Analysis Paper Step 4: Outline

Analysis Paper Step 4: Outline

Outline for Analysis Paper

Topic: Three balances in the story

Thesis: The balance between elephant and keeper, citizen and government, reality and the mental world are broken after the elephant vanishes.

Part 1: Balance between elephant and keeper

Sentence: “It wasn’t what they did that was different. It’s the way they looked. Something about the balance between them. In size of their bodies. The elephant’s and the keeper’s. The balance seemed to have changed somewhat. I had the feeling that to some extent the difference between them had shrunk ”

Analysis: The writer mentioned the broken balance directly in the story. The size of them changed and they became more similar. The relation ship between them also changed. In the past, they were breeder and animal, now they are friends.

Part 2: Balance between citizen and government

Sentence: “While they did not say it in so many words, they hinted at the possibility of some secret deal between the mayor and the developer.”

Analysis: The mayor wants to keep the elephant, but some people hold the opposite opinion. They think the mayor accepts bribes so he insists in keeping the elephant.

Sentence: “Riddled as it was with such perplexities and labored circumlocutions, the newspaper article as a whole left but one possible conclusion: the elephant had not escaped. It had vanished.”

Analysis: According to the article that was published by the government, they could not find any useful information about why the elephant are vanished. The comment shows the displeasure motion of citizens. They questioned the government’s ability.

Part 3: The balance between reality and the mental world

Sentence: “The more pragmatic I try to become, the more successfully I sell-our campaign has succeeded beyond our most optimistic forecasts-and the more people I succeed in selling myself to.”

“When magazines gave us publicity, we rewarded them by placing ads in their pages. They scratched our backs, we scratched theirs.”

Analysis: The reality of the writer can also reflect the normal life of citizens. In order to be success, they need to become pragmatic. They cannot follow the way they like. He will join social activities to get benefit from others. However, this may not be the thing he really likes. It is only accepted by the highly developed capitalist society.

Sentence: “I had had my own private interest in the elephant problem from the very outset, and I kept a scrapbook with every clipping I could find on it.”

“Whenever I had a spare moment, I would visit the house where the elephant no longer lived.”

Analysis: The narrator’s pure expectation in sincere relationship between people without any interest driven.

Conclusion: The three balances in the story are all broken and this may cause a lot of problems. Those broken relation ship finally found a new balance. The vanishing elephant creates conflicts, but gradually, the conflicts are all solved. The ending of the story is unusual. We don’t the where are the elephant and its keeper, what are they doing after escaping from the town. The story remains a large room for readers to imagine.

Response to “The Elephant Vanishes”

Response to “The Elephant Vanishes”

   

    The short story “The Elephant Vanishes” talks about a man who lives in a small town in Japan. An old elephant disappears overnight, together with its keeper. Citizens fears mount and some call for probe. This remains a mystery because no one knows how the elephant can escape from the house. However, the narrator thinks that he is the only witness. From his sight, the balance between the elephant and the keeper is broken at that time. The size of the bodies of elephant keeper changes and he believed that the elephant keeps shrinking until it is small enough to escape.

    At the end of the story, the papers print almost nothing about the elephant anymore. People seem to have forgotten that their town once owned an elephant. The elephant and keeper have vanished completely. They will never be coming back.

     I think this ending is different from most of the story. Usually, the story will tell the truth of this event, but this story, on the country, writes nothing about the following plot. We don’t the where are the elephant and its keeper, what are they doing after escaping from the town. The story remains a large room for readers to imagine. Everyone can have his or her own opinion of the ending.

   As for the relationship between elephant and citizens, from my point of view, it also represents the relationship between the reality and narrator’s mental world. Citizens are secularized. For example, some of them hold the opposite opinion of keeping the elephant, because it will take a lot of cost. The narrator needs to care about his jobs, the more pragmatic he tries to become, and the more successful he will be. On the other hand, the narrator also wants to chase peace. He admires the old elephant and will always go to the back of the hill, where he can see into the elephant house.

    In conclusion, this short story is an interesting story and I enjoy reading it.

Analysis Paper Step 3: Determine Element

Analysis Paper Step 3: Determine Element

The story mentions a lot of balance in the text including the balance between citizen and government, elephant and keeper, reality and mental world.

So the element in this analysis paper will be balance.

Analysis Paper Step 2: Literature Review

Analysis Paper Step 2: Literature Review

     The short story “The Elephant Vanishes” talks about a man who lives in a small town in Japan. An old elephant disappears overnight, together with its keeper. Citizens fears mount and some call for probe. This remains a mystery because no one knows how the elephant can escape from the house. However, the narrator thinks that he is the only witness. From his sight, the balance between the elephant and the keeper is broken at that time. The size of the bodies of elephant keeper changes and he believed that the elephant keeps shrinking until it is small enough to escape.

     At the end of the story, the papers print almost nothing about the elephant anymore. People seem to have forgotten that their town once owned an elephant. The elephant and keeper have vanished completely. They will never be coming back.

[1] In my opinion, Murakami did an amazing job embedding themes throughout his short story The Elephant Vanishes. He used his abstract writing to convey important societal messages like imbalance, perception, and the views of modern living.

