Before: reading African American magazine; hanging the pictures of the pop stars on the wall; listening to tapes; wearing red and black lumberjack with the hat to match; rapping Duke; eating sandines for dinner; smoking weed and bamboo, sipping on private stock; having a one-room shack
After: being the center of attention; smoking the skunk; being up close and personal with Robin Leach; the girls all play close to him; being interviewed by the swimming pool; having a house worth $2000; having 50-inch screen and money green leather sofa; having a limousine with chauffeur
The core concept of the American Dream is about that every individual has the same opportunity and possibility to make his or her dream come true. As long as the person works hard, it won’t be difficult to earn what he or she supposes to earn.
When Nick describes Gatsby’s house, he says it is “a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thing beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.”
When he describes Tom’s house, he says as “a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens.”
Gatsby was not the kind of person who is born with wealth. What he has now is all from his working. Since the job that he made money is not so decent, he, as the main character, makes the readers feel like he is the upstart. So when Nick describes his mansion, he says that it is an imitation. The reason why it is an imitation instead of some magnificent original house is because he wants to imply the loss of connotation in Gatsby’s house. It also indicates his personality of showing off often. It is also the mentality that upstart would have. But when it comes to Tom, the description gets different. Tom is born rich, so after a long time of practicing and choosing, although he might not be the gentlest, but he absolutely have more experience and opinions on how to make a qualified life. So that is why we see Nick describes Tom’s mansion in so many beautiful words – to indicate that Tom is, to some extents, more exquisite than Gatsby.
The statue, “The Self-Made Man”, basically shows that a man is using hammer and chisel to carve his own body. He is really powerful, which we can tell from his muscles. He raises his arm with hammer over his head, and it looks like he is trying so hard to shape his body.
The man’s muscles and his posture represent his hard work – he is trying his best to work on carving his body out. His bottom part of the body, which is the part that is still stone, represents the things that the man should keep working on, it is also the incomplete part of his achievement for his entire life. The hammer and the chisel represent the tool that he uses to achieve his goal. He is shaping his own body, which means that he has his unique thoughts that what kind of person he would like to be. This represents that he is independent and has his own opinions.
The statue embodies a very important idea of the American Dream – being independent and working hard. Unlike anybody else, this man is making his own body by his own hands, which means that he is a person who does not follow others mindlessly. One of the explanations of the American Dream is that “The independent, self- reliant individual will triumph. Everything is possible for the person who places trust in his or her own powers and potential. The belief that anything can be achieved if the individual just works hard enough.” This statue exactly shows the idea of the American Dream perfectly that every independent individual will earn the chance to success as long as the person works hard.
The picture at left shows the definition of the American Dream. The four people in the four pictures above other pictures are the representatives of the American Dream. They are Jerry Yang - one of the originators of Yahoo!, Barack Hussein Obama II - the first African-American president of the United States, Ang Lee - the only Asian who won the Academy Award for Best Directing, and Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, the originator of Facebook, respectively. All of them started at a fairly low position - either without money, or without high social class position, but all of them wind up with great success. How did they achieve that? The answer is hard work, and it is also one of the definition of the American Dream. America is a land with unlimited resources and beauty. American Dream means everything is possible, and everyone will have the same "Birthright" to get opportunities. Everybody has the right and the freedom to express their feelings and opinions. Everything is possible here, and every independent individual will triumph eventually.
This is the object that symbolizes something to me. For anyone else it may be just a simple decoration, but to me it is truly a special gift that comes with a unique story.
My parents love each other very much, and they keep having honeymoon every single year, which is very special because as I know, many Chinese couples seldom do that. And one time, I remembered it was in 2011, they bought me this in Lijiang, a beautiful and paradise-like city. And this decoration is called "Dream".
Well, apparently it isn't the decoration that could be very useful in the daily life, it is just a decoration, that simple. But I think there is something unique in it. The entire decoration is kind of like a flower in a sealed bottle. What's critical is, the flower inside the bottle is a real one and it didn't fade yet! I don't know why it isn't fading now, but it is really special.
So what is meaningful to me is that, the flower live in the bottle, without water or oxygen, even without the soil that could keep it alive, but it still survives anyway, and that is the way I could my dream to be like. Even though I meet troubles, even dangers on the way to complete my dream, I can still survive from those which want to take me away from the road to my dream. And I will be stronger through those difficulties. Because I believe, that my dream will eventually come true, just like this flower, never fade away.
Apparently, the reason why schools banned the books was because they thought that there were inappropriate stuff appearing in the book. For instance, sexual references, the use of language, and anything else that could probably influence the kids potentially in a bad way. Because they are afraid that the kids who don't have the ability to differ which is right and which is wrong will imitate those bad behaviors in the book and learn some bad concepts from the book.
