"Prue" vs. "My Heart is Broken"

"Prue" vs. "My Heart is Broken"

Yoonhoo Chang

Women, who went through the times of dire oppression in the fields of literature, began to let their voice out by 18th century. Beginning from finding their place among male authors, female authors slowly moved on to talk about the social issue regarding the status of woman. They created fiction out of reality, and hoped to find increased concerns about sexism and sexual policies. Sure, they were faced with immense criticisms that last until now, but the word "feminism" is labeled in front of the important literary movement which made meaningful steps. "Prue" and "My Heart is Broken" are both short stories partly or fully related to feminist movement, so have many similarities, along with many differences. As female writers, Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant wrote stories that are depicting woman, but doing so in different ways.

Protagonist of "Prue" (who is Prue), is obviously a stronger woman than protagonist of "My Heart is Broken", Jeannie. They have a similarities in that both women regard sex not as an important or grave thing, and live not like traditional wives. Prue divorced and escaped the marriage she considered horrible, and talks freely with people around her, regardless of gender. She, for sure, doesn't look like a woman who is completely soaked into house works. Jeannie, like Prue, questions the duty of wife. She does not understand what the older woman emphasizes the duty of proper wife should be. She is light-hearted about men and sex, as she is about house works. However, there are drastic differences between them, and first of them is the "job". Prue works as a owner of plant shop and is completely independent from men, financially. She regards the "richness" of Gordon-her lover-as pleasing, but she takes the wealth light-heartedly and asks for nothing. Jeannie, who is young and is married to a older man, has no financial independence whatsoever, compared to Prue. She moves when her husband decides to move, and has no job. All she does is the house work, which she doesn't take seriously. Moreover, even though their views about sex is quite the same, Prue never seemed to have experience of "rape" whereas Jeannie experienced two rapes.

Two women views the world around them differently. Prue is liked by nearly everyone she knows. Her environment is full of people who are willing to listen to her stories, and ready to smile at her light-heartedness. Gordon, her "lover", cooks for her and invites her to dinner. Besides what is happening in her mind, she seems to have no grave conflicts with the surrounding world. She seems to be stable, and is able to make herself contented by surrounding figures. Even her children are nice and caring for her, when most of the children in this story neglect their parents. On the other hand, Jeannie experiences quite a few hardships and conflicts. She was happy with the fact that everyone liked her, but after the rape, she was broken-hearted because she discovered who showed hatred to her. Unmannered, impolite people exists, or started to exist, in her world and that's the main theme of the story. And Jeannie is uncomfortable with the paymaster's wife, whom she's talking to throughout the story. Paymaster's wife scolds her, and blames her for something she should have done, but hasn't. Jeannie's naive view about the world changes by her experience, and she instead views her environment as unsafe and heart-breaking.

As a reader, I was first shocked at how these women viewed sex. Normally, in the stories I read so far, women were close-minded and knew their "place". But Prue and Jeannie viewed sex with no seriousness. Probably this shockingly new viewpoint is because these two women are on the frontiers of new-born countries, but surely the new wave of feminist writers' writing styles should have played the role. It's agreeable that two women have their own strength, but honestly Prue was a more memorable character. She is a strong women who regarded the irrational "love" statement of Gordon forgettable. Jeannie, whom I personally disliked, was fragile and a "womanly" figure who represented the normal woman of that era-helpless, girly, and easily-hurt.

One writer said feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings. Even though their depiction of women were different, these two stories claimed this statement to be meaningful. Prue showed the independent woman who had characteristics that even modern woman would view as "abnormal". Jeannie showed the tears of fragility, and sexual, financial dominance of men but emphasized the social problem. 

The Student (Reading Journal #1)

The Student (Reading Journal #1)

             Although I am a Christian, I don't personally like those who try to give a preach over "sinners", and show no respect to "non-believers". To me, such people were sanctimonious. And to me, they reached no higher position than being hypocrites. At first glance, "The Student", believed to be one of the best short stories ever written, seemed nothing more than a story of the "preachers" that I dislike. Although the story was beautifully written and there were words and sentences that truly evoked the emotion, before reading it more than once I could not like this short story. Appreciating the story was not a problem, but liking it was somewhat difficult. However, as I read the story twice and more, I started to not only appreciate but also actually like many components in this perfectly-written short story.

