Author: Joyce (Page 1 of 2)

Joyce- Essay 3 pgs

Joyce Wu

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

May 14, 2020

Research Paper 

Evolution Over Time 

In “A Good Fall,” by Ha Jin, the central characters are Ganchin and Master Zong along with Fanku and Cindy. This story is about Ganchin, a Chinese immigrant that lives in New York who works at a temple. Ganchin decided to be a monk and a kung fu teacher because he had experience in that field and needed to make a living. Master Zong took advantage of Ganchin before and after he fired him. He decides to not give him his passport and salary. The conflict appears when Master Zong wants Ganchin to go back to his country. Fortunately enough there were people in the story that helped Ganchin along the way. Fanku provided him a place to stay, food and a bit of money. Cindy gives him advice and offers help through every single process. This situation escalated when Master Zong immediately took action and kidnapped him to the airport. The story conveys ethics in actions shown are reasons of legality, solidarity and morality. 

Ha Jin’s “A Good Fall” is about the challenges that Ganchin took risks to shape his life by making sacrifices. When someone has the intentions of doing something bad, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a bad person but the ethics they follow. Therefore, while Master Zong wasn’t a great person towards Ganchin, he followed Utilitarianism of what is right and wrong. I believe Ganchin is a great person to anyone and follows virtue ethics more than a utilitarian because he focuses on characteristics rather than consequences. In order to prove this, I will first describe the airport scene in our life using our class handout. Second, I will use Jerry A. Varsava’s article “An Interview with Ha Jin,” and Kera Bolonik’s article “Next Stop, Main Street; Ha Jin’s new stories go where the new immigrants do: Flushing’s Chinatown” to compare the ideas of “evolving perceptions” to give readers a feel of his struggles and immigrant process. These two articles will help me understand virtue and utilitarian ethics on behalf of people’s motives (Master Zong’s bad intention) and (Cindy and Fanku’s good intentions). 

The most important thing to notice is that the story starts off with Master Zong and Ganchin, their actions differ from one another. Master Zong is aggressive towards Ganchin because he is an immigrant and doesn’t have citizenship. From the class handouts, each ethic is proven by a certain theory and everyone may follow that due to their living backgrounds of where they came from or grew up in. Ganchin came from China and acts very resservant because he’s unsure who to rely on. Luckily, he saw Cindy who was his fellow martial arts student. She was encouraging and giving him advice. Cindy was born in America and had a stronger mindset of the America’s big dream to never give up. After the talk Ganchin and Cindy had, he realized that Master Zong was preventing him from getting a citizenship. The whole time he kept his documents on his hands. And the moment at the airport, this scene provides a point of Master Zong’s ethics following Utilitarianism. He believed what he was doing was considered right because Ganchin was an illegal immigrant in the United States. However, with Ganchin’s situation of coming to the United States is to have a better life. He is following more of virtue ethics. This creates the balance in the phase of people’s line “there will always be good and bad” or focusing on a symbol of yin and yang. Ganchin thought to himself he must escape when Master Zong isn’t looking. Based on our class notes, the question of “how we should live ”, Ganchin at that moment had thought that to himself and made his own decision, which he did. In “A Good Fall,” Ha Jin describes scenarios of what Ganchi thinks Master Zong may do. For instance, “Master Zong might be able to get him on the plane, claiming he was mentally ill, dangerous like a terrorist, and must be sent home for treatment” (344). Master Zong’s ethic is shown here because it’s believable of something he would say. He was self aware that Master Zong’s utilitarianism can ruin his plan. While he did get away by getting into someone’s passenger cart, he was stopped by a man when helping the couple take their stuff out. Ganchin couldn’t understand the man, instead he said thank you and went off. This reflects virtue ethics because he was more focused on himself than anyone else. 