[2] Murakami intermingles reality with fantasy, memory with illusion, and the physical world with metaphysical contemplation. His characters are ordinary people. Their ontological relationship with reality appears to be defined by their ability to create unreality.

[3] The complete vanishing of the elephant with its keeper indicates that all the warm, romantic, and sincere parts of society unavoidably give way to the pragmatism and realism.

Work Cited:

[1]"The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami English Literature Essay." UKessays.com. 11 2013. All Answers Ltd. 05 2015

[2] "The Elephant Vanishes" Literary Masterpieces, Critical Compilation Ed. Frank Northen Magill. eNotes.com, Inc. 1991 eNotes.com 31 May, 2015

[3] Li, Xinyu. "The Loss of True Intimacy In the Realistic World" SBC blog pag. Web. Nov 28th, 2011

Response to I Bought a Little City

Response to I Bought a Little City

    This short story is a story about a little city. Although it was bought by the narrator, people there were not. At first, the narrator wanted to govern the city democratically, so he went to ask his moving citizens’ opinion about their new living place. Gradually, he found that other things also needed improvement, thus, he decided to kill six thousand dogs. However, after a few times, he discovered that what he bought was only the city, but not the citizens. He could change the rules, change the structure of it, but not the people’s mind. 

    From my point of view, the narrator was more likely to organize the city, rather than control it.

    Another plot can improve my opinion. The narrator fell in love with a woman, who was already married. When the narrator expressed his feeling to this woman, she refused him directly, because she had husband. This implied that bought a city could not represent the fully ownership of this city. Comprehension and support of the people are also essential parts.

Response to A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Response to A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

   This is a short story wrote by Marquez and his stories are always strange and hard to understand. This one is about an old man with enormous wings and Pelayo’s families. Pelayo thinks this old man is an angel, but they do not treat this man friendly. All the people here just show curious about a stranger. Because of this angel, Pelayo earns a lot of money. 

   From my point of view, the aim of this story is to criticize society. From the beginning of this story, it writes, “on the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house”. This reminds me of the Bible. The god uses flood to kill human beings. And then, the angel comes. However, people’s reaction towards this angel is strange. At first, they are scared of him, but in the end, they just treat him as a tool of entertaining. The story describes that the old man looks sick and is badly injured, instead of healing him; people choose to play on the angel. I think Marquez uses irony to describe the situation. This reflects people's numbness and shows no sympathy to strangers. I think Marquez wants to change this society so he wrote this story. 

Response to The Middleman

Response to The Middleman

   The genre of this short story is short story. This type of genre is much shorter than novel and the plots are not as complicated as novel. Normally, it is form of narrative prose fiction.

   The Middleman is a story about a man named Alfred Judah, but is not only about him. Alfred is a middleman in America because he has no nationality, and he describe the society from his point if view. The Middleman and Other Stories is the name of this book, thus the book will include many other stories. As the first chapter if this book, The Middleman gives a brief introduction to this book. It writes that the narrator meets a lot of people in America, such as Maria. I think that in the following chapters, the book will talk about the stories these people suffered.

   As far as I am concerned, the conflict exists between the Western and the Third World. People are treated unequally in this society, just like Alfred. He is regarded as Jew or India in different people’s eyes. But I still wonder why so many people want to go to that place. Is there something attract them? 

Response to THE LAMENT

Response to THE LAMENT

   The Lament is a story about a cabdriver named Iona. The genre is short story. The characteristic of this kind of genre I think is a complete story and is shorter than novel. It has one or more main characters. Moreover, it will tell a story about them.

   This story is easy to understand and the vocabularies is not very difficult. I thinks he mean idea of this story is to reveal a social problem. People always focus on their own issues and ignore others’ feelings. Just like what Iona had suffered. He lost his son and no one wanted to listen to him. He was so grief that he did not care about the money. I show sympathy to him, but also wonder whether I would listen to Iona if I was a passer-by in the story. The answer might be “NO”. I am unwilling to spend a lot of time listening to a stranger’s sad story. However, when I read this short story, I felt that the officer and three guys were very inhospitalily with heartless. Iona was much struck with his son’s death, but he could not talk with anyone of them. The only “one” he could chat is his horse. 

   As far as I am concerned, this short story wants us to realize that we also need to care about the strangers. When they talk to us, we would better listen to their story, because maybe they are in pain. Actually, we will not notice this thing just like the officer and three guys in the story. The only thing we care about is ourself or our families and friends. However, when we read this story, a light will break in upon us that the strangers also need respect and caring. This may also the aim of this short story.

Utopia Presentatio

1.      What one social issue do you want to correct/address? 

We would focus on education as the central issue of our Utopia. Because nowadays most students are inculcated of knowledge passively in Chinese society and they are always bothered by the frequent examinations, we would like to create an educational system of self-specialization rather than text-oriented. The main concept in our educational system is that we promote individualization. In other words, children have their own initiatives or control on their self-development. We will implant a chip into every 10 years old child’s brain to help them optimize their superiority.

