A MARVELOUS ART
ORDINARY WORK
BY EXTRAORDINARY US
Table of Contents 1
Book Reviews
2
Preface by Nicole
6
Authors' ProfileÂ
8
Analytical Writing
10
Narrative Writing
12
Creative Writing
16
Writing Reflection
Book Review A best-selling book this year - Amazon.com It is truly a brilliant works of art I have ever seen.- JK. Rowling In this book, you can feel the atmosphere of freedom, brainstorming, and creativity. It is worth reading-Michelle Obama It is really an interesting journey about reading. Everyone should keep the curiosity and encouragement as the writers. They are truly inspiring by their attitude of creating- Tara Westover The author gifted the classical short stories new lives and meanings. They turn reading into an engrossing, dazzling and profoundly moving event.-Rachel Hollis I am quite proud of my students. They wrote plenty of interesting articles and editing them well. This book will be lasted forever and ever-Jing-Yang Chou,The Principal of National Central University
01
For 108-2 Class of Reading Short Stories By Ai-ping Liu
For those who are reading the lines: Oh, you can’t imagine how time flies Remember we met for the first time?
108-2 Reading Short Stories was your cup of tea Cause you told me you liked stories; you liked me Let’s get started with 3 very short, short, stories A warm-up, a peek at the bottom of their heart Searching for it, struggling through it Savoring, sickening, or even suiciding for it Of course you needed a bit of time to digest all For vocab stood just in the way to make you fall “Read on,” I said, smiling and assuring “Enlighten yourself through reading As long as you do a bit of thinking Do think of it even when you’re eating” It’s said that epiphany is true No one can easily go through Get ur reading done for a clue Sammy would like to be an unsuspected hero Haunted House shelters love and no sorrow Open the door for the poor Cat in the Rain Reach the bazaar; Araby isn’t really that far Tell-Tale Heart is to listen to your own heart 02
Shameful Affair is more than just a summer fling To Mildred, to be or not to be is always haunting Omelas or Lottery will be everlasting? Replay the time machine to find Braling It can also take you to Venus of storming Emily and her rose won’t be forgotten Short stories thrive in our lively garden
03
AUTHORS
EXTRAORDINARY US Wu Rou-Yi
I major in Chinese. My hobbies are watching movies, floral design, and traveling.
江正宇 Chiang Chung-Yu 03
EDITORIAL
I am from department of Mathematics, but I am not interesting in math! I am willing to be a person impressing others immediately, which you see the photo then you can understand!
許 ⽂ Hsu Ching-Wen 21
BAD HABITS
I am a freshman student in the department of Economics. I like to travel. By travel, I can broaden my horizon and know a variety of culture.!
張
Chang Fang-Yu
I am a senior from Business Administration. I'm into reading English novels and traveling. So surprising that I make my own book one day. Wish all of you enjoy it.
05
ANALYTICAL WRITING
Analytical Writing on The Lottery By Wu Rou-Yi
We can see some metaphors in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. It’s a very irony story. First is “the black lottery box”.The condition of the box—wornout, faded, stained, and splintered—is a metaphor for the lottery itself, a ritual that has long outlived its usefulness and become worn and obsolete. Although Mr.summers talks about making a new box, nobody in the village wants to do so. Their unwillingness to change their lottery box, no matter how degraded it becomes, is a metaphor for their unwillingness to change the ritual itself. And we can see the name and its metaphor of the characters. “Summers” means “very long time”, He is the unofficial leader of the village and overseer of the lottery. Mr. Summers volunteers frequently in civic roles, organizing square dances, teen club, and the Halloween party. The other villagers pity him for having no children and an unkind wife. Throughout the lottery’s proceedings he coaxes others to complete the process efficiently.“Grave” means “death”. He is the village postmaster and Mr. Summers’s assistant in the proceedings of the lottery. In English, grave means tombs, also symbolize death. “Delacroix” is a French surname that derives from de la Croix, which means “the 07
cross”,but the villagers always misread this surname. I think it’s a metaphor that “people couldn’t understanding the truth of the cross correctly”. They were all really clever arrangements. “Old Man Warner” can be seen as a metaphor for unthinking devotion to tradition. At no point has he ever stopped to consider the sheer, unadulterated barbarism of the ritual in which he's been such an enthusiastic participant over the years. In fact, Old Man Warner has become so deeply attached to the lottery tradition that he thinks it outrageous. The situation, and things all contribute to the irony in the story. These are all equally important to the irony and without them the story would not have been as interesting as it was. If these were not included then the story would not be the same and would not keep the readers' interest.
