Choose one of the topics below and write a response in paragraphs (not an essay). Write a minimum of 150 words and a maximum of 200 words. Include at least one direct reference to the story through the use of a short quotation but do not quote more than 20 words total in your answer. Link to "A Man Like Him" full text at NewYorker.com
1.Write about something that surprised you, angered you, delighted you, or evoked any strong reaction as you were reading. Write about anything that stays on your mind after reading.
2. Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the writing. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion?
3. Does this work confront or confirm your personal beliefs? Explain.
NOTE: Please finish all work before your class on Wednesday, May 5.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Question 1:
Yiyun Li had me reacting from the very first page of her story, “A Man Like Him.” Teacher Fei “[flings] a magazine across the room,” reacting to the girl in the fashion magazine and then, ironically, feels “himself beyond the trap of useless emotions.” He’s angry, that is clear. But why are emotions “useless” to him? His internal conflict made me curious to know more. Then we find that he, like the middle school children at the Internet café, is also “impersonating people”! Li’s story deals in the differences between what we see (or think we see) and what is real. His mother pretends dementia with Mrs. Luo. The children in the café cast “disapproving glances” at him, seeing (quite rightly) a “disgraceful old man.” There are “borders” between people, much like the sheet used to protect his elderly mother’s privacy. We think we know others, but, often do not. Painfully enough, Teacher Fei still believes he can see the “beauty and wisdom” of the girl in his class and of his own mother. Can he, truly? YiYun Li presents us with a complex and interesting protagonist and plot, but doesn’t answer that question, leaving us to wonder.
—198 words
This story for me was confusing and hard to follow. I read it twice and still don’t understand the point of the story. The reaction that it left behind is that the teacher was a confused and lonely person that needed help. I guess if I had to pick something that surprised me would have to be the behavior of Teacher Fei who looks at fashion magazines and goes to chat rooms. In the story he seems to think the young girls in the café were always looking at him, as though he was something good to look at. I didn’t like the comment that Teacher Fei said to the girls father; “We can’t blame a young girl’s imagination, can we?” It makes me think that statement was to justify how his own imagination works. The title fits the story just right; “A Man Like Him.” Why would anyone let a man like him be a teacher? Maybe I didn’t understand what the message of this story was supposed to leave in my mind, but what it left, I didn’t like.
1. What disappointed me is that so developed old Chinese nation felt down so low under dictatorship. It happened in Russia several times as well. So sad. People were put down by dictatorship. Some did resist, some did not. In our school I met a Chinese man in his 70s, who remembers that time. “We have a saying about talking in the kitchen where all the truth usually reviles. You can say something against the government between two of you, not three, for the third one would be the witness,” he claimed. There was half of the country of the “man like him”. Everybody understood it but kids. Kids, who believed into Mao’s politics, who grew up studying Russian at school, who were happy during the government holidays, who were able to reject their parents as enemies. We had it all in Russia. It hurts.
People go through several levels of resistance to the big problems in their lifes: active resistance, then, active grief, then, passive watching, then, death. The author shows the third stage which is close to death, but some hope presents: the main hero tries to resist again and tries to help another person encouraging him to resist. Otherwise, death is waiting for the second man: first, social death, disrespect for himself, then, physical death.
Teacher Fei’s mother went further, she jumped through the "death stage": she forgave that “sixteen-year-old girl”. “You should not feel upset by the girl,” she said.
2. How can you tell if their behavior was right or wrong for you had never experienced that situation yourself? Furthermore, if you experienced that situation yourself, you were involved, so, you were not able to have the objective opinion on the situation. There are always two truths. Nobody is right or everybody is right: same thing.
3. This work confirms my personal beliefs: life is not that shallow and easy if you are able to see it in depth. If you are still a kid, as that girl, everything is or white or black (with teenagers is always like that – the country or the century does not matter – they believe the government and a written word and do not believe their parents counting them between the most stupid once).
“A Man Like Him” by Yiyun Li creates complex situations. In this writing, Teacher Fei’s father, Teacher Fei and the girl’s father all suffered same situation—“making hasty and unfounded accusations” by someone or something. Under the “accusations”, Teacher Fei’s father was “from professor to toilet cleaner”; Teacher Fei became a “Pedophile”; the girl’s father became an “adulterer”. These “inventing crimes” are more powerful than law. It makes people believe their “crimes” and judge them. The judgment will affect their lives and destroy their future until dead. Like Teacher Fei’s father chosen suicide; Teacher Fei didn’t get marriage; the girl’s father become older than his real age. Facing such powerful strength, they are “nothing to say about this world”. Even though they want to say something, could one mouth defeat the thousands of mouths? Therefore, they suffered the “inventing punishments” in silence. In our society, certain things don’t simply define right or wrong. When we don’t “see through to the truth” (but usually people think they already find out the truth), we shouldn’t make them an accusation.