             I heard the story of Peter and his three consecutive betrayals of Jesus with the sense of cynicism at first. The whole perception did not severely change; I still think the overall message is quite cynical rather than hopeful but as my attitude changed, the context began to show some meanings. Peter's betrayal of Jesus, which was already evident in the prophetic statement Jesus himself had made, made the mother cry. Perhaps she wanted Ivan to stop touching the deepest agony of hers, but after reading this story several times, it seemed to me that probably she simply wanted a chance to confess her sin with tears. She may have ignored her daughter's injuries three times. She may have said she would never do so, to soothe her daughter before the marriage. I thought Chekhov, by presenting the biblical allegory that seems improper, wanted the readers to put themselves in the shoes of women. She committed sin that she had no hope of being forgiven, and she could have been relieved that the student touched it, and gave a sense that it might be forgiven. In this context, only having cynicism towards the attitude of Ivan seems not right.

             "The Student" talks about the hope with the sarcastic tone. Chekhov put the words and sentences that would degrade the depth of the student's perception such as "he was only twenty-two". The scene Ivan is looking at is described as marvelous and hopeful. The sinner, in the name of Jesus, can be forgiven. There is a hope in this whole world. These people can be saved. The beautiful scenery and Ivan's words seem to harmonize to present this point of view. I can't denounce the hopeful aspect of this story because the main character, obviously the student, is not fully portrayed as naive. Even though he is twenty-two, he can have the deep thoughts as those of oldest preachers. However, any reader cannot also allow the story to be only hopeful because of the ambiguous portrayal of characters. This story leave questions: Why did the woman cry? Why was the daughter soundless? Why was Ivan's goal? Should readers be satisfied with his goals? These questions cannot be directly answered. Hence I must qualify my initial view. Hope exists along with the cynicism. I tend more on the cynicism, because woman's tears meant something more than the regret to me, and Ivan still seemed quite sanctimonious and unqualified.

             Though I now highly respect this story and appreciate it even better, I still think that Chekhov planned a black comedy that was so black that everybody got confused. 

The paragraph-Dorian Gray

At first glance, Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" might appear as a novel of unnecessarily elaborate dialogues that lack the clear purpose of leading the storyline.

After all, when Lord Henry talks to Dorian for the purpose of persuading and charming him, he sites beautifully, but wickedly distorted quotes to convey his points. Since his phrases are so long and sometimes contain incomprehensible humors, the readers get tired of seemingly pointless digressions. However, knowing about the writer's life and what he fought against for all of his later life, the elaborate dialogues do not appear only as 'pointless digressions'.

The value Oscar Wilde considered important was 'beauty', in other words, 'aesthetics'. In the Victorian age, every 'moral' thing had a purpose; for instance, sexual intercourse was to produce offspring, not to get pleasure.

Oscar Wilde, as the one who loved men and criticized what people said as 'immorality', played with his sweetly flowing dialogues to hide hints of homosexuality, to wake the readers' senses, and to 'please' readers. Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that the enormous amount of seemingly useless sentences convey more meanings than readers would normally predict; such as the longing for beauty and distaste for morality. In this sense, the ironies and humors Lord Henry created, for example: "I have a theory that it is always the women who propose to us, and not we who propose to the women. Except, of course, in middle-class life. But then the middle classes are not modern."
altogether seem like a digression from main point, reminding reader of the murmuring of unimportant parts, but actually the casual intention of Oscar Wilde, to hint his thoughts and philosophy in the novel.

Tales of the Unexpected, the first journal

Yoonhoo Chang 121111 (11v2)

Dahl's tales were truly 'unexpected'. Fans of Dahl's fantasy novels such as 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' were left to be shocked at the 'unexpectedness' of these cleverly written short stories. They expected fantastic descriptions of adventures and mysteriously portrayed settings, but instead they faced seemingly 'normal' introduction and 'abnormal' conclusion. But putting this book away at the moment of awkwardness is the stupid thing for a reader to do. Dahl conveys countless meanings and his own visions of the world through short stories he has written. The reader, if he or she is the true fan of Roald Dahl, must think about the parallel descriptions between stories and between characters before closing the book with an uneasy smile. Unexpected tales contain many notes about human nature, and this journal would particularly examine the nature of women, through the female characters Dahl presented. He generally described that women are surprisingly stronger than men, and those who hid their claws under the veil of 'perfect wife' or 'kind companion' indeed have unexpected strong personalities to show.

