ninasilverlee

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y-YIGchak38fFT1VuVhro8no2gqIS5B4/view

<intro> : 14 sec Hi. My name is Nina Lee from Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. Wanna know more about me? I invite you to my library.  Each part of my bookshelf represents a chapter of my life.  Let’s look at this chapter.  <Chapter 1> : 25 sec I’ve been in love with books ever since I was young. It is pretty obvious as I made my own room into a library. Collecting, reading, the smell of faded paper, and even organizing them in bookshelves… I liked every part of it.  Books are like magical portals that let me become anything I imagine. But I didn’t want to stop just imagining. So, my life has been about becoming everything. <Chapter 2> : 30 sec  + surf I am a [sports]. Playing these sports as a sportswoman has shaped my resilience . I’ve learned that failure can never be an excuse for giving up. Failure, as well as success, is a melody that makes up a great musical composition.  <Chapter 3> : 20 sec Oh, speak...

 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...

 Rating: 8.8/10           For my entire life, I have dreamed of a life out of a small province in Ulsan. Because my mom let me experience bigger worlds like Washington D.C. and San Jose in such a young age, I coveted to go back to the US one day. Since my parents aren’t the richest people, I had be the recipient of scholarships to enroll a university in the US. KMLA was the only way of having a better possibility of receiving a huge amount of scholarship since the school certifies my value as a student with potential to some extent. 16 years of my life, I looked towards only one place. KMLA.           I have no enjoyable memories with my primary or middle school friends. KMLA to a student in Ulsan was a goal so tall, that I constantly doubted whether it was a plausible goal (one or no student gets accepted to KMLA each year). But few moments after I got accepted to KMLA, the sense of futility one feels when one overcame tr...

 Rating: 8.6/10     Recent focus on short stories featuring  on feminism and gender equality has made me cultivate ability of viewing the world in a specific aspect. Short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ too had lots of details the author implemented regarding herself experiencing ‘rest cure’ to cure postpartum depression. Gilman put detailed depiction on isolation and forced feeding during the narrator’s time in a room with yellow wallpaper. The depiction of a wallpaper as a desperate woman looking for an escape from the bars of cage perhaps represents herself yearning to escape from her husband/doctor’s repression of her freedom.       I liked how the story ended with John fainting because it perhaps represents the author’s hope towards gender equality. Despite all the suppression the narrator experienced, she never faints nor shows her weakness to John. Meanwhile, John easily collapses when he encounters his wife behind the door. This ending was ...

 Rating: 7/10     'Give and take' relationships have been so pervasive that most people hesitate to interact with others unless they promise your elevation to a higher rank. Most people show respect or ask for their wellness for a reason: elevation of their place within the social structure. This kind of relationship is well depicted by O’Connor. For example, the mutual respect between Mrs. Turpin and her African-American workers is solely due to the benefits they gain out of that relationship. Mrs. Turpin even trusts her biggest virtue is possessing a good disposition even to dark-skinned workers, while the truth is that she pretends to have a good disposition because she can’t possibly do all household without her workers.       At this point, connection held by mutual needs is inevitable in this society. The world has been so much focused on profit that individuals don’t truly sympathize no matter what. The world is gradually becoming void of e...

 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 ...

 Ra ting: 6/10      Multiple industrial revolutions won't change how people of distinct echelons are treated differently. The juxtaposition of Maggie's life and the glimpses into the lives of rich people magnified the problematic distribution of advantage even during the third Industrial Revolution. While Maggie was trying to deal with the harsh realities of her fractured life (economically, mentally, etc.), she had to lower her self-respect and pride to blend in the capitalistic society. In Ms. Dr. Blum's house, Maggie's sullen attitude quickly turns into an understanding and respectful  attitude the second she gets reminded of the fact that she's merely a cleaning lady.      Personally, narrating style of this story was not favorable since I could find no solid development nor an incidental event. The story of a cleaning woman gazing out the bus window is prone to be monotonous if the reader finds it hard to realize her representation of overloo...

 Rating: 8.5/10     I ncreasing preferences for individualism affected the concept of friendship. In the past, friendships were focused on the superficial aspect. For example, royalties befriended each other for the furtherance of a strong and royal lineage. However, these days, affection and goodwill are more prioritized in friendship rather than a materialistic or physical advantage. A toxic relationship, a friendship that lacks genuine feelings, is the first thing that should be eliminated from life. Tobias Wolff’s short story Hunters in the Snow shows why.     In the short story, three characters bond over a violent activity that kills innocence for fun: hunting. While three people hang out to hunt, they continue conversations that decrease their value rather than looking out for each other. In this sense, repetitive betrayal and selfish behaviors of characters show exactly how it feels to be in a toxic friend group. Notwithstanding the reality that they wer...

