My Position……

Finally, the position paper is finished and submitted on 27^th March.  My thesis statement is “Fantasy ruins Mathilde’s life” on the story “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant.

          According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word “fantasy” carries three meanings. The first one is “a pleasant situation that you imagine but that is unlikely to happen”. The second is “a product of your imagination”. The third is “the act of imagining things”. Fantasy happens for everyone.  It cannot be denied that we always have the state of fantasy. We dream of the things that we do not have. We hope for the situation that we long for. It sometimes helps to relax oneself when enter to the state of fantasy.

          It is not wrong if we sometimes fantasize something or “daydreaming”. Anyway, when we back to reality, we have to do something to make our dreams come true.  We should put on effort; try our best and luck to achieve what we dream for. We should consider our situation and the unpredictable challenges, and at the meantime appreciate for what we have while attempting our goals. 

          If we continue to make unrealistic grand dreams, I am sure there will be more examples of “Mathilde” that only emphasize on physical appearance and material possessions.

The Girl Who Was Not Satisfied With Simple Things

The girl in this story was unsatisfied with a life that is as ordinary as other girls in her village. She is too particular in things in her life, so as to find a perfect person to be her husband. She has complaints about the young men in her village. For her, appearance is far more important than other things. Thus when she first met with the handsome young man, she was attracted by his outmost appearance and decided to go with him even in the night.

                I think many people have the same problem with the girl in this story, always judge people on their look and appearance. Appearances can often be deceptive. Sometimes, judging by appearance can be misleading. If we need to maintain good relationship with others, the inner beauty of mind and good behaviour is far more important.

When the girl found out that the handsome man is actually a horned serpent, she was thinking of a way to run away. The girl is conscious for her mistake and is brave enough to escape from the serpent. With her courage and dedication to an old man’s advice, she saved herself and helped the old man Heno, the Thunderer to get rid of the serpents. My thoughts on this: do we really notice our mistake and failure that we made? Are we strong enough to make the things better? Are you able to repent from your wrong decision and amend the consequences of the decision? The girl is the lucky one. She was provided help and guidance. Do we really seek help from others when we face problems?

“Back at home, the girl put her experience and the power that she had gained to the good of her people.  But she always advised the younger ones to be satisfied with simple things. Not everyone listened to this advice, of course. ”

We should always listen to advices and be wise to make decision before something bad happens. We should also share our experience with others as to prevent them from making the same mistake like us.

This story is useful to advice our students to be satisfied with simple things and be mindful of the little things in life. We should always appreciate for what we have, especially the love of family.   

“I Have a Dream”

A 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on Augus 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

I found the speech very powerful and effective because of its words and expressions which are very persuasive. The rhetoric in the speech never fails to move the audience. Martin Luther King had delivered the speech amazingly and amusingly because it stems from heart.

After listening to his speech, I found that he was excellent at using the verbal elements of delivery, which are pronunciation and enunciation, projection, inflectional, cadence, and the pause.

The speech showed not only what a great speaker Martin Luther King was but also the depth of his spiritual awareness. He was a great man. Together with other brave men and women, he transformed American society from a fake democracy into one in which all people can participate and achieve. The miraculous aspect of his great work is that he transformed an openly racist culture into one of tolerance almost overnight and led a spiritual transformation of the nation.

“Cross” by Langston Hughes

The persona in the poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes brings some issues of identification and racial prejudice.

The persona is frustrated of his identity. He is a child of a rich white man and a poor black woman. He is a “halfbreed” person that suffered abuse from both blacks and whites since he didn't fully belong to either race.

The poem is the representative of the mindset and segregation of races during Langston Hughes times, it implies that the persona battled with identity and blaming his parents. The persona could not heritage what his rich father have but to suffer the life of black society. The death of the persona’s  parents tell the difference of the privilege and poverty of the multiracial society. Langston Hughes is trying to convey the state of racial ambiguity that mixed race people feel.

Times are changing and world is becoming more and more integrated now. Multiracial society is very common in Malaysia. There are new generations with mixed races, religions and cultural background. Thus this poem is suitable in Malaysian’s literature classroom. Some mixed race people nowadays are proud of their identity as they have more heritage and benefits from different races. They have chances to learn another culture or religion. They can learn a new language easily.

The most challenging issue in multiracial society is the adaptation and integration of different races. Thus, “respect” is a great lesson to be learnt. Our students should be taught the value of respect to different races.

As a teacher, I always come to children from interracial families. Take my class for example, I have a student with a Chinese father and a Murut mother. The other has a Melanau father and a Chinese mother. I found that their language proficiency is better than the others. They can speak Bahasa Malaysia well. This is because they have more practice on this language at home. I always tell them that they are lucky as they can learn more different languages and cultures.  Sometimes, they help in my teaching too. I seek translation of words in their language, and use them in some of my induction sets. The other students think it is funny to learn new things.

My conclusion, not matter what races are we, we should appreciate what we have and live our time in great meaning.

The Hare and The Tortoise

We are no longer familiar for this fable. When I was a child, I was told not to learn the arrogant rabbit which makes fool of the tortoise. I was also taught not to look down upon those who are weaker or unlucky than us. Anyway, as I grow older, I have different thoughts and inspirations about this fable.

The tortoise neither represents weak nor unlucky. He is a creature with great wisdom. He is a valiant tortoise, who manages to win a race despite his physical limitations. Although being teased by the hare, he accepted the challenge and performed his best in the race. He brings a message that “no matter what the odds and what seem to be impossible tasks, if we keep going we will get to the target”. It shows that constant small steps of improvement every day brings great changes.

The hare presents a negative example: he makes the foolish mistake of assuming he can win the race without even trying. As a result of his overconfidence, he loses the race. The big failure of the hare is to take advantage of his natural abilities. He thinks he will definitely wins the race easily, thus he is not alert of what is going on. This fable proves that many people who have good natural abilities but could not succeed in the end, because they are ruined by idleness and arrogant.

The slow movement of tortoise reminds me a girl in my class. This girl does her works slower than the other students. Sometimes most of the students finished their writing but this girl just take out her exercise book from her bag. I am sometimes lost patient for her slowness in action. But there is something good about her. Her writing is nice and neat, and she will definitely submit her work the next day. I think this girl captures the philosophy of tortoise, steady wins the race. In the meanwhile, I should always encourage her to do her work within the hours as a way to train her well.

“The hare and the tortoise” captures the philosophies of success. Instead of getting full of ourselves and stopping like the hare, we should keep trying our best until the end like the tortoise.

Are you a hare or a tortoise?
(The drawing below is from a student in my school.)



Pyramus and Thisbe

 The tragic myth of Pyramus and Thisbe concerns love, faith and sacrifice. Parents of Pyramus and Thisbe opposed the relationship between Pyramus and Thisbe for reasons not explained in the story. But the love between Pyramus and Thisbe is so strong that they disobey the will of their parents and run away. Anyway, the power of fate thwarts the plans of the young lovers when the lioness finds Thisbe’s lost veil and chews at it with jaws stained with the blood of another animal. Since they are forbidden by their parents to be together in mortal lives, thus it seems the fate that Pyramus and Thisbe have to sacrifice themselves for each other to meet in the other realm of live.

Issue that can be discussed with students about this myth is the conflict between parents and children. If parents are not agreed to children in any context, they should talk or discuss with them. Children too have to seek advice from their parents if they face problems. Only good communication in the family can avoid misunderstanding and bad luck.