the response to the elephant vanishes

I do not understand this short story well. But i guess the elephant represents a world view of the author. As we all know, elephant is mild, it will not hurt people in general. It represents a harmonious world the the author yearned for. So the disappear of the elephant represents the disappear of the harmonious world the author yearned for.

presentation

I bought a little city

     Hello, everyone. Today we are going to talk about a short story--I bought a

little city written by Donald Barthelme. Let’s have a brief introduction of 

Donald Barthelme. He was one of the most influential American writers of the late  

20th century. He ranks with Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, John Barth, John 

Hawkes, Don DeLillo and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. as a leading light of the postmodernist  

movement in literature.

    Now let’s have a short review of what happened in this short story. A man bought a little city but it suits him just fine. So he starts to change it. He

creates a new residential area in the shape of a Mona Lisa jigsaw puzzle, shoots

six thousand dogs, and reminds those who complain that he controls the jail and

the police. And as the owner of the city, he showed his love to a resident who

has husband already. At the end he found that he had messed his people up, then

he sold the city.

       Now let’s talk about the short story. Do you find that the word “ “imaginative” appear many times in this story? We will use the word as clue to analysis the story, in my part i will analysis the owner’ s psychology changes through the appearance of these word. And Wind will analysis the reaction of his people toward him and talk about the issue of the short story.

As you can see in the powerpoint, i have list the appearance of the word in order.

     The first time it appears when the owner determined to change his city. He said we didn’t want try to be imaginative.

The second time, the third time and the forth time it appears when the owner started to create a new residential area. He said but I didn’t have any ideas about new housing, except that it shouldn’t be too imaginative. And The only thing I don’t like about it is that it seems a little imaginative. And we didn’t want to call the development anything too imaginative

During this period, the owner tried not to be imaginative because he wanted to do something for his people and he did do something for them. Imaginative means fantasy, if the owner fancied about he was the king of this city and he could do everything he wanted all the day, then he would be selfish, he would not care about his people. So he tried not to be imaginative.

His attitudes changed from killing the dog, he wanted to do something to satisfy himself, this is a part of the reason he decide to kill 6000 dogs. He became selfish that he threatened his people and covet his people’s wife.

    The last two times the word appears in this period when he blamed himself in the end of the short story. He found he had been imaginative and messed his people up. He said probably I went wrong by being too imaginative, although really I was guarding against that.

    As  I have said the owner’ s psychology changes through the appearance of these word. At the beginning he wants to do something for his people, he cares about his people, and then changes to he cares about himself. But what is the reaction of his people towards him through the change? Let welcome Wind to talk about it.

As we already know the narrator’s series of psychological changes, let’s focus more on citizens’ reactions towards him. At the beginning, when the narrator tells everybody they do not need to move and he will change the city gradually, citizens are pleased and suspicious. They have no idea about this new owner of this city and they also do not want to change too much overnight. So they will keep on their life and see what the new owner will do.

When the narrator asks a block of citizens to move to a fancy hotel, they are delighted as they have wanted to stay at the Hotel all their lives and never have a chance before. They are satisfied with the new owner and support his decision. No one will deny the fancy hotel, right?

When the new park is built, they like that which they haven’t had before. And there is already a black man playing bongo drums there. The narrator dislikes it and decides to stop him, but he does not. The black man does not know it, but when he knew, he would appreciate the new owner’s tolerance.

When the narrator is planning to build new house, he solicits opinions from one original occupant, and they did it and it didn’t work out badly. Yes, not badly, there is only one man who is not satisfied with it. He is angry because he feels he is living in a gigantic jiveass jiasaw puzzle. However, we can not figure out how many people are not satisfied with their new house. There may be other potential occupants who do not like it. Why, because they dare not to criticize the new owner. Or they know the intent is good. Now, some people is beginning to be unsatisfied.

And when the narrator kills more than 6000 dogs, the conflict becomes fiercer. One man argues with the narrator and he thinks the narrator is a black-hearted man. Why? Because when he argues that he has no child and the dog is their own pet, the narrator just says “well, I am sorry about that, but I own the city.” He is so perfunctory and relies on his status to threaten the man. Undisputed, the man will hate the narrator and blame the narrator. Also, we can imagine that more people is satisfied with the new owner. Now, let’s see his intent of killing the dog. He wants to enjoy himself and killing dogs gives him great satisfaction, as well as improves the city for a better. After killing the dog, he writes an editorial describing himself as the devil. He understands that this action is now proper, but he wants to play a joke because he is the owner.

