ninasilverlee

 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...

 Rating: 8/10     Chulsoo's life as a wannabe Instagrammer perhaps represents every real-life influencer's life. Brent Rivera, Loren Gray, and Charlie D'amelio may look immaculate on the outside; however, they've acknowledged that they suffer under rude comments and the pressure to be at the center of attention. In fact, Chulsoo's life doesn't differ much from their lives.      Recently, not only influencers but also every social media user have been pressured to be in shape at any time. I've even experienced a sudden surge in the number of likes on my post when I posted pictures of myself in swimsuits, surfing with my friends. This way, SNS might make people do anything for attention.       Danielle Cohn, supposedly a 15-year-old girl with millions of followers on YouTube and TikTok, went viral after posting clickbait marriage and pregnancy posts on her social media. After she gained millions of followers and comments supporting her pre...

 Rating: 7.5/10     Stereotypes sometimes  severely hinder a person’s vision. The protagonist’s prejudice towards blind people that they won’t ever genuinely interact with those near them because of their physical disability rather blinded him. Raymond Carver conveyed the idea that what seems on the outside isn’t everything by showing how the protagonist’s description of the cathedral isn’t any better than the blind man’s. In fact, in contrast to the protagonist’s initial negative prejudice towards the disabled, he experiences an epiphany while he has his eyes closed.      The 'vision'  the blind man possessed was not a physical sight but an ability to communicate and interact with those near him. He could establish this by ‘Seeing’ through people’s hearts on a deeper level, truly listening to their emotions. As we can see, the protagonist’s wife is physically more intimate with her husband; however, most of the protagonist’s actions are mere irri...

 Rating: 9/10     We scorn  developing countries in southeast and western Asia for not establishing complete gender equality. However, looking back at ourselves, neither South Korea nor any other advanced society has developed complete gender equality. Ryujin Jang’s story story make us reflect on our society’s structure where single women in their twenties can’t feel safe outside the protection of a male.      I think  a scene in this story impressively depicted the appalling aspect of our society. When the protagonist encounters two crushed cockroaches, she imagines loads of cockroaches temporarily hiding into the darkness the moment she turns on the light. However, those obscene bugs are not eradicated, but temporarily out of sight. Similarly, I think the author was trying to describe how gender inequality in Korea is pervasive in the dark side of the society, under the cover of perfection. 

  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...