08
Analytical Writing on A Shameful Affair By Wu Rou-Yi
I think we can find at least three scenes where Mildred feels insulted in “A Shameful Affair”. The first scene has happened in the farm.She watches regularly as the farmhands come up to the porch to receive their meal. They avoid much interaction, but when one picks up a paper that she has tossed in their path, she takes an interest in him. He is described as brown with blue eyes and fair hair and a favorable body. She is interested in pursuing him if nothing else to make time pass during the summer. She decides to focus on this man and ultimately seduce him. She first inquires about the man to learn about him and has Mrs. Kraummer ask him to drive her to church the next day. The man refuses, claiming that he is going fishing. Mrs. Kraummer offers another person, but she declines. I think this part can show us that the man’s attitude is very disdainfully, and it’s a very bad experience for Mildred because in that era, woman couldn’t get close or “seduce” men initiatively or show their sexual desire, but she did it, and it has been rejected. As a result, she feels shameful about it because it’s first time that a man did those rude things to her . 09
The next part is the fishing event. He come to the porch, he does actually look at her with a look that only stirs Mildred's interest. Then she choose the unmanned afternoon and goes for a walk in the woods and encounters the man. She greets him and asks if she can watch. He acquiesce and is silent as she watches. She instructs him to let her give a try and he agrees. As she lays her hands on the fishing pole, there is a tug on the line. He leaps to help her and goes to put his hands on the pole but ends up on her hands. From this, the two embrace in a kiss. However, no sooner is the kiss over than he has taken off. In his absence, she contemplates whether she should report him but finally decides to keep quiet. The kiss does send her into further confusion as it was so enjoyable but something she believes she should not necessarily be doing. Mildred went into the woods, tried to started a conversation because she wants to prove she is truly charming. But after they kiss, Fred still not take a step further. This time she felt more anxiety. The sentence at page eighty-three is to prove once more her feministic approach towards life:“A feminine commiseration swept her” because “ Perhaps this one had none better than these working clothes that he wore.” He gave Mildred a pity. And we can see her torment the last paragraph of part two:”Only the birds had seen, and she could count on their discretion. 10
She was not wildly indignant, as many would have been. Shame stunned her. But through it she gropingly wondered if she should tell the Kraummers that her chaste lips had been rifled of their innocence. Publish her own confusion? No! Once in her room she would give calm thought to the situation, and determine then how to act. The secret must remain her own: a hateful burden to bear alone until she could forget it.� The third scene, she finds her book on the porch that she has left on the path the day before. While contemplating her presence on the farm, she receives a letter from a friend that inquires whether she has met one of the farmhands who is from where they are from and working the farm just to work it. She realizes that this must be the man whom she is torn over. Later, the man confronts her and eloquently begs an apology. She says that she might forgive him when she is willing to forgive herself some day. It takes him a moment but he understands what she means. When I read this paragraph, I can felt the angry and insult Mildred feels in this sentence:� you want to forget it! Then, maybe, since you are willing to forget, you will be generous enough to forgive the offender someday?�
11
Fred use a strong surprised and gave Mildred a ridicule. He wants to emphasize that she couldn’t forget that kiss, she think it’s solemnly and enjoyable, but for him, it’s just a joke. It’s a shameful affair for Mildred.
12
Analytical Writing on A Shameful Affair By Chiang Chung-Yu
In the short story “A Shameful Affair” written by Kate Chopin, the entire scene of fishing indicates that Mildred is bound by traditional perspectives and moral rules. In the beginning, she asks Fred “Are you fishing?”. Them, thinking Fred doesn’t have any other action, she continues “Let me try (fishing) a moment, please.” These two clues imply that Mildred is willing to interact with Fred. She is the actually the one who constantly sends out signals to show her interest on Fred. Finally and suddenly, Fred kisses Mildred while she is fishing, and she doesn’t rebel to him; namely, she accepts this kiss. But a weird thing has happened—Mildred feels shamed and indignant after the kiss, and this is the reason why I consider Mildred is bound by traditional perspectives and moral rules. Fred runs away after having kissed Mildred, which has left some emotions for her. She wasn’t mad and felt indignant as normal people would have been—irritated and fear; however, she is curious how to forget or hide this secret, the secret which “rifled her chaste lips”. In addition, the word “chaste” has been used to imply that moral rules exist in Mildred’s thoughts. 13
What she first cares about that kiss is it should be given to the person who either she loves or who matches with her identity— someone that is also upper class. In my opinion, Mildred enjoys in it. Once she mentioned that kiss is the most delicious thing she had known in her twenty years of life, she doesn’t have any reason to shame about it, unless she is bound by tradition and morality. Moreover, she can’t kiss a farmhand, because they have different social status, which is not allowed according to the moral rules.
14
Analytical Writing on Marionettes, Inc. By Chiang Chung-Yu
Is it a right decision or not for Braling to buy a robot to replace himself? In order to get away from his wife’s control. Braling buys a robot as same as him, which is called ‘Braling two’. Sometimes Braling is tired of accompanying her wife, Braling two will take over his responsibility, so that Braling can take some rest. I don’t agree with Braling on making this decision. Braling wants more of his own time instead of staying with his wife. I can understand the reason why he bought the robot, but this action is totally wrong. First, a clone is illegal in the story. Even though he is reluctant to encounter the relationship, he still can’t break the law. In my opinion, the law is the lowest limitation of morality. Second, the way he interacts with his wife should be communication, instead of buying a robot and refusing to talk to each other. This reaction obviously expresses that Braling is person who is avoiding problems, and I think he doesn’t have the concept of responsibility. Owing to Braling’s decision to buy a robot, there exists a metaphor in the end of story, which impressed me a lot, “‘we will see what we can do about that’ someone said”. 15
Before this conversation, there’s a person who kisses Mrs. Braling when she wakes up, and this behavior surprise Mrs. Braling. Because her husband never does like this before, and here I think the author uses the metaphor to describe the man who has kissed Mrs. Braling isn’t Mr. Braling, then who kissed Mrs. Braling? In conclusion, Marionettes is not only a story, but also a taunt for couples who live under the same roof without communication, and get a divorce eventually. The author wants to request every couple should communicate and understand each other’s thoughts and feeling, in order to make a harmonious future.