--177 words
There is a social issue hinted in Yiyun Li’s story “A Man Like Him.” The girl’s malice swear--“My father is less of a creature than a pig or a dog …”—really angered me firstly. Later, I calmed down, and tried to think in her shoes. Her hatred did not come with her birth. Her mother should have part of responsibility for it. As a devoted wife, husband having affairs with another is the most intolerable things, no matter it is true or a rumor. As a victim, the wife hates her husband, and plants the seeds of hatred on her daughter’s pure soul frequently. With her daughter’s growing up, the seeds sprout, grow, and distort her sense. As a 19 years old young adult, she does not have due legal consciousness, yet she just has hatred and revenge. Seeing daughter’s so aggressive actions, I think her mother should feel agonizing rather than pleased. Do you think for her future? She probably not only hates her father but also all man; she maybe can not get along well in society because of her vicious behaviors; she perhaps is afraid of stepping into marriage in future.
A fail marriage harms children worse than parents.
204 words
This is an interesting story, but it's not easy to get into at the first time in the beginning, especially for the readers who neither have the idea of the characters' special background nor the way of Chinese expressions, for an example, "My father is less of a creature than a pig or dog because he is an adulterer." What is the relationship between a pig or a dog and an adulterer? Perhaps pigs and dogs are very cute for many people. Unlike "The Ghosts" (we read in the first half of this term) or "Kira-kira" (I'm reading at home; the writer is a Japanese-American,) that both start elaborately in an introduction (in the first paragraph) to lead the reader into the probably unfamiliar space; this story directly gives out a very strong emotion to the reader that not only shocked me but also invites my curiosity to find/figure out what happen to those people—Teacher Fei, Fei's mother, the girl, and the girl's father. Those situations, such as teacher Fei's mother had no choice but said that, "I have nothing to say about this world," probably easily resonate with Chinese readers and the people who are or have been in the same situations. However, leave the part of “Cultural Revolution” in China, the writer successfully vividly describe the conflicts in the bottom of the heart of those people and some issues still might happen in our neighbourhood-- a broken family, a daughter with a malice, and an unmarried old man.
The story “A Man Like Him” is a much “made in” story. I agree with Lisa – it is hard to follow, boring and no message. It is a very “shallow” story, in my opinion, and no chance we can talk here about Chinese culture or communism. The author tries to keep the reader in hook for any price, often switching the subject and falsifying the play. I would never read this article till the end. “The weak-minded choose to hate,” is another madden hook for the reader. Yes, understanding, not anger, is what we need. But always? Can you understand person trying to “get” 10 years old girl? I even will not try… ever. And then another switch: “Pedophile.”
“I have nothing to say about this world,” says teacher Fei. The author is pretending to be a philosopher. I would say if you have nothing to say – say nothing.
White is white--has been for a long time--and black is black. And if the author is afraid to “walk down the street” in his own community, he is not able to take responsibility for the “A Man Like Him” message to the reader (if any).
196 wors
I tried to grasp what the writer tells her readers. I am still struggling to get the theme out of the story. First of all, there are two different worlds: a cyber world and a real world. Teacher Fei respects his rules and standards in the real world but when he entered the cyber world he was different. He wished had a young girl besides him and even sent truthful messages .Teacher Fei have had a bitter childhood memory as a adopted son from his cousins. He got the most dishonorable title as the result of being silent from the accusation while he was teaching at school. That was the critical reason why he didn`t get married. It was the same situation with the girl`s father. It matches what Teacher Fei`s mother often says, “ I have nothing to say about this world.” I could tell the bitterness, unfairness, cheerless and melancholy . However, I don`t have a clue if they have any common issue or meaning behind two women: the school girl and Teacher Fei`s mother. It says, “ their beauty and wisdom the saving grace for a man like him.” 195 words
I feel very pity on the man, Teacher Fei, Teacher Fei’s father after finishing reading. The man was accused of “an adulterer” by her daughter. Her daughter suspected that her father had a mistress while he got married with her mother. This accusation causes him look much older than his age. Also, teacher Fei’s father is sued for “a reactionary intellectual”. This leads to his father became a toilet cleaner and then he suicide himself because he was in despair. Furthermore, Teacher Fei was accused of “Pedophile” that affects his reputation and no any girls are willing to marry with him. I agree that Teacher Fei said that “the world will be a better place when one learns to see through to the truth instead of making hasty and unfounded accusations.” We always judge people only seeing the surface of events, not deeply understand whole truth of events. They surfer bad reputation and feel no hope in the world by our “inventing punishments” (163 Words)
Post a Comment