches, and it was sure that Heungkuk and KOVO would not let her go without sign. So Kim signed. And what happened? Heungkuk and KOVO sent the document, changing its title from "Agreement" to "Final Decision" so that FIVB would mistake temporary concurrence for definite resolution, without notifying Kim about spreading the document.

This is what is happening to the worldwide superstar volleyball player. She cannot play on the court, just because of Heungkuk and KOVO's stupid logic. Kim once said in interview that she enjoys the moment she runs for national team the most because she loves her nation. She has played the London Olympics without any break, and boosted the Korea Team to the fourth place for the first time in thirty-six years, but all she got in return was a knee surgery (due to the excessive amount of play she did in London) and the nation's betrayal. 

Kim must be free. She must be qualified as a FA player, so that she can play the volleyball freely. Kim recently proclaimed that she would continue this fight, until she gets a fair judgment without intervene from Heungkuk or KOVO. Right now, her fan cafe members are helping her struggle; there is an ongoing online petition site, which signed-up list will be used to request FIVB reconsideration about Yeon-Koung Kim. Please join the sign, if you ever want to see Kim shining on the court once again. This is the moment your help is needed, to save the greatest volleyball player of the age. 

Academic Film Review: Earthlings

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

October 14 2012

                Academic Film Review: Earthlings

                "Mrs. Hicks, finding the girl slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl's nose and breastbone, and thus ended her life. I will not say that this most horrid murder produced no sensation in the community," recalled Frederick Douglass, a prominent black leader of the abolitionist movement, of his slavery days that he observed and sometimes experienced by himself of vicious violence upon blacks by whites. In today’s society, in which about two centuries passed after Frederick Douglass' ages, it would be untrue to say that there exists no racial discrimination at all; nevertheless, blacks relish a much happier life than that of their ancestors.

It's surprising that the atrocious brutality whites exerted to blacks had been considered to be perfectly normal and fair in the past. Yet the same bloodshed is prevalent in today's society, only with its subject changed from blacks to animals; Shaun Monson, the writer/producer/and director of the documentary "Earthlings", uncovers this unawareness via exploring the vivid descriptions of animal slaughters for ninety minutes.

"Earthlings" categorizes the humans' cruelty on animals in five parts: pets, food, clothes, entertainment, and scientific research. The first chapter shows animals locked in dirty, cram-full cages of the pet stores. The second chapter portrays the bloody slaughter of pigs and cows, which is practiced without any anesthesia or other methods to appease animals' pain. The third chapter follows India's "Death March" that transports animals to the region where it is allowed to skin. The fourth chapter shows the shackled life of circus animals which are demanded to perform abnormally for the sake of human's entertainment. The final chapter pictures the cold-blooded medical experiments performed on animals, such as dissection without anesthetizing.

All the visual images Shaun Monson displays in the documentary are often shocking and brutal enough to make people feel guilty. A lot of reviewers admit that the video made them reconsider about their causal life of meat dishes -- which is why the video is nicknamed "the Vegan maker". It is doubtful, however, whether this video succeeded in "making" the vegetarians. People did "think" about being vegetarian, but only few actually changed their lifestyle. In other words, "Earthlings" is enough to inspire people to think about change, but not enough to actualize that change.

This "insufficiency" is incurred from three shortcomings of the film: its broad range, prejudiced standpoint, and enumeration of facts. First of all, the video deals with general problem; rather than choosing one specific field about animal abuse, the film covers whole aspects of human violence on animals. Discussion of overall issue is effective to enlighten the viewers that animal violence is not a distant, alien issue for humans but is a ubiquitous problem. The drawback of this approach, however, is that the film has too much content to discuss; some of the details, therefore, is portrayed too briefly that they lack in strong power to persuade the viewer. One person points out that the film "tries to cover the whole spectrum ... that give you fast, short facts here and there". For example, when Shaun pictures animals in the zoos, the image passes so fast that viewers might miss it if they had not been paying close attention on the screen. The reviewer suggests that if the film had included specific acts of zoo staffs mistreating animals, the film would have conveyed much clearer message. In short, because the film deals with general problem, the short cuts of images do not give the viewers enough information or time to ponder about changing their lifestyle. As the reviewer mentioned, the viewers must do their own researches to replenish their knowledge until it reaches enough to lead to realistic action.