16
Analytical Writing on Araby By Hsu Ching-Wen
In my opinion, Both North Richmond Street and the bazaar in the story, “Araby" symbolize something related to the characterization of the roles in the story. In fact, these two places represent the boy and Mangan’s sister respectively. The description of North Richmond Street in the story corresponds to the boy’s personality and mind. First, the street is described blind and quiet. The features of this street are corresponded to boy’s personality. The boy is shy and introverted. He just dares to peek at the girl who he has a crush on. For instance, he lies on the floor in the front parlor to look her. Moreover, he follows her secretly to watch her. Second, the house on the North Richmond Street where the boy lives in is detached from his neighbor and in a square ground. I think this represents that the boy doesn’t express his love to the girl. He doesn’t dare to like some people who express their love to their lovers directly. His heart is like his house in a square ground. He surrounds his inner feeling for the girl to other people. Thus, nobody knows he likes the girl. On the other hand, “Araby" represents the girl. 17
First, the boy goes on a long and difficult progress to enter the bazaar eventually. He needs to ask his uncle whether he can go to the bazaar at first and ask his uncle for money. Later, he gets on an intolerable delay of the train to the bazaar. Moreover, the train is slow. Finally, he arrives in the bazaar. He doesn’t have enough money to enter the bazaar and is afraid that the bazaar will be closed. Thus, he passes in quickly through a turnstile to enter the bazaar. I think these details represent he makes a lot of efforts to reach the girl’s heart eventually. Second, he gets nothing in the bazaar. When he enters the bazaar, the stalls are almost closed. He goes to one of the stalls and examines vases and teasets. The clerk asks him if he wants to buy anything with an encouraging tone. He says no. I think this represents he doesn’t get the girl’s love. Furthermore, the girl doesn’t have feeling to him totally. Both North Richmond Street and the bazaar symbolize the characterization of the boy and Mangan’s sister.
18
Analytical Writing on The Ones Who Walks Away from Omelas By Hsu Ching-Wen
“The ones who walks away from Omelas" reveals a shocking secret hidden in a peaceful and happy society. In the story, we can find a lot of evidences that Omelas is a wonderful city. For example, there is no king in Omelas and there are no barriers between people. When they see strangers, they smile at each other. Moreover, there are no slaves. Omelas seems very peaceful and wonderful; however, it hides an secret. The prosperity of Omelas and the happiness of the people are conditional. They need to imprison a child in a basement for many years to exchange everyone’s happiness. In my opinion, the child symbolizes the victim in the wonderful city, Omelas. The child is in a bad situation and suffers tragic misery so that others can live a happy life. If the child gets help or freedom, the happiness of Omelas will disappear. The happiness of Omelas depends on the child’s misfortune. This story reacts to modern society. Our happy life may be based on the bad suffering of some people. Issue of child slaves is a classic example. The producers of coffee, clothes, and diamonds may be the victims in the society.
19
Moreover, these producers may be children. Child slaves make a labor to produce goods but get fewer wages. We often only care about what we have and care less about the process and producer of the goods. Thus, seldom do people know the tragic situation of child slaves. Customers and bosses of the company may know the fact, they may adopt different ways to deal. Customers may adopt two ways. First, they may buy more products produced by child slaves, for they think that child slaves can get more wage. Second, they may choose to pretend not to know and don’t express any opinion, for the products produced by child slaves may be the necessities for them. Bosses of the company may disregard fact. If they don’t have these child slaves to produce products for them, they can’t earn money. These make the situation of child slaves unchangeable. If we can all face this problem, the problem of child slaves may be solved. Finally, the quantity of child slave can decrease.
20
Analytical Writing on Popular Mechanics By Chang Fang-Yu
In “Popular Mechanics”, there are metaphors and foreshadowing creating the intensive and nervous atmosphere. The author, Raymond, utilizes the objects and conversations to let the reader know what happens in that moment and what it implies. Then, we can feel that we enter into this story step by step and every image is vivid. Through the climax, the ending comes silently but strongly and horribly. Therefore, I would like to analyze three important metaphors of this story. To begin with, the name of this story implies some vital information about this couple. “Mechanics” stands for the way something works instead of someone related to machine. There are plenty of plots associated with arguments in this story. In other words, conflicts between the couple are what mechanics represents. The author uses the adjective, “popular” to emphasize that argument always happens in a love relationship. Thus, readers can think about and anticipate how this story will be developed.
