Category: Virtual Coffeehouse (Page 1 of 6)

Diana Castillo

Professor Scanlan

English 2001

29 October 2020

Redemption

Gothic literature is a style of writing that encompasses many elements of horror and death. The overall mood of this writing is gloomy for the most part, but it can also include romance within natural events, individuality and intense emotion of fear and suspense. A major theme of gothic literature that I noticed was redemption. Redemption is present in the character of Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and character Bartleby in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” 

Emily Grierson is the main character in “A Rose for Emily”. It is a short story about a woman who appeared to be in denial over the death of her father, who was in complete dominance over her life. An example of this is, “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such.” (Faulkner 3) This death causes a stir of events towards her redemption.   The particular type of redemption Emily Grierson sought out was absolution to redeem her character. Her redemption was sought through killing her husband, Homer. The towns people had already begun to pity her after her father’s death and when she married Homer, then everyone knew she was marrying beneath her and she appeared not of sound mind. She bought arsenic and the townspeople’s reaction indicated she may have been suffering from mental illness. “She will kill herself… and we said it would be the best thing. When she has first begun to be seen with Homer Barron…” (Faulkner 5) On the contrary, she had intended to use on her husband to keep him forever. He had no intention of staying with her so it drove her to such a rash decision. Emily stated “What was left of hum, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon hum and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust.”

Another example of redemption seen in the gothic literature stories is that of Bartleby in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby: The Scrivener.” In this story, Bartleby is a copyist for a real estate lawyer who began the job with excellence and slowly drove the other employees crazy. Similar to “A Rose for Emily,” Bartleby appears to have sought out redemption when he refused to examine a document when asked by the lawyer by stating “I would prefer not to”. The second example of his attempt to redeem his character was his response of “I would rather not” during a meeting at his work to a request to make copies. This makes it clear that he was not a very motivated employee and may have had a goal and could possibly have been religious. In another instance, Bartleby also had refused to eat while he was in jail. This was the most serious of his attempts at redeeming his character because it ultimately caused his death. He had shown multiple attempts to seek something other than his complacent position in life. 

In conclusion, redemption was a common theme between the two main characters Emily Grierson and Bartleby of “A Rose for Emily” and “Bartley’s Scrivener.”  Both of these characters presented an absolution type of redemption. Emily Grierson did so through the murder of her husband, Homer. Bartleby may have desired a new life as he was not content with how he was living his current one and did so through his attitude in his job and eventually with his in his final times in a jail cell.  Although not a lot of information is given by the narrator on Bartleby, so we can only assume he may have sought out to redeem his character. 

My favorite story at this point of the semester has been “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.” I Found the characters and narrative to be not only compelling but true to life as well. Jazz’s, the immigration officer, had all the sarcasm and wit of someone id expect to run into during my daily life. I’ve always been drawn to a sense of reality in stories and reading of Jazz’s exploits felt as though I was having a conversation with a friend. It was a refreshing change of pace given the stories we have read so far have all had a more sad/ dreary undertone.

As we follow Jazz throughout the story, we’re given a glimpse into a day of her life as an immigration officer. Mundane in the delivery, yet exciting for those looking in, Jazz’s life can be viewed as controlled chaos. She’s in a position of relative power as she chooses who can and cannot have access to the UK. During this particular shift, she meets a myriad of people who she deems “unfit” for entry. The people include an older man who rambles on about the band Queen and being micro-chipped by the president. A middle-aged man with a fake passport and something to hide, as well as a teenage girl with no return ticket and vague reasoning’s for her travels. It’s these decisions she makes in holding these people back that speak towards Jazz’s code of Ethics. She not only follows the rules of her job but proclaims that she has to give her own personal judgments. Given this, one could argue that Jazz follows virtue ethics. Whereas her job has a -set- code of conducts and rules, Jazz is seen applying her intuition and principles dependent on the situation. This is evident when looking towards the beginning of the story where she allows one lady to enter when she exclaims she’s going to marry the Prince of England and not the teenager who gives similar reasons. Jazz recognized that the rules do not apply to every situation and have to be handled accordingly.