Secondly, the stance of "Earthlings" that humans impose too much cruelty on animals is too one-sided. Strongly-biased perspective unintentionally leads the viewers to question, "What about the other side?" Maybe the director picked the most extreme examples among various cases in order to maximize pathos. Maybe there would be some more generous industries that anesthetize animals before slaughter or vivisection. Even if the images are normal, quotidian scenes in animal industry, the "truth" of video is so uncomfortable and guilt-eliciting that the viewers try to deny this truth and justify their current situations. If Shaun had included milder examples of the brutality, or suggested possible objection, the video would have been less biased, thereby raising less disbelief and denial.

Finally, merely listing the facts is not enough to make the viewers of "Earthlings" act. Throughout five chapters, the film clearly shows that animal abuse is omnipresent; however, it does not suggest any solutions to rescue animals from maltreatment. There do exist alternatives; beans and tofu other than meat; synthetic fiber in substitute for leather and fur; tennis competition in place of bullfighting. Instead of suggesting these alternatives, however, the film merely enumerates brutal images over all human life that drive the viewers to think that use of animals is ineradicable. The viewers, thus, feels futile and regards challenge meaningless -- consequently bringing no change in their lifestyles.

"Earthling" is, doubtlessly, one of the greatest definitive animal right films. It introduced a modern version of black discrimination by depicting the brutality of animal abuse while humans think nothing of this violence. Unfortunately, its role stops at merely "introducing" the issue; the film fails to take a further step of eliciting real changes. Shallowness, suspicion, and renunciation, respectively derived from the film's broadness, strongly biased stance, and no suggestion of solutions, prevents the viewers from "being vegetarians". The viewers would need more research that would resolve the drawbacks of "Earthlings". Maybe the film's nickname -- "the Vegan maker" -- is adulation; "the Vegan introducer" would be a little more proper.

My Childhood Trauma -- Revision

You were no more than eleven years old then. Your parents firmly believed that you were innately talented in literature. Pretending to succumb to your parents’ enthusiasm, you enjoyed to recite your own poem. How you “wrote” poem was ignorantly simple; you stopped one line if it seemed to prolong too much, stopped one stanza if you made four lines, and then, voila! Just in five minutes you composed a poem.

Not only your parents but your teacher also praised your poem. Looking back those days, you now know the teacher extolled your poem’s “quantity”, not “quality”. You wrote dozens of poems whenever you felt “It was the day”, and showed all of them to your teacher. One day, she recommended you to upload your poems on the Internet. You, in childish arrogance, thought that not sharing your poems would be a great waste of your talent. So you searched the Internet and joined a literature society.

The society members all seemed to possess a high standard of literature. They uploaded their own poems or novels, and shared ideas via writing comments. You still remember how embarrassed you were when you read the members’ pieces for the first time. They used a whole chunk of abstruse vocabularies that made you be flustered. Observing frequent updates of members’ comments, nevertheless, you thought that you should at least pretend to understand those convoluted poems. You, thus, started to choose the most comprehensibly-looking poem and leave sloppy comments—“Humans sometimes tend to be lonely. T_T But you succeeded in sublimating your solitary into the literature, and I’m sure that you won’t feel alone ever again!” or, “I think you caught a nice glimpse of clear autumn day :D”, etc. And you were satisfied with yourself. What a shame.

A month passed, and you noticed that the club members were so generous that they never slandered on other person’s work. You, in confidence, decided to upload your own poem. Among numbers of poems that you had written, you chose one that seemed the best. Then you slightly corrected and uploaded it. You nervously waited until a notification popped out that first comment was posted. You rushed in one second to check it.

