Gulliver's Travels - 12th blogging

from page 95 to 154

           Gulliver sets another journey and ends up arriving at Brobdingnag. Then, a farmer discovers him and treats him like an animal. Gulliver is carried to the market place and then to the metropolis. He is sold to the queen and the queen presents him to the king. They provide him a place to live and he talks about his home country and how much he loves. This gets him to a quarrel with the queen’s dwarfs. Many events happen from this point on. To point out the general scheme, he suggests for an amendment for the map, execution of criminal, and so on. The queen, especially, likes his musical talents. Then, he finds out that this country’s laws and affairs are very loose and imperfect. Especially, their military is so weak and the facilities for training the soldiers are way small. Throughout the story, the author depicts the scenes more like gruesome rather than adventurous since looking the world with a magnifying glass would be totally horrifying because one gets to see things that he or she did not even consider.

           If I were Gulliver, I would be horrified with my vision since I get to see all the unnecessary stuff such as pores on skin, dusts on table, and so on. Realizing the difference between the attitudes of Lilliputians and Brobdingnags, I think that size matters a lot. Lilliputians considered him as a hero and respected him while the Brobdingnags treated him just like an animal, without care or respect. It is just amazing that they live peacefully, lacking rules and disciplines. Maybe, it is just “trust” that governs the people. In our society, trust is hard to find in real lives. Everyone seeks for different things and has different intentions. People are surreptitious that they want only the good parts while seek to sneak out the bad things. They lie, fight, and even murder. Perhaps, the lack of trust among people led to the enforcements of laws and disciplines.

Gulliver's Travels - 11th blogging

I finished the story of Lilliputian Island. Gulliver, with giant body size and strength, became part of the military and eventually succeeded in defeating the enemies. He got awarded and the small Lilliputians made him a suit. He talked about their society and the nursery system. They were pretty similar to those of “Brave New World,” except that they had emotions. After a while, the palace burned. Having left his jacket in his home, he couldn’t extinguish the fire immediately. He talked about the wines that he drank that were extremely good and extinguished the fire with his urine. Even though he saved the palace, he was going to get punished by the Emperor but soon pardoned him and let him leave. Gulliver built his boat and left and headed England, his home.

           I totally love the descriptions that the author used. Not only the content itself was interesting, but also the way the author depicted the scenes are more hilarious. When he talked about measuring his body size to make a suit, I could totally imagine what was going on and picture the scenes. I felt as if I was reading a comic book, not a novel. It is funny how Gulliver coped with problems humorously. I thought he was going to blow the fire off when there was fire on the palace, but he ended up peeing there and extinguishing the fire. I really love the author’s imagination. As I read more and more, the story just reminded me of “Alice in Wonderland.” As I said before, the contents are really similar except that Gulliver was a man and Alice was a girl. I am looking forward to reading the next journey of Gulliver!

Gulliver's Travels - 10th blogging

from page 3 to 64

Gulliver travels to the Island of Lilliput. There, he magically meets people who are 6 inches tall. The natives think that he is some kind of foreign creature and tie him on the ground. When, Gulliver tries to stand up, breaking the tiny ropes that the natives had wrapped around, he gets shot by the needle-like arrows. He lies down and stays still while the people let him have some food and drinks. Since the people could not satisfy Gulliver’s endless appetite, Gulliver is being sent to the Emperor. He meets the Emperor and ironically, becomes the helper of their military. With his massive body-size, he leads the battle into a victory.

I just thought the story line was very hilarious. It kind of reminded me of the book “Alice in Wonderland,” where people are smaller (and bigger) than the normal people. Throughout the story, I was sort of upset at Gulliver’s benevolent attitude toward the dwarfs. If I were him, I would have killed everyone who bothered me. Since they are smaller than I, I would have been the kind of their land also. I don’t understand why Gulliver was so submissive. I hope he finds his true nature and comes up with more realistic solutions to cope with problems.

A Christmas Carol - 9th blogging

The Whole Book

           Old Scrooge had a bad reputation from others for being so frugal and cynical. One night, Marley, in a ghost form, came to him and told him that people like them would have to suffer after death by wandering the Earth due to their greedy lifestyles. Marley told him that there would be three ghosts visiting. After meeting the Ghost of Christmas Past, he remembered his ex-girlfriend who abandoned him because of his obsession with money. Then, he met the Ghost of Christmas Present, who somewhat indirectly convinced Scrooge to change his mind. Last but not least, he met the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and found dead future Scrooge and people discussing about his charities and inheritances. He realized that he needs to change himself, regretted, and mourned. He came back to the present day Christmas and decided to celebrate it without any concerns about money, which made his neighbors surprised.

