Leo's Writing Portfolio

Self-introduction: Who Am I?

2006-12-20T00:07:00.000-08:00

Name: Leo Yu
Nickname: Icy flame
Height: 5’9’’
Weight: 145 lbs

Favorite things:

I like painting. Painters, in my opinion, are the ones who show the most wonderful side of their spirit to the world. Maybe I won’t devote my whole life in painting but as an amateur painter, I still can have the courage to dig out something beautiful in my mind. On the other hand, I will be fascinated in the tranquility while painting. That tranquility is particularly precious in a noisy busy world.

My favorite sport is basketball. It’s exciting and full of keen competition. Though the characteristic of basketball as a kind of sport is totally different from that of painting, anyway, I enjoy it because it’s another kind of experience.

Self-declaration

I’m an ordinary university student. Not talented, not handsome, not… But I like to be an ordinary person. Some sagacious ancient philosophers told us that every one of us is a small particular universe. So I think everyone should love himself/herself even if you have nothing special or outstanding because you are the unique one in this world and nothing can prevent you from finding your own values. Appreciate and believe yourself. Who am I? I’m myself.

Cover Letter

2006-12-20T00:06:00.000-08:00

Dear portfolio readers,

Welcome to my writing portfolio! Glad to share you with my experience of the process of learning academic writing and creating this blog.

As a Chinese student, I don’t think I am confident when writing in English, which is not my native language. But after the training given by the academic writing lessons, I feel more relaxed while writing in English though I haven’t been completely free yet to control over it, my second language.

I really appreciate those classmates who expressed their creative opinions eloquently using fluent English in class. And I want to show sincere gratitude to my two group mates since they never spared their helpful advice when I was struggling thinking how to frame my essay.
Our teacher, Mr. Corio, gave us much free space to show our ability in writing. Though I knew that I would never avoid making mistakes in my reading logs, time writings and drafts of the essay, I could be courageous enough to go on writing.

We were told to keep those mistakes there and then we could see clearly the process of the progress of our own writing skills. Mistakes shouldn’t be hidden on purpose. The courage to face your own mistakes is important when learning something new.

Draft One

2006-12-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

The story “Village” written by Estella Portillo Trambley takes place in Vietnam War. Rico, an ordinary soldier evolving in that inhumane war, was ordered to destroy a village which was said to be a den of the enemy. All except Rico had no doubt when executing the order. He couldn’t hurt those who were innocent just like the people in his homeland. Then he did something that was considered unreasonable and crazy to cease that mission.

The whole story concerns about human nature and war which are two of eternal themes haunting in all literary works. Although it never seems to be a balance because human nature always glistens there in its pale and feeble appearance, people never give up struggling for kindness and can't help thinking of it as well. To our relief, that the warm feeling "people all the same everywhere" (178) blinked in a person's mind during a transient rest between battles makes us not to assure ourselves that human nature has already been perished.

Draft Two

2006-12-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

The story “Village” written by Estella Portillo Trambley takes place in Vietnam War. Rico, an ordinary soldier evolving in that inhumane war, was ordered to destroy the village which was said to be a den of the enemy. All except Rico had no doubt when executing the order. He couldn’t hurt those who were innocent just like the people in his homeland. Then he did something that was considered unreasonable and crazy to cease that mission.

The whole story concerns about humanity and war that are two of eternal themes haunting in all literary works. In front of the overwhelming wheels of inhumane wars, positive virtues in humanity such as love, mercy and rational thoughts always appear pale and feeble. But people have never lost the good side of their soul even if sometimes the weakness or the dark side of it becomes the main theme. Generally speaking, reminiscence of kindness is one of the reasons why human survive after so many tragedies directed by themselves.

Draft Two Advanced

2006-12-20T00:03:00.000-08:00

The story “Village” written by Estella Portillo Trambley takes place in Vietnam War, the gloomy and bloody decade characterized as a hell-like world filled with fighting, crying, bleeding, burning, explosion, massacre, hopelessness and unending death. Rico, an ordinary soldier evolving in that inhumane war, was ordered to destroy the village, which was said to be a den of the enemy. All except Rico had no doubt when executing the order. He couldn’t hurt those who were innocent just like the people in his homeland. Then he did something that was considered unreasonable and crazy to cease that mission.

The whole story concerns about humanity and war that are two of eternal themes haunting in all literary works. In front of the overwhelming wheels of inhumane wars, positive virtues in humanity such as love, mercy and rational thoughts always appear pale and feeble. But people have never lost the good side of their soul even if sometimes the weakness or the dark side of it becomes the main theme. Generally speaking, reminiscence of kindness is one of the reasons why human survive after so many tragedies directed by themselves.

Rico, the hero of the story, couldn’t help thinking about what they’ve done, what they are doing and what they are going to do in the war. The war made him sentimental. Conflicting emotions were entangled in his mind.

