Comparison of Three Classics

I read three classics, Hamlet, the Odyssey, and, Saga of the Volsungs and then, I found several similar points between them. The three big topics I will compare are tragedy, different choices of men and women, and love. For this paper, I would like to compare them through tragedy. First, Hamlet is about a revenge story to his step father. In addition, all his family members are involved in his revenge and destroyed their life. Then, most of all his family members were dead. I think Hamlet is one of the most typical tragedies within general tragedy. Second, the Odyssey is a story of Odysseus’s adventures. After he won Trojan War, he said some bad things to gods. Unfortunately, Poseidon, who is the god of ocean, hears his words. Then he gets angry, so he makes many traps Odysseus not to go back to his home. During the trip, he lost his friends, but some gods and goddesses help him. Therefore, he goes back home, however, he spends about fifteen years trying to do so. Before he goes to the Trojan War, his son was a baby. However, he son becomes fifteen-year-old man, when he reaches his home. If he had not spoken bad things for the gods, the tragedy would not have happened, and he could have spent more time with his son. Finally, Saga is about his adventure story to become a real adult. Beginning of this story is his dramatic adventures, and then he gets married other county’s princess. After that his tragedy start and his ex fiancée kills him and then his family and his wife’s family start fight to get his inheritance. In conclusion, they have the similarity that they are tragedies even though these works are written by different authors and different ages. They are very old stories; however, I can understand the characters’ sad feeling. Therefore, they are still famous in modern day.

Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth

Environmental issues, especially global warming, are very serious problems in modern days because it is the cause of other environmental problems. In the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore talked about how dangerous the global warming is for the Earth. In addition, he showed the audiences a lot of information and clamed dangerous prediction. Actually, I have watched this movie three times, so I could understand what he was talking about and how difficult it is to solve environmental issues. He lectured about his opinion with a lot of data. Then, he showed us predictions. Therefore, I realized global warming is very serious problem for us and our future, and I had to something to do to slow down it. I think his predictions and data are accurate because he explained his opinions clearly. In addition, he did not talk about biases much. Therefore, I think we can believe and rely on his opinion. I considered everyone should think and do something to slow down global warming, such as printing on double sides, turning off air conditions, and recycling garbage. I think these small actions will help to stop and slow down environmental issues.

the 2009 Mark Twain Conference

At the 2009 Mark Twain conference, the lecturer, Yoko Yamaguchi, talked about revenge in Mark Twain’s works and Japanese novels. In Mark Twain stories, people judge murder under the law. For example, Tom Sawyer testifies that Indian Joe killed doctor Williams in the court and he won by legal way. However, old Japanese novels show that revenge is not only legal way, but also illegal way is not bad. In Samurai period, some people killed enemies secretly in revenge. Killing people is bad, however, it was tolerated. For example, if a A person kills B person’s boss or family, B person will revenge A. We call this act “Adauchi” in Japanese. In conclusion, Mark Twain shows we should take revenge in a legal way. However, Japanese novels show that we can use illegal way if we do not have any other choice. Thus, I think this topic is very difficult for American people if they do not know about Japanese culture. Even I did not understand some part of the lecture. However, the topic was very interesting for me. I could realize other ways to understand Mark Twain’s novels.

http://www.elmira.edu/resources/shared/pdf/academics/distinctive_programs/twain_center/ConferenceLowRes09.pdf

Comparison and Contrast between American and Hmong People

Language, culture, and tradition are three of the greatest difficulties between American and Hmong people. One big problem is language Hmong people speak Hmong, but they do not write or read Hmong well. In addition, many Hmong people cannot speak English. Even if they can understand basic English, they cannot understand specific words, such as medical words. In this story, Lia’s parents could not understand her prescription, so they did not give correct medicines. Then, Lia got worse and worse. Another problem is culture. Hmong people do not have calendar, such as solar calendar and lunar calendar. They measure year by agriculture circle. For example, Lia’s mother was not sure her birthday because Hmong people do not measure year number. However, she was sure her birthday was in October because she remembered that her birthday is in the rice reaping season. According to the example, we can understand they do not have as the same culture as we have. The other problem is tradition. Most of Hmong people believe shamanism. It is a spiritual religion and very important for people. Shamans are intermediaries between the human and sprit worlds and talk with dead people. Shamans also can cure illness and treat patients. If believers get illness, they go to a Shaman’s house, and then they will get some treatment from Shaman. In the Hmong tradition, they only take medicines for a short time. In addition, they do not get surgery to cure their illness. They sometimes take medicines, such as organic medicines, and herbs. Moreover, they cannot understand why they have to take medicines forever to cure their illness. Therefore, Lia’s parents and doctors got big problems about taking medicines.

Tom and Huck

This movie is about an adventure of Thomas Sawyer, who goes by Tom and Huckleberry Finn, who goes by Huck. Tom and Huck are best friends. Tom lives with his aunt, half-blood brother, and half-blood sister. In addition, he likes to do pranks with his friends. He tries to run away from home and go down a river with his friends. He is very clever guy and he is a hero in his group. He sometimes lures his friends to whitewash instead of him and gets their treasures. Huck lives alone in a forest and he has never gone to a school, so he cannot write down words even his name.

