To Everyone Who Reads This:
First please let me express my gratitude to you for reading my portfolio. The five works in the portfolio represent what I’ve learned in Academic Writing Course taught by Ron Corio. After a semester’s study, I’ve learned quite a lot about how to write in academic way, and how to mine deep ideas from the story I’ve learned.
The three essays represent my progress of thinking over the story of “Dead Men’s Path”. Though I’m confident of my writing skills, I have to commit that I’ve made quite a few mistakes, such as grammatical errors and improper quotes in the first two ones. Fortunately, I received help from Ron and Daisy Xu and also from some other students. So I think that the third essay is not just a work of me, but is a co-achievement of the whole class. It expresses my understanding of the story and the improving writing skill from six month’s learning.
As to the final timed-writing, this is a test essay which expresses my timed-writing skills’ improvement, and the understanding of “Dead Men’s Path” from another side. The Reading Log is also a work of my thinking of other stories, and it faithfully documents my development stage of writing.
Finally, thank you for sparing time to read my blogs. I hope you would enjoy reading each one and give me your comments.
Luther Wu
Yiming Wu (Luther Wu)
June 14, 2007
Draft Three
People who lived in colony but were bred in Christianity and Western education often had to tackle such a torturous problem that on which side should they stand when involving in local issues, western or local? There would be different consequences of their choices, maybe a lucky accommodation, maybe a failure of disharmonious, or even a tragedy. Michael Obi, the hero of “Dead Men’s Path” written by Chinua Achebe, tried to practice his ideas in a local school, but conflicted with the villagers on the maintaining issue of a path across the school compound, which has religious meaning to the villagers to some extents. And at last he got a sad end, disliked by both the villagers and the supervisor. What causes this tragedy? Culture conflict and his personal characters both should be ascribed to that, whereas his personal character is the more crucial point.
Admittedly, the culture conflict is an important cause of Michael Obi’s tragedy. Being a Nigerian but received Christianity and Western education, Michael Obi is largely destined to act and thinks in a western way. From the first passage, “He is outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones”[52], it can be inferred that he has already abandoned his country’s traditional beliefs and has an unshaken thought that western culture and education is superior to local ones, thus local people should also abolish the original and accept what he bring to them. Unwilling to follow him due to the divergence in thoughts, the local villagers stick to their belief, and thus have a conflict with this new headmaster, Michael Obi, on whether “an almost disused path from the village across the school compound to the bush on the other side”[53] should still be kept. As to Michael Obi, a man who receives western education, he certainly has no approbation with them and thinks villagers shouldn’t trespass on the campus at will. Because he has such two opinions that maybe never exist in villagers’ mind, it is no wonder that the local people strongly oppose that blockage. Separation in thoughts and culture leads to the conflict. The consequence of the collision on the issues of whether the path across the campus with religious meaning should be maintained between western culture and local one is a man’s tragedy. Michael Obi, who believes in the western culture, is that unfortunate sacrifice.
We shouldn’t then ignore that his personal character is also responsible for the tragedy. The first paragraph has mentioned that he accepts the responsibilities with enthusiasm and has had many wonderful ideas to put them in practice [52]. This seems to be good but things can often have opposite side. An over-extent of enthusiasm may lead to his exaggeration of self-confidence and contempt of potent difficulties. All of those cause Michael to overlook his competence, thus he refuses to take other’s advice and doesn’t accept the village priest’s persuasion of not to block that path which he actually fail to handle it by himself. Moreover, from his wife’s thinking in the third passage, “his passion for ‘modern method’ and his denigration of ‘these old and superannuated people… better employed as traders in the Onitstha market’ ”[52], we can imply that he despises those local people on their education levels and beliefs. Such a personal character certainly is a deadly point. It can’t be imagined how a man who has contempt in other’s capability could do well with colleagues. Nonetheless, when he speaks of his colleagues’ marriage status, “All of them are young and unmarried”[53], he mentioned this in an enthusiastic tune, “Which is a good thing”[53]. From this, we can infer that Michael Obi is a wholly egocentric man and takes little care to others. Without knowing how to work with colleagues in a right way, he is sure to lose the opportunity to achieve his success.
