Response: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

This story was quite disturbing to me, personally. I am not quite sure why, but it definitely shook me up. I was scared for Connie and was extremely disappointed and sad when she ended up going with Arnold Friend and Ellie in the car. I realize that she didn't necessarily want to do this, but the fact that she did was saddening. Ultimately, I thought that this story was a new sort of "coming-of-age" tale that focused on the harder aspects of growing up, rather than the cheerful and fun aspects that most stories focus on.

The beginning of the story is focused on showing the readers how desperately Connie wants to be separated from her family. The author spends most of those first few paragraphs describing how different Connie is from the rest of her family and I think that this is done in part to show Connie's perspective. While the story is not written with Connie as the narrator, I thought that this aspect of the writing gave great insight into Connie's perspective. The author does a great job of painting Connie's family in a negative light in order to show how she sees them and how she feels when she is around them. I think that this is a good representation of how many teenage girls feel at one point or another in the process of growing up. There is often a sort of alienation that is felt and the author shows that in her writing. This was all an effective method of setting up the main action in the story.

When Connie first sees Arnold at her house, she is not exactly eager to see him but she is also not completely opposed. She seems to be toying with the idea of at least talking with him. This playful spirit is quick to leave, giving Connie a sense of discomfort and fear. This is what often happens when a teenager first does something on their own; they get scared. There is excitement surrounding the idea of being on your own but fear is often an accompanying emotion because it is a new experience and there are lots of unknowns in the situation. In Connie's case, the fear is legitimate and should be attended to, while in other situations the fear should rather be overcome. Connie overcomes her fear of Arnold by screaming and releasing emotion. This might be a good strategy if the situation poses no real threat, but for her, it was a a bad choice.

The story ends as Connie walks out the door to Arnold, seemingly unaware of what she is doing. She sees the land all around Arnold and has no idea what is to come, but simply that she has just made the decision to go there. I saw this ending as one filled with consequences, concerns and fears. This is why this story saddened me. I wanted justice in the situation and for her to be strong in her decision to stay inside. But unfortunately, this is not always the case in real life situations, so it doesn't have to be in stories either.

Response: Saboteur

This is a very ironic story in which Mr. Chiu experiences injustice within the Chinese government and reacts in the only way that he knows how. He is wronged by police (government officials) and is forced into a moral dilemma in order to regain his freedom. This story has a lot to say about injustice in the world and how people are often forced to deal with it.
When I asked myself what this story was about, I came to the conclusion that it is ultimately about a cycle of injustice. I have always been incredibly bothered by stories of injustice, so reading this story got me fired up. I was very upset that the police treated this man the way that they did, despite my lack of jovial feelings towards Mr. Chiu. He wasn't a likable character as introduced in the story. The fact that he saw a honeymoon as an obligation and was happy to be through with it did not make me fond of him. I suppose that some of this could be attributed to the culture, but it was nonetheless a little bit disturbing. So despite his unlikable characteristics, I was still upset by the police and their actions. I was also upset by the way the prison keepers treated him. I thought that their characters represented the corrupting nature of power in a couple of ways. They were given a little bit of power within the system and they used it to exploit an innocent man. Then they used that same power to harm another innocent man. They were put in charge of very little so they used the power that they did have to harm others and make themselves feel more important.
I had a hard time reading the story when it got to the part about the lawyer and Mr. Chiu's decision to either lie and accept responsibility for the crime, in turn setting himself and the lawyer free, or to stick to his guns and remain in prison and take the lawyer's life as well. I was pleased, however, to see that Mr. Chiu chose the first option. He stopped the cycle of injustice (momentarily, as we will see) by accepting blame for something that he did not do. He showed compassion to his lawyer student and was humble enough to plead guilty for a ridiculous crime. This was encouraging to me, and made me think that the story might be describing the human condition in a more positive light. However, this wasn't the case.
When Mr. Chiu is freed from prison with the lawyer, he is not satisfied with his freedom as recompense for his time in prison and the injustice which he experienced. Instead, he knows that his body is ridden with illness and he chooses to spread that illness all over the town. Many people die from hepatitis after he goes on his dining spree, and this is where the cycle of injustice continues. The people that died were most likely in no way related to the corrupt prison keepers, yet they suffered.
After reading this story I began to question whether or not injustice and cruelty to each other is truly a cycle, or if the story is simply portraying it as such. I came to the conclusion that I think that we face a series of choices each day that can either help or harm others whether directly or indirectly and we need to be careful how we choose.

Response: In the American Society

I found this story to be very interesting and thought provoking. I think one of the main reasons for this was the separation that I felt between myself and the characters. I do not have any similar experiences to those written about in the book and my socioeconomic situation is different than that of the author and the characters. These differences helped me to see a different perspective and put myself in someone else's shoes.

One of the most interesting things about this story was the separation of the two "societies" to "his own" and "American society." It seemed to me that the father had separated the two societies in his mind and chose to live in his own society while being forced to live in American society. He approached business differently, interacts with his neighbors differently and simply lived in a different way than the people around him were living. This is evident in the way that he ran the diner and the manner in which he hired employees and dealt with their legal issues. He wasn't concerned with the issues that most American business owners deal with, such as legality of their employees, etc. He was more concerned with making money and being successful in the present, and ignored the potential for bigger issues.

The father also conducted his social life in a way that reflects his individual view of society. The way that he interacted at the party "in American society" showed that he still viewed himself as an outsider in a foreign society. He was unable to interact with the Americans comfortably because they seemed to lack a "common ground." This gave me insight into the lives of immigrants, not only years ago, but in today's society as well. I have not ever felt this way but I have neighbors that are from Korea and I have had similar encounters with them. Reading this story made me realize the possible extent to which immigrants might experience feelings of displacement or discomfort in their new environments.

Over all, to me this story was mostly about awareness. Through reading this story I felt like I was able to expand my horizons and better understand what an immigrant might feel when immersed in American culture for the first time. I also began to think of some of the ridiculous customs and traditions that we consider to be "norms" and how other cultures might perceive these customs. We, as a society, do not do a very good job of welcoming other cultures into our own and tend to expect people from other cultures to assimilate to our own quickly and without any difficulty. To me, this is a bad system and requires some updating. Unfortunately, that would require many changes to many different view points across an entire population.