Second Semester Reflection

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Literary Analysis Ideas

A Historical Novel

Title: In Enemy Territory

Point of View: First Person

Tone: intense

Setting: World War II (1939-1945), Europe

Conflict: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature

Character List

Red Natochenny- Main protagonist. Talented American pilot.

Jesse and James Cathcart- Main antagonists. Twin German spies/assassins.

Summary:

Red Natochenny is a pilot, but not just any pilot; he was the very best like no one ever was. He was able to fly any form of aircraft. So the setting takes place during World War II. America had just joined in on the fight against Hitler’s army. Of course Red was called out to lead a group of men in air strikes and in transportation. However, one day, during a normal air patrol, Red and his men were attacked suddenly by German forces. Although he and his men were elite pilots, they were outnumbered and one by one they began to fall. Red tired his hardest to fight back and get away as his comrades were shot down. Eventually, Red’s plane is hit, barely, but just enough to cause him to lose altitude. The German forces give chase at him but he is able to escape into the mountains but had to crash land. Red was now in enemy territory.

             Thankfully, Red was able to escape from serious injuries from the crash. However, he was stranded in enemy territory with no way of calling for help. He has to travel across the land, searching far and wide for a way out and back to the safety of the Allied Forces. During his journey, he has to face the coming winter and ravaging animals. Also, being on enemy territory, he had to be on constant watch for enemy patrols. He comes across small towns and villages that were guarded by German soldiers, and at one point was caught. He was taken to a concentration camp where he was imprisoned. However, he was eventually able to escape along with some plans that he was able to snatch. This caused the German officer in charge of the camp to send out twin German assassins, Jesse and James Cathcart, to hunt down Red and retrieve the plans.

            With now two assassins chasing after him, Red’s journey to safety has become more perilous. However, he was able to obtain help from multiple people such as commoner and rebels. Yet, many died assisting him.

TTC Writing I

            I never really had a favorite literary genre. Whenever it comes to books, I pretty much read anything. I have like times where I’m really into horrors at one point, but then a week later, I’m into science fiction. I guess what I really focus on when I read a book is how entertaining I find the plot to be. There are plenty of times where I just got bored with the story and never actually finished the book. There are also times where it is a series and I like the beginning so I get the next books. However, I get bored with the plot and just end up with a bunch of unread books lying around and I move on to something else. 

However, if I had to choose a specific genre that I like the most; I would say it would be adventure. Really this is actually a broad genre and I feel that it could probably be spread out to like science fiction, horror, fantasy, and mystery. The reason I like adventure the most is mainly because the plot has a pretty good flow. The imagery that adventure literature provides is just amazing to me. Books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy show a vast land with different beings and magic, while books like Star Wars novels provide me with futuristic ideas.

Since I use to read a lot of books when I was younger, I should know a lot about different genres. However, the only reading I’ve done in the past few years is for school mostly and sadly my interest in actual fine literature has greatly fallen. However, I do remember reading a lot of mysteries. The Boxcar Children was probably my favorite mystery series that I read as a child. Although they seem very predictable and childish now, I remember the suspense and surprise that it provided as a child. There was also romance genre. Back then I never liked it and even now I don’t really care much for it. I wasn’t much for the love and happiness provided by romance. I also mentioned science fiction as being branched off of adventure. The most recent science fiction I have read is probably The Hunger Games. Really this genre of science fiction just opens my eyes to the future and how things can possibly be like.

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GE Writing II

A major theme of the book is wealth. At the beginning, Wang Lung was just a poor farmer that only had little land, an ox, and his old father to care for. He was only able a arranged marriage with a servant unlike today where you actually meet the one through God’s plan. However, because of his marriage to the servant O-lan, Wang Lung life began to get better and his wealth slowly increased later on. With this increase in wealth, his property expanded and his life became easier.

The significance to this theme of wealth is that although Wang Lung worked hard for his wealth, it wasn’t always a good thing. Because of his wealth, a lot of issues occurred. One of the major issues was the issue of lust. Because of his wealth, Wang Lung was able to buy more land from the family of Hwang. With all this land came more wealth and the ability to hire workers. Since he had workers to do everything, Wang Lung had nothing to do and pretty much was bored and went out to find pleasure. This pleasure came in the form of a woman. Wang Lung lusted after this woman and pretty much bought her to serve him as a sex slave. Because of this he was constantly spending money to please her desires. Also another issue was family. With all his wealth, his uncle took advantage of him and Wang Lung could do nothing to get rid of him since he was afraid of losing all his earthly wealth. Also his oldest son didn’t finance the money well and just spent it a lot of it on looking good.

