#8-2. Faction: Motivated from "The Conversion of the Jews" -- No Impact Man Project

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

September 26 2012

Faction (Motivated from The Conversion of the Jews): No Impact Man Project

No Impact Man Project (n.) a project devised and performed by Colin Beavan and his family; living a life that influences the environment as least as possible

"You know that you're a real freak to put this plan into practice, right?" Nicolle asked. "No Impact Man Project? Are you sure this is a feasible plan?"

"Relax, Nicolle, take it easy. Just a half century ago people lived well without using all those transportations and electronic goods. There's no reason that we cannot do this," I said.

"Why do you care about the Earth for anyway?"

"Well, you know what I would say. Earth is constantly being contaminated by us; even at this very moment, our air-conditioner, on-television, and leftovers of fast food we just finished off few minutes ago contributed in Earth's decay. I'm suggesting helping the Earth a little bit by restraining ourselves a little bit," I concluded, reading my wife's countenance to see if she was angry with her irksome husband. And yes, she was; Nicolle turned her back on me and gazed into the television, which her favorite TV show was playing on.

"Okay, understandable. But why do WE need to do this? There are so many people who are enjoying their life without paying slight attention to the Earth. I'm definite that our acts would result in nothing but a very, very minuscule delay on the Earth's collapse. ... You know what I mean? I don't see a clear outcome that will justify all the inconveniences we would be demanded to suffer for next twelve months," Nicolle finally said. Her shoulders were trembling.

I suddenly felt sorry for her; yes, she was right. No matter how arduously my family performs the project, millions of people would continue to waste, consume, dump, etc. The Earth would keep on decaying despite our project, and the outcome of this project must be tremendously small compared to all the efforts we are going to devote.

Still I wanted to challenge; I wanted to see if it was possible for us to live without televisions, newspapers, fast food, air conditioner or electric heater, etc. I wanted to see if I could live with influencing the environment as least as possible. And... this is my secret hope that I didn't tell to my wife, because I was sure that Nicolle would gaze me as if I am the greatest nut in this world, but I sincerely hoped to achieve victory in No Impact Man Project, thereby instigate people around me to follow me and do the project themselves. Maybe then, the outcome would be larger, and it may contribute … “significantly” in delaying the Earth's decay. MAYBE. But holding expectation and hope is not something bad, right?

Isabella was crying. I looked at the watch; it was definitely not a meal time, so she must be calling me to change her diaper. I groaned -- this was, actually, the moment that I did not want to confront. I made few contracts with Nicolle to make her participate in this project, and Nicolle negotiated by letting me do some bothersome and irritating tasks. Changing Isabella's diaper was one of them.

I looked environmental-friendly diaper that I decided to use instead of disposable one, in hope that my discomfort would help the Earth. Reading the instructions carefully, I folded the new diaper and attached it with a pin between my daughter's legs -- which was the most thrilling and frightening moment that made my hands shake frantically.

Actually, changing my daughter's diaper was not the only ordeal I faced during practicing No Impact Man Project. The project demanded me eat only local food, made of agricultural products within 500 miles, and this meant that Nicolle could not drink coffee anymore. She was literally mad at me, and after appeasing her for more than an hour, I promised her to grow peppermint and make her mint tea every day. That was a labor.

Nicolle and I were both suffering from the steaming hot of NYC, August. We opened the window, fan ourselves frantically, nibbled chunks of ice, but never turned on air conditioner. Nicolle was missing her Chelsea Lately, and I missed electric light bulb that enabled me to work even after the Sun sets. We were exhausted after climbing stairs to the fourteenth floor, and we thought that we were going behind time, since we could not read newspapers and catch the top issue for that day.

