Category: Reading Responses (Page 5 of 11)

Loyalty has many different meanings and associations for every single person. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of loyalty is a soldier. A soldier is one who believes in a cause he or she is fighting for, and is willing to risk their life for it. For some, loyalty may just seem like one who does not lie, cheat, or betray. Nevertheless, no matter how one defines loyalty, one must pledge complete allegiance to that person or that thing they declare loyalty towards.

After reading the Libretto of Turnadot, the character that struck a chord in me instantly was Liu. Liu was an inferior slave to Calaf, and despite their extreme class dissonance, Liu fell madly in love with him. Liu is willing to go to extreme lengths over her love for Calaf, and this is most notably shown when she gives up her life and does not reveal his name. Immediately this scene provided me with two new found respects. For one, I found a new degree of loyalty, for which Liu had to her heart. And secondly, I realized that it is only possible in such an artistic form like opera, for such dramatic scenes to take place.

The role of Liu is the new standard of real loyalty that I now hold to. Though Liu went to extreme measures, I now see that she had such dedication, commitment, and love towards something (her heart), or even someone(Calaf). I could not stop myself from thinking about the soldiers that risk their lives everyday for the safety of the country which we live in.

 Liu’s loyalty is an even greater support for the “soldier” definition which I first associated loyalty with. After delving deeper into this matter, I realized how committed these people must feel towards this nation. I realized that I truly take for granted the life I live- especially in such an amazing country- and I start to think if there is anything which I hold so much loyalty towards; especially to a degree that is portrayed in this play. Liu, and her indirect association towards the soldiers that protect our country, has inspired me to bring about some type of awareness towards such commitment. Additionally, I learned that it is extremely crucial to take one’s loyal values into important considerations. At first glance, Lui must seem like some insignificant, inferior slave in a complex story; however, after she expresses such courageous and devoted qualities, my perception of her changed dramatically. One should always develop and maintain such reputable characteristics that both Liu and all soldiers have. It is needless to say that one does not have to go to the extremes that Liu went to—but one must still take the positive practical traits that Liu exemplified, and try to apply that to his or her own life.

Furthermore, to me, opera always resonated a long play of people singing in extremely loud voices, and with no real purpose. However, after reading through Turnadot, and watching the aria of “Nessun Dorma”, I realized that there is a “method to the madness” of this unique art form. Opera creates an environment containing such dramatic and expressive narratives. The music and the content in the play are usually types that could not survive, or fit, in other art forms; but opera seems as if it was made for it. Though I still have much more to explore in this art form which is so new to me, I have found a new lesson to be learned: when confronted with something that may seem unusual and convoluted, I have realized that one should always approach it with complete openness. Approaching Liu too, with complete openness, may have led me to learn more about the favorable and worthwhile character she truly proves to be.

Girl throwing embroidered ball down for her suitors.

When I was little I often watched tv shows with settings in ancient China. I really dislike ancient China. There were extreme class structures, men had all the power, men can marry more than one women, and people don’t get to choose who they want to marry. Those who have power were mainly the relatives of the emperors or people in the government. They often arranged marriage to what is most beneficial to their status and it’s hugely political. However, in a few of the tv shows I watched, they had some interesting way to determine the suitor for their daughter. One of them is based completely on luck. The girl will be standing on a balcony, one floor up. She’ll throw a embroidered ball down  and whoever catches the ball is her future husband. Another way is making the suitors fight each other and whoever wins gets to marry the girl. Lastly, is the battle of wisdom. Like Turandot, there are riddles they have to solve and if they answer the riddles correctly they may marry the girl. There are other forms of this such as making the best poem. It is quite interesting to see how they can determine who someone marries for the rest of their lives on such arbitrary things.

