Krystal Chen
Dinner Party By Krystal Chen
Instructor: Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursline College of Languages Kaohsiung,Taiwan June, 2013
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Words checked = [1873] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [92%]
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About the Author Krystal Chen was born in Taiwan in 1994. She is currently a 4th year English department student in Wenzao Ursline College of Languages. Reading English novels and Chinese novels in spare time is one of her hobbies. This is her first novel. The inspiration of her first novel is two stories she read when she first started to take literature class.
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CONTENTS About the Author---------------p.4 Characters in the Story--------p.5 Prologue---------------------------p.6 Chapter 1--------------------------p.10 Chapter 2--------------------------p.13 Chapter 3--------------------------p.17 Chapter 4--------------------------p.21 Chapter 5--------------------------p.30 Reference-------------------------p.31 Acknowledgement Page------p.32
Characters in the story Narrator: the author herself Zitkala Sa: an Indian girl invited to the dinner party and also the author of “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” Charlotte: a woman invited to the dinner party and the main character from the story” The Yellow Wallpaper”
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-PrologueLying on my bed, it was pretty late at night, and I was supposed to sleep at this time. But somehow I just couldn’t stop thinking about the stories I had recently just read from American Literature class. The two stories I was impressed of were Impressions of an Indian Childhood by Zitkala Sa and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Zitkala Sa is an Indian girl, and the story I read is part of her autobiography. As a little girl, she 6
was desperate to see the outside world, so her mother let her go to school where was full of white people at that time.
I felt touched a lot when I was reading her story because some parts of the story is similar to my own life experience. 7
The
reason why I was impressed of The Yellow Wallpaper was that this was creepiest story I had ever read.
There is no name
for the main character in The Yellow Wallpaper. She is a sick woman who loves writing, but is kind of forced to receive treatment from her husband, who is a doctor. The treatment for her is to stop do everything, and all she needs to do is to relax and lay on the bed before she can get better.
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Those two stories were indeed very impressive ones for me, but I started to feel like my whole body is relaxing. My thinking was getting slower and slower until I felt like that I have reached an entire different world.
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-Chapter 1“I can’t believe it! I’ve got an invitation to a dinner party with two other guests, Charlotte and Zitkala Sa, and the place is in a…. castle!” shouted I as soon as I see the invitation card on my desk.
“The time is tonight, wow that’s fast,” said I. I was still under a condition of being too excited and hard to stop talking to myself while 10
reading the card.
It was quite
outrageous, but I literally didn’t have a clue where and who this invitation card was sent from. Then I found out there was a sentence at the bottom of the invitation card. Those words were small, but they were clearly written. “P.s. the Charlotte, who is invited too is not the author of The Yellow Wallpaper, instead, she is the main character in that story.” Wow, that was pretty surprised to me because I remembered that at the end of 11
the story the sick woman had gone crazy eventually. “Well, now I am looking for to going to mysterious dinner party. I will definitely go to that dinner party because I don’t really want to miss any chance to get to know and talk to “Charlotte” and Zitkala Sa. Who knows? Maybe it is going to be a very interesting dinner party.” I told myself this because I wanted to have a fantastic dinner with people that I had been eager to meet ever since I read the stories. 12
-Chapter2I was standing in front of a castle with classical and historical appearance located in Bellevue, Iowa. While I was still looking at everything around this place, there came the first person talking to me politely. “Miss, are you one of the lady invited to the dinner party tonight?” said a man. “Yes, are you the house keeper here?” Answered I. “Yes, and I am here to take you to the dining room inside of the castle, which is the place you are 13
going to have dinner with two other guests tonight. Please follow me,” said the housekeeper. “Sure, but can you tell me who invited us to this dinner party?” Asked I curiously. “Miss, the person who invited you to come here doesn’t want to reveal his own identity, so the only thing I can tell you is that he is the owner of this castle,” said the housekeeper. “So I suppose I won’t have the chance to meet the gentleman who throws up the dinner party,” said I with a little disappointment. 14
“No, I am afraid not, Miss,” said the housekeeper. After a few minutes, I arrived in a spacious room with plenty of Iowa landscape painting on the wall and brown carpet covered on the floor. In the middle of the room were a wooden table and three chairs around it.
“Seems like I
am the first one arrived here,” said I while walking towards the window. “I believe two other guests will soon be here too,” answered the housekeeper firmly. At this moment, I was concentrating looking 15
at the view outside of the window. There was a wide river this castle was facing. “Miss, you can see Mississippi River from here and across it is the Illinois State,” described the housekeeper.
“Excuse me, Miss. I should go to lead other guest now,” said the housekeeper and left. 16
-Chapter 3After a few minutes, here came Charlotte and Zitkala Sa. “Hello, it’s really nice to meet you? How are you ladies?”said I excitedly as soon as they entered the room. “Nice to meet you too, I think I am doing fine.” Zitkala Sa was the first one answering. Then spoke Charlotte. “It’s nice to meet you too. Even though my husband, John, might not be unhappy to know that I am having dinner with others, I feel like I want to go and have dinner 17
somewhere else.” Zitkala Sa looked puzzled. “I don’t know who invited me to this dinner, but I also don’t see why your husband would feel unhappy about your dinner with others,” said her. “You don’t understand my husband. He always takes care of me and wants me to get better soon,” said Charlotte. “I sincerely hope this dinner will make you feel better, instead of getting worse,” said I. “I think having dinner and talking with others is happiness. When I was little, I always felt 18
delighted when my mother asked me to invite the neighbors to eat supper with us,� said Zitkala Sa. Charlotte said, “I usually have dinner with my husband, and he always thinks I have a good appetite.� I was glad that the characters had started to talk with each other because I was kind of worried about the dinner would be awkward based on the situation we were three people who had never talked to one another before. Suddenly the housekeeper entered and 19
said, “The meal will be ready soon. Sorry to let you ladies waiting.� He left the room quickly. Like what he said, there were two servants bringing us dinner very soon after he left the room. And the first dish was pumpkin soup.
