It is interesting how many parallels I found between our books! When it comes to romance, both of my novels, The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, are definitely at the forefront. In The Orphan Master's Son, the Second Mate's wife was married and she showed interest in Jun Do. In both of my novels, the protagonists were tied down and showed interest in another woman. I think this is a neat contrast. Our novels are similar in that heart versus head conflict you talked about. The protagonists in both of my novels were confined by societal standards and thus were unable to leave their wives to follow their true desires. However, at the end of The Age of Innocence, the protagonist merely walks away from his love even though his wife is not around anymore. This was not because his love was a mother figure to him (like the Second Mate's wife was to Jun Do) but his actions mimicked those of Jun Do - the head, the rational part finally won over.
I like the fact that you mentioned the color yellow. I also talked about this color and how it can mean contrasting things such as friendship, love, and even infidelity. Your discussion about how this color represents love was great, and I like how you took that one step further and distinguished the "type" of love that this was - motherly.
I think this open question is one of the most interesting and moreover, I think you handled it very well with a well-written, organized essay. What you really did a good job of was portraying to the reader how essential this character is to Jun Do’s development as a person and a character. You play on her compassion, her wisdom, and her romanticism on the reader, and how all of these actions affect Jun Do and the man he is. The essential importance of this prompt is to discuss how the character affects the development of other characters, and I think this essay definitely does that. Not only do you do a wonderful job of highlighting all the woman’s qualities that help Jun grow, you assess the development of Jun’s character after he is affected by this woman. You talk about how Jun develops feelings of attachment, how he becomes more easily able to talk about his feelings, and the ability to think for himself about whether or not he is happy with the current situation he is in. Moreover, perhaps the most important development in Jun’s character is his need for love, and how this woman is able to provide him with the love that he really finds essential.
It is interesting how many parallels I found between our books! When it comes to romance, both of my novels, The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, are definitely at the forefront. In The Orphan Master's Son, the Second Mate's wife was married and she showed interest in Jun Do. In both of my novels, the protagonists were tied down and showed interest in another woman. I think this is a neat contrast. Our novels are similar in that heart versus head conflict you talked about. The protagonists in both of my novels were confined by societal standards and thus were unable to leave their wives to follow their true desires. However, at the end of The Age of Innocence, the protagonist merely walks away from his love even though his wife is not around anymore. This was not because his love was a mother figure to him (like the Second Mate's wife was to Jun Do) but his actions mimicked those of Jun Do - the head, the rational part finally won over.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you mentioned the color yellow. I also talked about this color and how it can mean contrasting things such as friendship, love, and even infidelity. Your discussion about how this color represents love was great, and I like how you took that one step further and distinguished the "type" of love that this was - motherly.
I think this open question is one of the most interesting and moreover, I think you handled it very well with a well-written, organized essay. What you really did a good job of was portraying to the reader how essential this character is to Jun Do’s development as a person and a character. You play on her compassion, her wisdom, and her romanticism on the reader, and how all of these actions affect Jun Do and the man he is. The essential importance of this prompt is to discuss how the character affects the development of other characters, and I think this essay definitely does that.
ReplyDeleteNot only do you do a wonderful job of highlighting all the woman’s qualities that help Jun grow, you assess the development of Jun’s character after he is affected by this woman. You talk about how Jun develops feelings of attachment, how he becomes more easily able to talk about his feelings, and the ability to think for himself about whether or not he is happy with the current situation he is in. Moreover, perhaps the most important development in Jun’s character is his need for love, and how this woman is able to provide him with the love that he really finds essential.