“I enjoyed reading your poem. It was full of childlike innocence,” the kind comment made you be puffed up. An “adult” liked your poem. This comment was just the start; other members also posted cordial comments. Every time you saw a new comment, you gained more confidence to upload more poems more frequently. 

One day, you accessed to the site with usual expectance. Scrolling down the lines of comments, smile spread over your face—and then, suddenly, your face was hardened in shock. No, this could not be true. An anonymous member was scorning:

“You call this a poem?”

You turned off your computer and cried for hours. As you calmed down, you accessed back to the site. The manager of the site had already retrieved the situation. The member who slandered your poem was withdrawn from the society by force, and the manager left a written apology for the angered users. You posted another silly comment under that announcement: “I’m terribly sad T_T I wrote that poem so arduously and was treated so poorly T_T”. For sure, nobody consoled you after you posted that comment. You suddenly lost all of your confidence. You stopped to upload your poems or to write childish comments on other people’s work. A few days later, you left the club.

Years passed, and you became eighteen. Last week, you accidently found out numbers of poems that you had written in your young days. Reading them again, you appreciated the society members who so generously bear those shabby works; you smiled away the malicious comment which once you cried over for hours; you blushed over your childish idea to post “I’m terribly sad T_T” comment. But most of all, you regretted, as thinking about how preciously you valued poetry, of giving up writing so easily just because of one comment. Your once-so-valued literature is now nothing more than a forgotten vestige that slipped out of your fingers.

[ Writer's Comments ] I fixed some grammatical errors and shortened the sentences, following Woochan's advice. If there still remains any error, please feel free to point out! :-)

The Martian Chronicle: Favorite Quotation

Favorite Quotation: "The four bodies lay in the sun. Mr. Xxx lay where he felt.The rocket reclined on the little sunny hill and didn't vanish."

When the astronants landed on the planet Mars, they were definite that the Martians would be as surprised and amused as they are for confronting the living creature from another planet. The reaction, however, was not what the Earth men expected; the Martians believed that those men were seeing hallucinations, and sent men to asylum. The Earth men, eager to prove that they are not insane and they are REALLY from the Earth, showed the psychiatrist the rocket they had riden to Mars. Despite all these evident proofs -- different appearance of Eartlings, rocket and other objects inside it -- the psychiatrist NEVER considered the possibility that the Earth men might be telling the truth; instead, he praised the Earth men that they have a beautiful insanity that conglomerates visual, auditory, sensual, and even labial fantasy. Even when the psychatrist found out that the astronants' dead bodies do not disappear, he did not admit that thoes men were "real" -- he believed that he himself was "hallucinated", "contaminated", and committed a suicide.

My favorite quotation, "The four bodies lay in the sun. Mr. Xxx lay where he felt. The rocket reclined on the little sunny hill and didn't vanish," shows the contrast between the four bodies/the rocket and Mr. Xxx. This contrast emphasizes the Martian doctor's firm belief on hallucinations -- in other words, a foolishly close-mindness.

My Childhood Trauma

You were no more than eleven years old then. Your parents firmly believed that you are innately talented in literature. Pretending to succumb to your parents’ enthusiasm, you enjoyed to recite your own rubbish poem. Your way of writing poem was so ignorantly simple; you stopped one line if it seems to prolong too much, stopped one stanza if you made four lines, and then, voila! Just in five minutes you composed a poem.

Not only your parents but your teacher also praised your poem. Cast your mind back to those days, it is definite that the teacher’s reason for compliment was quantity—you wrote three, or even for poems one day, if you felt “It was the day”—rather than quality. One day, your teacher recommended you to upload your poems on the Internet. So arrogant you were, you thought that not to share your poems was a waste of your great talent. So you searched the Internet and joined a literature society.