After analyzing the above two causes, we need to compare which is more important than the other. Though the culture conflicts play an important role in causing the final tragedy, Michael Obi’s personal character is a more crucial point leading to his unfortunate end. Culture conflict is just an outsider affecting factor, thus can be avoided if the hero had taken careful measures, while personal character is intrinsic factor and determinant. From the first paragraph, we can find that “ He had had sound secondary school education which designated him a ‘pivotal teacher’ in the official records”[52]. So it can be implied that Michael Obi could deal with the cultural divergence, know how to teach and get along with local people, and have done a good job. Now we can deduce that culture conflict is not unavoidable or unsolvable by Michael, and he has the ability to mix in local people though he receives western education. Though the previous success may provide him with a great many of experiences, it may also make Michael become bumptious, egocentric, and supercilious. “He was outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones”[52], after a series of success, he overlooked himself and despised others. As a consequence, he talks to the priest in a rather impolite tune and thus exacerbating the issue. How could such an arrogant and dogmatic man keep a cool mind when he has to tackle a tough issue? Therefore we can get to the conclusion that Michael Obi’s tragedy is more ascribed to his personal character.
In conclusion, Michael Obi’s tragedy is induced not only by the culture conflict but also by his personal characters, and the latter is more important. After a second thought, we should ask whether his personal character is the final leading cause? Would the tragedy be avoided if another Peter Obi or Tom Obi came? I think the answer is “No”. This tragedy is just one case in Nigeria due to the colonial policy of the Britain. Having such belief that local culture is inferior to Western and Christianity culture, the missionaries introduced the suzerain culture to the colony to weaken tribal affiliations and strengthen British government’s control. Thus a lot of local people abandon their tribal belief and accept the western culture, eventually becoming people like Michael Obi.
Works Cited:
Chinua Achebe. “Dead Men’s Path”. 《International Story》
Yiming Wu (Luther Wu)
May. 9, 2007
Draft One
Yiming Wu (Luther Wu)
May. 9, 2007
Draft One
People who lived in colony but received Christianity and Western education often had to face such a puzzling problem that on which side should they stand when involving in local issues, western or local? There would be different consequences of their choice, maybe a lucky accommodation, or maybe a failure, even a tragedy. Michael Obi, the hero of “Dead Men’s Path”, tried to practice his idea in a local school, but conflicted with the villagers on the maintaining issue of a path through the school compound, which had somewhat religious meaning to the villagers, and at last got a sad ending. What caused this tragedy? The culture conflict? His own personal characteristics? Or the combination of these two? I think both were contributable to Michael Obi’s tragedy, whereas his personal character is more crucial.
First, the culture conflict is an important cause of Michael Obi’s tragedy. Being a Nigerian but bred in Christianity and Western education, Michael Obi was destined to act and think in a western way. From the first paragraph, “He is outspoken in his condemnation of the narrow views of these older and often less-educated ones”, we can see that he has an unshaken thought that western culture and education is superior to local ones, and consequently local people should abort the original and accept what he bring to them. But the local villagers stick to their belief and thus have a conflict with this new headmaster of the local school. The conflict is involved with “an almost disused path from the village across the school compound to the bush on the other side”. Michael Obi is amazed because he thinks only teachers and students can use school, and villagers couldn’t trespass at will. But the villagers think on the opposite. They consider it as a path for their dead relatives to visit them by, so they strongly oppose the blockage of this path, while Michael refuses the village priest’s request to reopen the path and take such idea as “fantastic”. It seems that this conflict is a consequence of the collision between western culture and local one on the issues of ghost. And Michael Obi, who believes in the western culture, is an unfortunate sacrifice.
Second, his own personal character also leads to his tragedy. The first paragraph has mentioned that he accept the responsibilities with enthusiasm and has had many wonderful ideas to put them in practice. This seems to be good but things can often have opposite sides. An over-extent of enthusiasm may lead to his exaggeration of self-confidence and a contempt of potent difficulties. From his wife’s thought in the third passage, “his passion for ‘modern method’ and his denigration of ‘these old and superannuated people… better employed as traders in the Onitstha market’ ”, we can imply that he contemn those local people on their education level and belief. Such a personal character certainly will cause his tragic ending. Moreover, when he said about his colleagues’ marriage status (“All of them are young and unmarried” ), he mentioned it in an enthusiastic tune, “Which is a good thing”. From this, we can find that Michael Obi is a wholly self-egocentric man and takes little care to others. Without knowing how to deal with colleagues rightfully, he is sure to lose the opportunity to achieve his success.