#8-1. Reflective Essay: The Conversion of the Jews

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

September 22 2012 

Reflective Essay: The Conversion of the Jews

Parents, when their child reaches the age of four or five, suffer from those entire "Why?" questions the child asks. "Why?" questions are tolerant for a young child, but unacceptable when a questioner is old enough. Oscar Freedman, a thirteen-years-old protagonist of The Conversion of the Jews (Philip Roth, 1959), is considered as an irritable boy who keeps asking trifling questions about God – for example, "... why couldn't He let a woman have a baby without having intercourse?" or "How Rabbi Binder (his teacher) could call the Jews "The Chosen People" if the Declaration of Independence claimed all men to be created equal?", etc. People who Oscar expects to give him answers to the questions – Rabbi, his mother, and other adults – all consider his questions as profane and nit-picking; so instead of giving answers, they "hit Ozzie (Oscar) across the face" or "flicked out at Ozzie's cheek".

Oscar is, however, not asking these questions to resist to the religious doctrines or screw over the adults. Actually, he respects "his mother lit the candles" – rituals on the Sabbath – by "pressing the phone to his breast" and making no sound. The sole intention of Oscar asking questions is pure curiosity. However, people disregards his curiosity, just as a firefighter asks the Rabbi "What, is the kid nuts or something?". People do not understand why Oscar cannot "accept" religious precepts. Instead of embracing of social consensus recklessly, Oscar tries to understand things logically. Maybe this is why his surname is "Freedman" – a "freed man", not fettered by conformity to his community.

Reading The Conversion of the Jews, I reminded of someone who resembled Oscar Freedman a lot. Colin Beavan, the author of No Impact Man (2010), is a New Yorker who, over a year, lived in NYC, affecting the environment as least as possible. From the very basic step – stop using disposable diapers or tissue – Beavan practiced inconvenient, sophisticated acts, such as giving up reading newspaper (a thick collection of dead trees), staying away from fast food and eating only local food, not using transportations, elevators, and even electricity, etc. When Beaven first started to carry on this plan, which he entitled "No Impact Man Project", his co-workers, friends, family, virtually everybody, dissuaded him, arguing that his acts would not stop the Earth from being contaminated. The community's belief, in short, was to relish all the conveniences modern society provides; there was no reason for Colin Beavan to "question" about the harmful effects people are giving to the Earth. To NYC residents, Beavan was an Oscar Freedman boy who nit-picked about their uses of modern technology and did not conform to the general belief of staying inattentive to the Earth.

Beavan’s "No Impact Man Project", conclusively, was not a meaningless struggle; his book called forth majority's attention, he was introduced as a noticeable environmentalist by New York Times, and a lot of impressed readers make attempts to practice the project, at least partially.

As a person who has conformed to the community and enjoyed environmental-harming technologies without any guilt for seventeen years, I highly value struggles of Oscar Freedman and Colin Beavan. I did hear that excessive use of air conditioner results in global warming; still I did not stop myself from setting the temperature 19℃. I did hear that dozens of trees were being logged to produce white, fresh papers; still I did not stop myself from dumping one-sided paper without second use. It was too irritating and bothering to question the impacts of my acts; the easiest way to live was to passively accept the general paradigm and follow what others do. What Oscar and Beavan tell me right now, however, is that such an irksome questioning can bring out positive outcomes to society; Oscar offered his community opportunity to reconsider about its indiscreet religious fervor, and Beavan helped his community to recognize the decay of the Earth due to the community’s thoughtless consumption of conveniences. Healthy skepticism of questioning a majority opinion is what I and my community need right now – not rash recalcitrance but mere curiosity, which would help the community to find out its fault and resolve, thereby improve.

#7-2. Reflective Essay: Big Two-Hearted River

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

June 3 2012

Reflective Essay: Big Two-Hearted River

          AP European History is one of the most demanding subjects among all APs. I heard a lot of complaint and plea from my roommate who took the test last May. One of the major discontents she told me was that World War I and II took so many part of whole history. Despite the short period – a little more than three decades – World War occupied more than one fifth of total contents. As this short anecdote implies, the importance that World War holds in the history is considerable. It is not surprising, thus, to find numbers of literature works discussing what happened in the War, how the War influenced the age, etc. Big Two-Hearted River (Ernest Hemingway, 1925) is one of those works, talking about soldiers’ healing process without direct mention about the War.

