The second bakery attack by Murakami Haruki

 The story begins with the couple waking up in the middle of the night, both feeling immense hunger. They try to satisfy the hunger with the food they have (onions, beer), but it doesn’t go away. Then, the husband tells his wife about his first bakery attack, and the story of hearing to classic and getting the bread. He intended to ‘steal’ the bread, but instead he ‘exchanged’ it with hearing the music. Wife suggests that it has a curse on them now, and they should commit a bakery attack to resolve the issue. They get prepared; ski mask, gun…and finds a McDonald’s and attacks it. They rob 30 hamburgers and eats it, and as the sun rises, the story ends. 


 Although this story was based on magical realism, the ‘magic’ in this story was slightly more realistic compared to other stories we learned. Yes, a couple attacking McDonald’s at night with a shotgun is magical, but it is not that extensive compared with old man with wings, dragon in the house, or a handsome drowned man. 


 The purpose of the couple’s McDonald attack was first, to resolve the extensive hunger and second, to get away from the curse. But I thought that there is no reason for them to justify their attack, and I thought that the story flow was irrational. If I was hungry in the middle of the night, I would drink water a lot or go out to 24hour-convenience store and buy stuff, not robbing the food shop. I also do not fully understand the ‘curse’ of the first bakery attack. Yes, it is true that the husband felt somewhat eerie after listening to classics and got the bread, but I don’t know why the wife so eagerly tries to resolve the supposed ‘curse’ that is on them. 


 It was interesting to see some elements in the story helps the story flow and provide meaning. During their McDonald’s attack, there is a couple sleeping on the table, not noticing their attack at all. This gives more magical aspect to the attack, as something happens (to the McDonald’s employee and the attackers) and not happens (to the sleeping couple) at the same time. The husband alludes the couple to ‘deep sea fish’, and I think it is a good example because deep-sea fish usually have poor eyesight and ignorant of nearby changes. The rising sun, gives a proper ending to the story, since the story starts in the night and continues, and as the couple devours the hamburger and resolves the hunger, the sun rises, marking the end of the curse and the story. Well….not much as James Joyce but still quite good.

St. George by Gail Godwin

 The story is about a lonely PhD student named Gwen, when she unexpectedly starts to keep a dragon in her house. The dragon eats jewelry, and makes the house into a mess. But in the other hand, the dragon makes Gwen happy since he gives some happiness and makes her busy in a good way. But, the dragon becomes too big, and Gwen decides to kill him, but she fails. Her boyfriend(?) comes by and takes the dragon for fresh air, but the St. George escapes to the river and swims away.

I think it’s a bit ironic about the dragon’s name, St. George, because originally St. George is the man who killed the dragon. Maybe Gwen was a bit tired of her English PhD thing and named the dragon like it. 


 This story is magical realism, which Gwen’s ordinary life and the magical dragon co-exists and makes a story. The city’s status is magical too, since Gwen says that she don’t know nothing about the people in the city (which can’t be possible). This magical aspect emphasizes Gwen’s loneliness and makes her to pay more attention to St. George. 


 As I searched the internet, I found an interesting information that the author, Gail Godwin, was actually a graduate student who was divorced. Gwen in ‘St. George’ is a lonely graduate student, and things do not go very well to her. I think Gail Godwin reconciled her actual life with her fictional story to write St. George. Maybe she hoped something interesting (and something which will entertain her) to happen in her life, since she was supposedly lonely when she wrote St. George. 


 St. George is certainly very expensive to keep, and craves even more when Gwen feeds him jewelries. I think this is somehow similar with the ‘pleasure’ in Buddhism. Buddhism tells people that when they crave for pleasure, the instant the individual succeeds one pleasure, new desire for new pleasure emerges, which makes one individual crave for more and more. This somewhat reminds me of ‘fame’; if I gain popularity, I’ll be wanting for more popularity therefore there is no down-grade on this.


 So, I think St. George depicts the author’s sense of duty for the fame. Artists and Authors have to make their creations popular to gain money. But for them, if they make their new creation less perfect then their last creation, they usually get criticized for getting immature. They are expected to make their new creations better than their latest one, and this can cause stress to them. This is similar to the dragon which have to be fed with more and more jewelries, and causes more trouble as it grows.

The handsomest drowned man in the world by Gabriel Marquez

This story takes place in a remote fishing village, which was very peaceful and complacent. The story begins when some children at the beach finds a dead man covered with sea debris. Later the villagers found the dead man and took him back to the village, and they try to deal with this issue.  Man of the village tries to find the men’s identity by asking nearby villages, and woman at the village cleans up the man and prepares for his funeral. Then something funny happens. Woman of the village, while preparing for the dead man’s funeral, all starts to realize that the dead man in front of them, was in fact the handsomest man in the world. They imagine fake fantasy stories about him, gives him the name ‘Estevan’, and compares him with their husband and their village. The man comes back and makes a water burial to ‘Estevan’. After ‘Estevan’ left the village, the villagers change, such as making their door big and planting flowers, to remember ‘Estevan.’ 

