Three changes in Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: a change in physical form, character, or circumstances

     In the book, Metamorphosis, we can see changes, many changes, like the meaning of the title of the book. After reading this book, there are three major changes that stood up clearly to me, and I categorize them into physical form, character, and circumstances, as below:


1. The effect of Gregor's Physical change on his mind

     Gregor woke up one day finding himself transform into an insect. We don't know why and how this happen and even at the end we still have no clue. But I don't think that's the main part that the author wants the readers to focus on. As we can see, the transformation cause Gregor unable to communicate with his family, although he still understand them, they can't decode his words, so to them, Gregor is a complete insect, when in reality, we as readers see this whole story in the view of Gregor so we understand that there is still humanity inside of his mind. It's just that the mind and they body are not in harmony. Although he continues to think with a human mind, his actions follow his body's desire, he can't reconcile between these two part of him. We can see this clearly shown when his mom helps him to move the furniture so it would be easier for him to crawls around, but he still want to leave some "furniture" inside his room because he's afraid that it will turn into a cave! He need the furniture inside to provide emotional comfort that help reminds him of his former life.

There are still humanity remains inside
of Gregor's bug-like body.

From this part of the story we can see the choice he's struggling to make between physically comfortable or emotionally comfortable, but at last he chose emotional comfort, that's why he cling to the picture so much. His family didn't understand that this is a sign which means Gregor isn't able to give up on his humanity completely yet, even at the end he is not able to give up too, although his body still remain opposite from his mind. Through these details we can see how our physical lives affect our mental lives, not the other way around, like Gregor's transformation, he start to behave like an insect although he still has a human mind.

2. Grete's changes from a girl to a woman
     Grete go through her own transformation too, both physically and mentally. From Gregor's perspective, we see Grete as an innocent little girl who relies on her family and has this dream of going to music school, but after Gregor's transformation, she begins to take adult duties, such as getting a job to help support her family or caring for Gregor.

She starts to think differently and understand more. She support her parents verbally  and she even stood up at last so they could get rid of Gregor and end this burden. In the last few sentences of the story her parents realize that she has grown into a beautiful young lady, this show the readers that she is now an adult emotionally also physically. 

In zoology, metamorphosis also means a stage of an insect/amphibian developing from an immature form into an adult after experiencing a physical transformation. So after Grete had experience and overcome all these things due to Gregor's change, she finally gets to stretch out her young body, like a butterfly just out of the cocoon, and fly out to reach her dreams.

3. The changes in circumstances of the family

     The last major change that happened inside the story is the whole circumstances of the family. They use to rely on Gregor for the money income after his dad had fail in business, but after the transformation, they start to take more responsiblity for the house. Grete starts to find a job and take care of Gregor, the mom start to help and even the dad start to go to work.

Even though at last they cannot bear anything from Gregor anymore, they overcome their financial problems and prepare to move, sent Grete to school, and find a husband for her. They found relief after Gregor's death because they no longer need to deal with his presence and they also completed an emotional transformation as they experience through all these troubles and find hope at last.

     The whole story of Metamorphosis is base on changes in physical body, character, and circumstances of the family. Although it's really sad to see Gregor die at the end after all his investment and sacrifice, it's still nice to see the whole family start to grow and get going with life. Even though it seems like they didn't realize the sacrifice Gregor had made for the whole family since they lack communicate and lose sympathy of the whole family. They even take Gregor's death as a new start of their life and a relief for them! They are happy with the start, but they will never know the whole sacrifice of Gregor and how they had torn his hearts into pieces with their thorn-like words and leave him dying so painfully and lonely at the end. They never understand the sacrifice, and we will never understand why did he sacrifice.

This reminds me of someone who sacrifice at first for people who didn't understand his sacrifice, and will never truely understand the "LOVE" of him that cause him to sacrifice for us. I believe after reading this story the fourth major change will take place, which is in the reader's itself, both mentally and physically.

Furniture = ??

     Recently our English II class is reading a story call Metamorphosis, and inside this story, the main character, Gregor Samsa transformed into an insect, but this transformation took place in the very beginning of the story, which says he woke up and realizes that he had turned into an insect.

     Gregor Samsa is a travel salesman. Although he spent most of his day doing his job, he doesn't seems to enjoys it that much. The reason that he is taking this job that he disliked so much is because he has this burden to pay his father's business debt and to support the entire family. He actually can choose not to do this tiring job if his family didn't rely on him that much. Even after his transformation, he is still worring about how to get to work and what should he take so he won't be late! Of course he realize the fact that he can't go anywhere with this body so he just stays in his room and hope that everything can go back to normal.

     As we were reading this story, we begin to see the influence of Gregor's physical body has on his mental thinking and psychology. He starts to hide under the dark sofa, and crawls on the ceiling and the walls. As a result, he realize that he is more comfortable if his room has no furniture so he can just crawls around freely. But his humanity never disappeared entirely, because he had this struggle inside his heart when he sees his mother moving the furnitures, he even ask himself, "Had he really want to transform his room into a cave, a warm room fitted out with the nice furniture he had inherited?"

