“The Secret life of Walter Mitty” is a story about a man who called Walter Mitty, he is a day dreamer. He always dreams something heroic, but all the plots in his dreams are opposite from the real life.

                In his dream, he is a hero, a superman. He can do everything, he has super skills. He has a lot of brilliant advantages, such as brave, confident, capable, a great leader and a genius. People in his dream are not as super as he. Everyone needs him when they have trouble, nobody can solve the problem except Walter Mitty himself. He wins the trust of everyone, so that everyone in his dream depends on him a lot. When he was driving a car on the way to Waterbury in Connecticut, he was dreaming that he is flying a plane. His crew meet a fierce hurricane in 20 years. As a commander, he is calm and imperturbable. He expertly commanded his crew to function the machine. Most of them thought they have no chance to go through, but the fantastic commander Walter Mitty created a chance for them to go through, and they successed. He saved all his crew’s life. When he was driving past the hospital on his way to the parking lot, he was dreaming that he is a thinking agile surgeon. He was going to have a operation. A complicated machine, connected to the operation table was broken. No one can fixed it in the East, but super Walter Mitty did it! He solved a hot potato that nobody can hold it. He was a hero.

                No matter how great Walter Mitty is in his dream, he can’t change him in the real life. In the real life, he is just an old man who is dull, clumsy, weak and forgetful.  People around him are smarter and more capable than him. In his dream, people depend on him, in the real life, he depends on other people most time. When he was dreaming he was flying the plane, he was driving his little car. His wife sat beside him and yelled at him because he drove too fast. Under his wife’s command, he couldn’t drive faster than 40. He was not a super commander, he was not that great. He was just an old man who obey wife’s command. When he was dreaming he was a great surgeon, he was parking his car in the parking lot. He even couldn’t park his car in the right position. His car could park in the lot at last, because the parking-lot attendant helped him. He was not a super surgeon who can fix a complicated machine that nobody in the East could fix it. He was not a superman anymore. He needed help from others and people treated him less respect.

                People who like to daydream have a lot of reasons. Maybe the real life can’t make they satisfied. Maybe they relax themselves by dreaming. Maybe they can’t make their dreams come true, so they can only realize the dreams by dreaming. Maybe the society, law or people around them give them too much pressure, so that they can’t be themselves in the real life, they choose to become a day dreamer to be themselves in the dream. I think Walter Mitty daydreams because all the reasons I mentioned above. His is a man with strong heroism, but he can do nothing heroic in the real life. He even forgets the things he wants to buy. The truth proved that he can’t be a hero. Daydreaming is not bad, but always daydream, this is a serious problem.

   In the article, Harrison Bergeron behaves pretty brave and audacious. Although he is shot by Diana Moon Glamper, he was still a hero.

   He is the first one to stand out and shout “I don’t need handicap, I don’t want to be limited, I want to be the emperor.” He is the first one dare to revolt the government which his father would never do. The success of his revolt was transitory, but at least he tries to fight and he also make people experience a different feeling. If he doesn’t do these heroic stuffs, how can people how beautiful the Ballerina is. People feel a different world after Harrison standing out.

   He is not only fighting for himself, but also fighting for everyone. I believe, in the deep of his heart, he hate the red nose, the thick glasses and other handicaps on him. He hate the life in the jail and hate the way people live. How can world be like this? He is a really brilliant super human, he is seen as the most dangerous human by government, but he gets rid of the chains. If he just fight for himself, he can go away from this city, or even this country. He can find a place that nobody can found him and keep going his special life, but he doesn’t fly away. He stays and declares that he want to be a ruler, emperor. He want to change the word and liberate everyone.

   If he can be an emperor, he must be a democratic ruler. He gets rid of limit, so that he can think he can create. He can lead all the people to create a totally different world. He is strong enough, I believe he can lead his fellow people. The first thing he would do after he being an emperor must to ask everyone get rid of the stupid handicaps.

   Maybe the society would full of competition, but that is ok, because at least everyone is trying the best to reach their goals. If he were in charge of the society, the literature and art must be developed. There might be invented some new technology. He may govern the whole society like our society, Different and not always equal.

There are five main characters in this short novel. They are Harrison Bergeron, George Bergeron, Hazel Bergeron, Diana Moon Glampers and Ballerina.