          Regardless of below-the-surface-mention about the War, it is obvious that the protagonist, Nick, is suffering from post-traumatic disorder after participating in the War. This is revealed from mainly three “lacking” elements in this short story; dialogue, social aspects, and emotive description.

          First, lack of dialogue. Throughout the story, dialogue appears only three times – even they are very short (“Go on Hopper.” “Jesus Christ.”) The reason Nick is so unforthcoming is to forget about the War. Once he starts to talk, and a single word pops out that triggers small memory from the War, all the dreadful experiences would crawl out from the suppressed memories and torture him again. This is why Nick stays away from conversation; to prevent any situation that might lead him to recall about the War.

          Second, lack of social aspects. What “social aspects” refers to is Nick’s family, friends, school life, or any other social relationships. Nick is completely alone, from the start to the end of the story; it is evident that Nick is unrelated to the society. When confronting the parent, who feels curious about things that happened to their son in the War; when confronting the school, where most of the friends that he has studied together only few years ago are dead from the War, Nick is obliged to recollect dreadful War memories. This definitely is the least thing he wants to do, which explains why he does not hang out or even mention about his social life.

          Finally, lack of emotive description. Hemingway’s writing style in this story is very descriptive, but not “emotively” descriptive, rather “objectively”. That is, most of the depictions deals with Nick’s actions, not emotions. To illustrate, Hemingway wrote “Nick’s hands were shaky”, not “Nick was strained”. Hemingway intentionally excluded Nick’s mode throughout the novel, to express the insensibility that the War participants experienced. During the War, emotions are unnecessary. In All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), another masterpiece discussing devastating episodes during the War, Paul the narrator commits that “[Soldiers] have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important for [soldiers].” To Paul and all the other soldiers, mourning over comrade’s death is just a dangerous act that enhances the risk of being shot to the gun. Considering that Nick has just returned from such emotion-less War, Hemingway’s “objectively descriptive” sentence style makes sense.

          What Nick does to tear off trace of the War is to walk into the nature. The story’s title, Two Big-Hearted River, is the place that helps Nick “cure” himself and “overcome” the swamp of the War by confronting two kinds of heart – Heart of the Past and the Future.

          Heart of the Past signifies the fixation of the River. After returning from the War, Nick feels everything has changed; parents unable to sympathize and share his pain from the War, classroom vacant here-and-there. But the River does not change; it stays in the place where it has been, as clear as ever. The River makes Nick able to connect himself before the War and after the War – it assures Nick that youthfulness and pureness he possessed before the War may be still remaining inside him, and might bloom again. That is, the River’s Heart of the Past gives him hope that he will be cured, and freed from scars of the War someday.

          Heart of the Future refers to the ceaseless flowing characteristic of the River. On its way to Nick’s town, the River might have suffered numerous crises; cataract, rapids, etc. Still the River’s future is to keep flowing with past wounds, not to stop. Looking the River that shares the same pain with him, Nick is comforted, and is motivated to keep living even with unforgettable scars, just as the River does.

          Hemingway wrote that “Nick did not want to go down the stream any further [that day]”, where “fishing was a tragic adventure”. This shows that Nick is not completely cured; he is not yet ready to face the challenge, the danger that he has so frequently confronted during the War. Still he says that “There were plenty of days coming when he could fish the swamp”, indicating that he will keep on curing himself in the nature, consoled by the River.

          Paul, in All Quiet in the Western Front, said that “we [the soldiers] were eighteen and had begun to love the life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces”. The War made Nick also to shoot the years he had lived. But the River helped Nick to arrange the pieces back, connect this re-attached past to his present, thereby be courageous about continuing life. It seems indisputable that one day, Nick would be able to discharge from the hospital of Nature. 