           Even though the story itself seems very childish and nonsense, it definitely gives moral lessons. People should be benevolent and kind to each other not like Scrooge who was very mean and stingy. He realized he should not living life that way finally. Although I dislike Scrooge at first due to his mean personality and way of saying stuff, I think he is a likable and cute character. When he desperately asked who the man in the grave was to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to come, he was just like a typical desperate old man different from my original first impression toward him. I think the story was generally very straight forward with a clear theme and moral lesson. 

The Great Expectation - 8th blogging

From page 3 to 108

           The story begins with the interaction between Pip and a convict. As the convict intimidated him to bring food and a file, Pip was so horrified and obeyed on everything. The next morning, he gave the convict what he wanted and went back to his home. Then, Joe and Pip went to Christmas dinner and encountered a group of policemen. Pip got terrified and believed that they were going to arrest him. However, his anticipation was wrong and everything went on smoothly. Later on, Pumblechook, his uncle, took him to Miss Havisham’s place, Satis House. There, Pip met Estella and fell in love although Estella’s attitude toward Pip was not good. With the assist of Biddy, his friend, Pip got interested in education and showed strong desires to learn. Then, he met a stranger stirring his drink with the same file as the convict’s. The stranger gave him money and he hoped people won’t find out his relationship with the convict.

           Throughout the story, matching his age, Pip’s attitude was so innocent and cute. If I were Pip at that age, I would have done the same thing as what he has done: obeying to a stranger, getting terrified easily, and so on. The one thing I disliked about the story was that the author, Charles Dickens, used a lot of long descriptions that often made me bored and sleepy. Even though the story itself was funny and interesting, the way he portrayed stuff and his styles did not fit. Because the descriptions were often very long, I had hard times understanding what he meant and got confused easily. On the other hand, those descriptions sort of made me imagine things better sometimes. Since he used a lot of description-related adjectives and phrases, the imagery the novel portrayed was more vivid than any other novels. 

The Pearl - 7th blogging

Chapters 5 and 6 

Juana tries to throw the pearl away and Kino gets angry at her attitudes. Finally, he ends up hitting Juana and killing an attacker. Since he killed the man only because the man intimidated him, the death was a murder. The next day, the whole family attempts to leave the town to escape penalties. They try to avoid the trackers by sneaking out silently. However, as Coyotito cries, one of the trackers shoots him and Coyotito dies. Juana mourns and Kino feels guilty. At the end, they together throw the pearl to the ocean.

The pearl was a real evil to test the greediness of human beings. If Kino had sold the pearl to the dealer on the first hand, then the whole journey and the death of Coyotito wouldn’t have happened. Because Kino’s desire toward the pearl was so mighty, he put all of his efforts into himself, protecting the pearl. This made him to lose a good reputation as a husband and a townsman by hitting her and murdering another townsman. The pearl just totally ruined the whole family. 

The Pearl - 6th blogging

chapters 1,2,3,4

When the poor family Kino finds the greatest pearl, the family gets famous soon. Even the doctor, who ignored Kino’s ill son, Coyotito, envies the pearl. As soon as Kino finds the pearl, he decides to have an official marriage and to give education to his son, Coyotito. Also, Coyotito gets medical diagnosis from the doctor, who anticipates a great amount of money out of the pearl. When Kino finally decides to sell his treasure, he gets enthusiastic. However, when the prices called by the dealers were not enough for Kino’s anticipation, he gets angry and insists that the dealers are cheating on him. So, he stubbornly refuses to sell and keeps. On that night, an intruder comes in and hurts Kino. Then, Juana takes care of him and asks him to sell the evil pearl. However, still stubborn in his opinion, Kino refuses to sell and maintains on the fact that he will get a better price at the capital.

           Even though the greatest pearl brought wealth and fame to the Kino’s family, I don’t think it was a true wealth. People approached him because he financially changed, not a pure approach. I was also disappointed at the doctor because he immediately changed his attitude toward Kino after the news that he found the pearl of the world. Furthermore, I agree with Juana that the pearl is an evil pearl. It just made Kino greedy that he refused to sell his pearl at a thousand peso, which is a great amount of money. The pearl totally made him a greedy and obstinate person. On the other hand, I was surprised at Kino’s proposal of what to do with the money. If he were a normal poor person, he wouldn’t have thought about providing education to Coyotito, but rather material wealth to him. He thought the education was the only hope for them to get rid of the financial discrimination. I am looking forward to reading the next plot. I hope Kino doesn’t lose the innocent minds like at the beginning of the chapter.