21
Moreover, when the couple are fighting and arguing, tubs of innocent things are sacrificed by their irrational and careless behavior. There is a paragraph mentioning, “they knocked down a flowerpot that hung behind the stove.” The author implied that the baby, someone innocent, is going to have the same tragedy with the flowerpot. Because the flowerpot is just a decoration, the couple don’t pay any attention to it, even when it was broken. Nonetheless, it is a signal that conveys the disasters that will keep happening until they pause. Last but not least, the last sentence of this story is blazingly strong. This sentence doesn’t just make the couple silent, but also the readers. The writer didn’t expound the death of the baby directly. He tries to maintain the entertainment of reading and brainstorming for us. He referred to this catastrophe in the last sentence, “In this manner, the issues was decided.” He left this sentence to let the readers think about what might happened and reflect on what if this situation happens in our daily life. This sentence also tells us that horrible things were decided by us. In a nut shell, these three metaphors consist the whole miserable story and give readers a significant inspiration. 22
Analytical Writing on The Tell-Tale Heart By Chang Fang-Yu
In “Tell-Tale Heart,” the narrator’s sobriety plays a vital role as a catalyst of murder. From the soliloquy of the protagonist in this short story, readers can speculate what the plot is going to develop and what he thought about in his mind. The narrator’s mortal antipathy to hate the old man was caused by several elements gradually. Therefore, I will point out two reasons why narrator killed the old man based on my viewpoint. In the first place, the simple dim ray is one of the reason that triggers the narrative to do homicide. The dim ray which is like the thread of the spider shoots from out the crevice and falls full upon the vulture eye. It can show how frightening the scenario the dim ray he caused. After the narrator gazed upon it, he gained more furious and hysterical at that moment. The metaphor of the old man’s eye is associated with death. Therefore, through the dim ray, the narrator can not only be threatened, but also feel that death is close to him. He would be the prey. This scaring emotion contribute to the hideous fear in his mind. As people feel scared, they wouldn’t want to stay in the same place or let the thing keep terrifying them. Therefore, the dim ray makes the narrator finish the fatal plan as soon as possible. 23
Furthermore, the sound of beating from the old man’s heart is the other reason which accelerates the determination of killing the old man. The narrator mentions the sound is like the beating of drum which stimulates the soldier into courage. The sound brings about more motivation, but also more nervous feeling. If the narrator doesn’t kill the old man as soon as possible, he would keep menaced by the vulture eye. If he doesn’t perform this plan quickly, he would be noticed by the old man. Moreover, as the sound of heart beating becomes louder and louder, it means the old man’s terror must be extreme. Then, the old man shouldn’t have any sense of alertness. Then, it would be a good time to conduct the murdering. These two reasons, the dim ray and the sound, makes his moral antipathy influenced in the meanwhile. He becomes more and more insane and doesn’t have the ability to judge what he really did. It is also possible for him to make up all this fantasy story. There is no murder at all. It is also another kind of explanation about his mental condition. The clearer and the more detailed the extent he elaborated on that night, the more insane he would be at that time.
24
In a nutshell, being triggered is always the force to conduct something. The inducement reinforces the feeling and profound influence how we contemplate. Therefore, the narrator would do the murdering at that moment.
25
NARRATIVE WRITING
Narrative Writing on A Rose for Emily By Wu Rou-Yi
In “A Rose for Emily” , we can see those neighbors’ discrimination when they notice that Emily is dating with Homer Barron.They have limited Emily in a glorified myth of American South. I think I’m limited by some unreasonable rules created by men. Not just me, I think every girls all have same experience. I used to read some sentences in a book:”Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed is female.Thus she turns herself into an object of vision: a sight.” That’s true. Large amount of money was wasted on those beautifully clothes and cosmetics. I want to make myself look better, just because the boys will remark upon my appearance, and the girls will looks up to those pretty girls. I used to be crazy about dressing up myself, but day after day, I found that my skin became more and more frail, and it always being allergy; and my money was almost wasted on buying some cute dresses or denim pants. 27
Then I stopped making up and wearing those tight-fitting clothes. Somebody said something bad, judging my appearance. It really hurt me in the beginning, and I asked myself “ Why can’t I decide not to be always beautiful?” Then I found a way to get away from that pain: Reading. I study hard. I just wanted people to see more sensual inner of me , And I don’t want them to get close to me, just because I had a beautiful face.
28
Narrative Writing on The Tell-Tale Heart By Wu Rou-Yi
I suffered from bullying when I was ten years old. I was a very outgoing girl and happy to make friends with everyone at that time. But unfortunately, I met two bad classmates. They pretend they wanted to make friends with me, and I just trust them. We got along pretty well at the very beginning, but after few months, they started to ask me to chat on the phone every night, or buy them lots of pens and notebooks or another writing materials. If I forgot to buy it or I didn’t give those things they wanted before “deadline”, they would be very mad.Because it cost a lot of money, I told one of them that I can’t buy them “gifts” anymore. She was very angry about it. She said that we were not friends anymore. I felt confused about it. After that day, they told the other girls that I treated them bad. They pretend they were very pitiful, saying that I lost their science homework deliberately. At that time, everybody thought I was a mean girl, and they were all get away from me. In addition, they even hit me in a pantry. I felt helpless at that time. I truly wanted them to disappear from the world, just like the main character in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Once, I even wanted to kill them. It’s too painful, but I feared that if I told my parents or teacher, they would bullying me in a more exaggerated way. 29
I supported myself by write the diary and join a handicraft club. I can’t forgive them, even it’s past long time. I want them to get the retribution they deserved. Now I’m stronger, and I want to protect more kids that suffering the same thing. I want “bullying” and those mean people to disappear, and teach my children not do those unreasonable things to others, especially the innocent people.