Writer's Comments

           Reading pieces about World War, I feel grateful to God that I wasn't born in that age. The shock that I felt after reading All Quiet on the Western Front for the first time -- it was just so destructive and, thus, tragic. (Impressive Quotations that I picked and posted on my another blog: HERE)That was, maybe, the reason that I read Big Two-Hearted River while continuously murmuring "Thank heavens." I felt relished as reading the nature curing Nick. Maybe this was the same way that people in Hemingway's age felt, maybe this is why this piece grabbed so many people's attention in that age.

           Right now I'm starting Hemingway's another work about World War; A Farewell to Arms. Ever since hearing the summary of this story when I was thirteen or something -- this book has always been on my wish-to-read list. Hope A Farewell to Arms also brings me great inspirations, just as Big Two-Hearted River did :) 

#7-1. Reflective Essay: Big Two-Hearted River

Big Two-Hearted River

In Big Two-Hearted River (1925), Hemingway is describing about chronological background after World War I. After World War I, soldiers who returned to their motherland were “lost”: they suffered from shell shock, saw illusions and heard hallucinations of war, and could not go back to the naïve school life they relished previously. To “cure” themselves and “overcome” from the swamp of war, men approached to the nature alone – just as Nick in this story did.

Throughout the story, there appears a very little “conversational sentence”. That is, there is no dialogue: from the start to the end, Nick is completely alone, with no human companion to dialogue with. Such “lack of conversation” is one way of trying to forget about the War. Once they start to talk, and a single word that triggers an episode at the War comes out, all the memories, details, devastations of war come into their head. This is why Nick is staying away from conversation: to prevent any situation that might lead him to reminisce about the War.

The fact that there is no mention about Nick’s family, friends, school life, or any other social aspects is another proof that Nick is avoiding society. When confronting the family, who is worried and curious about things that happened to their son/brother at the War, Nick must recall all those memories. When looking at the friends, Nick will be surprised that only few are remaining, and facts and memories regarding the rest (who had been studying together before the very month), will appear in mind so that the survivors suffer and feel sorry. Staying at the society, human communication will be necessary, which is what Nick does not want to do.

** Other Factors Indicating the End of the War **

-       Objective description: not “Nick was strained” (his emotions), but “Nick’s hands were shaky” (his behaviors) à because War drowns human emotion (mourning over friend’s death in the War only reduces own survival possibility)

-       Last sentence: “There were plenty of days coming when he could fish the swamp.” Swamp is a hard region for fishing – procrastinate, because still afraid of challenge

** Comments ** 

#6-1. Reflective Essay: The Garden Lodge

#6-2. Reflective Essay: The Garden Lodge

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

June 6 2012

Reflective Essay: The Garden Lodge

As the World War I came to the end, and the survived soldiers returned to their homeland, they were no more naïve, youthful lads. “Youth…? That is long ago. We are old folks.” In All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque, 1929), Paul, the narrator, compares men of forty to twenty; the older men were “linked up with their previous life … wives, children, occupations … background which is so strong that the War cannot obliterate”, whereas younger men have only “parents, and some, perhaps a girl, some enthusiasm, a few hobbies, and school. Beyond this … life did not extend.”

Men of forty, before the War, were already holders of some responsibility. They were responsible for supporting their family, or responsible for the job they chose to work on. If they abandoned their responsibility, there was no one who could substitute vacant place; therefore, men of forty had a firm place that they can, and must, return even after the War.

The situation was, however, very different for men of twenty. They were not in charge of anything yet; their parents were not that old to be supported by them, their girlfriends were not their wives that they should provide for, their hobbies were not field they had studied and worked devotedly for years. Lack of responsibility promised no firm place to return for young soldiers, which is why the soldiers “lost” all the responsibility-less, uncertain life they had before the War. The experience of loss made them to be afraid of another loss. They, thus, started to avoid challenging tasks in their future life that promise higher possibility of loss. However, by doing so, they were already losing chances to challenge, chances to live more fully – they were losing better future. Paul says that “nothing remains” for men of twenty – both past and future – which was why this generation was entitled the “Lost Generation”.