Third, though we can’t omit the culture conflict’s importance, Michael Obi’s personal character contributes more to his tragic ending. Culture conflict is just an outsider affecting factor, thus can be avoided if the hero had taken careful measures, while personal character is intrinsic factor and determinant. Owing to his geocentricism and over self-confidence, he contemns local villagers and thus fails to achieve an accommodation with villagers. The end is consequently destined.
In conclusion, I think Michael Obi’s tragedy is induced not only by the culture conflict but also by his personal character, and the latter is more important. Such tragedy is a consequence of the colony policy of the Britain. Thinking local culture is inferior to Western and Christianity culture, the missionaries introduced the suzerain culture to the colony to weaken tribal affiliations. Thus a lot of local people abort their tribal belief and accept the suzerain culture, eventually causing such tragedy like Michael Obi.
0470005
Yiming Wu (Luther Wu)
June 21, 2007
Timed-writing Three
Directions: In Dead Men’s Path the priest says “let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch.” Discuss what you think he means and what this saying reveals about him.
As is known to all that hawk and eagle are similar birds which just differ from each other in slight taxonomical aspects, so it is quite clear that in Dead Men’s Path the priest means that both western culture and local tribunal culture are not so much conflicting to each other, and both can achieve a conformity if each is placed in same weight.
From the story, we already know that Michael Obi has a conflict with the local people on whether a path across the campus should still be maintained, which has somewhat religious meaning to the local. In order to solve this issue, the priest goes to have a talk with him and pleads not to block that path. Quite wise is the priest that he immediately finds the real conflict masked by this issue, Michael Obi’s wholly adoration to the western culture and thus his disdaining of the local tribunal belief. As Michael doesn’t weigh these two cultures in balance, he is certainly prone to contempt the latter. So by telling this saying, the priest hopes Michael would see that although western and local tribunal cultures are rather different in their outside forms, each of them is just a kind of belief in its inner side, just like that hawks and eagles are quite the same in inner characters but different in outer figures.
“Let the hawk perch, let the eagle perch” also means that as they are the same to some extent, they should also receive equal treatment. In Dead Men’s Path, the priest suggests to Michael Obi that he ought to let the villagers keep that path though he was bred in western culture and sticks to that. In other words, the priest is asking for that the local beliefs should have its status which at least isn’t be shadowed by the western culture.
From this saying, we can see that the priest is a wise man. A bare threatening or an adulating flatter each doesn’t seem to be effective to make Michael retreat from his previous standing point, since he had received so many honors and has great enthusiasm to practice his ideas, thus neither will “move” him. So the priest chooses another way, a persuading way, to plead to him. I have to acknowledge that the priest is fairly clever and wise, for the saying is nothing but intrinsic and moving. But unfortunately, his counterpart is the stubborn Michael, a man who is too egocentric and refuses to take other’s advice. Though the priest’s persuasion failed at last, this does no harm to reveal his wisdom.
From this saying, we can also notice that the priest is neither a dead-hard of the local culture, nor surrender to the western culture. He clearly sees the strong power of the western education missionary, and avoids irritating it but takes a accommodating way to solve the problem. Wise, isn’t he.
Reading Log of “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen”
This story is written by Bruno Lessing. After reading several passages, I just wondered whether it would be an O'Henry's stylish story, at the end of which owing to his sons' discontent, the father had no other choice but to accept the Americanization and abnegate his original Jewish living style. But I was really confused when I finished reading it. Seemingly, not that Shadrach was Americanized, but that Shadrach's sons were taught a lesson. So I thought maybe the Americanization of Shadrach Cohen was a failure.
The author tried to illustrate the contrary of civilization by the depict of a discord between father and sons on several aspects. They argued about the common appearance, the traditional custom and the most crucial point, to Jewish, the business concept. The conflict between Shadrach and his sons aggregated, and Shadrach let it explode, then solves it in a Jewish way, to take over his sons' charge of the business and teach them how to deal with it. So what does the author want to tell us? Does he want to tell us that father at last influenced his sons and led them into his way of life, which indicated that the Americanization of Shadrach failed, and Shadrach took control over his sons? Otherwise, as America that time was a business society, business was of great importance, the Americanization actually meant not the living style but the manners in which Shadrach taught his sons, in a “ all business is business” way?
I dislike the way the author organized the plot, the dialogue, and the end. He seemed to accelerate the process of the story by adding a series of boredom plots, thus the story went to a sudden end which really made me feel it somewhat illogical.