It really depends on the book the school banned to tell whether it is appropriate or not to do so. Unless the book is really spreading some bad concepts of life, it wouldn't be very smart to ban any books. From my perspective, every book has its unique value, even though a good concept is told in a relatively less appropriate way, it is still a good book.
I think when the students are mature enough to read all the books and have the ability t differ the right or wrong, for in stance, the students in high school, then it is the time that they can read what they want.
There are many things in the book that make it hard to believe that everything happens in the story is exactly the way that Holden describes it. Since the writer wrote this book in a first-point of view, there are many things that Holden doesn't know. For instance, what happened after he fell in a faint in the park. From the book we can see that Holden is not a reliable narrator, not only because his thoughts about something is not always right, also because he doesn't tell us something detailed. For instance, sometimes when we read about a person, like the person live in Princeton and gave him the number to call Faith the prostitute, he never told us who is this guy and how he met him. And for something that we can see very obvious, he also doesn't tell more. For instance, he never talks about why he hates the catholic, what was his childhood looked like, and how he knows the guy live in Princeton. The author tells the reader that there's more to the story than what Holden is telling us by saying something not very clear through Holden's tone of view. The things Holden doesn't tell us are all the examples of it.
I think one thing that is apparently be hidden by Holden is his feeling to Jane. He thinks that he likes Sally for her beautiful appearance, and he mentions that he think Jane is a good girl. And I would say this is the only time in this book that Holden would say a girl is good except his sister Phoebe, who is absolutely an amazing sister for him. From this we can see that Holden has a special feeling to Jane, however, in the book, he never admits that. He thinks of the old time when he and Jean were still neighbors, they would play chess together and talk about something interesting. When Holden heard that Stradlater would date Jane, he was not that angry. But when he heard that Stradlater used an indifferent mood when he talked about Jane, he was angry, and fought with Stradlater, which directly caused him leave the school and went back to New York. From this we can see that Holden likes Jane, at least she has a place in his heart, I mean, who would fight with others just for a girl that he doesn't care of? But he never told us that he likes Jane, not even a word, and we can see that he is hiding this from being known by others.
I think the reason why the author was writing this article in a first-person point of view was because he wanted to show what was Holden thinking at that time. Apparently Holden is the main character of this entire book, and it is important to know what is Holden thinking as he is an odd, cynical, incompatible boy. And his thoughts are what this book mainly about. Just because the writer wrote this book in a first-person point of view, we can actually know what Holden thinks about the world, and it indicates what the generations think about this world. If the author wrote it in a third person point of view, it wouldn't be that real for the readers to read. If the story was told from the point-of-view of another character like Phoebe, the story would be less interesting and we will miss a lot of details as well.
I knew this was my only chance. I knew it. So I had to do something for myself.
The clock tik toked; I started to feel the fear. The moon was up there in the sky, shone as a witch’s malicious smile. Here came the breeze, which used to be soft and slow, but now the only feeling it could bring me was gloomy and cold.
Yes, I was afraid. There’s a big wolf in the forest, and I knew that he would eat me eventually, as me was just a weak little pig. But I had to do something. I turned around, and I saw that Tommy and Jimmy were sleeping so deeply. They were my brothers, my lazy brothers. I didn’t know why my mom always loved them more than me despite I was the smartest one. Mom had been dead for a while; this was why we were here – to find a new place to live. I knew there’s a wolf in the forest, but I still misled them here, and told them this’s a safe place to live. I didn’t have a choice; someone has to make a sacrifice. I glazed them, and left the house.
The second day was a pretty shiny day. Tommy and Jimmy were very happy since I told them we could find the materials to build our house and could also seek our fortune earlier this morning. “Hey Joey, do you think I can find good materials to build my house?” Tony asked me with an exciting tone. “I’m sure you can.” I responded with a smile, tried to make myself sound like a good elder brother. “Don’t you worry, Tony,” Jimmy smiled, “We will live here happily ever after.” I heard that, and I smiled.
“So this is it. We will separate out here, and go for our own life. We should find the materials to build our house first, and then start to build our house.” I said to them in the middle of a crossroad, and saw their upset faces. “Do you mean we will not see each other in a long time?” Jimmy sounded worried. “Yes.” I said. “Alright. Then we will not disappoint you.” Tony said. “Ok, then good luck.” I said with a big smile, a smile that was from the deep of my heart. The first step worked, and I was happy to death. “Remember, straws and furze are all good materials to build the house, go for them without doubts.” I said my last sentence.
