Ishiguro, Kazuo. When We Were Orphans. (London, Great Britain: Vintage International, 2000), 335pp.
Reviewed by Collin Gilchrist, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro, tells the story of Christopher Banks, an English detective who was born in an international district of Shanghai, China. When he was a young boy, his parents went missing and have not been found.
The first section of the novel is about Christopher's early adult life. He is currently living in London and the year is 1930. This section describes Christopher searching to find his way in life. He is kind of reserved and bashful. Very quickly I found Christopher to be one of the most relatable characters I have read about. In the opening scene he is attending a party where he meets many successful people who are a good deal older than him. This scene made me think of several of the fancy events I have attended recently because I am going to college soon, such as the dinner I attended to receive a scholarship from my Dad's company. I met many well-connected people but went in knowing no one. At the party he is introduced to and becomes infatuated with Sarah Hemmings. She retains some amount of significance in Christopher's life later in the novel. Ishiguro's language usage is immediately apparent as very intellectual and proper. The novel feels very British from the first page. Unfortunately, this section feels like it has little plot direction, and started to become boring to me.
The second section of the novel consists of flashbacks to Christopher's childhood in Shanghai. He lives in luxury with his parents. Christopher recounts playing with and getting into trouble with his Japanese friend Akira, who also lives in Shanghai's International district. I found Akira interesting because his personality is very similar to that of one of my friends from my elementary school days. The beginning of this section also felt like it had little direction, but looking back, I realize that this part of the novel is all about detail. Ishiguro takes a great deal of time to make sure that the character's of Akira and Uncle Philip, because they are important later in the novel. The plot suddenly takes off when first Christopher's father, and then his mother, are kidnapped. Because there wasn't a lot of reference to this event, it took me by surprise, and all of a sudden all that background information made sense. One point that I found very amusing is that when Christopher's father is kidnapped, he and Akira pretend to try and rescue his father. I think the disappearance of Christopher's parents played a role in his career choice.
The third and largest chunk of the novel resumes Christopher's adulthood, but now closer towards the middle of his life. He has found his own way, and after gathering more clues, he thinks he has an idea as to where his parents are. Does he find them? I'll leave that to you to read the book and find out for yourself.
Although When We Were Orphans was quite bland in the beginning, it proved to be quite an enjoyable novel. I found the setting and plot to be original and unique when compared to anything I had read before. In terms of plausibility I would say that the story is quite plausible. It is a work of fiction in a completely non-fictitious setting. Although some events feel like small coincidences, they are in no way implausible. By the last page, Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans was a great, refreshing read.
-C. Gilchrist
Showing posts with label By: Collin Gilchrist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label By: Collin Gilchrist. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
TOSTADA analysis of Kubla Khan
Kubla Khan, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is my favorite poem. From the title one can discern that Coleridge's poem is about Kublai Khan, the Mongol ruler of China when it was conquered by the Mongols' great land empire. This is one of the reasons the poem first caught my interest, as Kublai Khan has been one of my favorite historical figures ever since I did a report on him in fourth grade. There seems to be no occasion for this poem. Coleridge just had a creative idea and turned it into a poem. The poem shifts attitudes drastically from the first stanza to the second. In the first stanza the tone is dreary and trance-like. The second stanza is suddenly much more serious and dramatic. The final stanza returns to the dream-like tone while maintaining the seriousness of the second stanza. The arrangement and wording of Kubla Khan give an impression of exotic wisdom. It reads a little like something Yoda might say, and feels like something the Caterpillar might recite to Alice in Alice in Wonderland. The most significant device of the poem is its imagery. The imagery is what makes the first stanza so calm and intelligent, while the second is frantic and revering. Contrasting imagery is used for dramatic effect: "That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!" (Line 47) In addition to imagery, Kubla Khan contains a number of similes. The Aha! moment is found in the final stanza, where the theme becomes apparent. In the last lines of the poem, Coleridge marvels at Kubla Khan's great acheivements and wishes he could have done them himself.