30
Narrative Writing on The Storyteller By Chiang Chung-Yu
In “The Storyteller,” three children are noisy on the train; their aunt is annoyed with such situation. She does nothing but tells a boring story. This reaction is similar to some of school teachers. When you ask some questions to them, they tell you noting but give you the solution of questions. This action doesn’t help me or others who got stuck in the questions, so we still feel complexed all the same. According to my experiences, sometimes I’m stuck in some science problems, but the teacher will shout to me that “Answers are in the textbook! Do you read the book carefully?” From the teacher’s aspect, maybe I’m a stupid student or a sloppy student, but sometimes the student won’t notice every detail in the book completely. Why a teacher can’t tell us patiently? That’s my real experience and I’m still curious now. And my experience also matches with the aunt who doesn’t find the method to let children be quiet. She is just like the teacher I met, asking children to be quiet impatiently, and my mind is similar to those children in the story. I don’t know why how I can solve the problem as same as children who should be quiet.We both don’t know the reason! 31
The second half of the story shows that a bachelor appeared and found the method (told the wonderful story) to make children quiet. That’s a great method! And the questions proposed by children are answered and explained patiently, compared with the aunt, who has explained the question impatiently. On the other hand, I am lucky too. Because every teacher I met in the college solved my problems cautiously, it seems that they are afraid I can’t understand. Questions are not only in class, but also in life. They paid full attention to me. If I can’t understand the solution immediately, they told me repeatedly or used other method to guide me to understand the procedure of the solution. Every teacher I met was the same as children who met the bachelor. Maybe that’s their responsibilities (the bachelor wants children to be quiet), but they didn’t express the perfunctory attitude to solve problems. Because of every teacher’s influences, sometimes I helped my friends or classmates solving problems, and I will do my best to give them a satisfying solution. I am grateful to those teachers, and because of them I am willing to help others who get stuck in their problems, and I love this positive personality of mine. 32
Narrative Writing on The Tell-Tale Heart By Chiang Chung-Yu
Is there any event for which I have talked with my own heart constantly? Definitely Yes! And I did it frequently. Talking to one’s own heart is an important lecture in one’s life; therefore, I will share the experiences and changes after I have talked with my own heart. Since I prepared for the university entrance examination, I felt confused every time I was studying. Then I asked to myself, “What am I looking for?”. That’s the beginning of talking with my own heart. I no longer studied blindly; however, I started to understand why I was studying, how I was studying. I read some experiences sharing passages on the net, asking for some teacher’s opinions, to find out my advantages and disadvantages. Every day I combined the information with my thoughts, inquiring to myself “Which one do I prefer to? Which choice is beneficial to me?’. After making these efforts, the things I wanted to pursue became clear; moreover, I studying harder than before in order to achieve my goal. 33
Currently, there are bulky things that are bothering me, for instance, what subject of master degree I should enter, how I should manage my summer vacation, etc…, but this time I won’t feel confused. I can divide each aspect of my choice and analyze each advantage and disadvantage, and I ask myself “Am I regret to do that?” If yes, don’t do it, no matter how enormous benefits I can obtain. If I won’t regret it, that’s the goal I should achieve. I will never agree with myself to select a choice I will regret even before I do it. Isn’t it ridiculous to make such decision?
34
Narrative Writing on A Shameful Affair By Hsu Ching-Wen
In “A Shameful Affair" the man can’t help kissing the woman. When you have a feeling on something, you may have a variety of ways to express your feeling. For example, when you get the lottery, you may have two ways to express your feeling. One is sharing this happiness to your friends and families; the other is enjoying this happiness alone. Now, I wanted to share my experience. Because I wanted to recall wonderful things in my life, I would record what happened every day. Thus, I have had a habit of keeping a diary since I was young. I remembered very well on that day. I returned to my bedroom after I took a shower. I found that my bedroom’s door was open. Timid me peeked into the bedroom from the gap in the door. I was shocked by what I saw. My mom peeked at my diary. I left doorway of bedroom as soon as possible as if nothing happened and went to living room. Until she left my bedroom, I returned to bedroom. When I found that my mom was peeking my diary, my emotions were complex. I had a bad feeling because I thought that my privacy was violated; however, I had a blessed feeling because I thought that my mom wanted to know more about my life and cared more about me. 35
In that moment, I had a difficulty telling my exact emotion. After I slept on this thing for a few days, I decided not to suppress these emotions. I told my mom that I knew her peeking at my diary. I honestly told her my emotions. She felt sorry to me. I think some emotions are better not to be suppressed such this thing. When we have a bad feeling on something, we should express our emotion. If we suppress this bad feeling, we just let ourselves in bad emotion for good and the situation will not be changed. Suppressing your emotion is not a good choice.
36
Narrative Writing on A & P By Hsu Ching-Wen
As everyone knows that Costco is a famous hypermarket. There are a variety of goods there, such as necessities of life, clothing, and food. Now, I want to share personal experiences in Costco. Because of the serious epidemic, many households choose to cook and eat at home instead of dining outside. Our home is no exception. My mom suggested that we should go to Costco to buy some ingredients for cooking. When we arrived there, we saw a long car queue. We parked our car after waiting for twenty minutes. Because of the epidemic, store staff used alcohol to wipe the grip of carts to disinfect so that customers could use without worry. When I approached the entrance of the Costco , I saw almost all people wearing different masks, like cloth masks and medical masks. In the beginning, we idled in the home appliances area. There were few people in this area. I wondered where everyone went. When we arrived in food area, I suddenly realized. Everyone who wore masks was packed shoulder and shoulder in the food area.