Symbolism alarm!! So...

Without furniture = cave

Furniture = room

Furniture= ??

     So what is furniture according to all these "equation"?? Well, as we read on, we see how Gregor is recalling his childhood memories from these furnitures. Like the desk reminds him of the time when he was doing his assignments as a boy. As he is recalling these memories, he suddenly felt desperate to hold on to these few reminders of his childhood memories, futhermore, the memories he had when he is still a human, the memories that remind him of his humanity, so he clings to the picture of the woman muffled in fur.

     Now we know, that furniture = to humanity, the character inside of him that was not gone yet, which is also the thing that brought up the argument between our class in whether we should call him a human or a bug. But he know it himself that with the furniture inside his room, it is still his room, the place where he grew up as a boy, but without the furniture inside, he know that he will transform it into a cave, to something strange and different, although in reality it is still his room.

So we can also conclude that the room itself represents Gengor's physical body; without the humanity inside his heart, which is like the room without the furniture, he is transformed into a 100% insect, something strange and weird which is also like an empty cave inside his heart; but with the humanity still remain, like the room with the furniture, he is still a "human" somehow. In the same way, he is still him even though he is transformed into a bug, but because it is the same, we can tell the struggle inside his heart between the room, which is him as a human, and the cave, which is him as a bug. We can also see how his humanity is slowly covers up by his transformation and how it is slowly disappearing even though he is trying to hold on to it.

Three things I learned

     There are a few things I learned in English two as we were editing the stories. The first thing I learned is about number writing. If the number is less than three words, then we should write it in word, for example a hundred; but if the number is more than three word then we can write them as a number, for example 101. This is really interesting and important because if we follow this it will be easier for the readers to read the numbers.

     The second thing I learn is about grammer, and there are two things to it. The first thing is that we need to make sure we are using the same tense inside the story, this is quite obvious but this is a really common mistake that writes will have. The second thing is that well is an adverb and good is an adjective. So well is only use when we are describing a verb or another adverb, for example: she draws well; and good is use as an adjective to describe other noun, for example: he is a good man. This is another common mistake that people will make as they are writing, so it is to effect and affect. Most of the effect is a noun and affect is a verb.

     The third thing I learned is about punctuation, including comma and apostrophe. Comma was invented during Shakespeare time to help the actors to known when to pause in the story, so we should only use comma when the sentence is too long and the reader needs to take a break from reading it, but a period can be use if the sentence is completed. Now for possession apostrophe, we write 's after the noun to express their possesion to something, but if the name ends with a s already, then you don't need to add another 's to show their possesion, all you need is an apostrophe, for example Betty's and Jones'.

     Something else that was brought up during our discussion is this question, "Should the beginning word inside a quotation but after the comma be capitalized?" And we were confused about this, so I did a little research and found out that the answer is yes, you should capitalize the letter after the comma in a quotation mark. Here is one link that demonstrates the basic rules for punctuation:

http://www.northland.cc.mn.us/owl/quotation%20mark%20rules.htm

The Gift of the Magi rewrite

A word of advice, don’t lie. Even though there might be a situation that you think it is necessary to tell some white lies, but still, don’t lie. Why? Because someday it’s going to backfire and leave you battered and humiliated. The feeling is going to be really horrible and I knew it, because that’s what I’m about to go through.

    My story dates back to the beginning of the semester, I was a new student in this class. I’m not normal, in fact I’m different, but not in a good way. When I was eleven, I was in a car accident that made me crippled , my parents still believe this condition is not for life, they think all I need is a good doctor so they’ve been trying their best to find one in the past five years, but they hadnt found the right one yet. I was afraid that I might not blend with the class not because I am crippled, but because I came in the middle of the year. But it wasn’t as I thought, everything was fine, I fit in well and I made a lot of friends. School was fun and I enjoyed it, and it was this time that I met my best friend-Ryan.

     We were pen pal friends every since the beginning of the semester. We wrote a lot to each other and we found out that our characteristic and interests are really alike. The only thing different is that I’m more of a sporty guy and he’s more of a musical guy. You may wonder how can I play sports when I am crippled? Well, I wasn’t born crippled, before the accident happened I was one of the best member in the soccer team! I really love soccer, even though it’s all history now. I really hope that I can just forget about it and go on, but in reality I can’t. So when Ryan asked what’s my hobby I told him my story and my love towards soccer, and it turns out into a lie that I’m still playing soccer and I’m still one of the best player. You may think it’s not a big deal to tell a little lie about yourself to someone you never met and will probably never meet, but you’re wrong, because that’s what it leads me to now.

     After five months of writing letters he suddenly told me that he’s coming to visit me around Christmas! Now what? If he comes he's going to find out that I am crippled and I was just lying to him the whole time! But I can’t just go up to him in a wheelchair and tell him another lie that I broke my leg a few days ago and it will take me one month to recover because it never will and I knew it! I am so troubled right now and I really don’t know what to do. Should I tell him the truth or just leave a message to him and tell him I can’t make it, but how many more lies do I need to tell? I really don’t know, but he’s my best friend and I don’t want to end this friendship. I guess the best way is to tell him the truth and apologizes to him.