And from now, he is trying to abuse his right. The cop is humiliated because his responsibility is to guard the city instead of delivering food.

And there is one interesting moment, when the narrator asks Sam’s wife, Tell me, do you love me? The wife answers a little bit but they already have 3 children. Let’s analysis this answer. Before the narrator asks her, the narrator already knows that she is Sam’s wife but he still covets her. May she really loves him a bit because he is the owner of the city, when she is the narrator’s wife, she will become rich and powerful, happy ending. But, I think she is afraid of the narrator. She is aware of the narrator is a little capricious as he kills more than 6000 dogs. She is frightened that he may revenge her family if she says she does not love the narrator not at all. She scares his power, she wants to be cautious so she answers a little. It is a reasonable answer. It is the first time she meets the narrator and it’s almost impossible for her to fall in love with him suddenly and a bit implies she admires him maybe for his achievement. And she says she has 3 children to reject the narrator politely. It’s just an episode bu 

The link of the powerpoint:  http://pan.baidu.com/s/1c0xuNegt we can infer that more people are becoming afraid of him. 

Response to a bought a little city

I want to talk about the word "Imagination" or "imaginative" which appears in this short story eight times.It is a little difficult to understand these words in this short story. The first four words i can understand that it means fantasy, at that time the manager care about his people and are selfless. But after some people complained his attitudes started to change since the fifth times the word appeared. He became selfish--he asked cop to buy KFC for him and killed dogs to satisfied himself(This is also a part of the reason why he kills dogs.) Then the word "Imagination" or "imaginative" means selfish. But i still do not understand the last two times it appears.Why he said god got a better imagination than he did. And that is a sample of his imagination, which one does this his refer to ?

The response to A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

The playground of this novel is about religion, as a Chinese teenager I do not have too much knowledge and interest about religion, especially Catholicism and Christian. Generally speaking, teenagers in China do not have faith of religion, it is a factor of being a member of The communist party. In this novel, the identity of the old man whether he is a real angel or not is not important, the emphasis is the attitude of resident toward the old man and their attitudes toward the old man compared with the spider which reflect their faiths.

response to the Lament

This story is very similar to a Chinese story written by Lu xun. The Chinese story tells a story that a woman's son was eaten by a wolf when the woman was busying with her farm work. After the woman knew that her son had been eaten by a wolf, the woman was very sad and told her story to everyone she met in the village.At first, every villagers showed their sympathy to the woman when they hear the story said by the woman two times or three times. But the woman said the story again and again, there was no one sympathized her anymore, and the woman still continued to say her story. In The Lament, the situation of the cabby was similar with the woman. Both of them were the unprivileged hierachy, their voice could not be heard even the basic demand of listening and sympathy could not be met.

Utopia final

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

Utopia

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 we see a large number of problems exist in the education system worldwide, like plagiarize or regional difference and partiality, 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. Monogamy is adopted in our Utopia and each family can have at most two babies.

vi. No critique is allowed, only compliment.

vii. The highest stratum——professors are not allowed to have children.

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 20 of them form the highest stratum of the Utopia. They are also the policy implementers.

What system is in place to enforce the rules? 

Representative and hearing system are used in the Utopia. Representative system is used as selecting out the professors to build the routine committee and typical children and parents as witnesses in a hearing meeting for public advice. 

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

Preliminary, we would assume that there should not be any infringement in our Utopia as the chip will guide the individual always do benefit to the society.

If there is any negligence, or in rare extreme cases that individual cannot perform ordinary anymore whether it is because psychiatric disorders or disfunction of the chip, we will withdraw the original chip in his or her head and implant a new one. The result will be that individual will lose everything he or she got after being implanted the original chip at 10 years old, including the IQ.

Response to part 4

In this part the author went to a town named Tsau where women have power. And this book is the reversed of the last book we read, things this book talks about is feminism. To be honest, this types of book does not interest me. The authors wrote this type of book at that time because at that time women did not have equal rights, then it was worth for the people at that time reading this book. But today, China and America both respect women, women here have the same right as men, and no one deny it. In this position, reading this types of book does no help to me.