37
Moreover, every aisle in the food area was jampacked with customers. Everyone chose what they wanted and put them in their cart quickly. There were a lot of goods in everyone’s carts including cookies, ingredients, and instant noodles. Every cart was filled with goods. This led to the situation that there were no goods on the shelves. While customers went on a panic buying, the store staff replenished the stock as soon as possible. Facing this situation, we chose to buy some necessary goods that we needed and left quickly. However, leaving quickly was not an easy thing at that time. The line waiting in front of the cashier stretched for more than five meters. Furthermore, time spent by everyone checking out lasted for at least three minutes. Given these two situations, I guessed that we needed to wait at least one hour to check out. Finally, we decided to give up buying anything and leave with empty hands. I thought this would be the most unforgettable thing in the Costco.
38
Narrative Writing on A & P By Chang Fang-Yu
On the fifth day in Linkoping, southern Sweden, the weather was still windy and cloudy. It was July 2nd. I decided to cook a big meal for celebrating the commencement of studying abroad. Therefore, I went to the nearest supermarket, Hemkop, after class. I walked on the route that I passed away every day in Ryd, but I was still afraid of getting lost in this community. Eventually, I arrived at the doorway of the supermarket. There was a Bulgarian vagrant sitting on the bench as usual. I remembered how anxious I was when I first saw him first time. I thought he would loot cash or something from me as the robber I met in Stockholm. The robber grabbed my bag all of a sudden on the big street. I was deadlocked with him. Now I still can remember how frightening he looked then. Nevertheless, the beggar never did that and always said Hello to me. Then, I got into the supermarket. There were plenty kinds of vegetable and meat. Furthermore, there were various kinds of bread and toast put in the glass cases. They looked toothsome. I felt my mouthwatering at that moment. Hence, I walked close to the bread case and I was confounded by the price. 39
The bread was not that big, but cost 20 Swedish krona. Then, I found there was not that much money in my pocket. I changed my mind and considered what I should cook for my celebrating dinner. I kept walking through different sections to think about any possible idea. Ultimately, I came up with the idea, spaghetti, which I seldom ate in Taiwan. I felt overwhelmed with joy and ran to the fridge area. I would like to purchase the milk to make the cream sauce. However, here happened something difficult. I couldn’t understand any Swedish words at all. I kept staring at some words and hoped I could tell milk apart from yogurt with the same package. I failed. Fortunately, there was a staff walking through and solving my problem. However, my question didn’t pause, but popped out again and again. There were numbers of choices about ingredients and sauces there, but I wasn’t familiar with any one of them at all. Meat in the fridge wasn’t like the one in Taiwan. The shape of some vegetable wasn’t, either. Although I did my uttermost to pick up all of the things I needed, I couldn’t help but feeling depressed. I kept asking myself if this kind of image and life were what I had aspired for ten years. Something I dreamt of looked gorgeous, but not practical. What I saw and experienced must be the fact for a long period. 40
After I left the store, I carried a heavy bag with lots of ingredients. I wasn’t that joyful and hopeful as I had just entered into the supermarket. I told myself that I had known the truth at least. No more fantasy. At that moment, the Bulgarian vagrant said Hello to me again in the hallway, and I said Hello to him back. Both of us stayed in an unfamiliar place without a familiar friend.
41
Narrative Writing on All Summer in a Day By Chang Fang-Yu
I had a nightmare in this dark bedroom again. The atmosphere had a strong sense of déjà vu and sent chills down my spine. I felt suffocated as usual, but I knew that I deserved it. What I suffered was just a tip of iceberg. The pain I brought about to my older sister was just a true catastrophe. I still can remember the image in that brutally hot summer vacation at my age of six. I was eight-year-old younger than my sister. My sister used to be excel at cooking. She could make various kinds of cuisine and I was the lucky girl who got to taste each dish she made. It is quite clear she is going to inherit our father’s French restaurant, Déjà vu. Actually, I really anticipate being the one like my older sister making some toothsome dishes for whom she loved. I sometimes read the recipe book with her and shared my ideas with her. She even said, if she becomes the chef de cuisine in Déjà vu, she will invite me to be the chef de partie for her. At that moment, I had an idea and plenty of fantasy about cooking. One day, I decided to make a cake by myself without any assistance. 42
Hence, I started to go through every step of making chocolate brownie when my parents weren’t at home. Everything went well until I spilled out some flour onto the floor carelessly. I even didn’t notice it and tried to preheat the oven. This was quite dangerous since it may result in explosion. My sister just woke up and stepped in the kitchen for breakfast. She was so shocked when she saw this scenario. She ran to turn off the preheated oven, but it was too late. The oven blew out at that time and my sister suffered. Although her appearance and health weren’t influenced by the explosion, but her hands didn’t feel, which meant that she couldn’t be a cook forever. I felt so guilty and would like to compensate for this disaster I made. I determined to achieve my sister’s dream, so I started to delve into cooking and endeavor to practice. Hence, I became the one that usually won the champion in every cooking competition. My parents were proud of me then, and wanted me to become the successor of Déjà vu. However, what I was struggling to do didn’t make my sister relieved and happy at all. She was even more jealous and usually stared at me with hatred. It seemed that I plundered what she possessed before. 43