     It took me a long time to come up with this decision, which makes it really fast for the day of his visit to come. On that day, I bought a headphone for him because I know he likes to play and listen to music, so he’ll probably forgive me when he receives this gift. We’ve seen each other’s picture quite a few times so we can recognize each other. I’m so nervous, the time has come, five o’clock in front of the park, I look around and I saw him sitting on the beach under the tree, reading a book. I take a deep breath and walk towards him.

     “Hi,” I said. He look at me with amazement. He carefully looks at me and his face express a sign of depression. It seems like he’s trying to say something, but he can’t. I knew I’m going to receive some kind of reaction like that, but I wasn’t quite ready for it. Suddenly, he hands me a well wrapped box and just smiles at me. I took it over and ask, “For me?” He nodded his head, so I opened it. Inside the box is a beautiful soccer shoe with black strips on the side. I’m so touched, although I know I can't do anything with it, and my heart sank after I recognize it. He looked puzzled and he sense the trouble on my face, I really don’t know what should I do, suddenly, I remember I prepared something for him too, so I handed him my present and he received it happily. We smile as he open his gift, but by the moment he see it, he starts to cry. I panic and ask him why, he look up at me with shame and took out a piece of paper and pen. He starts to write something on it and after he finishes he shows me what he wrotes. I am shock as I read it, then I write something back to him, he read it and we both laugh…sarcastically.

It’s ironic, how this story ends. After all, we were both hiding something from each other. He was actually deaf when he was born, he never learned how to play music nor he ever gets to hear it. He always dreams of one day he can sing and listen to the beautiful melody of Chopin and Tchaikovsky, but he never can. I told him my story, which he kind of guesses it when he saw me, but it’s just ironic how it ends. At least we learn something from each other, and how to face the true reality of life without running away from it or just hiding it with lies.

The Bet

By Anton Chekhov

     In The Bet, we see the arguement between a young lawyer and a banker on the topic of capital punishment, either death penalty or imprisonment for life is more immortal. So they have a bet of two million dollars, and if the young lawyer can stay in the jail for fifteen years then he gets the money. This imprisonment is different than compulsory imprisonment given to the criminal, because he gets to read, write, drink wine, smoke and to have a musical instrument, the only think he can't have is the contact with outer world.

     They both have confident in their bet in the beginning, but as time goes on a change took place in both of their heart. The banker saw the perserverance of the young lawyer and he begins to worry, he start to have the feeling of enviousness and angriness inside his heart, for he know that he'll not just loose the bet, he'll always loose everything he own to this young man who can still enjoy life, get married, and mocked him for his success for the rest of his life. So he decide to take a step before the bet ends.

     On the other hand, the young lawyer, after all these years of studying the outer world through books, despise the world and everything that was in it, to the point that he is willing to give up the two million dollars of his dream, the goal that he was striving for the past fifteen years. He wrote a letter and leave it on his table, and the banker read it while he sneak into his room to kill him. After reading the letter, the banker has a heavy feeling inside is heart, he left and weep almost all night.

     The next day the young lawyer left the room before noon and was gone forever, and the banker locked the money and the letter at his home.

The young lawyer and the banker have a bet with each other. During the years inside
the prison, the young lawyer read a lot and learned a lot about life, world, and what's in it.

Question 2 pg. 660

a. The banker's plan to murder the lawyer is a type of situational irony, because it turns out differently that what the character itself and also the reader expected. In the beginning the banker believe that he will win, but towards the very end he realize that he's going to loose the bet, and the readers are likely to think so too. And this is where it's unexpected to both the reader and the character, because the banker knew he's going to loose the two million dollars which is like all of his money to this man that can still enjoy his life, he decided to end the lawyer's life the night before the winning. Which he himself might not expect (the decision) fifteen years ago, and also the reader might not expect so too.

b. The physical description of the lawyer is a type of verbal irony, because in verbal irony the write says one thing and means something quite different. At the end when the banker sneak into the lawyer's room he realize that he was different from before, much more skinner and dreadful. He described him as a half-dead person dreaming of his two million dollar to-be that will be murder in the next few minutes without any sign of violent death. But it was like what he was decribed physical, his heart and body was wary and half-dead, it was different than what the banker thought (happy, exciting, waiting to enjoy life and gamble his money on the exchange...), instead he was really torn with all these things he comprehend as world and lfie in the past 15 years.

The banker sneak into the room and read the letter he wrote.

c. The locking of the lawyer's letter in the safe is a type of dramatic irony, because only the reader knows the truth of the situation, when other character can only judge by what it seems inside the story. Other may think that the end is just simply the young lawyer gave up and walk away from the room, when in reality it is something more and we can see this in his letter. He realized that everything that belongs the world isn't good and he despise it so that's why he decided to give up and leave five minutes before the time fixed. No one will never know this because he's gone forever, no one beside the readers and the character itself.