Just like any other soldier, what Rico couldn’t get rid of was the cruelty of that killing match. He “remembered the combat bible----kill or be killed” (177). What a terrible “bible”! How could people take that sort of doctrine to control over their mind and behavior! The war even made people forget the unique holy Bible, through which the sacred gave us instructions filled with all virtues to ban such inhumane behavior as killing. It’s unbearable! It is enough to afflict a person with conscience.

On the other hand, he was touched by the stillness of the Vietnam village in front of him. He “knew it (the stillness) well, the same kind of stillness that was a part of him back home” (177). The power of homesickness was so incredible that it could “make a man part of his world----river, clearing, sun, wind” (177) to salvage a person from the deadly numbness given by Mars, which “fascinated” him in carnage. When it occurred to Rico that “people all the same everywhere” (178), I don’t think he would get courageous enough to kill those so-called enemy, who didn’t differ much from the people in his tribe, his parents, his brothers and sisters, all friendly ones.

The anguish caused by the conflicting feelings in Rico’s mind is out of imagination, especially for us, people who have never experienced real wars. But for all involved in wars, the anguish is not only familiar but also haunted and it’s always the heart-breaking memory of their whole life. We can read the feeling in many letters written in war, literary works and memoirs about wars. And we can hear the narrations from many old people who once experienced wars. We have to acknowledge that kind of anguish and conflicting feelings existed in most soldiers’ mind.

Those emotions created the potential power of people’s repulsion at the war. They were also the initial stimulus to drive Rico to do that finally. But if so, all the other people tortured by the war should have become anti-war heroes as well as Rico. The disappointing fact was that we did not see so many Ricos.

Before the mission, no men wanted to listen to Rico’s appeal and the only excuse was this hollow answer, “You just follow orders, savvy” (179). “Savvy” just meant a robot with nothing in its brain except orders. How ridiculous it was!

After the “crazy” action, “the faces of the men sitting around Rico were indiscernible in the darkness, but he imagined their eyes, wide, confused, peering through the dark at him with a wakefulness that questioned what he had done” (181). That was what Rico imagined but I believe it was the real expression on those men’s faces. No men dared to do that since the necessity and reasonableness of war should be doubtless. Everyone around Rico was “strangely quiet and remote” (181) since there was no need to sympathize a maniac.

Here we felt the dark magic spelled by the war, which was more powerful than that commonly prevailing potential repulsion I mentioned above. Sometimes common existence is not equal to dominance. Every soldier might have detested the war because of the memory of his home and familiar people. Every one might have detested the war because of the tiredness of endless killing. But actually it never happened to most people that their repulsion at the war broke out and turned into something visible just like Rico’s struggle. That was the overwhelming power of the wheel of war, in front of which ordinary ones had no choice but follow rules of war. Those emotions were compressed at the bottom of everyone’s heart and depressed in an inactive status.

Survival is the lowest level of human needs according to Abraham Maslow’s theory. Wars are always embarrassing situations which make people degenerate to nearly most primitive beings. Ironically, wars are byproducts of human civilization and the more civilized, the more disastrous wars are. With modern mass destructive weapons used, technological wars in the 20th century have already given people not only more serious and unpreventable physical wounds (such as diseases caused by radioactive or biological ammunitions) but mental pressure and despair which they’ve never experienced before. They have no time to care something else but keep themselves alive. Following the combat “bible” and superiors’ orders are understandable since every rookie is told that only those things can save his life. Because of that, people who didn’t do as Rico did should not blame for their silence.

But we still should applause for men like Rico. Wars and the master hands behind wars cannot avoid being accusing. The mission taken by Rico’s platoon was to “kill and burn and erase all memories” (179). The memories for Rico were the stillness of his homeland. The war killed and burned and erased all beautiful memories of humanity. Love was killed; mercy was burned; rational thoughts were erased.

We can’t underestimate the power of kindness buried deeply in people’s mind because even the most catastrophic wars such as World War II and Vietnam War did not last over 10 years. That showed us a tendency to peace even if it seemed to be hopeless. It was the power of kindness that prevented people from perishing themselves and their civilization. That kind of power was gradually conglomerated and at last it became strong enough to change the bad situation and the doomed fate of people trapped in war. I call the process reminiscence of kindness, self-salvation of humanity to bring back virtues lost in wars such as love, mercy or so. During Vietnam War, a vivid example could be seen that a trend to cease the war became more and more influential in that decade. Anti-war protections, marches, parties and organizations formed a life-style. Hippie sounds a negative word but those people began with their manifest anti-war attitude. The trend at last succeeded in hindering the wheel of war.

Rico was a lonely hero in the short story but he let us see the hope. Though the author let us perceive the feeble and pale figures of those positive virtues in humanity, she didn’t mean to give up struggling but showed the fortitude and vitality of those human characteristics. Rico was the light of a match, which was tiny but still could be seen from several kilometers away in darkness, leading people to reminiscence of all kindness.