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-Chapter 4“No! I hate this color! It’s an unclean yellow, just like the wallpaper in my room,” said Charlotte emotionally. “What a coincidence. I guess the chief doesn’t know the color of the pumpkin will make you think of your room,” said I, trying to comfort her into a better situation. Zitkala Sa looked confused. “Why are you living in the room that you are not comfortable with?” asked her. “You see, my husband is a physician, and 21
he comes up with the best treatment for me,” Charlotte answered. Zitkala Sa said, “So, that’s his idea let you stay in the room you dislike.” “Personally, I disagree with his idea, and he thinks that would do me good,” said Charlotte. “Then, why not just tell your husband what you thought?” asked Zitkala Sa. Yes, I remember Zitkala Sa is a woman who cares about freedom a lot. “I tried, but John, my husband, just wouldn’t let me. Oh… I don’t know. I feel like there 22
are two parts of me, one is to be a good and obedient wife to John; another part of me is to be a free woman, do my own writing without interruptions,” answered Charlotte. Now she looked upset after telling us her thoughts.
Suddenly, there
was a new idea just bursting out in my mind, and so I said,” Oh…poor Charlotte, what about divorcing with John and find a different husband?”
Charlotte was
shocked for a second. “Hmm…I can’t make the decision all by myself,” said her. 23
Then she stared out of the window thoughtfully. “Are you going to discuss this with your husband?” said Zitkala Sa. “No…How can I do such heart-broken thing to John,” said Charlotte sadly. “So, what are you going to do now? Keep being with him or ending your relationship with him?” asked I without a second thought. “Do you want to talk about the current situation with anyone else?” asked Zitkala Sa. Charlotte kept silent for a while. “Perhaps I should 24
have a conversation with the woman hiding behind the yellow wallpaper,” said Charlotte. Zitkala Sa was so shocked that she even almost jumps up from her chair. “With what?! Who on earth are you talking about? Even though I had heard many legends from elder people when I was little, I don’t think it’s possible there would be any person able to hide behind any wallpaper,” said her. I felt worried and scared. “Yes, I agree with her. And you are being quite scary right 25
now,” said I. But Charlotte looked kind of mad. “Why don’t you people believe me? I SEE her every day!” said her. “Please, I think you being exaggerating now,” said Zitkala Sa. Charlotte started to get hysterical now. “NO! I am not, and I am pretty sure my husband and his sister see her too. They are just pretending there’s no such woman existing.” said her. “Maybe there isn’t such a person behind the strange wallpaper. What makes you so sure 26
that there is a woman behind that wallpaper?” asked I. “I saw her ripped off the wallpaper and climb out from there. Why are you all acting like John and his sister? As if I were a mad person. You know what, I am not the one having problem dealing with reality.
I can’t
stand you crazy people anymore!” said
her. Now Charlotte turned into totally furious 27
and mad. “Are you serious? This can’t be happening. I truly hope Great Spirit will help you get back to normal,” said Zitkala Sa. I sort of felt that Charlotte is on the edge of breaking out. “Trust me, Charlotte. You need to calm down right now,” said I. But Charlotte seemed out of control. “Oh! There she is,” said her and points out of the window. “Look out of the window! And you will see her,” said her hotly. “No, I can’t see anything. It’s too dark,” said Zitkala Sa. 28
“I can’t believe you people are still trying to ignore her. Fine! I am going to catch her and prove to you,” shouted Charlotte. Before anyone could say anything, she ran towards the window. Without a second thought, Charlotte jumped out of the window, leaving two shocked and speechless people sitting at the table.
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-Chapter 5Alarm clocking kept ringing, at last pushed I the button and the morning went back to the silence. I got up and said to myself, “Of course, that was a dream.� How could I get a chance to have dinner with two characters.
But
that was probably the most special dream I had ever had. -The End-
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Reference Where the pictures are from: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/american %20indian%20stories --------p.7 http://theknockingshop.blogspot.tw/201 1/06/yellow-wallpaper.html ----p.9 http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Gold-pa per-button-fashion-envelope-invitation-ca rd-envelopers-12-19cm-250-color-card/6 67382027.html --------p.10 http://www.greenkampong.com/food/cur ry-not-in-a-hurry-pumpkin-soup/ ---p.20 http://lawlzy.blogspot.tw/2010/12/winter -art-dump.html ---------------p.27
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Acknowledgement I would like to express my appreciation to two people that helped me accomplish my first novel. The first one is Dr. Annamaria Formichella Elsden. She was the professor of American Literature, which was one of the classes I took when I was an exchange student to Buena Vista University in 2012 fall semester. The idea of this novel came from a creative project she once assigned. The other one is Mr. Kenneth M. Smith, the instructor of my Practical English Writing. Even though writing a novel is easy for me, but without his demanding, I suppose I would never try to accomplish an English novel. I am thankful for all the comments and advice from these two teachers. Krystal Chen 32
Dinner Party Is there a time you want to talk to someone, but find out you can’t do that based on the reality, then why not trying to use imagination? Dinner Party, a dinner including three people from different time, different countries, they all have different characteristics. You can probably make assumption of the conversation among these three people, but you can never imagine what is going to happen in the end.