* Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you. Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.
“…Simon was dead-and Jack had…The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island…” (Page 184)
When reading this passage, I had a flashback when I was in first grade. This passage is significant and meaningful to me because I had once underwent a similar situation as Ralph did in the passage. Because I experienced such thing, I was able to sympathize and understand how Ralph felt.
I once had a moment where I tried to endure all the sadness and anger, but had to burst out tears at one point. I came to Korea from the Untied States when I was in first grade. Korea was an absolutely different place with a different culture compared to America. I could clearly tell the difference at that time and I even felt the difference. I really liked the American culture that children in America yielded to each other and was kind towards each other. However, I realized that Korean kids were tougher, more aggressive, and were not educated to yield their friends. One day, I was playing in the playground while waiting for my mom to pick me up from school. At that time, I didn’t have many friends because I was new to Korea. I had to do everything by myself. Since I did not know anyone at the play ground, I was riding the swing alone. However, some of the guys who seemed to be older than me approached me and demanded me to get off the swing. I was dumbfounded because I never faced this kind of situation. In America, my friends took turns and played together, but it was not like how it was in the States. I didn’t know what to say, so I was forced to get off the swing. I did not understand why I had to get off the swing. I couldn’t even fight against them because they were bigger than me. So I sought for another thing to play with. Therefore, I was playing in the sand. As I played all by myself, some kids came up to me asking what grade I was in. I said that I was in first grade with awkward Korean, and they replied surprisingly, “What? You are in first grade? How come you are so short? We are in first grade too.” Deep inside, I was hurt by what they had said. Right after they commented on my appearance, they started teasing me about my short height calling me a peanut. I told them to stop and I expected them to stop because my friends in America never called me like that and I was not used to it. However, they were very aggressive and they played on me. They threw sand on me and pushed me around. I kept the anger and sadness in my heart because I did not want to lose to them. In Korean culture, if you show tears in front of them, it shows that you are a loser. I had to bear the bullies and just hoped that my mother would come quickly.
My mother arrived school after a while. I was dirty with sand covering me, and I was depressed after all the teasing and bullying. My mom ran towards me with a big smile and she asked, “How was school today, Bryan?” Immediately, I burst out tears and kept crying. I continued to cry for about ten minutes sitting there in the playground, while my mom was trying to console me.
When reading the very last part of the novel, I reminisced of this past memory. Looking back the past made me feel very sad. I found this passage very meaningful to me because it reminded me of the hardships I had when I first came to Korea. In addition, this passage was significant to me while reading the book because I believe this was the part where I sympathized and understood Ralph’s feelings the best. Like what I underwent, Ralph was at a new environment. Ralph was left alone in the end, and he was chased after his peers. Thankfully, a rescuer appeared in front of him, just like my mom appeared in front of me at that time. Ralph had never cried before during his life in the island, but he had to, he could not bear his feelings any longer, which result him sobbing in front of the man. I really thought this passage was doleful. I absolutely understood how Ralph felt, and that is why this was very meaningful to me.
1 comments:
I'd like to comment on all the posts, but I want to comment on a lot of people so I'm leaving some words on this post.
You chose this specific passage because you sympathized with it. I found this fact interesting, since most of the people chose passages that seem important to the story.
Yeah, that passage is meaningful. Breaking down under all the pressure after you finally find someone to take you out of it all is really.. um, happy? Well, it's really heartbreaking.
In my case, I quite know what it feels like to undergo so much hardships and arrive at what you'd call, a 'refuge.'
I moved to America when I was a bout four years old. During my five years in California, I forgot my mother tongue and returned to Korea as a total non-Korean speaking girl. I learned Korean desperately for three months, and started in second grade, elementary school. I couldn't communicate with other people except for saying my name and that I can't speak Korean since I came from America.
Straight to the point, I was treated like a foreigner. I played with some kids, and the teacher was really nice. I couldn't write Korean, so I copied whatever was written on my deskmate's notes. I hated Korean food, and some of the kids would call me names just because I couldn't understand how bad they were. I was teased regularly, and was avoided easily because I was taller than the rest of my classmates (opposite situation of yours, but not any better).
One day when I was in third grade and I finally was able to speak Korean a bit properly, the whole class rounded up on me. No, not like ten guys. Thirty kids. Thirty. Maybe a ouple more than that.
One guy shoved me and asked me what was wrong with me. I asked what was wrong with him. Then the class president (boy) showed me a card. It had a drawing of a coulpe and a sentence that teased the class presidents (boy and girl) as a couple. The card had my name on the bottom.
Oh wow.
No person who has an IQ over 50 would give away their name like that, right? I was so dumbfounded. The class president was a friend of mine, and he was really nice to me. And to turn on me like that!
The boys in our class started to hit me. Like yeah, not the weak shoves, but like real punches and kicks. SAVE doesn't exist in third grade, huh?
I got so mad, that I did something that was one of the most memorable moments of my life. FYI, the class president was really short (shorter than you, Bryan, and he's in Canada right now and still a similar height). PS, I was pretty tall.
I kicked the him across the face as if you'd slap a person with your hand.
And then the teacher came in and saw that happen.
The teacher came, found what was going on, and discovered that the card's handwriting was not mine ( I still suck at handwriting you know), and my deskmate (another stupid guy) was the guilty one of sending the card. My deskmate was punished severly, and I later had my turn to give him a taste of his own medicine. The whole class apologized to me, and I never spoke to the class president again until three years ago when I was in seventh grade.
I cried a lot that day after kicking that dude across the face.
I apologized to him four years after I kicked him, during summer vacation.
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