Draft Three:

2006-12-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

The story “Village” written by Estella Portillo Trambley was set on a special background, Vietnam War, the gloomy and bloody decade characterized as a hell-like world filled with fighting, crying, bleeding, burning, explosion, massacre, hopelessness and unending death. Rico, an ordinary soldier evolving in that inhumane war, was ordered to destroy the village, which was said to be a den of the enemy. All except Rico had no doubt when executing the order. He couldn’t hurt those who were as innocent as the people in his homeland. Then he did something that was considered unreasonable and crazy to cease that mission.

The whole story concerns about humanity and war that have been two of eternal themes frequently described in many literary works. In front of the overwhelming wheels of inhumane wars, positive virtues in humanity such as love, mercy and rational thoughts always appear pale and feeble. But people have never lost the good side of their souls even if sometimes the weakness or the dark side becomes the main melody. Generally speaking, reminiscence of kindness is one of the reasons why human can survive after so many tragedies directed by themselves.

Rico, the hero of the story, couldn’t help thinking about what they’ve done, what they are doing and what they are going to do in the war. The war made him sentimental. Conflicting emotions were entangled in his mind.

Just like any other soldier, what Rico couldn’t get rid of was the cruelty of that killing match. He “remembered the combat bible----kill or be killed” (177). What a terrible “bible”! How could people take that sort of doctrine to control over their mind and behavior! The war even made people forget the unique holy Bible, through which the sacred gave us instructions filled with all virtues to ban such inhumane behavior as killing. It was unbearable! It was enough to afflict a person with conscience.

On the other hand, he was touched by the stillness of the Vietnam village in front of him. He “knew it (the stillness) well, the same kind of stillness that was a part of him back home” (177). The power of homesickness was so incredible that it could “make a man part of his world----river, clearing, sun, wind” (177) to salvage a person from the deadly numbness given by Mars, which “fascinated” him in carnage. When it occurred to Rico that “people all the same everywhere” (178), I don’t think he would get “courageous” enough to kill those so-called enemy, who didn’t differ much from the people in his tribe, his parents, his brothers and sisters, all friendly ones.

The anguish caused by the conflicting feelings in Rico’s mind is out of imagination, especially for us, people who have never experienced real wars. But for all who once involved in wars, the anguish is not only familiar but also haunted and it’s always the heart-breaking memory throughout their life. We can read the feeling in many letters written in war, literary works and memoirs about wars. And we can hear the narrations from many old people who once experienced wars. We have to acknowledge that kind of anguish and conflicting feelings existed in most soldiers’ minds.

Those emotions created the potential power of people’s repulsion at the war. They were also the initial stimulus to drive Rico to do that finally. But if so, all the other people tortured by the war should have become anti-war heroes as well as Rico. The disappointing fact was that we did not see so many Ricos.

Before the mission, no men wanted to listen to Rico’s plead and the only excuse was this hollow answer, “You just follow orders, savvy” (179). “Savvy” just meant a robot with nothing in its brain except orders. How ridiculous it was!

After the “crazy” action, “the faces of the men sitting around Rico were indiscernible in the darkness, but he imagined their eyes, wide, confused, peering through the dark at him with a wakefulness that questioned what he had done” (181). That was what Rico imagined but I believe it was the real expression on those men’s faces. No men dared to do that since the necessity and reasonableness of war should be doubtless. Everyone around Rico was “strangely quiet and remote” (181) since there was no need to sympathize a maniac.

Here we felt the dark magic spelled by the war, which was more powerful than that commonly prevailing potential repulsion I mentioned above. Sometimes common existence is not equal to dominance. Every soldier might have detested the war because of the memory of his home and familiar people. Every one might have detested the war because of tiredness of the endless killing. But actually it never happened to most people that their repulsion at the war broke out and turned into something visible just like Rico’s struggle. That was the overwhelming power of the wheel of war, in front of which ordinary ones had no choice but follow rules of war. Those emotions were sealed at the bottom of everyone’s heart and depressed in an inactive status.

Survival is the lowest level of human needs according to Abraham Maslow’s theory. Wars are always embarrassing situations which make people degenerate to nearly most primitive beings. Ironically, wars are byproducts of human civilization and the more civilized, the more disastrous wars are. With modern mass destructive weapons used, technological wars in the 20th century have already given people not only more serious and unpreventable physical wounds (such as diseases caused by radioactive or biological ammunitions) but mental pressure and despair which they’ve never experienced before. They have no time to care something else but keep themselves alive. Following the combat “bible” and superiors’ orders are understandable since every rookie will be told that only those things can save his life. Because of that, people who didn’t do as Rico did should not blame for their silence.