The term Lost Generation, however, is not only applicable on the soldiers. The tendency of losing past and future also appeared in other stratum; in The Garden Lodge (Willa Cather, 1905), Caroline Noble, the protagonist of the story, is a representative example.

Young Caroline wished to be a pianist, just as her father. However, as her father was crippled with debts and her brother committed suicide, she gave up that dream and stayed away from the piano – the loss of “past”. Instead, she married to an older man from Wall Street, who promises confident “money, position, energy, vigor of the robust person” to her. Depending on her husband, she does not need to worry about uncertain future. Her dependence, however, results in lack of her free will; that is, Caroline will not challenge herself. Her life will be safer but much duller – she will lose “future”.

What is different between soldiers and Caroline is that the former is “involuntary” Lost Generation, whereas the latter is “voluntary” one. The soldiers were “forced” by the War to hit pause to their life with parents, girls, and school, thus the direct and unique cause of their loss was the War, irrelevant to their will. However, for Caroline, she had opportunity not to lose. She once met this man, Raymond d’Esquerre, a tenor singer who rekindles her passion to music during his stay in the garden lodge. After Raymond left, her husband asks Caroline if she would agree to tear down the garden lodge and build a new summer house instead. He gave Caroline opportunity to disagree and continue on her reawakened interest to music. It was Caroline, however, who deserted that chance by answering that she agrees the lodge should go – she “voluntarily” lets her past and future run away, choosing irresponsible but safe life instead.

Despite the War did not influence Caroline directly to be the Lost Generation, it definitely worked below-the-surface. Before the War, it was the Renaissance paradigm that ruled the world; from the Renaissance, “humans” (not God) were the focus of concentration, and it was believed that humans could be anything they want. The occurrence of World War, however, blew out the pre-existing paradigm. As the War drove humans to fight and kill each other, without even knowing the reason, humans started to depute the previous argument that humans are born to achieve divine purpose of living. They no more respected themselves as godlike creatures; they realized the “limit” of human. Such paradigm contributed in Caroline’s voluntary decision to be Lost Generation, by inculcating lack of confidence that her ability to deal with challenges (for example, restarting to play the piano) is not enough.

Among numbers of literatures that deal the topic of the World War, The Garden Lodge is worthy of notice in sense that it points out indirect effect of the War (voluntary Lost Generation). It is quite tragic that the tendency of Lost Generation clouded the whole society, not only the soldiers but also others such as Caroline.

Losing the past and the future may help the Lost Generation to live a safe life, just as Caroline did under her husband’s protection, but it may block the chance to achieve something. It is true that the Renaissance paradigm is quite exaggerated – humans definitely cannot attain everything they wish – still, some are achievable. This is why I wish the Lost Generation – at least “voluntary” ones that chose to be lost, and still have a chance to cancel the voluntary choice they made – to stand against their loss and makes attempt to find back their volition to challenge. 

Writer's Comments

I am quite sorry about this piece.  I have "ideas" in my mind, but I think I did not express it via this writing very well... :( Still,  it was a great pleasure writing this piece (interesting concept, "voluntary" Lost Generation, isn't it?). Hope readers understand what I tried to say in this essay... :) 

#5-2. Reflective Essay: A Dark Brown Dog

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / 11b3

Mr. Richard Menard

American Literature

April 29 2012

Reflective Essay: A Dark Brown Dog

Ernest Hemingway once said, "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was." Books reflect the reality – what “they had really happened” – and make that reality even “truer”, by including the author’s lens of how he/she views the world. When critics divide literature genre, thus, the criterion of classification is what happened when the literature work was written, and what paradigm the writers—in other words, intellectuals—possessed toward these contemporary events.