Actually after I went off, I didn’t go far, I followed Tony. I wanted to make sure that he listened my words. And here, I saw he trusted me and was building his house with straws. He was so happy, singing and building as the same time. You wouldn’t be that happy after a few minutes, I thought. He was so lazy, and he built his house so slowly, when I got all the bricks for my house and back to see what’s going on with him, he was still building it. And after 3 days, the house was done, and Tony was so happy, but he didn’t know that he was approaching the danger.
I hid in a safe place, and waited. Then, the big wolf came, he knocked the door and said: --
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
But Tony said: --
“No, no, by the hair of my chiny-chin-chin.”
So the wolf said: --
“Then I’ll hurf, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.”
He did so, and the house was broken. Truth be told, I was afraid at that time, but I held on to it, and I saw the wolf ate Tony.
After a few days, the wolf ate Jimmy, who used furze to build the house.
Yes, you guessed right. I made a deal with the wolf, and he told me, as long as he had food – which were my two brothers – he would not do anything to me. Now I’m sitting in my safe brick-made house, so I was not that afraid. But something I didn’t want still happened.
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
I was shocked. I thought he wouldn’t have to eat me.
“You said you wouldn’t eat me!” I was almost screaming.
“Yes, I did. But now I still want to eat you.”
He has already eaten two of my brothers. He couldn’t eat me, because we made the deal!
“No way!” I shouted out loud.
“Then I’ll hurf, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.”
He did so, and I was scared to death, but the house wasn’t broken at all.
“Little pig, I know where there’s a nice field of turnips.”
“Where?” I asked subconsciously.
“In Mr. Smith’s field, and if you be ready tomorrow we will go together.”
“Great.” Said me, tried so hard to hide the fear from my voice, because I just thought about a plan, “What time?”
“Six o’clock.”
I went there at five o’clock, and saw those beautiful turnips, so I brought some home, before the wolf came. At six, the wolf came and asked: “Little pig, are you ready to go?”
“Ready! I’ve been there and back, with a potful of dinner.”
He was angry, I could feel it, but he still said: “Oh, very nice. I know there’s a nice apple-tree, do you want to go and see?”
“Sure, what time?” I was smiling.
“Five o’clock.”
So I got there at four and came back home before five. As yesterday, the wolf was so angry. But he still said: “Seems you always like to be earlier. Alright, this afternoon we will go to a fair, are you showing up?”
“Of course.”
I still went there earlier, and I bought a butter-churn to frighten the wolf. I found that he was stupid actually. And I used the churn to roll from the top of the hill; he was scared by me and even didn’t go to the fair on time.
And this time he came straight to my house, and I bet he knew that it was I, from his angry face. Than, suddenly, he smiled, for no reason, I was afraid again. I saw him climbed up my house, and I guessed he want to use the chimney! So quickly, I put a pot full of water on the blazing fire and took off the cover. Then here came the wolf, and I quickly clapped on the cover.
The first page of <The Catcher in the Rye> could tell me many things. From style to diction, from point of view to character, there're so many things that I can tell from the first page of the book. So today I will briefly analyze the book, and see how much the first page of the book could tell me. Apparently, the author is trying to make a leisurely and even lazy atmosphere with many long sentences as the main character - Holden, is talking about his life. And so the tone of Holden is a little bit ironic, because Holden seems like one of those people who are called "phonies". It is hard to tell Holden has a good mood or not, but I can see that his attitude is like not caring all the things. As the author is trying to make Holden a phony, so the diction-choosing is not pretty good. There is appearing bad words such as "goddam", which is not a very appropriate diction choosing. As I said that this book is told by Holden, so it is told in a first-person point of view. In the narrative presence part, we can tell from the first sentence that the character is talking about his life. So this is a kind of autobiography. The narrator, who is the main character Holden, has a weird attitude. He is trying to tell the readers about his story, but it is like he just wants to tell the story in the way he likes and always being cynical. From the first page, we can tell that the story, which is going to be told by the character was happened around last Christmas. In the first paragraph, the character is just kind of picking anything that he wants to say, so I don't see that there's any time management. The character doesn't say about the exact place, so it is a sort of vague. There's neither motif nor theme on the first page, but there're some ironies on the first page. The character ironize about his childhood, his parents, and even his beloved brother. About the rhythm, I think it is more of a prose way than a narrative way. Because the character just says whatever he wants and doesn't seem to have a completely structure. I don't think I have an expectation on this first page, since I have no idea what it will go like. So these are the thing I can tell from the first page, and I think it is pretty amazing. :)