Every time, after she knew I won the prize or got some good news, she was usually annoyed, well, actually, furious and what she was going to do is lock me inside of an old wardrobe for several hours meanly. She knew I had claustrophobia, which means I am afraid of darkness. I would keep crying and begging for leaving the wardrobe. She usually replied, “you deserved it, you were such a robber and criminal of my life. I WOLDN’T forgive you forever and ever.” Until my parents went home, she would force me to be a person of amnesia and mute. Perhaps, I was used to staying that kind of dark place. I gave up struggling and crying, but I stilled feared as matter of course. It was seriously mental fear. After I finished my master degree in Le Cordon Bleu, my sister said if I would like to compensate for her, I should leave hometown and did my business in other place. I had no choice but following because I deserved it. Thus, I became a cook in Sedona and I seldom went home. When I finished my job and went back to my tiny house, I usually thought about my sister. I was just like a copycat and a replica. I would never escape from the nightmare happening in that summer vacation. I just wished that I won’t wake up in that old and dark wardrobe anymore. 44
CREATIVE WRITING
Creative Writing on The Lottery By Wu Rou-Yi
It’s a very beautiful mid summer day: the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The villagers came to gather in the square. Kids chased each other and the men spoke of planting and rain. A village lottery was organised by Mr. Summers. They took a shabby black box. The villagers kept their distance, leaving a space between themselves and the box. They felt afraid of it. They were afraid of dying. They needed a scapegoat. They needed a sacrifice. “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” A festa in summer started. “Missus Hutchinson, here comes your turn!”Mr.Summers said.
46
Creative Writing on All Summer in a Day By Wu Rou-Yi
All kids stand by the window.They want to know how the sun looks like. Summer’s coming." I think the sun is a flower,That blooms for just one hour.� Says Margot. They are jealous because she comes from Earth. They put her into a closet. A student see the sun. They run. They jump. They scream. Day turns into Night in a sudden. The sun is gone. They come back to the classroom. They let Margot free.
47
Creative Writing on The Lottery By Chiang Chung-Yu
Lottery is composed of many senses, for instance, anger, despair, blandness, ecstasy, and helplessness. Old man is the only person keeping sober, but no one believes him, he was being thought as a psyche. The crowd uproar during the lottery, but the fact is that the winner isn’t the luckiest, who should die for keeping harvest. The ridiculous ritual is existing, but no one wants to abolish it, to prevent next person from death again. Eventually the ritual was finished this year, villagers go back to their daily life, waiting for the next EVENT. Reconsider the old man and villagers, they can’t change the tradition that may come from the old myth, the wrong myth, not their failure. Yes, or no question doesn’t exist in this complicated moral problem, if you want to know the answer, you should analyze all the details of the story and research each character’s personality, is not as simple as you thought. 48
Creative Writing on All Summer in a Day By Chiang Chung-Yu
A little girl lives in Venus who believes Sun exists. Light or dark, which one is true? Lying to others or trusting her, which one they choose? Sun was shining for an hour when the little girl was locked in the closet. Utterance wasn’t useful,unless they saw it personally. May they feel ashamed? May they feel apologized? Either shame or apology is too late. Rain begins falling. In A 49
Desperation crushed the little girl’s expectation. Another day when will the SUN rise again? You can see it doesn’t matter, because the little girl’s heart has died.
50
Creative Writing on A Rose for Emily By Hsu Ching-Wen
A girl who was called Emily born in 1864. Remitted Emily’s taxes by mayor because her father had loaned money to the town. Only Emily’s servant, Tobe could enter her house. Summer after Emily’s father death the construction company began paving sidewalk. Emily began driving in the buggy with Homer Barron who was a foreman. For incomprehensible reason, Emily bought rat poison from drug store On different days, Emily ordered a man’s toilet set and bought an outfit of clothing. Returning to Emily’s house, Homer Barron was disappear since then.
51
Emily’s house developed a bad smell and her neighbors complained to mayor. Miss Emily refused to pay taxes when a deputation asked her to pay in person. Ill happened on Emily’s with only Tobe took care of her and she died in 1938. Let the ladies in Emily’s house on her funeral by Tobe. Yearly, monthly, daily, Emily’s neighborhoods visited her mysterious house finally.
52
Creative Writing on The Unicorn in the Garden By Hsu Ching-Wen
This is one of the settings in the unicorn in the garden. Before reading the ending of the story, I guess that the wife makes a mistake. She thinks her husband gets sick and telephones the police and the psychiatrist. In fact, her husband just sees a goat as a unicorn accidentally. Finally, it is a misunderstanding. However, the real ending of the story is surprising and beyond my imagination. The real ending is following. When the police asks the husband that if he tells his wife he sees a unicorn, the husband lies to the police and answer no. His reply causes unexpected ending of the story. The police thinks that his wife might get sick and decides to take her to the institution. Nobody can guess the real ending possibly. This ending makes an impression on me. Thus, I want to make the illustration for the setting. There are four people in this composition. The husband, the wife, the police, and the psychiatrist respectively. There is a conversation in this composition. The police asks a question to the husband and the husband replies it. The reply from the husband makes his wife get into the strait-jacket continuously. 53
Because his wife will be taken to the institution, this setting may mean the husband sees his wife for the last time. I think this is the most famous setting in the story and want to share this setting for you.