Really this theme of wealth is teaching people that sometimes being wealthy isn’t always a good thing. It is great to have money and property, although it would probably take a lot of work to obtain, but how you use it greatly affects your life. We have to be aware of what we do and control ourselves to prevent any lust or foolish spending by yourself or by family. Also, from a Christian perspective, we shouldn’t desire earthly riches that rot away, but rather desire to have heavenly riches that are eternal.

GE Writing I

Once again, this is another topic that I really have not put much thought into before. I guess I never actually really cared much about what was really my culture and just went on with my life. I guess my culture is like any typical Asian culture where respect is strongly emphasized. Everyone is to be respected no matter what age or nationality they are. Yet at times, I fall away from this cultural belief with the feeling of apathy. It’s the same with education. I’m constantly pushed to get good grades by my parents. Sure at times I push myself to get good grades, but I am extremely lazy. Overall, my culture is greatly influenced by Asian culture but at the same time I think there is a laid back American culture that just mellows everything out.

My culture influences my decisions by what Scripture says. My parents are constantly telling me that whatever decisions I make should follow what Scripture says and at times if it has their approval. However, this entire constant reminder about making decisions that follow God has also develop independence in decision making. I think that following Scripture and what family says is good and is the basis for every decision, but at the same time I feel like I just want to do my own thing. I at times put aside Scripture and family and solely decide based on what I want to do. However, this is definitely not the best way to make decisions, but it is sometimes hard not to do so. Having it my way is so much easier and quicker than having to go through Scripture and family. But as I have decisions to make, I do try to turn more to them rather than myself.

I really don’t know how my culture shaped my past. I guess I actually developed a small hate to my culture other the years because of the constant stress about education and respect. However I still followed it and it really has influenced my knowledge of good and bad. Yet at the same time, since it was being constantly emphasized, I have become lazier and instead just go and do my own thing without much care. I honestly live more for myself rather than God at times, unlike how my culture really emphasized. However, although I live for myself more, I still value the fact that my culture really emphasizes following God. I have the understanding that God is in control and what is right and wrong. I guess I would want to have a similar culture for my family. Yet, instead of being independent with apathy, I would rather have them independent with a stronger concern in following God. I would want them to strive to give it their best in everything but I wouldn’t really expect good results all the time. I just want them to please God and have enjoyment in life.

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Collier and Rylant

The Chaser is a short story about a young man named Alan who desires to have the girl he likes to love him back. In order to obtain this, he goes to this old man for a love potion. It is rather selfish of him to do so and the old man tries to warn him of what would happen, however, Alan is so blinded by his lust that he ignores the warnings. Overall I thought that this short story was good since it revealed a truth in life. As humans, we desire things; in this case it was love. However, we can’t take shortcuts to get what we want. There would always be consequences for our actions. For Alan, that consequence could be that he might fall out of love with Diana, yet she won’t let him go. So in order for him to get away, he would have to go back to the old man for a solution. Basically this story is saying that you have to be aware of the future and think before you act.

            Another thing I want to point out is that, although it is a short story, I feel as if there should be more to the story. It feels as if this is just the middle of a story. Details like who exactly Alan and Diana are, how Alan found out about the old man, and what was the outcome of his love potion purchase. It is a good story but I think with just more details it could be even better.

Checkouts is about a girl that was practically forced to move to Cincinnati, fell in love with a boy after a shopping incident, and at the end nothing happens. At first it was a bit confusing, but as the story progressed it was slightly humorous but later on kind of depressing and disappointing. When the story first started I thought that it was just going to be about the girl and the house. However, it suddenly jumps to how she likes to go grocery shopping. It was a bit random and could have had a better transition. But with the focus now on her grocery shopping “hobby”, the story basically starts. Although it is kind of realistic about how the boy drops the mayonnaise jar, the part about her instantly falling in love with him was a bit more fantasy. I really don’t think that a person could fall in love that easily and fast. The ending was also quite sad that they didn’t talk with each other and get to know each other.

            Overall, this story was decent. I really like how the author refers to how people act when they desire things. Stuff like this does happen, a person would want to talk to another person he/she might like but is too afraid of the outcome and in the end they end up how the characters ended up, separate lives and don’t even know who each other really is. You can’t just wish and wait all the time; sometimes you have to take the initiative to do it.