2.      What are the rules of this society? (at least 10)

        i.           Every child should be implanted a chip which explore their talents at the age of 10 with no exception.

      ii.           Any form of standardized measurement is not allowed.

     iii.           Anyone including parents and professors cannot intervene the decision made by individual age more than10.

     iv.           Chips must be ruined after the individual die.

      v.           The teaching type should be encouragement mainly.

     vi.           Different professors can have their own ways in punishment but all punishments should be based on re-educated.

   vii.           All children have their educated life from 10 to 20. No one can extend his or her educated life.

  viii.           Professors in highest stratum are not allowed to have children.

     ix.           Once citizens break the rules for one time, the policy administration will raise the suspect level for one time.

      x.           If citizens break rules more than 3 times, they will be kicked out.

xi.            Our utopia bans any kinds of interest-oriented classes for students in all ages as their only source of education is from educational palace.

3.      Governance 

Who is in charge?

The delegacy of professors.

What is the hierarchy system?

All the professors (including teachers) select a delegacy which contains around 200 of them form the highest stratum of the Utopia. They are also the policy implementers and chip organization members and supervisor.

What system is in place to enforce the rules?

Representative system is used as selecting out the professors, who are capable to build the routine committee. All the graduates and parents can participate in the hearing meeting for public advice. Once they find something did not go well, they can express their own opinion and point out the mistakes those professors have. The participator can also report the professors, who break the rules, in the meeting.

How does the culture deal with people who break the rules?

It will be fine if citizen break the rules once or twice. The only punishment they will get is to be sent to a special place and re-educated. However, if the person breaks the rules for more than three times, then he or she will be kicked out of this utopia directly.

4.      Social Structure 

How does this community sustain itself? 

Preliminary, all walks of industries in our utopia are normally similar with the society now. But we also allow the import and export with outside world, like tourism and agriculture.

What roles/jobs/positions exist for community members? 

Students, parents, professors, policemen, doctors, etc.

What special customs/ceremonies/forms of social bonding does this society have?

There are mainly two basic important ceremonies in our utopia. The first one is on the day of each year for those 10 years old children who are going to receive chip of their lives. This ceremony is solemn as everyone only have one chance to receive their chip in their lives and it represent the beginning of their educated lives.

The second ceremony is on the day of each day of each year for those 20 years old graduates who are going to enter into the society. This ceremony also contains the authorized ceremony after the election of delegacy of professors, who then constitute the highest executive committee of our utopia.

5.      Urban planning and design (visual aid)*

What do living spaces look like? (And for what reason?) What features do living spaces have?

The living space of our utopia is the same as we provide in the picture below. The constructional materials that we use is recycling and damp-proof.

There are several regions in the utopia. Industrial region is in the downwind side. The central administrative department is near the central lake. Educational center and CBD are in the upwind side, so that people who live there will seldom bother by the pollution of industrial manufacture.

How are the living spaces arranged relative to the larger community? What is the reason for this? How does it support the values of the community?

There is no barriers for people outside and inside the utopia to have communication each other. The cultural exchange is convenient which will certain benefit the future development of education in the utopia. However, we do have censorship for the population flow. No one from outside world could get the “green card” of the utopia just from the admission given by the censorship of the utopia.

Who lives in these spaces?

People from all groups of ages can live in the utopia. There is no mandatory policy on fecundity or marriage.

Is it a gated/walled community? Is it open to everyone?

This utopia has no fence or wall built. There are only fields between the utopia and outside world. But everyone from outside world needs to register at each gate they enter into the utopia.

How is property divided?

The property is allocated of labor. Work more, get more.

What building structures exist? What functions do these buildings serve?

Once people reach their 20, graduate from the educational palace and are able to earn money on their own, they are provided by a piece of land, where they can design and build their ideal houses. The land cannot be inherited and donated. The highest executive committee will take the ownership of the land back after the owner died.

List one ingenious device of this community that maximizes life there: the chip.

Once the chip has been implanted successfully into 10 years old child’s brain, it will automatically send the information about the child’s brain construction to the controlling center which operates by the highest executive committee. Elected professors will understand profoundly about the potential of each child. Thus efficient specific education will be provided for the child on his or her talents. The highest executive committee in the controlling center also can relay urgent information to each people as for extreme evacuation, which promote the sufficiency of information transmission. But it is only unidirectional, people cannot send any message by the chip to the highest executive committee. 

6.      Introduce us to members of this community (visual aid)*

People from all groups of ages can live in the utopia. There is no mandatory policy on fecundity or marriage.

7.      What problems might this community encounter?

Ø  Elite democracy

Ø  The contradiction between elite's minds and mass experience

Ø  The professors who are selected as the members of the highest executive committee may be dissatisfied with the rule of no rights on reproduce. Most elite will want to maintain the elite status, that is, they abandon the rational for their own sake

Ø  The chips are set and managed by the highest executive committee, there exists certain possibility that they will manipulate or even abuse the chips in people’s brains, which is another autocratic society that outrages from citizens can be easily witnessed.

Kelly, Shawn, Rebekah, Diesel, Rachel