Yoonho Lee World Lit Journal

Extreme_Chulsoo, By H.S. Kim Rating: 8.5/10 The feeling of sympathy or the way how readers translocate themselves within a story usually depends on the author's ability to write. This is what I thought until I read this story and realized the importance of having background knowledge, and the experience of having lived in the same environment as the main character. Looking back, every short story we've read so far takes times that are far from the 21st century. But Extreme Chulsoo took place in the present era, and even more, the main character is very young just like us. We couldn't relate to Neddy when he described his fancy life as a wealthy man in 50s America, but we were able to relate to the hardship of taking CSAT. We couldn't feel the gloominess of Blake walking down cold streets of after work, but we know what it's like to be obsessed with Instagram. For this difference that <Extreme Chulsoo> had, I was able to deeply translocate myself into the story...

The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892) Rating: 8.5/10 I believe out of all stories we've read, this story is the closest one to the horror genre. Another unusual point is that the narrator's characteristics, we have seen unreliable narrators, who were foolish, but not the ones that are mentally ill. An advantage of unfolding the story in a patient's perspective was that we could see how complicated and artistically overflowing the mind of patient is. If it was limited to the mild descriptions of the doctor's perspective, we would've only hear saying like " hysterical tendency ". But through narrator's own perspective, we can closely see how she is assimilating into the woman she feels inside the wall. Also the ending that showed the climax of creepiness and horror was impactful to the readers. Overall, I enjoyed this new type of genre that we tried:)

The Tower, By Marghanita Laski (1955) Rating: 9/10 This was probably the only story that I read multiple times with much depth. In the case of other stories, I usually stick to the analysis that the majority of people make about the story. But for <The Tower>, through reading it over and over, I think I came up with my own analysis. As I mentioned in my team presentation, I thought the major question was"Why did the author end with such a hopeless conclusion, even though this is a feminist story?". From the perspective of the hero's journey, "Why no reward and the elixir?". It might be interpreted that the hero has failed, that her challenge was meaningless. Was that what Laski wanted the readers to take from her story? I believe not. Finding the hidden message that when we gather help and cooperate we'll be able to see the sunset, instead of misunderstanding that the sunset doesn't exist. This is the key interpretation that I thought of, and throu...

Revelation, By Flannery O'Connor (1964) Rating: 7.5/10 Revelation is a bit boring if you don't know the humor of admonishing a fool and have background knowledge of the bible (book of revelations). Thankfully, I do fulfill those requirements, but still, I did not enjoy the story as much as other famous short stories. The strength of <Revelation> type of short story is that it emphasizes the given cliche lecture with details, in this case, the counterexample shown by Mrs.Turpin's behavior. And other short stories usually don't directly give the lecture or the theme, and sometimes they don't even give you a clear conclusion. The zest of other short stories is that you are given the reader's space to imagine and deliberate on your own. However, for <Revelation>, I believe the disadvantage was that it doesn't give you space to interpret, which is the reason why I did not enjoy the story. For these reasons, I mark the <Revelation> 7.5 out of 10.

Caring for Plants, By Hye-young Pyun (2017) Rating: 9/10 This was the first Korean literature to read in class and I could clearly notice the difference in the degree of understanding compared to other foreign literature we read so far. Since I own knowledge about the cultural background of the setting, I was allowed to relate to each character with much depth. The hospital where Oghi was situated, the figure of the pastor, and the, relationship between the mother-in-law and her son-in-law I have seen those cultural elements in my actual life experience and that meant I could imagine how this story is happening not only through words but by real imagery.  Thus, this story taught me the importance of being a good reader. By having knowledge of the cultural and historical background of the story, we are given the opportunity to relate to the author's intention.

A Manual for Cleaning Women, By Lucia Berlin (2015) Rating: 7.7/10 I was able to find two major points from this story. First, the diversity of characters, and second, the manual format of developing the story. But I don't believe that these two points were successful in their task of attracting the readers into the story. I enjoyed how the character is set as a cleaning woman who goes through different houses that carries different stories. But taking the format of a manual actually lessened the impact of the diversity concept of the story. A manual is a generalized instruction given to act accordingly and choosing a manual format to express the diversity of each family back in the time was paradoxical from a certain perspective. As a result, the overall story plot didn't intrigue me as much as other stories so I give 7.7 out of 10.