These five different person represent four different parts in the article. Harrison Bergeron and Ballerina are brave and abnormal from others, they represent freedom and noncompliance. Diana Moon Glampers is cruel, she represents government. Hazel represent government follower. George follows the government but he still has his own thinking ability, so he represents half-government follower.

The conflict is between government and the mutineers.

 All the article is talking around “equal”. Everyone should be equal, not only equal before God and the law, but also equal every which way, such as IQ, appearance, ability, etc. If someone is abnormal like Harrison and Ballerina, the government takes action to stop they develop their talent. For example, George, his intelligence was way above normal, so he was asked to put on a little handicap radio in his ear to send out some sharp noise in order to stop he use the unfair advantage of their brains. This is absurd. This society is pathological and deformed. Equal is that everyone has same rights and ability, not to kill the talent of different people to make people same in all the ways. That is not keep equal, but murder.

Equal is good, but life is not equal, and that is ok, because this is what nature is.

HOTEL TRANSSILVANIEN

Exposition

    A vampire duke runs a special hotel. Specially take in some fearsome monsters, because these monsters hate human as well as afraid them, although they are fearsome. Another reason why the duke wants. to build this hotel is because he tries to protect his daughter, and prevent her daughter from touching the human or fall in love with the human, so he doesn’t allow his daughter to go outside the hotel. His wife wanted to protect their daughter, so she was killed by human.  In this hotel, human is not able to come in, because the environment around the hotel is horrible. In order to celebrate vampire duke Drucula’s daughter Mavis’ Birthday, Drucula invites Frankenstein, mummies, werewolves, invisible man, etc.

Big event

    During the party, a human boy accidentally intrude the hotel. In order to protect the fame of his hotel, Drucula has to make the boy who is called Jonathon to disguise like Frankenstein's monster to deceive her daughter and guests, and prevent his daughter and Jonathon fell in love.

Rising action

a.       Jonathon is told as a party planner by Drucula, so he plans a lot of interesting activities and has fun with everyone           include Mavis. All the guests like Jonathon very much.

b.      Drucula wants to make the boy leave, so he takes the boy out of the hotel and tells him to leave, but when the                     Drucula finishes his warning and leaves, Mavis appears. She brings Jonathon to the roof. Jonathon sees the sun rise          with Mavis. Unluckily, he falls down from the roof and drops into the hotel again.

c.       Drucula has no idea so he only can let Jonathon continue disguising the party planner. They have fun time together             and Drucula tells him his story and the reason of building this hotel to Jonathon, Jonathon feels guilty and decides              to find a chance to leave this hotel.

d.      Mavis has feeling to Jonathon, so she kisses him. One of all the guests recognizes that Jonathon is a human,                         Jonathon has to leave although Mavis doesn’t care. Jonathon says some words that really hurts Mavis in order to let           him go. Mavis’ life fells into the dumps.

Climax

    Drucula cannot bear to see her daughter so sad, and he also thinks Jonathon is a good human boy, so he decides to back to the human world and find Jonathon with his guests.  He tells his real identity and purpose to the human. They accept him easily and they make a road with shadow in order to prevent Drucula hurt from the sun shine and convenient him to go to the airport to stop Jonathon leaving. He finds the plane which Jonathon is in. He chases the plane and tries to control the pilots.

Falling action

    Drucula finally brings Jonathon back after exhausting himself under the sun for a long time.

Resolution

    Mavis and Jonathon married and live together happily forever.

    There are a lot of differences between my generation and my parents’ generation. Science and technology develop very quickly as well as the mind of people.

    In the last generation, the quality of life was not as good as my generation. According to my parents, there were telephones at home. The family which had telephone was better than most of other families. Usually, many things in the last generation were public, such as kitchens, bathrooms telephones and so on. Not like this generation, people have their own telephones, most family have at least two telephone at home.

    What’s more, the communication in the last generation was not convenient, because phones were not common. People communicated by sending letters or using public telephone. Only a few people have “BB” machine. This kind of machine can’t make phone call, but it can let you know you have phone call from others, then you should find the nearest public telephone to call back. Now, everyone has phone, some people even have more than 1 phone. Communication is more convenient now. Internet also processes a lot.

    In the last generation, internets were not as common as nowadays. When my patents were my age, they had no phones, no internet, no computers, but they had a lot of true friends.