'Lamb to the slaughter' is generally viewed as the perfect chilling story. Hitchcock, the legendary director of thriller movies, even attempted to make a short film out of this story (which seemed to fail). At the first glance, the story seems to be peaceful, and the woman character in the story seems peaceful as well. However, this calm and peaceful pregnant wife, when she listens to her husband about the divorce, kills her husband without a single sense of hesitation. She even cooks the weapon-the leg of a lamb she was to cook for dinner-calmly and make the investigators and policemen eat it up. At the end of the story, she giggles, showing that this neat, perfect wife has a nature of a psychopath.

'Man from the South' shortly shows one woman character, but she plays a great role at the ending. Women described in the beginning of this story seems to be all nice and pretty. The girls who play with the soldiers act as a normal pretty 'girls' who want the rich boys to look at them. However, as the bet starts and the young soldier gets his little finger tied for a bidding, this important woman character appears, and she seems to be different from those pretty bikini girls. When she forcefully ends the bet and shows her hands, which have too few fingers, she indirectly portrays the strength of woman. Women, in most of the centuries, were viewed as inferior figures who do not usually find their fortune on their own. However, this woman, who owns everything the man from South once owned, is definitely strong and self-made woman, which is far from traditional imagery of female characters.

However, the most 'normally' powerful female figure appears in 'My lady love, my dove'. It was surprising how many differences there were between con man's wife and the wife of the main character. The former was as lovely as a dove, and as obedient as a servant. The conversation heard by the main character and his wife suggested her characteristics well. But, this was not the case for Pamela-the main character's wife. She was completely dominant over her husband. He had no right to reply negatively about her decisions, and only had to do things she told him to do. Furthermore, adding to her robust personality, she is a rich woman. The wealth of the couple comes mostly from the wife, Pamela. She is a wicked woman, who has nearly everything.

Roald Dahl's portrayal of female characters in these stories are different from any other novels. There's not a one of traditional woman who has perfect personality and flawless habits. Dahl divorced once, and was married with the famous actor. Nothing much is known about his relationship with his wives, but readers can be sure that they were not obedient figures. Through these three stories, Dahl effectively illustrates the nature of women, putting a glimpse of his own experience. Women's nature is no different from men's, probably that's what he wanted to say. 

Journal #2

Journal #2: How is Oscar Wilde is reflected in the novel/ Choose a character from the book and develop an essay comparing that character with any real person from Oscar's life.

Yoonhoo Chang 121111 

We, the modern people, commonly mistake Victorian England for the era of beauty and romance. True, there was beauty and indeed there was romance, but two elements are too few to represent Victorian era by themselves. Reading 'The picture of Dorian Gray', and watching the movie 'Wilde', I bitterly admitted that there were dark sides, in fact 'very' dark sides, in the era when Oscar Wilde lived and loved. Love of beauty turned a young man into a devil, and romance killed an innocent young girl. World that once was a place to play and freely love turned into the place of betrayal and depression. Nothing lasted forever, and those who wanted their tales to be everlasting only faced irreverent ends. Wilde, who at the time when he was writing a novel was facing the bright side of the era, prophetically told the end of brightness in the book The picture of Dorian Gray. His thoughts are reflected in the novel, his style, his appearance, his life also are shown by the characters in the novel, and though he resembles one character most closely, readers can find little 'Wilde' in every character.

Wilde always said that if he would like to find a character he most resembles, he would pick Basil, the painter. However, he's excessively similar to Lord Henry. The way actor in the movie portrayed Wilde reminded me of Lord Henry in every aspect, and that sudden reminders surprised me. They have many things in common. Oscar Wilde was, most of the time, polite but cruel to women. He did truly love no woman, but was always polite to his wife. Lord Henry, who simply mocks women when he talks about one of them, respects a wife whom he deliberately calls 'mutual cheater'. "They have wonderfully primitive instincts," said Lord Henry, "They love being dominated.". Harry and Wilde have wits, clever wits. Lord Henry can persuade anyone to believe in certain way by talking. His words are cynical, clever, carefully placed, and make him look erudite. Oscar Wilde also charmed many by his unexpectedly clever words. For example, sentence like "A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feeling unintentionally.". 