  Evolving perceptions is like an immigrant coming to the United States having their reasons based on the things they want in life (tangible or intangible). In the article, “An Interview with Ha Jin,” Varsava is basically interviewing Ha Jin, an immigrant writer and human rights advocate. From Ha Jin, Varsava finds out that he was a Red Guard and his family suffered from having a place to live. The idea of him seeing “evolving perceptions” from then to now. It seems that he carries the traditional hard work. In comparison, Bolonik describes his background and his current life. The social advocate carries with him since a child so his actions have been full with good intentions. What this means is that Ganchi followed virtue knowing what type of people he should be due to the circumstances. The way he wanted to make a change for the people he was surrounded by. Similarly, Fanku and Cindy made the decision to help Ganchi because that was what he felt was right and an act of friendship. Varsava stated “Ha Jin has more recently disavowed this self-assigned role, preferring to accentuate the priority of his own independent “personal voice” and, equally, the limits of literature as “social struggle.” This means that Ganchin is able to differentiate between the questions of what sort of person should I be and how I should live. 

 

Joyce- Optional Prompt

Quarantine is making each and every one of us stronger than before. We all went from having our normal life to a complete different turn. Some may have adapted quicker than others, but what truly matters is… everyone’s doing their best on coping this unexpected situation. This semester has taught me to appreciate school more and how much I miss the school classrooms. However, I learned that I have the ability to do online course for most subjects without the need or feeling to be in a physical school setting (I originally had one hybrid class for this semester as a ‘tryout’). I hope when this semester ends we can continue to all work on ourselves. Be proud for all the things you’ve during this pandemic. To keep in mind that better things are coming because this quarantine won’t last forever. With that being said, I wish everyone the best of luck. We are in this together. Stay safe and strong!

Joyce- First Page

Joyce Wu

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

May 10, 2020

Research Paper 

 

In “A Good Fall,” by Ha Jin, the central characters are Ganchin, Cindy and Master Zong and these people are significant. Each of them bring uniqueness to the story itself with the fair share of different backgrounds. Ganchin is a Chinese immigrant that came to New York. He was a kung fu teacher and a monk. The conflict appears when Master Zong wants Ganchin to go back to his country. Along the journey, Cindy gave him advice. Impulsively Master Zong decided to kidnap him at the airport. With that said, Ganchin made a decision to escape. 

Kenny K.K. Ng’s article “The migrant voice: The politics of writing home between the Sinophone and Anglophone worlds,” gives an insight of  “cultural politics of both the host country and the motherland”.  On the other hand, Jerry A. Varsava’s article “An Interview with Ha Jin,” explores the idea of “evolving perceptions” to give readers a feel of his struggles and immigrant process. While Ng’s article is beneficial on supporting the difference of living from your country to United Stated globally, I think Varsava’s core focuses on what actually happens can prove a certain ethic. Another article that might help with information is Shu-mei Shih ’s article, “Racializing Area Studies, Defetishizing China,” explores the fact on how complicated American government can be. In sequence, I will first explore the concept of immigrants and their challenges faced affecting deontology. Lastly, I will analyze the politics of one’s country.

Joyce- Research Prospectus

Joyce Wu 

Research Prospectus

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

May 3, 2020

“A Good Fall”

 

  1. The short story I chose is “A Good Fall,” by Ha Jin. I like this story because Ganchin went through many challenges in his life. We met two friends of his, Fanku and Cindy. Seeing Ganchin coming to New York and working extremely hard made me feel empathy when he went and asked for his pay because he needed money. Master Zong refused to believe he deserved the salary and kept pushing him to go back to his country. He never encouraged him, but his friends and people he met along the way were great mentors and stabilized him. Therefore, I find this story to be inspiring and motivating to readers who might know someone or is going through similar situations in life to never give up.
  2. Ganchin works at a temple in Flushing,New York and being a monk wasn’t easy for him. He struggles to be financially stable or even to have money. Fortunately enough Fanku let him stay over at the place and took care of him. Although, he did let Master Zong and emotions get in the way of wanting to kill himself. It didn’t work out in the end and he came to a realization that there are people who care about him. 
  3. Main Characters:
  • Ganchin- He is a monk and kung fu teacher.

The choice/decisions he made was living at a friends house, escape from Master Zong when he was kidnapping him to the airport and attempting to sucide afterwards. 