    My parents told me, when they were my age, the people around them were most honesty and candid. Not like now, children are precocious on mind. They think more than my parents when they were my age. They are good at pretend themselves. Maybe this is what time changes.

    Children are my age don’t have to find a part-time job in my generation, neither do I, but in my parents’ generation, they had to face the problem about money. They had to find a part-time job to earn extra money, so that they could decrease their parents’ pressure.

    We also have our problems that my parent’s didn’t have in their generation when they were my age. Many people in my generation like to go aboard, so they need to face SAT, TOFEL these kind of tests. Actually, this will cause a lot of pressure. Too much pressure is one of the most serious problems we have to face in my generation. When my parents were my age, they didn’t have to face these problems.

    The world is changing, as well as our sight. People’s views of the world are also changing. In my generation, we are more interested in western culture. Our mind are more open. When my parents were my age, they couldn’t accept western culture like us. They thought develop in China is the best way. Actually, they didn’t have much information about the world except China. That’s why their mind are limited.

    The environment we stay now is different from the environment in my parents’ generation, so that sometimes we may have different view on some problems or they can’t understand me. We called it “generation gap”. For example, I think I should have my own privacy, but my parents think I am their child, so that they should know everything about me, because their parents did the same to them. I always argued about this question with them. They can’t understand me, I can’t understand them. Different environments cast different minds. When my parents were my age, they had no secrets between their parents and them. We still don’t solve this problem, or maybe this problem will stay forever, because I can’t shorten out generation gap.

    All in all, when my parents were my age, they lived less comfortable than my generation, but my generation had more pressure than their generation. Two generations have different environments and ideas, so we have generation gap.

    The several pictures which showed you, are the represent of my parents’ generation.

    The first picture shows their meals. When my mom were my age, her family’s meal was always porridge and steam bun. Some families were too poor to buy rice, so they always had steam buns instead of rice. When my dad were at my age, his breakfast was porridge and steam buns, as well as his classmates.

    The second picture is a lane, most of people lived in this kind of lanes in my dad’s generation. They had public kitchen and bathroom. Neighbours were nice to each other.

    The third picture is a famous band which was knew as everyone in my parents’ generation. Their songs were famous and popular. They were the most popular and hottest band in China. Almost everyone liked them and many girls chased them, but in my generation, they are not famous anymore, and the band doesn’t exist anymore.

    The forth picture is a game. This game was popular in my parents’ generation, it called “Jumping Bend”. Many girls liked to play it. Also the fifth and seventh pictures are both popular games in my parents’ generation. The fifth one is called “Jumping straight.” You can play with his straight in many different forms. There was a saying: “After you playing jumping straight, it will rain next day.” The seventh picture is a shuttlecock. Girls in my parents’ generation all like to play it. These three games can represent my parents’ generation.

    The sixth picture is showing the relationship between boys and girls in my parents’ generation. The people’s mind in the past were not as open as people now. They would not hold hands or hugs in the public place because they thought it was not good to do this.

    The last picture is the tickets for meal. People in my parents’ generation always used these tickets in the canteens in the schools. This can also represent my parents’ generation.

       My generation has a big difference from the last generation. I will explain my generation.

The first picture is several people sits around the table, maybe they are having lunch, but most of them are playing with their phones. Just like me, I can’t leave the phone when I have a phone. I am chatting on QQ, sending message, writing my blog, or looking at my “Qzone” all the time. Playing with phones is the characteristic of my generation.

The second picture is a plane which is flying to a foreign country. Going abroad becomes culture in China. Almost 70% of students are gone abroad. I am one of the 70% of the students. This is the common phenomenon in my generation.

The third picture is several people are holding money in their hands. I just want to show, in this generation, more and more people pursuit of material when they are really small. In my generation, people get mature much earlier.

The forth picture shows the people in my generation also like to be thin. So do I. The thinner the better. This also becomes a kind of culture now.

The last picture shows fashionable clothes. In my generation, people love fashionable things, many of us pay a lot of attention on their appearances. So do I. Clothes is a very important part in our life, that’s why most of us don’t like wearing uniforms.

What will your life be like in 20 years?

  What will you hope to be doing with your life?

  What will you hope to have done with your life by then?

  What will you need to happen in your life to be happy?