One of the most well known Chinese TV show is Return of the Pearl Princess (还珠格格). I grew up watching this show. The main character of this show often got into trouble and there were an abundance of scenes where she was punished or tortured. Therefore the scene when Liu was getting tortured reminded me a couple techniques that were used. One of the most common way to torture female prisoner is to use a finger-squeezing board. The board would squeeze the fingers between sticks and cause excruciating pain.  Another technique would be sticking needles in your fingertips repeated. Also using big thick wooden sticks to hit the gluts for hundreds of times till the prisoner is bleeding. With all these painful and agonizing torture techniques, Liu is so brave and loyal to remain silent. It shows the depth of her love and loyalty to the Unknown Prince.

The ending of Turandot is quite surprising. After reading many plays that ends tragically, I also assumed that Turandot will not end well. However it concluded with a happy ending. Which makes me wonder why the Chinese government would censor this opera. It doesn’t really portray China in a negative light. I guess it’s just because it is not actually based on historical facts.

Turnadot is an unfair tragedy. Like Taylor Swifts’ You Belong With Me Liu is the woman that truly loves Calaf, but sadly unlike the song Liu does not end up in the arms of Calaf, she ends up dead. I don’t agree at all with the plot and the behavior of the characters; the family that someone is born into should not make them any more or less worthy to live than anyone else. Turnadot is a self-centered, wretched little brat who toys with peoples lives for fun. She is removed from conventional society manipulating cities on her littlest whims. The caricature of Turnadot is not obsolete at all because characters like her bring out so much hatred from readers/viewers. So many of these stereotypical characters come to mind, and although I despise these characters, they are a powerful presence in each of their respective works. For example the antagonist from The Mean Girls is utilized to keep viewers glued to their seats waiting for her to get what she deserves, like getting hit in the face by a bus.

Turnadot is still relevant today. (as seen by my Taylor Swift and Mean Girls reference) But in today’s censored world, the “good” always prevails over the “bad” in the end. I think this is a key reason as to why I was heartbroken when Liu and Calaf never “lived happily ever after,” I wanted Liu to win so bad because her devotion deserved it. But in the real world, sometimes the “bad” people are in a position that we cannot do anything about while they continue sucking on their pina coladas on the beach. My larger point is that media in today’s age and time is very censored and fluffy, it doesn’t show the the true world.

Should media, specifically media targeted to children and young adults, be so censored that they teach kids that no matter what there will be a happy ending? There is a trend throughout time of becoming more and more protective towards children but isn’t that hurting them in the long run because they are not being exposed the the world that they will eventually have to deal with? This problem extends past just media material. I was in my elementary school last month and a little boy in gym fell while playing soccer and scraped his elbow and knee. In my dad’s childhood times he said that any kid would just get up and continue on playing. In my childhood days, we would go to the nurse get a band-aid and be fine. This kid’s mother was immediately phoned to come pick him up and take him to the doctor. I see this trend as a hindrance to children. What do you think?

Going into the play, I did not expect much. I already knew a little background on what the play was about. However, I was utterly shocked by the plot of the play. After I finished reading the play, my first reaction was shock and horror. It was disheartening to read about so many tragedies that all happened in a single play. Even in Romeo and Juliet, the only tragedy that takes play is the death of Romeo and subsequently, the death of Juliet after she finds out Romeo died.  In this play there is the series of tragedies, starting with the beating of Wendla by Melchior, followed with the rape of Wendla and the suicide of Moritz.  Personally, I found that the amount of tragedies in this play was too much for me to handle, which made it a bit hard for me to get through the entire play.

However, after getting past all the shock and horror from the initial reading of the play, what remained was sorrow and pity. I pitied all the character and what they had to go through, I pitied their lack of knowledge and their ignorance. But more than anything, I am furious at the adults in this play.

In my opinion, I think that all the tragedies that occurred occurred because the adults in this play did not want to teach their children about sexual education and puberty or even acknowledge the problem that their children were facing. I understand that the topics of rape, abortion, homosexuality, and sex were taboo subjects and that it was uncommon for people to openly speak about these topics. However, I think that it was the parent’s responsibility to educate their children on these topics, because if they don’t, who will?

With regards to the play as a whole, I think that Wedekind did a fantastic job in shedding light on the various taboo subjects discussed in this play. Although Wedekind is probably not the reason why students are mandated to take a health course in high school now, I think he definitely played a part in it. Even today in the modern world, some people still aren’t open to talking about these topics, but there has been progress since the time of the play.