  • Cindy- She was once a student back at his monastery and kungfu school in Tianjin City and learned martial arts. She works as a flight attendant.

The choices/decisions she made was helping Ganchin by providing advice, offering him to stay at her place and even getting two lawyers for him at the end.

  • Fanku- in the story stated “not really Ganchin’s friend”, however was the friend that let Ganchin stay over at his house. He worked as a line cook and met at a spring festival celebration. 

The choices/decisions he made was supplying him with food and a place to stay and even some money when he was struggling financially himself. He betrays him by telling Master Zong.

  • Master Zong- He was the boss of Ganchin and is very controlling and selfish. 

The choices/decisions he made was firing Ganchin, keeping his passport, not giving his pay, and dragging him out of the house to go to the airport.

 

  1. Ethics they follow:
  • Ganchin- Virtue, Deontology, and Global
  • Cindy- Utilitarian, Global, and Virtue
  • Fanku- Utilitarian and Deontology 
  • Master Zong- Ultiltrain

 

Joyce- Apps

I am an app enthusiast. When I heard the word “Pinterest” from Marchella, I got super excited. I used it all through high school. For example, my graduation cap was inspired by quotes and designs I found on Pinterest. There is also another app similar to it called We Heart It. I love finding apps that are useful or super fun to explore. If you’re into or looking for photography and editing related apps, these are some recommendations I have for you. VSCO, PS express, Blur image, Splice, and Vont is great! While looking through all my apps, I see ‘flipagram’ and this app actually brings back some middle school memories. It’s a cool app where you can have a bunch of pictures and videos made into a collage video with music. Now, the new trend is tiktok. I’m sure everyone has heard about it. At first, I kind of thought it’s just some cringy app. But personally, I learned some dances and tricks through this app. There are different categories that go from comedy to storytimes to life hacks. It’s like a mini version of youtube. Another interest of mine is reading astrology and horoscopes. Anyone else is a Sagittarius? Sometimes, the information is so accurate and relatable that I find it so strange, yet I love the thrill.

 

Journal 6- “New York Day Women”

Joyce Wu 

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

Journal 6

April 26, 2020

 

“New York Day Women”

 

I chose “New York Day Women,” by Edwidge Danticat as my favorite. A background given was that she was born in Haiti and moved to the United States at the age of twelve. The narrator mentioned a few people throughout the story, but the story focuses on two characters, Suzette and the mother. In the beginning, Suzette was having a normal day until she caught sight of the mother. She was astonished at the fact that she even leaves her house. Because from Suzette’s knowledge she never sees her anywhere beside Brooklyn. The narrator said that his mother was afraid to take the subway. This issue got Suzette worried, so she decided to follow her. The setting here is Manhattan, New York. For example,“She has never seen the advertising office where I work.” The way this narrator outlines quotes before each paragraph begins is so unique. I’ve never read anything like this. The fact it’s also in bold means the significance to Suzette. These were what her mother had said to her. For instance,“Would you get up and give an old lady like me your subway seat?” This response gave her a recall that her mother is right in some cases it really depends on how pregnant the woman is. 

When the mother was standing in front of Carnegie Hall and a taxi driver yelled at her for being in the way and said “what do you think this is, a dance floor?” This person gave Suzette a flashback call because growing up in Haiti their lifestyle was more rough. The narrator said, “In Haiti when you get hit by a car, the owner of the car gets out and kicks you for getting blood on his bumpers.” Just from reading that description, I think it’s so brutal. I can’t believe there are places that can do such a thing. 

In the end of the story, Suzette had a realization that her mother never went to any of the parent-teacher conferences. But I think the point of this story shows that each family’s relationship is not perfect. It just depends on heritage, and the way someone interprets it. 