Naturalism is not an exception. It is a literary movement emerged and flourished from 1880s to 1940s. Two main historical events of this era—Industrial Revolution and the onset of World War—greatly contributed in forming people’s viewpoint of how they face the world. Industrial Revolution let people think that nature can, and should be, manipulated by mankind. As time passed by, however, naturalists started to express questionnaires about this belief; they argued that the nature was not “subordinate”, but “indifferent” to human. Jack London elaborated this claim in his short story, To Build a Fire, by using the dog as the symbol of nature. When the man died, frozen in the snow, the dog just left him to find another firebuilder, showing that the dog never possessed submissiveness, or affection, or any kind of emotion to the human – that is, the dog was indifferent.

The outbreak of World War, on the other hand, suggested the cruelty and inhumanness that human nature essentially possesses. Beforehand, humans proud themselves as “social animals”, believing they care about each other and act benevolently. During the war, however, they had no breadth of mind to be altruistic; their priority became survival of individual, even if that demands selfish acts harming friends. This is well described in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front. The soldiers do not feel any guilt in stealing fine boots from a friend at his last gasp. They justify themselves by saying that “all sense of other considerations”, such as morality or respect to passing friend, are “artificial”; the only thing important for them is not abstract ideology, but facts that “good boots are scarce”.

These two ideas – nature’s indifference and human cruelty – are reflected in most of the naturalistic pieces, including A Dark Brown Dog (Stephen Crane). Crane discusses the second topic much more directly and predominantly. It is easily inferable that the family in the story are impoverished; the family’s residence (they live in “dark tenement”), and the father’s drinking habit (child “dived under the table, where experiences had taught him was a rather safe place” as he saw “the father … drunk”), proves their poverty. This low social/economic status is very important; if, for instance, they are from wealthy, noble family, they would be much more “civilized” and “socialized”. Such exposure to society makes them to suppress their desire to act cruelly and selfishly, and to get along with others in much more ordered and amiable attitude. Impoverished people, however, forms fewer connections with neighbors and thus needs less effort to restrain their violent nature. Hence, their brutes are expressed more often, just like the family’s frequent use of violence upon the dog in the story. The climax part, where the father “knocked the dog down with a heavy coffee pot”, “kicked out with a ponderous foot” and “flung [the dog] … through the window”, clearly shows the naturalists’ claim – specifically, that men will tend to show off their brute instincts, if given opportunity such as poverty allows them to be free from society’s restrictions.  

The first theme, nature’s indifference, is much more implicitly discussed in the story. Rather than explicitly explaining that the animal—symbol of nature—is unconcerned about the man character, as Jack London did, Crane is interpreting the nature’s indifference that nature treats human just the same as animals, insects, etc. Humans usually tend to differentiate themselves from animals that they can control their emotions, while animals cannot; thus, animals are often described to be much more brute and savage than humans. However, as argued beforehand, Crane believed that when given proper situation, humans can be just as feral and ferocious – by regarding humans in the same light as animals, Crane’s work is classified as piece of naturalism.

*** Writer’s Comments ***

Reading A Dark Brown Dog and thinking why it is classified as naturalism work, I could easily find one major characteristics of naturalism – human’s dark nature. However, I had problem searching for evidences to the claim that nature is indifferent to humans. The solution I presented at last – that nature treats humans no more special than animals – is quite weak. This made me think that this piece is maybe realist work about violence. Still critics’ words that realism mainly deals with middle-class, whereas naturalism deals with low class, made me hesitate to classify as realism.

Jiyoon Rhee, in her comment, advised me that “(literary genre) was coined by future generation, not the writers back then. Therefore, the term only explains a general and common theme of the era, and each story does not have to fit in perfectly to the term.” (Original Comment is HERE)I agree with her statement, but I’m still curious – so is A Dark Brown Dog a naturalism work that just doesn’t perfectly fit to that category, or is there any part that could be an evidence of naturalism that I just passed by? Hmm… something to think about.