Cattgyeole

Araby, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 9/10 Araby  is one of my favorite short stories I’ve read. I first read this story in the British Literature class with Mrs. Jeong. At that time, I was very interested in Psychology, so I read  Araby  focusing on the psychological description of the boy. I also did a presentation about it analyzing the boy’s thoughts and behaviors from the point of Freud’s psychoanalysis. For example, the boy’s burning heart for Mangan’s sister is based on his id, his plan to go to the bazaar and make the girl fall in love with him can be his ego, and his behavior keeping the minimum obligation like doing the school work even though he sees nothing because of love can be his superego. These three elements contribute to the anguish the boy feels at the end, which is an epiphany. Preparing the presentation, I read  Araby  many times, but I felt new when I read it again in the World Literature class. I didn’t know that  Araby  has a se...

The Sisters, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 6.5/10 At the first time, I couldn't understand the story well because the descriptions and lines of the characters seemed unclear. So I searched about  The Sisters  on google, and I could get diverse analyses in many different aspects. One of the analyses I liked the most is that the death of Father Flynn represents the death of Ireland’s politics, economy, culture, and education. I thought this makes sense because James Joyce describes Dublin very negatively in  Dubliners  and uses the word ‘paralysis’ repeatably through  The Sisters , which can represent Ireland’s paralyzed religious community. Another analysis is that Father Flynn abused the boy. Old Cotter comments cryptically about Flynn but he does not say the clear reason for his comment. Also, despite the fact that the boy and Flynn were very close, the boy didn't look so sad and he seemed to feel a sense of liberation. Thus, the death of Flynn seems to be the ...

Gooseberries, By Anton Chekhov (1898) Rating: 8/10 In  Gooseberries , Ivan talks about happiness through his brother Nikolai’s story. I always have thought that the goal of our life is happiness. I thought that things like money, honor, and love can be small goals in life but they are just meant to reach happiness and the final goal is to be happy. However, Ivan says that happiness does not exist and when we become happy, the meaning and the goal of life disappear. Ivan’s view was chaos to me. If happiness does not exist, what do we live for? Is happiness really just satisfaction? Is happiness really just being buried in the present situation? Then do we need to attempt something constantly and never be satisfied with something? Chekhov’s short stories always make the readers think deeply about life.  The Lady with the Dog  made me think about true love and adultery, and  Gooseberries  made me think about happiness and the goal of our life. I do not know the cle...

The Lady with the Dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899) Rating: 7/10 First, I want to talk about the ending of this story. Actually, there is no clear ending in this story. The ending is opened, and it makes us wonder what will happen to the characters after the story ends. At first, I did not like this ending because it felt a bit uncomfortable. However, after reading the story for the second time, I realized that opened ending makes the readers   think about the author’s message more deeply by guessing the rest of the story and changed my mind. My guess is that the main characters will divorce their original wife and husband and start a new life together. However, it will not last long and they will break up again. I think adultery is like an illusion. It is provocative and makes them think it’s true love because it is unachievable. But if they divorce and remarry each other, that illusion will be broken because it will be less provocative than it used to be and they will face up to reali...