 

Word count: 381

 

Joyce- Problems

During this quarantine, I find it challenging to go to sleep at a normal time. Most nights I can’t even sleep until 6am in the morning. That’s when I usually wake up to go to school!!! It could’ve been because of my binge watching movies habit. However, I stopped last week. Because I’ve been getting more and more assignments. It’s hard for me to remain calm. School has always been one of the biggest stress factors for me. It honestly can drive me insane sometimes. I haven’t found anything new to cope, but if anyone is stressing out like I am. I highly recommend it on a white board or piece of paper or even on your phone (reminder app is great) and write down all your assignments and due dates. Then start listing out which ones are harder and which ones are easier. From there on, you can match out the time within that subject needed. 

 

I’ve been thinking of buying adult coloring books on Amazon to help cope with stress and worry. There aren’t many solutions I found personally, but everyday I am focusing on my mental health.

 

Joyce- Poetry Explication Essay

Joyce Wu 

ENG 1121

Prof Scan.

April 19, 2020

 

The Road Not Taken Explication 

 

In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, he addresses the concept of indecisiveness. We make choices every day from as little as what to eat to something big like a career or internship. Sometimes, we may be placed in a position to choose life or death. Making the right decision is hard for all individuals, mainly the dawdling ones who believe in procrastination. The speaker seems to want the reader to verify that if there’s a way “in” there would be a way “out”. In the eyes of the traveler, their thoughts are extremely impacted by the past and being stuck in the middle of the wood, they know that they can only choose one route. As in the first stanza, lines one and five, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” and “To where it bent in the undergrowth” reveal a strong emotion of pressure, regret, and fear that indicates the purpose of life. These two lines contain imagery, symbolism, metaphor, denotation, connotation, and irony. While the poem has numerous interpretations, I think it’s the beauty in life that comes within the hardships of an individual. 

In the first stanza of line one, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” the speaker right away gives off an illustration of the paths being divided into two and is yellow rather than typical green. By using imagery, the setting and description convey the intensity of no guidance, which makes the traveler analyze the surroundings carefully. Besides, the road is a symbolism of life. Just like what people say you never know where you can end up in life. Perhaps, the speaker is suggesting a convenient way for the burden to be lifted. Or maybe judging by appearance. The two roads represent the importance of an outcome. A very unique way of making this poem interesting was a metaphor twist, Frost compares himself or the speaker as a traveler. The split roads metaphorically have consequences that could be pleasant or not. 

The next line, “To where it bent in the undergrowth,” is when the speaker wants to go both ways and still can’t let go of that idea. The curiosity of the traveler decided to explore. The first step was glancing down at one of the roads. However, the traveler could only see up to a certain point and not furthermore. From the observation, the speaker is realizing their past mistakes. Or maybe thinking of a way to prevent having another failure. For all we know, we can feel the traveler’s struggles and fear by the diction implied.

These two lines have many denotations and connotations hidden. The word “road” means a route leading from one place to the next that may or may not use transportations. This reminds me of people who love to be on the go. As for the connotation, it’s the feeling of being overwhelmed with choices to make. With the word “two” in front of roads, it denotes the quantity of a duplet and is bigger than the sum of one. When it connotes, this could mean the outcome of life can be “even” or “fair”. When the words combine, “two roads” gives a feeling of encouragement to life and battle through the uneasy. The next pair of words “yellow woods” offers some insight into the poem. The word “yellow wood” has many possible meanings to it like; any various trees having yellowish wood or yielding a yellow extract or the expansion of trees. The season is likely to be Autumn because it reminds me of the time I’ve seen American elm trees and sugar maple trees. Several ways to explicate this further is separating yellow away from wood. The color “yellow” gives an emotion of happiness and warmth. It also suggests that time is precious and don’t take it for granted. The word “undergrowth” is too cryptic and needs some unfolding. It means plants growing in dense places or something beneath the ground. However, the connotation of undergrowth is elucidated as its inability for the traveler to see the future. Being in the woods must feel like a maze, you can’t see the outside until you find the exit. 

The two lines merge creates a significant message. It gives the reader a better understanding that judgments are not going to help you find the answer. The sense of confusion will only lead to harsh and negative energy. Because of the contradiction of choosing between two roads that are detailed as “both equally worn”. The traveler decided to travel to the one that seems “less” traveled. This technique is called Irony. It was used to portray the situation of how his choices didn’t match up. Though, we can say this changes the traveler’s life in some way. Whether it’s for the better or worse. Who knows?

