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The Semplica Girl Diaries, George Saunders

The Semplica Girl Diaries, George Saunders  Rating 8.5/10 I thought this story showes the theme of materialism well, but it also has the theme of loss of morality. Especially, the narrator, Lily's father is most symbolic character who represent materialism. Instead of placing value to live in the moment with his family, he place value on material object and allows his happiness to be determined by these possesion. Also, by not revealing narrator's name, it tells us this story is not a specific person's or group's event, but it's widespread sense in capitalism society. On the other hand, Semplica Girl made me think of moral issues caused by materialism. In the story, Semplica Girls are used as garden ornament. But no one realize that this is morally wrong (only Eva notice it). It shows how morally obtuse people can be in a materialistic society. It was a story that I sympathized with because it revealed the problems emerging in modern society as the theme, so I rated...
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Eveline, James Joyce

 Eveline, James Joyce Rating: 8.5/10  Eveline, 19 years old girl, was living with  supporting his father as a child head of household. Her mother and brother died a few years ago, and her younger brother was also living far away. But after her mother died, she was abused by her father and eventually decided to leave to Buenos Aires with Frank, her lover. But she failed to leave.   Even though she could have gain freedom from poverty, oppression, and abuse, she didn't leave. Maybe it was because of her family. She thought of the words left by dead mother and image of a kind father before mother die, and these could have prevent her from abandoning her family. But I think Joyce wanted to show paralysis once again through Eveline's choice. It is described that "A ll the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He [Frank] was drawing her into them: he would drown her." She was afraid that all the seas in the world strike her and fall into them. In the end, these f...
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Araby, James Joyce

 Araby, James Joyce Rating: 8/10 I thought this short story effectively reveals epiphany. In the story, the boy had a crush on Mangan's sister. The boy wanted to go to Araby and buy present for her. However, he realize that he is badly short of money. In this process, the boy felt emptiness and vain, which leads to boy's frustration. At first, he dreamed of love, but after experiencing frustration, he realize his reality and vanity. Especially, at the last conversation "O, I never said such a thing!"  "O, but you did!" "O, but I didn't"......"O, there's a ... fib!", maximized the boy's vanity.   
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The Sisters, James Joyce

 The Sisters, James Joyce Rating: 7/10  While reading this short story, I focused on the word "paralysis". This word first came when the boy thought of paralysis unconsciously but he didn't even know the meaning of the word. Also, he thought of gnomon and simony at the same time. But after seeing the dead body of Flynn, he thought of paralysis again and this time consciously. I thought this story ultimately describes the paralysis of religions and churches. It was intended to emphasize the seriousness of the paralysis by expressing the process of unconsciousness becoming conscious. Through this, I thought, it tried to strongly criticize the paralyzed reality of religion, which was so serious that it was imprinted in the unconscious mind of Irish children at that time. 
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Gooseberries, Anton Chekhov (1898)

 Gooseberries, Anton Chekhov (1898) Rating: 7/10 While reading this short story, I focused on the word 'happiness'. In this story, Aliokhin, Ivan, and Burkin all have different idea about happiness. Their different definition of happiness made readers think about the real happiness. What if that individual's own happiness equals to other people's unhappiness. If individual's happiness comes from another person's unhappiness, then when someone feels happiness, some others have no choice but to feel misfortunes. Through these questions, I could have think of the true happiness.  
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The Lady with the Dog, Anton Chekhov (1899)

 The Lady with the Dog, Anton Chekhov (1899) Rating: 7/10  While reading this short story, I pay attention to Gurov. I thought he is bit far from a hero, however Gurov shows characteristics of round character well. At the beginning of this story, Gurov talk about himself. He went out with or became close to women, but he had never loved them. However, after he meets Anna, he realizes true love and start to change. Even though it is true that there is a sense of rejection because of the theme of infidelity, watching the change of Gurov made the story interesting.   Also, one more factor that made the story interesting was description of women. It can be small detail but specific description of women in the story shows the image of women in that era.
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The Student, Anton Chekhov (1894)

 The student, by Anton Chekhov (1894) Rating: 7.5/10  I think 'The Student' does not fill the stage 3. The stage 3 is 'Refusal of the call' where hero refuses the adventure because of hesitation or fears. I think in this story, the adventure world is the place where widows are seating around the campfire. But, rather Ivan felt hesitation or fear when he bumped into campfire, he actually wanted to go to campfire because of the cold weather and he didn't want to go back to his house.  At first, I thought the short story was a bit cliche. Ivan tell the story of Peter in the bible to widows and he learn a lesson when he saw the tears of widow. It seems like a typical story, but after reading this story several times, I thought this story shows Russian Realism really well. Especially, when Ivan felt despair in the cold, thinking about Russia's poverty that will not improve. Also, I loved this part because Ivan felt 'infinite' poverty from a 'finite' l...
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