The society members, who seemed to possess a high standard of literature, uploaded their own poems or novels and shared ideas via writing comments. You still remember how embarrassed you were when you read the members’ pieces for the first time. They used a whole chunk of abstruse vocabularies that you had not known that such word exists before. Observing frequent updates of members’ comments, nevertheless, you thought that you should at least pretend to understand those convoluted poems. You, thus, started to write rubbish comments; choosing the most comprehensibly-seeming titles, you uploaded a complete sham—“Humans sometimes tend to be solitary. T_T But you succeeded in sublimating your solitary into the literature, and I’m sure that you won’t be lonely ever again!” or, “I think you caught a nice glimpse of clear autumn day :D”, etc. And you were satisfied with yourself. Good grief!

A month passed, and you noticed that the club members were so generous that they never slandered on other person’s work. Gaining confidence, you decided to upload your own poem. Among numbers of poems that you had written, you chose one that seemed the best, corrected it slightly, and uploaded the poem. Alarmed, you checked the club in five minutes interval, and when a notification said one new comment was posted, you rushed in one second.

“I enjoyed reading your poem. It was full of childlike innocence,” the kind comment made you be puffed up. Some “adult” enjoyed your poem. As more cordial comments were posted, you gained more confidence to upload more poems more frequently.

And one day, you accessed to the Internet site with usual feeling of expectancy. Scrolling down the cordial comments, smile overspread your face—and then, suddenly, your face was immobilized with shock. No, this cannot be true. An anonymous member was saying:

“You call this a poem? Good god!”

Running away from the site, you cried for hours. As you calmed down, you accessed back to the site, and the manager of the society site had already took needed measures. The member who slandered your poem was withdrawn by force, and the manager wrote an announcement of apologies for the users who must have been angered by the secluded member. You, so childishly, posted another comment under that announcement: “I’m terribly sad T_T I wrote that poem so arduously and was treated so poorly T_T”. For sure, nobody consoled you after you posted that comment. You suddenly lost all of your confidence and stopped to upload your poems or to write rubbish comments on other people’s work. A few days later, you left the club.

Years passed, and now you are eighteen. You were rummaging the computer files, and accidently, you found out numbers of poems that you had written so arduously in your young days. Reading the poems again, you appreciated the society members whom so generously bear those shabby works, you smiled away the malicious comment which once you cried over for hours, you blushed over your childish idea to post “I’m terribly sad T_T” comment. But most of all, you regretted, as thinking about how preciously you once treated poetry, for giving up writing so easily and rashly just because of one comment. Slipped from your fingers so easily, your once-so-valued literature is just forgotten vestige now.

The Garden Lodge

Ye Ji Park

June 6 2012

Reflective Essay: The Garden Lodge

As the World War I came to the end, and the survived soldiers returned to their homeland, they were no more naïve, youthful lads. “Youth…? That is long ago. We are old folks.” In All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), Paul, the narrator, compares men of forty to twenty; the older men were “linked up with their previous life … wives, children, occupations … background which is so strong that the War cannot obliterate”, whereas younger men have only “parents, and some, perhaps a girl, some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and school. Beyond this … life did not extend.”

Men of forty, before the War, were already holders of some responsibility. They were responsible for supporting their family, or responsible for the job they chose to work on. If they abandoned their responsibility, there was no one who could substitute vacant place; therefore, men of forty had a firm place that they can, and must, return even after the War.

The situation was, however, very different for men of twenty. They were not in charge of anything yet; their parents were not that old to be supported by them, their girlfriends were not their wives that they should provide for, their hobbies were not field they had studied and worked devotedly for years. Lack of responsibility promised no firm place to return for young soldiers, which is why the soldiers “lost” all the responsibility-less, uncertain life they had before the War. The experience of loss made them to be afraid of another loss. They, thus, started to avoid challenging tasks in their future life that promise higher possibility of loss. However, by doing so, they were already losing chances to challenge, chances to live more fully – they were losing better future. Paul says that “nothing remains” for men of twenty – both past and future – which was why this generation was entitled the “Lost Generation”.

The term Lost Generation, however, is not only applicable on the soldiers. The tendency of losing past and future also appeared in other stratum; in The Garden Lodge (Willa Cather, 1905), Caroline Noble, the protagonist of the story, is a representative example.