 Rating: 7.8/10      People today are exposed to society to ruin their innocence easily. Once the innocent being enters adulthood, capitalism, jealousy, and selfishness destroy that decency of years in seconds. Unfortunately, it is very challenging to maintain innocence outside of parents’ boundaries of protection. This way, people in some situations - like those in KMLA - lose the ability to pursue happiness even before they finish their teenage hood.       In “bullet in the brain,” Anders’ cynicism resorts himself to be shot by the bank robbers. During that milliseconds, the bullet punctures his brain; he remembers a single scene from his childhood in which he played baseball with his neighbors. The depiction of such a memory let me realize that Anders also was a person full of emotions, sympathy, and passion. Perhaps this story was Wolff’s attempt to remind people that innocence can still be regained even if it is too late to save one’s life co...

 Rating: 8.6/10      A surprisingly significant amount of people still find intoxication as a refugee from the painful reality. In fact, society is adding reasons for people to lose complete consciousness so they can’t perceive feelings of inferiority. In this short story, Neddy perhaps escaped into alcoholism from the painful facts, as Cheevers quoted, “Had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget that … and that his friend had been ill?”      In this short story, I found it intriguing to read through the author’s delicate usage of symbolism. As Neddy decides to swim southwest from the pool he was with Lucinda, directions of south and west provide specific tones for this story. Whilst ‘south’ provided connotations of warmth, hospitality, and strength, ‘west’ added images of darker intimations as it is the location of the dead in many mythologies. Eventually, the darkness is confirmed as Neddy reaches his destination, only to find it locked...

Rating: 8.6/10      Male superiority has been the tradition of humanity for as long as civilization records. It would be a luxury to wish for complete gender equality without a significant paradigm shift in global leaders. In this short story, John Cheever depicts a man’s experience of facing the consequences of taking advantage of women, specifically those with low self-esteem. Still, the man rises from the ground as the same man without feeling an iota of remorse. This way, the static nature of men as predators, seeking women only to quench their sexual appetites, is criticized. The contrast between Ms. Dent’s life and Blake’s businessman-like life even maximizes the tragic circumstances Ms. Dent’s facing.      Contrary to Blake’s immorality, Ms. Dent does her best to lead Blake to redemption. Even with her mental illness, she tries not to eradicate Blake from the world but to change his soul. Restraining her from firing a pistol would’ve been challenging...

 Rating: 8.9/10      To some extent, becoming a hypocrite is inevitable in the era of social media. Everyone seems to have a hot girl's summer body in summer and kisses from her perfect boyfriend on Christmas. However, under these immaculate masks, there exist unspoken rules of social confidentiality. As George Orwell quoted, most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. It is a universal fact that extremely few people can indulge in Gucci bags and drive Lamborghini, but people do not hesitate to like nor become dubious of daily Instagram posts of a fake extravagant life.  The short story 'The Enormous Radio' portrays a small society obsessed with schmancy outward behaviors often at odds with reality. Irene was at the extreme at looking oblivious and naive. However, those self-deceptive attitudes were merely acts cultivated to hide their past behaviors those could be accused of serious sins. Witnessing the parallel structure between people...

Rating: 9.8/10   In this hyper-capitalistic society, rich people make the poor feel dopey and inadequate. Even the white-collard are resorted to feeling insecure about their economic status due to gold-collared people’s gruesome representation of wealth. The protagonist reveals envy or rather obsession with possessing semplica-girls while wistfully expressing his desire to compete more effectively in the materialistic society. Even as a middle-class worker, he couldn’t help but feel helpless for her daughter among other hyper-rich parents. As an international student myself, I could completely engage in the story. First-generation students are less likely to be in the highest social echelon, and a broken immigration system and racist policies would render my life as a foreigner harder. I know from deep down myself that Eva’s morally right. However, I wouldn’t easily do what Eva did just to save myself in a cruel, materialistic society where every problem can be solved by comple...

Rating: 8.5/10     Adults who affect children the most in their early periods are their own parents. Parents are the social acquaintance that helps develop fundamental life skills such as socializing and psychological thought process. In the short story 'Victory Lap,' two kids and one adult, Alison, Kyle, and the Stranger, experience the same incident but reflect it in drastically different aspects. Kyle and the stranger show similar fears by being traumatized by manipulative parents. On the contrary, Alison's parents are the only refuge that protects her safe from all the harm.     Throughout the entire story, Kyle and the Stranger fail to seek independence from their parents even after almost twenty years of death. Each character's honest inner voice was always disrupted by their parents' comments on their behaviors. For instance, Kyle his the stranger's head with Geode, which symbolizes his parents' oversimplified quantification of his goodness. Even when...

 Rating: 8.4/10     Still, in 2022, it is not hard to witness people of severe capitalistic America looking down upon the lower classes, refusing to accept their lives of hunger. Marie, a mother who drives a sumptuous car, encounters the poverty-stricken mother who keeps her ADHD son leashed in the backyard. Marie instantly feels sympathy for those in the lower economic echelon; however, instead of helping those in need, she chooses to turn away from their horrible lives, ultimately creating a vicious cycle of capitalism.     In the short story 'puppy,' Sanders depicts the dark side of U.S. society by juxtaposing the perspectives of two families in different financial circumstances. Each parent does their best to support their child with defective motor functions, but their methods are relative to their various background, knowledge, or experience. Intermittent changes of point of view throughout the story completely flipped how I grasped each scene the characte...