 I enjoyed the overall story, since the story was written in a kind of humorous tone, and there was a happy ending. If I see the story as a children’s bedtime story, I think this is so-so story. But I think that this story has some kind of meaning, and the characters in the story actually depict something. The overall storyline of a not-so-unique village changing to a beautiful village after some magical people’s arrival (and departure), makes me think that ‘Estevan’ is sort of ideology or religion which people got affected. Well, the story was written by Marquez, who is Colombian, and South America was heavily influenced by westerners (like it or not) starting from colonial period. So, ‘Estevan’ can be some foreign thing which gave benefit to the ‘remote fishing village’, which is Colombia. 


 I think this story follows a hero’s journey, as the entering to the magic world begins by the arrival of ‘Estevan’, and ends by the departure of him. The story begins because of him, continues because of him, and ends because of him. 


 Also, the story is a good example of magical realism, which is a term meaning a story which happens in the ordinary world but have certain magical elements which helps the flow of the story. Presence of ‘Estevan’, who can be handsomest man in the world, the fact that he is so well-preserved after drowning, and the size of him is magical, but because of him the story can flow. 


 After reading this, I thought for a while that whether there was ‘Estevan’ in my life, a element which came up to me and changed myself. Although it is not that magical, the element which changed my life in a good way is fish, birds, and insects. One day I realized that they are so amazing (don’t know the date…) and it changed ‘ordinary me’ to ‘nature guy’. I think everyone has these experiences…what’s yours?

"Araby" by James Joyce

 From a distance, James Joyce’s "Araby" might appear as a story showing a failure of love. The narrator of the story is ‘I’, whose name is not presented within the passage. ‘I’ have a crush on his friend’s older sister, and he suffers from the emotion of love. When he gets an opportunity to appeal to her by going to the Araby bazaar and buying her something, he really looks forward to it and anticipates very much. But, after arriving at the bazaar and realizing that the bazaar is not like a ideal place which he thought, the narrator feels epiphany, which he realizes that his love isn’t ideal.

 After all, when the nameless narrator depicts his behavior and emotions throughout the story, it helps the reader to dive deeper and empathize with the main character. The main character is a young boy, which he looks the world in his sense, as depicted in the fourth paragraph. He also uses allusion to explain his feelings of love, thinking like “my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.” This shows that he feels love in a very pure and emotional way, believing love as a divine thing, which is separated with the ordinary world. The depiction of the complex emotions of childish love, and an anxiety toward it is shown well during the passage.

 However, on the other hand, not only his emotions and behaviors but also the depiction of the objects throughout the story shows the narrator’s emotions too. As shown in “but the porters moved them back, saying that it was a special train for the bazaar.” or “In front of me was a large building which displayed the magical name.”, narrator’s expectations for the bazaar and the hope of buying something which can appeal to Mangan’s sister is alluded in his words. Also, when the dissatisfaction of the bazaar and his childish love is felt by the narrator, the background is said as “The upper part of the hall was now completely dark.” , which I think collaborates well with the current emotion of the narrator.

 Therefore, it is perhaps more accurate to assume that "Araby" isn’t a simple short story, but a story which contains various allusions. Most of the materials shown in the story has its own meaning, (such as the ‘spike’ which Mangan’s sister holds) which resembles Chekov’s Gun. During the course of the passage, it is shown that the narrator, although being in similar age with his friends, is more mentally grown. Sentences like “Her brother and two other boys were fighting for their caps, and I was alone at the railings.” shows that the narrator had exited the child stage, and feels love as he goes into puberty.

I think this story is better than ‘the student’ because this story is easy to empathize, since most of us have the situation which we had first felt love in elementary school or in middle schools.

"The lady with the dog" by Anton Chekhov

 From a distance, Anton Chekhov’s "The lady with the dog" might appear as simple story which the characters cheat against their spouses. But although the content of the story isn’t much educating, I think that the description of the emotional elements is outstanding. Not just focusing on the ‘love’ itself, the story shows the background of their feeling of love, and their conflicting moments when the internal intent, love, is restricted by outside factors, such as distance or the people around them.

 After all, when the nameless narrator describes the female character as ‘The Lady with the dog’, he may want to provide the character some mystic aspect. But as Gurov’s feeling toward the character changes throughout the story, as he engages with her, her name within the story changes to ‘Anna’, which shows the intimacy between them.

At the first part of the story, the relationship between Gurov and the lady seemed to be a transitory, since the place of their meeting, Yalta, was their temporary place to stay. But as story progresses, the temporal attraction to each other developed into the feeling of love.

 Gurov constantly checks if someone is around them when they are kissing at ---, but when he later meets Anna again at the theater, he ignores the presence of observers(students) and kisses Anna.  This means that at first Gurov’s feelings were somehow shallow, not wanting to be exposed to others. But as their love progresses, Gurov starts to take risks like the incident described above, and planning a new life with Anna.