    I never think about this question before, because I am afraid to think about my future, I don’t know what will happened to me when I grow up.

    Maybe I will be a manager and working in a company or a magazine editor. I may have family and live peacefully and happily. I may also have a child, if she is a girl, I will call her Jan, if he is boy, I will call him Steven. I will get up at 7am and prepare the breakfast for my family, and then I will pick my child to school, after that I will go to work. Maybe sometimes I will feel the pressure from the life, but as the time goes by, everything will be ok. My life won’t be too bright, but full of love and joyful.

    I hope to be a fashion designer. Designing clothes or jewelries in my office or discuss with my employees about the fashion trends. Then after us figuring out many creative ideas, I will work on my paper. One day, maybe you will see my clothes or jewelries in the fashion magazine or on the newspaper.

    In my future, I hope to have created my own shops in Shanghai, and I have been famous around city. Well, maybe I hope to have been famous around the world. I also hope to have done great job on my work, no matter I will be magazine editor or fashion designer.

    Making life happy is quit important for me. I will need a lot friends, a nice lover and a nice job. Friends can spend time with me, we can go shopping or hold party. They can make my life colorful. A nice lover can stay with me, we can create our love story and enjoy our daily life. He can make my life meaningful. A nice job can give guaranteed life. It can make me life more stable. If I have a colorful, meaningful, and stable life, I must be very happy.

 Is Mitch happy with his life? How do you know?
How is Mitch's life different from how he wanted his life to be when he was in college?
What does Mitch need now to be happy with his life?

    My personal view is, I don’t think Mitch is happy with his life. In the novel, it shows me that Mitch focus on working everyday when he graduated from the college. His real life has a big difference from his ideal life. He almost does everything on deadline. Although he had a nice girl, the ending is not that good. How could a person feel happy if his life is full of work? In the novel, the author also wrote that Mitch is busy, but most of his time is unsatisfied. This directly shows Mitch is not happy with his life.

    When he is in the college, he hated rich, and he never want to work for money, but actually he doesn’t realize that he is working for money now. He practices music when he was in the college, but when he graduated; he gave up playing it because of work. He used to chase his own frame, when he was in the college, but he wrote about famous athletes chasing theirs when he graduated. He hoped to live in beautiful, inspirational places, but when he graduated, he worked in the same workplace, used the same bank and visited the same barber. His spirit is dying after he graduating. Not only his spirit, but also his dreams are dying. He traded a lot of dreams for a bigger paycheck. All of these show that he became snobbish after he graduated.

    Mitch can’t bind himself anymore. He should create his own environment and relax himself. Spending more time on staying with Morrie and friends. Doing something interesting and to try to enrich your own spirit instead of sitting in front of computer and typing. Don’t full of life with work. Also, Mitch has to find the meaning of life. He has to find a way out to make his life abundant.

Today we went to Ping Yang nursing house and visited the old people in there.

I was little nervous and excited before we went to the nursing house. I thought these old people must have a lot of interesting stories. Maybe the communication will be the biggest problem during interview, because we didn’t have same topic.

The building is not that glorious, but it is comfortable. There are 6 floors. Healthier old people live on the first and second floor. Less health people, for example, they cannot walk by themselves or they broke their legs, they live on the rest of floors. My group visited three old people in a room. One of them is 78, the other is 87 and another is 89. Although they are old, they look health. They made me miss my grandma.

When we walked into the room, we felt a little bit shy, but we didn’t felt it anymore after we talked more. The biggest problem during the interview was the language. Although they spoke Chinese but they spoke Shanghai native language. Most of us couldn’t understand.   One of them has some problem with her ears, so she couldn’t hear our voice clearly. We asked them several questions and knew about them a little bit. Actually I was disappointed about their answers. I thought they will tell us some interesting stories when they were young, but I just knew one of them went to America for twice and that’s it. They told me they didn’t do any special or crazy thing when they were young. They said their life was peaceful. I didn’t feel any passion from them, but I understood them. The environment they lived when they were young was terribly feudal. One of them told me that her husband was chosen by her parents. I was so surprised. They didn’t go to middle school, they found a job instead of going to middle school. Their children were their whole world.

They were born in old China. They love China. I would like to visit them again in next month. I want to know more about them, such as their special experience.

I think we had a successful interview today.