But we still should applause for men like Rico. Wars and the master hands behind wars cannot avoid being accusing. The mission taken by Rico’s platoon was to “kill and burn and erase all memories” (179). The memories for Rico were the stillness of his homeland. For human, the war killed and burned and erased all beautiful memories of humanity. Love was killed; mercy was burned; rational thoughts were erased.

We can’t underestimate the power of kindness buried deeply in people’s mind because even the most catastrophic wars such as World War II and Vietnam War did not last long to annihilate the world. That showed us a tendency to peace even if it seemed to be hopeless sometimes. It was the power of kindness that prevented people from perishing themselves and their civilization. That kind of power was gradually conglomerated and at last it became strong enough to change the bad situation and the doomed fate of people trapped in war. I call the process reminiscence of kindness, self-salvation of humanity to bring back virtues lost in wars such as love, mercy or so. During Vietnam War, a vivid example could be seen that a trend to cease the war became more and more influential in that decade. Anti-war protections, marches, parties and organizations formed a life-style. Hippie sounds a negative word but those people began with their manifest anti-war attitude. The trend at last succeeded in hindering the wheel of war.

Rico was a lonely hero in the short story but he let us see the hope. Though the author let us perceive the feeble and pale figures of those positive virtues in humanity, she didn’t mean to give up struggling but showed the fortitude and vitality of those human characteristics. Rico was the light of a match, which was tiny but still could be seen from several kilometers away in darkness, leading people to reminiscence of all kindness.

Time Writing

2006-12-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

With the developments in communication and transportation, countries seem to become more and more similar. In my way of thinking, superficially, it is true.

Some evident should be able to support that opinion.

Firstly, one of the most manifest phenomena is that half of the people in the world use the same language, English, which we Chinese students are learning all day and night. English shows a dominant power to hold sway over many countries whose native languages are not English, including China. Even though China boasts its long history of over 5000 years and its powerful and colorful culture, it still can’t avoid the fate to accept another language and the culture it has brought about, which Chinese authority still despised about one and half centuries ago.

Secondly, since we have accepted a foreign language which appears overwhelmingly these years, we cannot prevent from the impact of its cultural background. Christmas is impending and many Chinese people, especially young guys, begins to be busy just as most westerners do. Twenty years ago, it was still unimaginable to do like this in China. Most Chinese people do not have such religious belief as Christian, but it doesn’t matter and they still accept those festivals which are full of religious meanings such as Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Thirdly, we share some common adoring idols such as famous singers or sportsmen. It should be attributed to the import of some entertainment or sports events which are accustomed to foreign people. We can see that more and more Chinese like to play golf at weekends and Tiger Woods is more and more popular. We can see that more and more young boys crazily adore such sports stars as Michael Jordan even if basketball has a long history in China but it is NBA games that really fascinate millions of young men to go into the hall of basketball. We can see that Korean and Japanese styles of clothing impact not only Chinese young people but also those in the whole Asia. But Korean and Japanese styles themselves originated from hip-hop men in the street corners in Brooklyn….

Those phenomena should be the substantial evident to support the idea mentioned at the beginning of my article. But those things are the surface of the world we see. Globalization doesn’t mean people all the same everywhere and it means a melting pot to include everything and to bear all kinds of differences. If we observe the details, we can still find the inner entity of each country. They are totally different.

Reading Log

2006-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

In this short story, Mishima Yukio showed his ability to create a certain aura. After reading the story, every reader will sink into the main atmosphere given by the writer. We are saturated in deep depression, confronted with the desolate innermost world of the heroine.

The whole story of misery is dumbfounding and thus meaningful. We can perceive the words hidden behind the superficial, delicately-organized descriptions or narrations of the story. That is human equality and justice. Maybe from the intuition of a student who majors in sociology, I got the idea.

The thought which advocates endowing everyone with the same right without any discrimination might derive from the meditation about humanity during the Renaissance. In the following hundreds of years, it has occurred frequently in many forms of appearance. For instance, that every man is born equal is the fundamental spirit of the American Constitution.
It has been widely accepted when we entered the 20th century. But two world wars severely delayed that progress, especially the World War II, in which human equality and justice was intensely challenged by cruel genocide done by Fascism.

In the post World War II period, we finally secured a comparatively peaceful world to continue our endeavor to that ultimate dream, though we still have a long way toward our target from now on and the world seems uneven forever.

We never doubt or deny that every person should be given equal chance to grow up and live. What we can't transform is the things given by God such as our descent (race) and talent, but we can do nothing but to ensure everyone the right to utilize social resources and be treated equally. Thus, we can get a relatively fair condition.

In the mini-novel, we are astonished that how profoundly birth would change one's entire life. Discrimination would lead to disastrous and tragic results for people. From that analytical angle, it is appropriate to remark that Mishima Yukio gave us a warning.