Learning From Sijie

Recently, we've been reading Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie in english class. Although this book is considered to be a fictional novel, it is very effective in telling a historical event happened during the Cultural Revolution. Sijie wrote this book in an informal and relaxing tone, which makes it easier for readers to relate the fictional story to the historical period of the revolutionary period. Learning about a time in history is sometimes more personal when it comes from fictional novels because it shows history in a interesting and engaging way. A plain and wordy historical account will get its point across, but it is much harder for readers to understand fully.

This novel has increased my understanding of the Cultural Revolution just by the way it is written and presented. The author uses relatively simple and straightforward contexts and dialogues to portray the time of Cultural revolution and his experience of "re-education". At first I had absolutely no clue what re-education meant, but through his explicit historical contexts I began to grasp the significance of it. The narrator himself was sent to a rural countryside to be re-edcated by the peasants at his teen-ages. Apparently, those children from bourgeois families are required to be re-educated by lower class people. My understanding of the book becomes more vivid as I dive in further to this well-written novel.

This book absolutely opened my eyes to the Cultural Revolution and especially to the teenagers being sent away to the countrysides. I imagine myself in the shoes of the narrator and experiencing the unfavorable process of re-education. At least for me, historical fictions is more appealing than the account of the same exact events.

Comments to myself...

Hi again! Surprisingly for this blog, I am assigned to write about myself as an English 2 student at Sage Hill and comment on my own work. So far, the english class is a success to me because I have improved significantly on my writing and reading skills. The evidence for this is the increasing quiz and essay scores I received throughout the first quarter. I also found the class to be interesting as we began to read more and more diverse literatures. I began to enjoy poetries as we read numerous fantastic short stories and poems. Ultimately, English 2 provided me with many new ideas about literature and books as a whole.

There are multiple successes for me as an english 2 student. First, summer reading assignments, quizzes, and essays turned out to be a success because the graphic novel was a relaxing book to read compared to other traditional novels. I also feel like most of the weekly vocabulary quizzes are a breeze because I study the words a few days in advance and feel generally  ready for it. However, the transition from multiple choice quizzes to write-out-the-words-and-definition quizzes took a about a week to adjust. Lastly, I have a success in my study skills for this class. I turn in all assignments on time and usually finish them a day in prior.

There are also some weaknesses and things for me to work on throughout the year. First, essays had always been the hardest part of english class for me. At the beginning of the quarter, I had somewhat trouble on organizing my paragraphs and coming up with a good thesis. There are rooms for improvement in my essay writing skill. Secondly, I feel like reading quizzes are a bit challenging because they quizzed on some details that I did't pay attention to while reading. I realized that good reading skills are very important when it comes to understanding the book. However, I was able to learn from mistakes and hope to improve my reading skills gradually during the future. Lastly, I think I can improve on the way I annotate books and texts. Good annotations should corporate your own thought with the analysis of the passage.

Overall, English 2 is very enjoyable so far and I look forward to suggestions and future comments!

Are we suppose to read these books?

After reading this list of books, I was shocked by the content of them. Surprisingly I had read two of the books, Persepolis and The House on Mango Street. When reading the books for the first time, I did not realize how challenged the books were. After reading these descriptions from the banned books, I had a new view about the books.

These books are categorized as challenged readings because they, as far as I am concerned, definitely contained inappropriate contents and informations for readers. These books sometimes went against the norm of society and offered negative perspectives, which can provide a threat to the common belief and government. They also might be offensive and aggressive towards current beliefs. This is especially true if the readers are young individuals because they can't identify the rights and wrongs of the world yet. Thus, these books provide negative effects towards younger readers and may cause chaos within a community.

There is reason and merit between those who categorized these books as being dangerous because the books will ultimately educate young individuals in a negative way. Not only does the books affect young learners, they may cause many grown ups to rebel against the society, which will devastate the entire community. I think the books shouldn't be necessarily banned for eternity, but it shouldn't be recommended to readers either.

Personally, I wouldn't want to read these books unless I absolutely have to. One reason for this is that some of the books' contents are just against most of my beliefs and understanding of the world. another reason is that they do contain some inappropriate materials that I absolutely don't want to take part in. (like drugs, bullying, gambling, and offensive languages.) Again, I would not go very far to read most of the books marked illegal by the community.