-C. Gilchrist
-C. Gilchrist
My Sestina
One day Mrs. Elliott asked us to write six words on our paper. Me being myself decided to make these words really random. One thing led to another, namely my sestina, "A Lesson":
For dinner I catch a fish
Fresh from the lake.
Before traveling home.
I will cook it on the fire
With no fear of an alien,
For it is not the night.
I mustn't fear the night.
They are so odd, the fish,
Frantically darting in patterns very alien.
It's said something strange hides at the lake.
I hope it isn't attracted to my fire,
A bright disruption to its home.
Meanwhile I need to go home.
The day is becoming dusky night.
As I sit by my fire
Something stalks my fish.
My meal is desired by an alien.
He can't catch any at the lake.
Why did I travel to the lake?
It doesn't feel like home.
To me it is as alien
as to the sun the night.
It is only full of fish
To be cooked on my fire.
Is there more than cooking on the fire
to the piscine souls populating the lake?
Is food the only meaning of the fish?
Like us they call Earth home.
What is the meaning of life and death, day and night?
Perhaps this is known by the Alien.
From the shadows appears the Alien,
suddenly entering the light of my fire.
My foolishness has troubled him this night.
The Alien doesn't want to eat the fish of the lake.
He teaches me why the lake should be home.
It is the beauty, not the flavor of the fish.
That late night meeting with the Alien
By the lake and my fire
Showed me the importance of the fish to my home.
-C. Gilchrist
For dinner I catch a fish
Fresh from the lake.
Before traveling home.
I will cook it on the fire
With no fear of an alien,
For it is not the night.
I mustn't fear the night.
They are so odd, the fish,
Frantically darting in patterns very alien.
It's said something strange hides at the lake.
I hope it isn't attracted to my fire,
A bright disruption to its home.
Meanwhile I need to go home.
The day is becoming dusky night.
As I sit by my fire
Something stalks my fish.
My meal is desired by an alien.
He can't catch any at the lake.
Why did I travel to the lake?
It doesn't feel like home.
To me it is as alien
as to the sun the night.
It is only full of fish
To be cooked on my fire.
Is there more than cooking on the fire
to the piscine souls populating the lake?
Is food the only meaning of the fish?
Like us they call Earth home.
What is the meaning of life and death, day and night?
Perhaps this is known by the Alien.
From the shadows appears the Alien,
suddenly entering the light of my fire.
My foolishness has troubled him this night.
The Alien doesn't want to eat the fish of the lake.
He teaches me why the lake should be home.
It is the beauty, not the flavor of the fish.
That late night meeting with the Alien
By the lake and my fire
Showed me the importance of the fish to my home.
-C. Gilchrist
Monday, May 7, 2012
Creating a Dystopia and Other Fiction
A couple of months ago, we created our own dystopian society for a team activity. Team Surreal made "Lucille's" a story about a society where aging past the age of twenty-two and death itself are eliminated. The protagonist Harrison has a realization about the purpose of life and discovers adverse effects of the "fountain of youth" style technology of this supposedly perfect, yet corrupt, society.
I found the process through which our story was designed fascinating. We started by choosing a central concept. Early ideas were a society with no self expression, one with a universal beauty standard that forced everyone to look the same through surgery, and a party society where the upper class is continuously drunk 24/7 and lives off the labors of the oppressed lower class. We settled for the "problems with a fountain of youth" idea because it had the most immediate depth and theme, making easy to plan around.
After choosing a concept we created three characters. The protagonist who finds flaws in the society and sets out to change it. He is assisted by Bernice, who although was put in a sidekick slot is much older and wiser. The two set out to stop the antagonist Lucille, the totalitarian leader of the society who's fountain of youth system is not only corrupt, but the source of underlying morals dissonance. (Because people are not dying naturally, the only people dying are the ones Lucille has removed from the system because they disagree, and no one is allowed to have children without her permission.