I definitely look forward to the actual performance of the play and see if any moderation were made from the actual play.

The Awakening of Spring by Frank Wedekind Is a heart gripping, tragic play that depicts the struggles that adolescents face during puberty. The transition from childhood and adulthood is a period in which adolescents need guidance from friends and family. Wedekind shows this through the hardships that the three main characters, Wendla, Moritz, and Melchoir experience during this time of transition.

An especially important point that Wedekind brings up is that adolescents should be taught about their sexuality and changes that will be occurring. Without this knowledge there are conflicts and insecurities that arise. Moritz shows the insecurites that teens may be subject to go through. He is unsure of what is happening to him and his desire to fit in causes him to undergo an extreme amount of stress which eventually leads to his suicide. This is not far off from what occurs today. Despite the increase of acceptance and understanding adolescents still experience thoughts of suicide and lack of confidence.

Moritz is not the only one who takes a toll from the lack of knowledge. The story of Wendla is one that emphasizes the important of sexual knowledge. Being sheltered by her mother, she is unaware and hidden from the truth about the changes happening to her body and has a lack of sexual education. We as readers are shown that the desire to hide sexual education may cause problems in other areas. Wendla is unaware that she was raped due to her lack of knowledge. As a parent, her mothers desire to continue to cover up and hide the idea of sexuality from her daughter through abortion and eventually this leads to her death as well. Even today abortion is a widely controversial topic all around. I believe that what Wedekind was trying to convey is that whether one thinks abortion and sexuality is right or wrong, a person should have the right to make that decision for themselves. He stresses the important of teaching and conveying knowledge about the changes that occur during puberty and the help that teenagers need during this period of transition.

I found this play to be very close home. Even now, during a time of experiment and the fact that people are more open about sexuality and such, teenagers go through hardships and insecurities still. Having the knowledge does not guarantee that there will be no problems but, it does help with the transition into adulthood.

Just when I thought literature couldn’t possibly get any more depressing or darker, I got caught off guard. This extremely controversial work of art is titled Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind. First published in Germany in around the 1890’s, this play shocked many people and received criticism for all it’s controversial topics and was even banned in many places for a while.

This play touched many topics that seemed radical at the time; such as suicide, rape, sexuality, and censorship. I believe that Wedekind wrote this play to expose some major aspects of society that needed reform, but would never get it without exposure. At the time of this play it was considered very taboo to bring these issues up, so he was one of the few brave people to call for change.

It was very shocking to me to see just how blunt this play presents all the issues. From the begging of the play where Welda’s mother refuses to educate her on where children come from, to Mortiz’s horrific suicide when he is overwhelmed with school and his sexuality. The event that moved me the most was Welda’s tragic and unnecessary death due to her abortion pills. If only her mother hadn’t avoided her questions and left Welda ignorant of sex, this could have been easily avoided.

This play helps show why sex ed is such an important class to teach. It just doesn’t work to leave kids oblivious to their sexualities because they will figure it out on their own either way. Educating kids on these topics helps avoid tragedies that could potentially ruin many teenagers lives.

I can’t wait to see this play performed and to see if any parts are censored.

The Awakening of Spring by Frank Wedekind offers a very provocative view into the world of teenagers circa 1891, although the moral of the story may not be as archaic as the age of the play. It brings up several red flags like improper sexual education and ignorance over mental illness. With Wendla and Moritz being the targets of such behavior, it brings to mind that this is not uncommon in modern society; education on certain controversial topics fails to be properly translated to teenagers, which subsequently puts them in severe danger.

Frank Wedekind

Wendla’s story in particular surprised me based on the stupidity of her mother. Her mother practically refused to teach her daughter proper sexual education. Not only did she completely fail in that realm, but she completely denied her daughter the privilege of knowing about her own rape and pregnancy. If she had been more forward with Wendla about sexual intercourse, it may have very well saved her daughter’s life, but her unwillingness to deal with sensitive subjects ultimately led to her getting the short end of the stick. Although the play was written in the 19^th century, parallels can be drawn to modern society regarding horrendous gaps in education.