One day, Tom and Huck go to graveyard at midnight and they see Indian Joe and Muff, who is a drunk and Tom’s friend, digging a grave for Doctor Robinson. The doctor finds a box and he tries to run away but Indian Joe notices and he kills the doctor with Muff’s knife. In the box, there is a treasure map. Tom and Huck run away from the place, but Tom drops a green marble from his pocket accidentally. Tom and Huck promise not to talk about the murder to people because they protect themselves. After that, they go home.

Next day, Muff is arrested for killing the doctor. Even though, Muff denies the suspicion, Indian Joe testifies that Muff kills the doctor and he claims there is not the treasure map. Then, Indian Joe discovers that Tom dropped the green marble, and Joe threatens Tom that he will kill him, if He tells the truth in a trial. On the day of the trial, Joe testifies that Muff killed the doctor by his knife. When the judge tells a sentence, Tom takes the witness stand and tells the truth to save Muff. Then, Tom became a hero in the town, but Joe escapes from the trail. Then, Huck packs and goes to a travel to hide from Joe. After that, people held a party, and children and Muff go to a cave to explore during the party. Tom and Becky, who is Tom’s girlfriend, go into the cave by themselves during the exploration. Nobody notices that Tom and Becky are gone. Unfortunately, Joe is hiding in the cave and he tries to kill Tom. At that time, Huck comes to help Tom, and they fight with Indian Joe in the cave. Finally, they win the fight and find a lot of money from the cave. After the accident which Joe dies, Tom became a hero in the town for the second time. In addition, Huck is adopted by nice rich old woman.

This movie was based on “the adventure of Thomas Sawyer”. Some parts are different. There are no slaves or African Americans, but this movie helped me to understand the story of Tom Sawyer easily. I would like to recommend this movie to Mei and Joey who are going to take Freshman Core class because all characters used modern American English, so we can understand the movie very easily. In this movie, there were many elements, such as suspense, love, comedy, and friendships. One of my favorite scenes is when Tom tries to get the treasure map from Indian Joe’s pocket while Joe is sleeping. At that time, he fails because he sneezes, so Joe wakes up. This scene was very funny for me. Other my favorite scene is when Tom tells the truth at the trail in front of everyone including Indian Joe. If I were Tom, I could not tell a truth in front of a person who aimed to kill me, however, Tom did it. Then, I noticed that Tom is a hero because he helps his friend at the risk of his life. This movie was not long movie, but the story was very interesting and thoughtful. I enjoyed watching this movie, and it helps to understand me Tom Sawyer's world well.

30 Days as an Illegal Immigrant

Can people change their mind in only 30 days? I think it is difficult to change mind completely if people have a lot of confidence about their opinions. In this show, a man named Frank George (Francisco Jorge) stays in tiny apartment with illegal family, the Gonzales for 30 days. The Gonzales family comprises seven members who are father, mother, three daughters and two sons in one bed room apartment. The parents and three older kids do not have papers, and two younger kids they were born in the U.S. are American citizens. Frank is originally from Cuba, and he came to the United States with his parents when he was seven years old. Now he is working as a Minuteman who patrols around American border and stop illegal immigrants from coming into the U.S. His idea for American immigration problem is that illegal immigrants are bad if they have any problems in their countries. If they want to immigrate to the U.S., they should come legally. He had very strong opinion about this problem. In addition, he did not accept any other different ideas of immigrants at the first time. For example, discussion about legal and illegal immigrants with Armida’s high school teacher, they argued very strongly. His idea is everyone should follow the American law. Other countries situations do not matter. However, his strong ideas changed gradually while he spent a time such as working as a day laborer, discussing about the immigration problem, and going to Golf lesson with the family. In addition, he noticed how difficult it was to live in Mexico when he visited Gonzales family in Mexico. In the end of the show, he started to think about illegal immigrants in regard to amnesty. Actually, he still has his opinion which he does not accept illegal immigrant. However, he left border patrolling to other Minuteman. He plans to pursue border security enforcement by appealing directly to politicians.

After I watched this show, I still think illegal immigrants are bad because they are breaking American law. Even though I saw the real situation of Mexico, I cannot agree with illegal immigrants. Both sides have ideas. In Frank’s opinion is everyone should follow American law, so every immigrant should come legally as him. However, the Gonzales family opinion is that they could not live there enough in Mexico. They did not have any choice at that time. They do not want to work as a day labor, and they did not think they are taking jobs from American. If they can, they get paper and get good job and live with their other family who are in Mexico. Armida said that pilgrims were illegal immigrants because they did not have any visa and permission from Native American. This idea is true, however, we did not have system such as visa at that time, and we cannot compare pilgrims and legal immigrants. I can understand both sides, but immigration problems are very difficult to solve. In Japan, we have serious problems about illegal immigrants as American. Illegal immigrants come to wealthy counties to get a job and earn money because they cannot get money and jobs in their own countries. Therefore, Mexico should take some action to solve the illegal immigration problem. It is not only American problem.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56908/30-days-immigration#s-p3-so-i0