We have read a lot of stories that have many ethical dilemmas. One of my favorites was “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin. The story’s important characters are Ganchin, Master Zong, Cindy, Fanku, and the owner of Teng’s Garden. In this story we have in immigrant by the name Ganchin. He is an immigrant working at a kung fu dojo as a teacher. Gachin is sick and isn’t able to continue his teaching so he asks his sensei, Master Zong, that he pay him for his work so he can go back home. The thing is that the sensei doesn’t want to pay Ganchin and threatens to call immigration because of his expired visa. Ganchin is then fired for this and is left with no money to go home, no passport, and very sick. This forces Ganchin to threaten Master Zong by telling him that he will kill himself if he doesn’t get paid. Master Zong dismisses his threat and leaves Ganchin very sad. He meets with Cindy and Cindy tries to convince Ganchin to stay at her place, she also hints that she wants them to be a thing. After walking around and moping his losses he comes to Teng’s Garden. There the owner feeds him and gives him some advice to keep going on with life. Ganchin keeps walking and reaches a building where he decides to throw himself from. He throws himself but survives and is sent to the hospital. There he tells his story and Master Zong ends up getting punished and Ganchin gets his medical bills paid by charity. Ganchin’s is an example of deontology ethics. Ganchin follows the rules and has a straight life. Master Zong is an example of Utilitarian ethics because he benefits from pleasure in life such as his wife, car and multiple houses. Cindy is and example of Virtue ethics because she looks out for others and cares for others.

“A Good Fall” written by Ha Jin happens to be one of my favorite stories in the this global fiction unit, not because it is easy to understand this story; but its plot is in comparison to today’s society towards immigrants. The story details the life of a man Ganchin, a Chinese immigrant monk who works in the temple as a Kung Fu teacher. Master Zong, also a monk who defy’s the monks disciplinary code by having “a midnight blue BMW, goes home to Long Island, where he had recently bought a house in Syosset” and has a woman and a baby. Cindy, a flight attendant and a friend to Ganchin who tries to help him throughout the story by giving him advice and a place to stay after Master Zong fires Ganchin. 

            In this story, we have the first important scene placed at the beginning of the story. Master Zong firing Ganchin – in this scene Master Zong tells Ganchin that temple was unable to renew his visa. However, the author gives us a bit of background info that Ganchin has been sick for weeks and has been unable to teach his Kung fu classes making Ganchin. To Ganchin it has come to a surprise that Master Zong that not only he is terminating his employment before his contract expires; but also that Master Zong is denying his salary that is owed to him. The scene ends with Master Zong picking up Ganchin passport and threatening his with “I can’t let you have your papers if you stay on illegally. From now on you’re on your own, and you must move out tomorrow. I don’t care where you go. Your visa has expired and you’re already an illegal alien”. This set the tone of the story, this negative event in Ganchin’s life will be what controls him. He has no money; how will he get through life, he has no passport and no legal documentation; he will be deported and humiliated, all this will create stress to him and those around him. 

            The second scene of this story in when Ganchin tires commits suicide. As the story, goes into full detail going up to a high building to jump and kill himself. As he tries, he hurt himself in his left thigh and he mistakenly calls for help. However, it is his story of why he committed suicide that goes viral. His attempted suicide “had become new in Chinese communities across North America, reported by numerous newspapers; a charitable organization offered to pick up his medical bill; and even the owner of Teng’s Garden got famous for a week, having appeared twin on local tv” People or in this case American people see that an honest religious man who has never caused trouble with the law tries to find the American dream – is manipulated, threatened, unemployed; all they see is rage towards Master Zong or anyone who wrongs good hardworking immigrants there will be hell to pay. 

            The story clearly shows deontology ethics; Ganchin is clear representation of a man who follows the rules as a guide of what he does in his life. Cindy a young woman who clearly is interested in him. He ignores this type of demonstration due to his inability of getting married because of his religious standing, though at the end of the story he decides to give this type of relationship a go. However, Master Zong clearly represents the ethics of utilitarianism (maximizing life goods for his own means) as he fires Ganchin because of his illness making Ganchin unavailable to make money for his temple. 

My favorite story so far has been “Assimilation” by Doctorow because this story shows how the ethics that Ramon has takes a toll in the decisions he makes. Ramon works as a dishwasher in a Russian restaurant and he is offered a chance to make three thousand dollars and the chance to become a busboy, the one thing he has to do in return is that he has to marry his bosses niece who is named Jelena in order for her to get a green card. I really enjoyed reading this story because it gives you a clear idea of Ramon’s situation, of how different he is compared to his brother Leon and we  get to see how he stands up to Borislav’s requests. In the story it is mentioned that even though it was an  arranged marriage he still wanted to learn everything about Jelena, not only for when they would be questioned by immigration but because he felt it was his duty as a husband. He takes the time to walk her to  home from work and on the way he tries to ask her questions. The main characters in this story are Ramon, Jelena, Leon and Borislav. Ramon makes the decision to marry Jelena and  Jelena has to be in an arranged marriage for her benefit. Leon is the person who warns Ramon saying that Jelena asked him to hit her because if Ramon did then she could get divorced and fix the whole paperwork in two weeks instead of two years. I think that Ramon holds deontology and virtue ethics because he constantly worries about who he is and who he wants to be. Ramon is struggling to achieve his dream of finishing film school, he could take the easy way out and ask his brother for financial help but instead he wants to do it the right way. 