 The story is open-ended, as Gurov and the Anna starts to discuss about their future plans. At this state, Gurov is feeling exhausted about his family and his wife, and Anna is feeling miserable about her life with her husband. Although they are married, and in case of Gurov, have children, they are both not satisfied to their life. So, they are both in pursuit of finding more satisfying person instead of their partners. I think this is the reason for Gurov and Anna to be attracted to each other so quickly, only a week after they had made their first acquaintance.

“The student” by Anton Chekhov

 This is the shortest short story I’ve ever read. In the story, Ivan Velikopolski, a student and the son of the priest goes through the harsh winter weather and visits the widow’s garden, where two widows live in. While first woman, Vasilisa, is a bit talkative, the second woman Lukerya sits still and frowns. And then Ivan tells them the story of Peter and the denial of the Jesus, which makes Vasilisa cry and Lukerya frowns. And then Ivan heads home filled with happy feelings.

 The story is a bit awkward at the first glance, since the story ends with no apparent conclusion. Also, the correlation between the characters aren’t mentioned specifically in the text, so we have to guess the stories.

 For example, what was the reason Vasilisa cried when she heard Ivan’s story? I think the Peter and ‘denial’ of the Jesus have somehow touched Vasilisa’s emotions, and it can be inferred that maybe, the memory related to her husband made her cry. Although the story how the two women got widowed isn’t mentioned in the passage, maybe there was some kind of ‘denial’ or ‘dissatisfaction’ related to Vasilisa’s lost husband.

 In the story, there is a story within a story, which is the story of Jesus. Although the story doesn’t seem to have a coherence with the overall story (dissociation between cold Russian winter and Jesus’s suffering?), the story acts as a main factor which makes the emotional change within the characters. This emotional change is depicted in the weather’s change, which at first Ivan feels the weather “cold that had suddenly come on had destroyed the order and harmony of things”, but in the end he thinks the weather condition as “ cold crimson sunset (….)without interruption to this day”.

 The word ‘east’ appears on the first paragraph and in the last paragraph, the word ‘west’ appears. I think this means something related to the opening and termination of the overall story, since the word ‘west’ means ‘death’ in some circumstances.

The place which only exists within my memory

 I remember the Indian statue at the gate of the village. I remember the shallow stream, so clear that I could see my reflection clearly. I remember the zelkova tree beside the stream, and the thick bushes too. I remember me catching minnows on the stream, hours after hours, and the calling sounds of frogs at night. I remember the small fireplace, right outside the small, worn-down house where my family sat together, talking all night. I remember the mold-smelling pillows and malfunctioning refrigerator. I remember the hikes our family did, and foot volleyball which I played with my brothers. The place, all gone.

 Will the memory last long, in a situation where all things related to that memory are gone? Ever since you were 8 years old, every summer your family visits a house located near Jiri mountain. The house belongs to your grandmother’s relative. The place is calm, perfectly silent except the continuous sound of stream flowing and the birds singing, interrupted occasionally by bypassing cars on the nearby road. The stream you see is a bit wide, but never deep, only about 30cm. You can see numerous fish, freshwater insects, and some birds come to the stream to drink water. In some years, your family stays for one day, but most of the time few days more. The house is very small, and everything is a bit malfunctioning. Hot water doesn’t come out, the tiles are broken, some lights don’t turn, and everywhere is mold small, but you don’t mind. You’re juse purely focused on playing in the stream with your brothers. We shoot water guns at each other, poured water with a bucket, and the favorite part for you is observing fish. By simply wearing your swimming goggles and holding your breath, you can see numerous fish swimming up and down the stream, usually silvery color but sometimes strikingly brown-orange color too. You catch aquatic snails a lot, clinging to a rock. After playing for few hours, your family would have lunch or dinner, which all members gathered and talking cheerfully. You feel that this place is the ‘secret place’ which nobody knows, and enjoys the beauty of the place.

 Maybe it was my misperception. One year, when our family re-visited the place, there was a dramatic change. Construction trucks and bulldozers were done cleaning up the place approximately 10m apart from the house. My uncle asked the guys at the site what was going on, and the guys said that they bought the land near our house, and they’re building a camping ground to gain money. When I reached the stream, I was sad and also angry, because the guys which bought the land made an artificial concrete-dam o create a swimming pool for the campers. The dam changed the waterflow all over, and some part of the stream was completely dried. As expected, all the frogs and fish were gone. The place I always remembered was a quiet, natural place which influenced me, but the place now was almost equivalent to city-streams. Maybe I was affected by it a lot, since I dreamed of the place several times even after a few years had passed. Although I don’t remember the place in daytime, maybe I was thinking of that place in my inner mind.

 If the place was about the same as before, I would have visited there every year, but after the construction of the camping ground, I don’t visit the place. I simply didn’t want to see a healthy stream changing to unhealthy stream, quiet to noisy, natural to artificial. Even though I was at young age, even though I was thinking in a self-centered way, I become pretty sad if I recall that memory. Memories of the good childhood, memories that can only be recalled inside of my mind, memories which contain elements which doesn’t exist now.

 I felt that the thing which I loved, could be gone and only be recalled by memories. Therefore, I started to enjoy the present state and try to make my life remarkable and easy to remember. Because I know that present things, will all become memory in the future.