However, he has some significant similarities with Basil, also. Though his appearance and explicit personality is reflected as Lord Henry in the novel, his life story is somewhat related to Basil. Basil finds Dorian, loves him, portrays him, does whatever to make Dorian pleased. Wilde loved his young Dorian Gray, Lord Alfred Douglas, or Bosie. He always wanted to please him, and his efforts are seen in the letters he wrote to his lover. He wrote as if without the presence of Bosie, he would wither and die. Also, the taste for art and beauty is in both Wilde and Basil. Love of wine, flowers, and beautiful things is in both of them.

Honestly, I think Oscar Wilde is somehow reflected in the main character, Dorian Gray, also. I have to be careful about saying this, since most people believe otherwise, but there are some resembling characteristics. Most of the time I thought Lord Henry resembles Wilde and Dorian Gray resembles Bosie, but reading through, and seeing human aspect of Lord Henry, I turned around and looked at those relationship in different view. Dorian Gray is indeed unstable, and was living a quite normal life before he encountered Lord Henry. He knew less about the dangerous hedonistic life Harry told him, and finally assimilates into the world of forbidden pleasure. Wilde's life also permanently changed when he met Bosie. His true friends stabbed him in the front, and he had nowhere to stand. His life, which once seemed to be so good turned into despair and he couldn't do anything about it. He died, and he died irreverently. As cynical and hidden men-lover, he could have lived a joyous life, but instead like Dorian, who followed Lord Henry, Wilde fall in love with Bosie and lost everything. 

When I put Wilde's life into the context of novel, many thing fits. I don't know if he wrote those fitting parts intentionally because lots of things happened after he wrote this novel, and I think if he did or did not, the novel is scarily prophetic. He's called one of the most inspiring writers, who is fantastic at satires. Reading his novel and his quotes-I recently found them very interesting-, I hope I could know him a little better, understand him, and enjoy fully what he really intended to say in the novel. 

(Dorian Gray) Reading Journal #1

Reading journal: Dorian Gray, chapter 1

Yoonhoo Chang

121111

2013. 08. 29

I first have to say that I read Dorian Gray first as a comic book, which was designed to charm young readers. It contained less complicated conversations, and as one can expect, it was shorter and simpler. I never liked that comic book because of its dreadful ending, so consequently, I never really tried to read the 'real' book. I expected no more than few dreadful portrayals of the portrait and few beautiful descriptions of young man. However, when I started reading the 'real' book, my indifference turned into interest. The first chapter was weird, but fascinating, and dark, but somehow charming.

Mom always told me not to judge people by their appearance. "Appearance is never a mirror that reflects that person's inner part.", said she. But it's actually very hard not to judge people by their appearance. People, if they are naturally born in the society where the concept of beauty is quite universal, are naturally fascinated by good-looking people, and are naturally inclined to have prejudice against bad-looking people. Artists, especially. Basil, who met Dorian Gray and felt fear that something inside him would change from this encounter, first tries not to explain his feelings. He is sure he will be made fun of by Lord Henry, and wanted to keep his secret feelings to himself. But when he finally revealed his secrets, it was surprising and disappointing at the same time. It was surprising because the heart of Basil towards Dorian was so pure, and it was disappointing because he was only loving Dorian because of his face, not because of his brain or anything else. Basil is happy because of this beautiful man, but to me, he seems like a thoughtless, however beautiful, doll.

People wither, and their beauties always are temporary. Attempt to preserve the beauty almost always causes some major problems. Outer beauty is never permanent, but inner can be.

And I also found in the book that Lord Henry is a special, and abnormal character. 'You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing.', said Basil. Henry seems like a person who lives the world to seek pleasure. His duties for his wife are always there, but even though he does care about these, he is not totally concerned about this relationship. But at the same time, he is a contaminated person, perhaps tainted because of his cynical views of the world. Judging from this opium-accompanied conversation, he is now greatly interested in Dorian, who seems to me like a prey waiting to be eaten by a predator. Will Henry taint Dorian? Will his influence be bad to Dorian? How? I have so many questions, and only solution is to read further.

I don't know what will come next. But what I can say for sure is that even the first chapter, which is said to be the most painstaking one to read, is fun and makes readers expect more and more. These first two characters are already charming. And the main character didn't even come out yet.