The play reminded me of an incident that happened in a California high school last December. Parents were outraged when Planned Parenthood was brought into Acalanes Union High School to educate the students about consent, sexuality, and gender identity because they thought the program was promoting their children to engage in sexual activity. Unfortunately, this is the root of the problem. If parents educated their children properly on the dangers of sex, then they should not have to worry about Planned Parenthood, the largest sexual education provider in the country, having a negative influence on them. I hope these parents among others who do not condone sexual education soon realize that informing teenagers about the dangers of sex is far more beneficial than no education at all.

Frank Wedekind really took some risks when writing this play in such a conservative age. I’m not surprised in the least that it took him over a decade to stage a single performance. While I give him credit for that, I give him far more credit to be daring enough to bring out such controversial topics that still need to be discussed today. If parents don’t have serious talks with their children, the end result will not be a spring awakening, it’ll be a rude awakening.

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, 1891, weaves through the interconnected lives of three adolescents as they face their own struggles with growing up in a world of condemnation. The main characters, Melchior, Wendla, and Moritz each have distinct personalities that lead them to their particular fates at the end of the play. Through Wedekind’s writing we are able to understand the importance of education and self understanding during such a vulnerable time in a child’s life. In fact, it was only the one individual, Melchior, who was most knowledged on his emotional/physical state and transition period in life, that ended up surviving. Although a gruesome close, Wedekind used such extreme measures to make this distinction clear.

Before going into the content, one thing I noticed about the structure of the play was that it lacked stage direction and imagery, and oftentimes parts of a scene that may be clear when acted out in person were not obvious in writing alone. One scene where this stuck out to me was the rape scene. Although it was implied through Wendla’s cries, Melchior’s crime was only hinted through the script. There were many scenes where I felt this was a struggle and had such direction of action been included in the text, it may have made the play a little easier to comprehend.

Wendla, a young woman on the brink of maturing, had just begun to play with the idea of emotional and sexual desire when we were introduced to her story. A product of her mother’s conservative mind and overprotective parenting, Wendla did not know exactly what these supposedly devilish feelings meant when she started to experience them. Her innocence, instead of keeping her out of trouble, is what instead could not save her from it. Worst of it all, her mother, because she is unable to accept her daughter’s actions, took drastic measures to undo the mistake Wendla had made and it was the abortion that she ordered for her that ended up killing her. Had Wendla been more aware of how to handle her situation with her pregnancy or with Melchior, she may have been able to change her own fate.

Moritz, Melchior’s more timid best friend, was also suffering with confusion and guilt over the feelings he had started to experience as he had begun to go through puberty. Inexperienced with sex and with becoming an ‘adult’, he ended up committing suicide because he could not handle the pressure of it. He was left with two regrets: not having been in an intimate relationship, and not making it into the higher class at school. Had he known how to cope with his emotions and known that it was okay to feel a bit lost, it may have be enough to save him.
The single one of the three individuals who survived the entirety of the play was Melchior. Although he also had his own bit of teenage disaster in his encounters with Wendla and his sexual conflictions, he was obviously more knowledgeable than his two friends. Even though he was capable of being at the top of his class, he played a bit of a rebel in school because that is what he wanted, and unlike Moritz, he did not put so much worry into his grades. Also, even though he ended up going to a Reformatory for his ‘explicit’ sex essay, he escapes and is able to recognize his wrongdoings and the final few paragraphs of the play describe his remorse and desire to correct himself. Rather than allowing his actions to lead to his demise as they did with the other two main characters of the play, Melchior learns and grows from his mistakes and leaves with some hope for his future.

Had Moritz and Wendla not been so sheltered or undereducated about their transition into becoming adults, the story may have had a different ending. As Wedekind shows through the struggles of the youth, knowledge is the key to success. The parental figures failed in educating their children about their bodies and the troubles they were going to face in the future and it ended up just hindering their development.