Beautiful Rachel

 Rating: 8/10  In Araby, narrator's love toward Mangan's sister ends with a moment of epiphany. The narrator realized that his love toward sister is only a useless wish. His failed love shows the people experience frustrated love through their life. We probably all have similar experience with the narrator. Sometimes we love so hardly, and sometimes we broke up because of a minor thing. Joyce tried to say that these are so natural experiences. Daily life like his uncle, train, and the women in the market could be the obstacles for the love.   I liked the story because I also had a similar experience. I felt sympathy to the narrator whose love ended sadly like mine. I loved someone blindly but suddenly realized that it's useless. This story made me to think about my failed love again. 

 The sisters-James Joyce(1914) rating 6/10 Among the previous stories, I think this story is the hardest one to understand. It is said that the topic of the story is 'paralysis' that shows paralyzed Irish culture. Father Flynn reflected the paralyzed Catholic Church, which was one of the reasons why Irish culture was paralyzed. The story ends with the sentence"..that there was something gone wrong with him.", and it shows that the priest had a mental problem before he dies. Inappropriate relationship between the boy and the priest shows the paralyzation of the priest, church and culture. There are some other themes that reflects paralysis through Father Flynn such as his death or decayed teeth.  I liked how Joyce reflected paralysis through the priest, but I don't like Joyce's writing method. He left the story too open-ended. It would've been better if he gave some clear hint about the ending so that we can at least predict one integrated conclusion.  Over...

Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov (1898) Rating: 8.5/10 "Behind the door of every contented , happy man there ought to be someone standing with a little hammer and continually reminding him with a knock that there are unhappy people~"  This phrase is basically what Chekhov is trying to say through this story. I couldn't 100% agree with Ivan's saying, but I liked the theme of this story. The part that Ivan said "there is no happiness" seems contradict, because even Ivan looks happy when he swims in a river. However, it is true that people these days sometimes forget how we are enjoying this freedom. They just focus on their own happiness and ignore others' pain, like Nikolay did.   When I first read this story, I thought Ivan was too pessimistic. People tend to focus on my happiness, not other's pain behind the happiness. However, I realized that the happiness is from the invisibility or silence of those who are unhappy. There are lots of people behind ou...

 The lady with the dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899) Rating: 7/10  This story is basically about an affair between Anna and Gurov. This is why I gave 7 ratings. Even though the author tried to show the pathetic relationship between Anna and Gurov, anyway they are having an affair. In the story, it is said that Gurov is married at a young age but he calls his wife unintelligent, narrow and inelegant. He was tired of the marriage and kept meeting other girls.  It was same for Anna. Having love with an unknown girl, was quite interesting for Gurov. They began to know each other for a long time and Anna suddenly felt guilty for herself and for her husband. She cried and cried, saying that she is a bad, low woman.   A long time passed and they continued meeting and leaving. The last time they met in Moscow, the story ends in an open ending. Like 'The student', Chekhov's other story, he did not make a clear conclusion and let readers think of it. For me, I think Anna and G...

The Student, By Anton Chekhov (1894) Rating: 8/10 H.W: Tests, Allies, Enemies in "The Student" Cold wether and Ivan's poverty is a test to himself. Also, in the story that Ivan told, Peter and Judas are the enemies to Jesus.  Ivan, the student who is reflecting the author's willing, is the protagonist in the story. Anton Chekhov wrote this story in Russia, and tried to show Russia in the story.   Ivan is a poor student who is experiencing poverty and hunger. In the first paragraph, we can find out that  Ivan doesn't like Russia because it's too cold and nothing has changed compared with the past. However after he saw the widows crying, he figures out that the present and the past is connected with invisible chain, showing similarity between the past and the present. He became more joyful and optimistic after he finds out the lesson. First and last paragraph's mood is completely opposite as Ivan decide to think positive. He learned that one day he will cert...

A Sound of Thunder, By Ray Bradbury (1952) Rating: 7/10  This story is just a cliche science fiction story. It has a clear storyline that main character Eckles get on a time machine, fight with dinosaurs, but comes back to the ordinary world at the end. This kind of story line is nothing different with other sf stories. That's why I gave 7 rating out of 10. This story is a good story to entertain, but it's nothing more than entertaining.   One thing I really liked about this story was 'butterfly effect'. Butterfly effect means that small things can effect on huge things. In this story, the butterfly that Eckles killed, changed the result of the president election, alphabet and even the smell of the air. We might think that there's no relationship between them. However, if we think more complex, one butterfly means thousand and million butterflies in the future. No butterflies, no frogs, no birds, no wolves, no tribes and no countries. It goes on a...