Young Caroline wished to be a pianist, just as her father. However, as her father was crippled with debts and her brother committed suicide, she gave up that dream and stayed away from the piano – the loss of “past”. Instead, she married to an older man from Wall Street, who promises confident “money, position, energy, vigor of the robust person” to her. Depending on her husband, she does not need to worry about uncertain future. Her dependence, however, results in lack of her free will; that is, Caroline will not challenge herself. Her life will be safer but much duller – she will lose “future”.

What is different between soldiers and Caroline is that the former is “involuntary” Lost Generation, whereas the latter is “voluntary” one. The soldiers were “forced” by the War to hit pause to their life with parents, girls, and school, thus the direct and unique cause of their loss was the War, irrelevant to their will. However, for Caroline, she had opportunity not to lose. She once met this man, Raymond d’Esquerre, a tenor singer who rekindles her passion to music during his stay in the garden lodge. After Raymond left, her husband asks Caroline if she would agree to tear down the garden lodge and build a new summer house instead. He gave Caroline opportunity to disagree and continue on her reawakened interest to music. It was Caroline, however, who deserted that chance by answering that she agrees the lodge should go – she “voluntarily” lets her past and future run away, choosing irresponsible but safe life instead.

Despite the War did not influence Caroline directly to be the Lost Generation, it definitely worked below-the-surface. Before the War, it was the Renaissance paradigm that ruled the world; from the Renaissance, “humans” (not God) were the focus of concentration, and it was believed that humans could be anything they want. The occurrence of World War, however, blew out the pre-existing paradigm. As the War drove humans to fight and kill each other, without even knowing the reason, humans started to depute the previous argument that humans are born to achieve divine purpose of living. They no more respected themselves as godlike creatures; they realized the “limit” of human. Such paradigm contributed in Caroline’s voluntary decision to be Lost Generation, by inculcating lack of confidence that her ability to deal with challenges (for example, restarting to play the piano) is not enough.

Among numbers of literatures that deal the topic of the World War, The Garden Lodge is worthy of notice in sense that it points out indirect effect of the War (voluntary Lost Generation). It is quite tragic that the tendency of Lost Generation clouded the whole society, not only the soldiers but also others such as Caroline.

Losing the past and the future may help the Lost Generation to live a safe life, just as Caroline did under her husband’s protection, but it may block the chance to achieve something. It is true that the Renaissance paradigm is quite exaggerated – humans definitely cannot attain everything they wish – still, some are achievable. This is why I wish the Lost Generation – at least “voluntary” ones that chose to be lost, and still have a chance to cancel the voluntary choice they made – to stand against their loss and makes attempt to find back their volition to challenge.

Writer's Comments

I am quite sorry about this piece.  I have "ideas" in my mind, but I think I did not express it via this writing very well... :( Still,  it was a great pleasure writing this piece (interesting concept, "voluntary" Lost Generation, isn't it?). Hope readers understand what I tried to say in this essay... :) 

Big Two-Hearted River

Ye Ji Park

June 3 2012

Reflective Essay: Big Two-Hearted River

          AP European History is one of the most demanding subjects among all APs. I heard a lot of complaint and plea from my roommate who took the test last May. One of the major discontents she told me was that World War I and II took so many part of whole history. Despite the short period – a little more than three decades – World War occupied more than one fifth of total contents. As this short anecdote implies, the importance that World War holds in the history is considerable. It is not surprising, thus, to find numbers of literature works discussing what happened in the War, how the War influenced the age, etc. Big Two-Hearted River (Ernest Hemingway, 1925) is one of those works, talking about soldiers’ healing process without direct mention about the War.

          Regardless of below-the-surface-mention about the War, it is obvious that the protagonist, Nick, is suffering from post-traumatic disorder after participating in the War. This is revealed from mainly three “lacking” elements in this short story; dialogue, social aspects, and emotive description.