My favorite story I’ve read this semester would have to be “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, mainly due to the fact that even though the story initially came across as very straightforward, the ending caught me off guard. In summary, the story was about a family who lived in an automated that catered to their every whims via telepathic emanations to the extent that they began to lack any sort of self-reliance/independence, but more so began to have a more devastating effect on the children, Peter and Wendy. Their parents, George and Lydia felt that the house replaced them as mother and father as the automated house completely stripped them of their parental duty of taking care of their kids, but it mainly came down to the fact that the children spent most of their time in the nursery (a sort of glorified virtual reality room) and usually had it on the African veldt setting. When advised to shut down the house, the children adamantly and vehemently reject this idea, taking this rejection to the extreme by threatening and even devising and carrying out a plan to kill their parents by locking them in the nursery with actual lions. 

The main characters are the entire family (the parents: George and Lydia, the children: Peter and Wendy), including the house itself due to the crucial role it plays in both the family’s lives and the children’s perception/treatment of the parents. But I’d say the main character would have to be George.

I believe that displays a hybrid of utilitarian and virtue ethics throughout the entire story. His utilitarian ethics are put on display when he becomes fully committed to turning off the automated house. By turning off the house, he felt that he is maximizing the overall good of the family, but mainly his children who have become completely dependent on the house. He also demonstrates his utilization of virtue ethics in that particular instance as well, as he feels that becoming over-reliant on the house isn’t something he wants for his children. He wants him and his family to become more independent as he doesn’t want to become a person who can’t take care of himself.

My favorite story is “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin because it showed us how some immigrants are taken advantage of, for example in the story Master Zong doen’t pay Ganchin his salary because his visa expired. Some of the other characters in this story that play a role are Master Zong, Cindy, Fanku, the owner of Teng’s Garden. The main character in the story is Ganchin who is a monk for a Gaolin temple and teaches Kung fu. Master Zong is a Monk who doesn’t follow the rules of being a monk because he is married and has a fancy car. Cindy is a flight attendant and is friends with Ganchin and tries to help Ganchin by trying to convince him to stay at her place. When Ganchin is fired and is forced to move out of the temple he moves in with a friend named Fanku. A major decision that Ganchin does is he goes back to the temple and threatens to kill himself if Master Zong doesn’t pay his salary. The first important scene is when Ganchin goes to the restaurant after being kidnapped by Master Zong and getting advice from the owner to go through with killing himself. The second important scene is when Ganchin jumps off a building and breaks his leg. The type of ethics that Ganchin follows is deontology ethics because he follows the rules of being a monk and doesn’t get married and is a vegetarian. Although his Ethics change as the story goes along because he stops being a vegetarian and eats seafood and in the end of the story one can only assume that Cindy and Ganchin get together. The type of ethics Master Zong follows is utilitarian ethics because he doesn’t care about being a good person as long as he’s making money. The type of ethics that owner of Teng’s Garden is Virtue ethics because he tries to persuade Ganchin to not killing himself by telling him “to think about all the good things in life”.

             My favorite story that we have read is Assimilation. In the story I found it to be extremely easy to follow and very interesting. I thought that the main character Ramon was a true gentleman who was more of an optimistic traditionalist that hoped to find love in controlled situation where he seemed to always get the shortest end of the stick. I also thought Jelena his bride was a very well thought out character. Her motives at first appeared to be as sinister as the family who arranged her union with Ramon.  She was willing to use and mistreat Ramon in order to get what she wanted.  Going as far as attempting to coerced  him into hitting her. I loved that the writer didn’t isolate Ramon and left him clueless and blinded by love. I like the fact that he allowed him to have guidance from his older brother who looked out for him in a world that he didn’t understand.

           The main characters in the story are Ramon, Jelena, the supporting characters are Leon and Borislav.

Borislav employed Ramon, then arranged the marriage of Jelena and Ramon. Ramon made the choice to step out of fate and marry Jelena, and when it looked bad he fought for his marriage. Jelena made the decision to abandon her task and leave with her husband in order to finally be free. Leon was a voice of reason and advice looking out for his brother.

              In my opinion Ramon displayed a mixture of Deontology ethics and virtue ethics, he displays this when he spoke about his mom, and the fact that his parents were married for 40 years after being arranged. He hoped that if he valued and respected his bride he may have the same faith. I also saw it in the scene at the beach when Jelena tried to get him to hit her. He knew it was wrong and was taken aback by even the thought of himself doing that and refused. I think that Jelena is a utilitarian and deontologist. I think that all her actions were done in order to make the best outcome for herself at first then my opinion changed right at the end.  I think that in the end she made the right choice by not hurting Ramon and choosing to leave with him and not bringing alexander to America.