4/10
*Essay Writing
- Put hypothesis in the first sentence of the essay
- Avoid “I think….”
* Forrester essay writing:
- Why would Forrester give the apartment to Jamal? Jamal is a talented person
that is very important to him. Jamal gave him another chance to reopen his heart;
therefore he reward him a apartment for writing.
- What did Jamal learn from Forrester? What did Forrester learn from Jamal?
They found their own identity. The name of the movie is “Finding Forrester”,
everyone is finding Forrester, but actually, Forrester cannot find his own identity
himself.
- How did Jamal’s writing contrast “losing family”? Losing family obliges us to
find our family, not always the family that is our blood, but the family that can
become our blood.”
- Why did Jamal turn to reading and writing after his father abandoned his family?
He tries to run away from the reality and his poor neighborhoods by reading and
writing.
- To write the first draft with your heart but then to rewrite with your head =
valuable thoughts are usually expressed through the process and listening to the
inner voice of oneself.
- In the final letter to Jamal, what does Forrester mean when he say “I never
imagined that I would realize my own dream once again.” His dreams include
going back to his hometown, having good friends and family, and also publishing
another book, he accomplished all of his dreams because of Jamal, where he
successfully reopens his heart. Forrester finally realized that what he really need
is just a friend.
- Why didn’t he answer the question that the teacher asked him in the class about
“The Raven”? He is afraid that his friends will mock and laugh at him, and he
would be isolated. He cares too much about what others might think about him,
therefore, he did not tell others that he write diaries and essays too.
- Why did Jamal bring his friend, Forrester, to the baseball game on his birthday?
Brining Forrester to the baseball game on his birthday is to let Forrester dream
again, to believe in relationships, to write again, and to reopen his heart and mind.
* Araby (by James Joyce)
- A short story for the anthology Dubliners published in 1914
- Retreat 避靜
- It is a bazaar that a boy could find something for the girl to start a conversation
- Initiation journey, a journey of no return, which foreshadows the tragic ending
(he won’t get anything at the end)
- Young lady was talking and laughing with two young gentleman: “That’s just
a… fib” = sudden awareness, found out how phony is adults’ world, which that
may mean that Megan’s sister is just lying to him = Loss of innocence, he is angry
at his own innocence in the last part of the story
- Epiphany = 靈光乍現
- Summary of the story: The narrator of the story has a crush on Megan’s sister,
who lives across the street. They have never been talking to each other, however,
one evening she asked him if he plans to go to the bazaar called Araby, and he
promises to bring a present back for her if he really did go. He got the permission
to go to the bazaar on Saturday night, but when Saturday night comes, his uncle
did not return home on time to give him money. After his uncle’s return, he got
the money he needed for the event, but it is tool ate, the event is shutting down
and he cannot buy something nice for Megan’s sister. At last, the narrator is left
with anger and frustration.