First, lack of dialogue. Throughout the story, dialogue appears only three times – even they are very short (“Go on Hopper.” “Jesus Christ.”) The reason Nick is so unforthcoming is to forget about the War. Once he starts to talk, and a single word pops out that triggers small memory from the War, all the dreadful experiences would crawl out from the suppressed memories and torture him again. This is why Nick stays away from conversation; to prevent any situation that might lead him to recall about the War.

Second, lack of social aspects. What “social aspects” refers to is Nick’s family, friends, school life, or any other social relationships. Nick is completely alone, from the start to the end of the story; it is evident that Nick is unrelated to the society. When confronting the parent, who feels curious about things that happened to their son in the War; when confronting the school, where most of the friends that he has studied together only few years ago are dead from the War, Nick is obliged to recollect dreadful War memories. This definitely is the least thing he wants to do, which explains why he does not hang out or even mention about his social life.

Finally, lack of emotive description. Hemingway’s writing style in this story is very descriptive, but not “emotively” descriptive, rather “objectively”. That is, most of the depictions deals with Nick’s actions, not emotions. To illustrate, Hemingway wrote “Nick’s hands were shaky”, not “Nick was strained”. Hemingway intentionally excluded Nick’s mode throughout the novel, to express the insensibility that the War participants experienced. During the War, emotions are unnecessary. In All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), another masterpiece discussing devastating episodes during the War, Paul the narrator commits that “[Soldiers] have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important for [soldiers].” To Paul and all the other soldiers, mourning over comrade’s death is just a dangerous act that enhances the risk of being shot to the gun. Considering that Nick has just returned from such emotion-less War, Hemingway’s “objectively descriptive” sentence style makes sense.

          What Nick does to tear off trace of the War is to walk into the nature. The story’s title, Two Big-Hearted River, is the place that helps Nick “cure” himself and “overcome” the swamp of the War by confronting two kinds of heart – Heart of the Past and the Future.

Heart of the Past signifies the fixation of the River. After returning from the War, Nick feels everything has changed; parents unable to sympathize and share his pain from the War, classroom vacant here-and-there. But the River does not change; it stays in the place where it has been, as clear as ever. The River makes Nick able to connect himself before the War and after the War – it assures Nick that youthfulness and pureness he possessed before the War may be still remaining inside him, and might bloom again. That is, the River’s Heart of the Past gives him hope that he will be cured, and freed from scars of the War someday.

Heart of the Future refers to the ceaseless flowing characteristic of the River. On its way to Nick’s town, the River might have suffered numerous crises; cataract, rapids, etc. Still the River’s future is to keep flowing with past wounds, not to stop. Looking the River that shares the same pain with him, Nick is comforted, and is motivated to keep living even with unforgettable scars, just as the River does.

          Hemingway wrote that “Nick did not want to go down the stream any further [that day]”, where “fishing was a tragic adventure”. This shows that Nick is not completely cured; he is not yet ready to face the challenge, the danger that he has so frequently confronted during the War. Still he says that “There were plenty of days coming when he could fish the swamp”, indicating that he will keep on curing himself in the nature, consoled by the River.

Paul, in All Quiet in the Western Front, said that “we [the soldiers] were eighteen and had begun to love the life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces”. The War made Nick also to shoot the years he had lived. But the River helped Nick to arrange the pieces back, connect this re-attached past to his present, thereby be courageous about continuing life. It seems indisputable that one day, Nick would be able to discharge from the hospital of Nature.

Writer's Comments

Reading pieces about World War, I feel grateful to God that I wasn't born in that age. The shock that I felt after reading All Quiet on the Western Front for the first time -- it was just so destructive and, thus, tragic. That was, maybe, the reason that I read Big Two-Hearted River while continuously murmuring "Thank heavens." I felt relished as reading the nature curing Nick. Maybe this was the same way that people in Hemingway's age felt, maybe this is why this piece grabbed so many people's attention in that age.

Right now I'm starting Hemingway's another work about World War; A Farewell to Arms. Ever since hearing the summary of this story when I was thirteen or something -- this book has always been on my wish-to-read list. Hope A Farewell to Arms also brings me great inspirations, just as Big Two-Hearted River did :)