Skip to main content

#1 Afternoon in Linen (Shirley Jackson, 1943)

 Rating: 8.5/10

    The story started off strong with reference to another story, 'Alice through the looking glass.' It foreshadowed next storyline that something would be out of order and overturned. As expected, typical hierarchy was dishonored between Harriet and her grandmother. While two old women conversed with each other attempting to prove that their kid was the superior, Harriet adamantly refuses to be exploited as a doll in their competition. At the end, Harriet ensures that her grandmother's pride is killed by taking her poetry out of Mrs. Lennon's unresisting hand.

    I saw the ethical ambivalence in Harriet's behaviors as the only thing she did was to protect herself. However, it was simultaneously immoral to humiliate and disrespect her grandmother. I could relate to her from deep down my heart as I would also make cruel reactions against someone who tries to exploit me, using values I gained from countless hours of effort. The story showed me the bitterish aspect of modern society, where individuals are forced to compete against their fellows due to its preference of superior values. I rated the story 8 as it induced me to relate to Harriet's feelings just by describing a casual situation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#22 My Wonderful Description of Flowers (Danielle Dutton)

 Rating: 6/10     Danielle Dutton's short story reminded me of " Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian. In "Cat Person," a male character representing toxic masculinity develops an intimate relationship with an underage college student. When the girl starts rejecting him, he shows signs of obsession and eventually calls the girl a 'whore’. Similarly, in Danielle Dutton's story, a taste of feminism is foreshadowed by introducing a man who visits random houses and attempts to assault women. When the protagonist asserts that she doesn't recognize an unknown man who visited her home, the man gradually becomes impatient and turns out to be hostile. The two stories seemed similar in how women were victimized by male manipulations. (Although the severity of male manipulations differs at each level.)     Apart from Danielle Dutton's method of development   used in the story, this could have been more favorable for me. Although the story had a clear developmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

#14 Caring for Plants (Hey-young Pyun, 2014)

 Rating: 8.5/10     Nowadays,  relationships between people has become so complex that individuals ought to seek for a way of being useful in order to develop stable friendship. Even family members who are not blood related hesitate to fully trust each other when it comes to financial issues. Ohgi, in this short story, is an orphan who loses physical and financial ability due to the car accident. The moment Ohgi opens his eyes after the accident, he was without all the reputation he has established his entire life, but his helpless chunk of body. Everything Oghi had believed was his no longer was, and all he had left was his useless, tattered body and the mattress it lay on. In other words, his life went non-existent after he lost the ‘useful’ abilities.       This way, I felt shivers rushing down my spine, thinking of the potentially superfluous friendships I may have. It was also depressing acknowledging that the majority of my friens will turn ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#18 Snowman (YooMi Seo)

  Rating: 8.8/10     South Korea  is a nation of a miracle that stands as one of the most prominent countries in the world, even after successive wars. The world expected the resurrection of South Korea to be impossible, but South Koreans proved them wrong. However, behind this magical success lay the appalling reality where Koreans are chased by slogans yearning for more efficiency and higher competitiveness. Overheated competition resulting in the isolation of citizens and even death is now rather the cause of stagnation than a stimulus for social development.      In this short story,  the protagonist, who the boss constantly pressures to become better, gradually loses self-respect. He passively allows himself to receive provocative remarks from the boss, not attempting to defend himself, albeit he has admissible reasons for his behaviors. This appalling social structure renders citizens to show frantic commitment to their work, and those who c...
Post a Comment
Read more