54
Creative Writing on The Lottery By Chang Fang-Yu
The woman’s diary 1925.03.31 Exciting feeling of first day in Italy After a long flight,we eventually arrived in Italy. It was my first time to go abroad with my husband. I am looking forward to traveling in an unfamiliar country tomorrow. I have made a list for celebrated tourist spots. Fortunately, our hotel is in the center of the city, so I can pay a visit to plenty of destinations with ease. I have to go to bed earlier for tomorrow. Good night, my dear diary.
【
】
【
1925.04.01 The unforgettable encounter with the kitty Today’s weather was horribly bad. We were stock in hotel. What we could do was to see the view outside of window. This room was facing the sea, public garden, and war monument. Big palms and green benches came into view. I felt a little bit disappointed. It was not only because of the weather, but also the insecurity and hopeless feeling. We stayed in the hotel and I thought it was a good time to chat with my dear. Yet, I seemed my husband didn’t really care about what I THOUGHT. He kept reading and skimp on my question and what I said. He said he liked my hair the way it was.
】
55
Actually, I hoped he supported my idea and gave me some encouragement. I felt he didn’t really realize what kind of woman I was like. What’s worse I discovered that the hotel owner knew me more than he did. He was like an old friend of mine. He could receive my complaint and serve me. I had a nice chat with him. Thanks to his behavior, I could feel a sense of belonging in Italy, this unfamiliar country. Nevertheless, the most meaningful event for today was getting a wet kitty. I had to say the occurrence of this kitten made me more comfortable and relived. It not only broke the silence between me and my husband, but also brought some happiness through this gloomy and rainy day. It led to totally different atmosphere in this room. I had to confess I was more like a girl than a woman. Sometimes, I would like to stay in my comfort zone and follow other’s opinions or commands. When I saw this kitten, I understood that I should have my own perspective. I am also the one that is worth being loved and treated well like this kitten. My dear husband also comprehended this in the meanwhile. I really gained a lot today. Now I would say I felt every day is unknown, but I aspired to embrace it with my passion and sense of curiosity. What do you think about this, my dear diary? Good night. 56
Creative Writing on The Lottery By Chang Fang-Yu
The clear and sunny morning of June 27th, Here, in this village, was The Lottery conducted for harvest. Eventually, Mr. Summers set the black box down on the three-legged stool and the villagers made a great pile of stones. Lists to make up – of heads of families, members of each household family O of a sudden, everyone held his or her breath when the heads of families showed the slips. Then, it was the Hutchinson family winning the lottery and had to draw it again for the Representative. Tessie Hutchinson got the black dot and became the “Winner.” Everyone had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, but they still remembered to use the stone. 57
Reluctant to accept the “Result,” Tessie kept Yelling “It isn’t fair, It isn’t right” until the end.
58
WRITING REFLECTION
Wu Rou-Yi In this course, I have read some interesting stories, they all full of meanings, and I really love it. I think the most impressive story is “A rose for Emily ” by William Faulkner, because it’s very weird but also sentimental story. The rose symbolizes dreams of romances and lovers. These dreams belong to women, who like Emily Grierson, have yet to experience true love for themselves. Throughout the life of Emily Grierson, she remains locked up, never experiencing love from anyone but her father. The end of the story also stunning. After this course, I think I already attracted by those wonderful story. Perhaps I will find more cool English short story to read in the future. Chiang-Chung Yu Before I chose this course, my English ability was terrible, especially Grammar. In here, has a lot of homework after class, but it gave me a chance to restudy Grammar. Although I am not as good as other; however, I feel more confident to learn English. If you want to read the special short story or have the enjoyable class, come here!
60
Hsu Ching-Wen I learn a lot in this novel course. First, I learn some western culture and thinking by reading novel content. Second, I learn that there are many rhetoric such as simile and metaphor in a novel. The last but not least, I learn how to analyze a novel and write a composition to express my idea. Among the novel reading this semester, I like A Rose for Emily the most. This novel was not written with things happened. Readers need to estimate the order that things happened. This is very interesting. The content of novel is mysterious. This make readers want to keep reading to know the end of story. Thus, I recommend this novel to everyone. Before this class, I only read content of English novel. Now, I will try to find the rhetoric in the novel and analyze the content of novel. This course not only makes me more interested in reading. English novel but also let me have different views on reading English novel. Chang Fang-Yu In the last semester, I truly would like to do something different. Because of this class, I made it. I am a book worm for any kinds of books. Yet. I haven’t imagined I could make my own book with my classmates someday.
61
During this class, I not only learned some basic knowledge of literature, but also do lots of interesting activities such as TA-Discussion and create some fantastic ideas through the whole class discussion! I would say that it is really a good class and recommend to everyone. Bring a sense of curiosity and dream in the class. You will find everything can be real and possible here. Then, you will make lots of friends here as me.
62
Join our astounding journey