The final step was to create a plot, which with a concept and characters already laid out, kind of wrote itself. The Heroes must find a way to remove the fountain of youth system in order to restore humanity to the natural state you and I live in today.
My favorite part of this assignment was the way it laid out a plan for creating not just a dystopian society, but fiction of any kind. For a long time I have wanted to create my own stories but haven't had an idea where to start. In creating a dystopia I learned how to put my own ideas of fiction into motion
-C. Gilchrist
I found the process through which our story was designed fascinating. We started by choosing a central concept. Early ideas were a society with no self expression, one with a universal beauty standard that forced everyone to look the same through surgery, and a party society where the upper class is continuously drunk 24/7 and lives off the labors of the oppressed lower class. We settled for the "problems with a fountain of youth" idea because it had the most immediate depth and theme, making easy to plan around.
After choosing a concept we created three characters. The protagonist who finds flaws in the society and sets out to change it. He is assisted by Bernice, who although was put in a sidekick slot is much older and wiser. The two set out to stop the antagonist Lucille, the totalitarian leader of the society who's fountain of youth system is not only corrupt, but the source of underlying morals dissonance. (Because people are not dying naturally, the only people dying are the ones Lucille has removed from the system because they disagree, and no one is allowed to have children without her permission.
The final step was to create a plot, which with a concept and characters already laid out, kind of wrote itself. The Heroes must find a way to remove the fountain of youth system in order to restore humanity to the natural state you and I live in today.
My favorite part of this assignment was the way it laid out a plan for creating not just a dystopian society, but fiction of any kind. For a long time I have wanted to create my own stories but haven't had an idea where to start. In creating a dystopia I learned how to put my own ideas of fiction into motion
-C. Gilchrist
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Social Critique of Fahrenheit 451
For my Dystopian Novel, I read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, named for the temperature at which books burn.
The novel is set in a Dystopian America in the not too distant future. This America is very violent and has apparently reduced all opposing countries to next to nothing, and lives off of their labors. The government wants to keep its people in the dark, with very limited knowledge and thinking state. Censorship is a central plot point, as it is the primary method of controlling and reducing knowledge.
It's not just a portion of books that are censored, however. All books are outlawed and anyone who is found with books will have their books burned by the Firemen, the enforcers of this society. Those who try to resist the firemen are burnt along with their books or given a lethal injection by the mechanical hound, a spider-like robot.
The primary pressure on society is the conformity to illiteracy. Most of society accepts this pressure and follows the rules, But protagonist and fireman Guy Montag resists this pressure when he comes to see the horrors of his job, and when he takes a look at a book he was supposed to burn.
Bradbury is against the censorship seen in his novel, whose message comes across as a warning against letting any society set up that is similar to the one in Fahrenheit 451. I agree that it is important for a society to be as knowledgeable as possible because not only is it much more efficient, but also just.
-C. Gilchrist
The novel is set in a Dystopian America in the not too distant future. This America is very violent and has apparently reduced all opposing countries to next to nothing, and lives off of their labors. The government wants to keep its people in the dark, with very limited knowledge and thinking state. Censorship is a central plot point, as it is the primary method of controlling and reducing knowledge.
It's not just a portion of books that are censored, however. All books are outlawed and anyone who is found with books will have their books burned by the Firemen, the enforcers of this society. Those who try to resist the firemen are burnt along with their books or given a lethal injection by the mechanical hound, a spider-like robot.
The primary pressure on society is the conformity to illiteracy. Most of society accepts this pressure and follows the rules, But protagonist and fireman Guy Montag resists this pressure when he comes to see the horrors of his job, and when he takes a look at a book he was supposed to burn.
Bradbury is against the censorship seen in his novel, whose message comes across as a warning against letting any society set up that is similar to the one in Fahrenheit 451. I agree that it is important for a society to be as knowledgeable as possible because not only is it much more efficient, but also just.
-C. Gilchrist
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