I love that there are endless ways and meanings people can take from this poem. Nevertheless, I truly believe that to make the right decisions, everyone has to go through a misfortunate time in life (failures and regrets) to know their worth.

 

Word Count: 859

 

Joyce- Reflection

These past few weeks made me feel more carefree in the sense that I can be at home… which sounds bizarre and crazy…I know. This was because I barely had enough time for myself when I was occupied with work and school. However, I came to realize that I really miss being able to sleep in and spending time with my family. My father and I started to binge watch shows. Sometimes, I would even pull an all nighter by myself watching twenty to thirty episodes. Our favorites one so far are called High and Low and Flying Tiger. 

Some days I would even watch Chloe Ting’s workout videos on youtube to get me back in shape. It’s a great way to feel somewhat productive. A weird obsession I am enjoying recently is making a bucket list for my friends and I. It seems to be one of the best ways to cope and be excited about the future. I miss my parent’s home cooked meals. We also decide to make our favorite dessert to eat that consists of small white tapioca and condensed milk.  I even started to drink matcha latte… a little way too much… I guess you can say I have an addiction now. It’s super good! Overall, I hope to find more ways to be productive at home, while cherishing these moments with my family.

 

Joyce- The Road Not Taken Explication

  

Joyce Wu 

ENG 1121

Prof Scan.

April 13, 2020


The Road Not Taken Explication 

 

In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, he addresses the concept of indecisiveness, whereas making decisions is hard for all individuals to do what’s right for themselves. The speaker seems to want the reader to verify that if there’s a way “in” there would be a way “out”. In the eyes of the traveler, his thoughts are extremely impacted by the past and being stuck in the middle of wood, he knows that he can only choose one route. As in the first stanza lines one and five, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” and “To where it bent in the undergrowth” reveals a strong emotion of pressure, regret and fear that indicates the purpose of life. These two lines contain symbols, denotation, connotation, metaphor, and irony to provide a judgment conducting oneself that lead to an individual compromise. 

In the first stanza of line one, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” the speaker illustrates that the paths are divided into two and is yellow rather than typical green. The word “roads” denotes “a wide way leading from one place to another”. In other words symbols could refer to connotations because the speaker not only gets out, but decides which route to take for “success”. The road symbolizes one’s destination by the decision that leads us there. He gave the readers a better visualization of standing whether to go left or right. The mood can perhaps be looked as ambivalent because of the setting it seems that it could possibly be auatum by the yellow leaves. The words “yellow wood” denote any various trees having yellowish wood or yielding a yellow extract or the expansion of trees. However, the word “yellow” suggests a light of happiness and hope. Frost uses metaphors throughout the poem because the roads metaphorically have an outcome that is pleasant or not. Some interpretations believe that the irony given here is false because it’s undefined which route is bad. This emphasizes the personal obstacles one has to face to choose the “road” that differs from the past. 

The next line, “To where it bent in the undergrowth” is a symbol of the traveler’s eye vision. He is only able to see up to a certain distance and not furthermore. The denotation of “undergrowth” means something that is beneath the ground. The connotation is you can’t see past the present. This gives a good insight that nobody can tell one future until action takes place. This has irony because the traveler can choose to believe that the route he didn’t take was “bad” could turn out to be his better option. He can’t predict life to be the way he wants. 

The two lines merge give the reader a better understanding that judgments are not going to help you find the answer. The sense of confusion will lead to harsh and negative energy. The traveler could be judging through the colors that one interferes as “blindness”, while the other as “brightness”. A positive interpretation is that one can find their own compromise and fulfill their dream by working for it. The connotation of yellow wood and undergrowth gives the ability to be complicated. 

With the poem indicating all the terms of symbol, denotation, connotation, metaphor, and irony is a great way to show the speaker’s highlight in their life to make a decision happen for themselves. This poem could have endless meanings to it because one could view that his past made the traveler want to have a better life or the trauma of regrets that the traveler has since they’re not able to choose between two roads. 

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