fei

早餐

我：有豆角馅的包子吗?

服务员：没有，只有猪肉大葱的。

我：行吧，我要两个猪肉大葱馅的带走。

回到公司，吃了第一口，感觉，还好，今天的大葱不多，再吃，怎么是豆角的? 第二个，还是豆角的。。。。。。。

于是我很奇怪为什么卖包子的MM每次都给我这样的惊喜！

终于结束了持久的学习战，想到那天的考题，一份15页的材料，让我们在2个半小时内根据此材料写一篇长达500-800的文章。

主人公很熟悉，都是女性地位和价值的代言人，主题也当然是关于女性在家庭、社会的角色的定位。一直认为舒婷的致橡树最能表达我的想法，于是我再次找到了它。

I know it is very hard to mingle into a new environment especially when you are a not in your mother land. Chinese is renowned for hospitality however it is not always the case. What I experienced triggers me to think about the situation of overseas Chinese. We all complain how overseas Chinese are treated. Those foreigners do not respect or believe us and vise versa. What’s wrong with our fellow? Divergent cultural background、or I should say that it is the damned evil of our human being who works？

Frankness and innocence will not do any good to you if you are with those stupid fellows. The only thing is that you will be taken advantage without knowing anything or persecuted as a foolish clown in their eyes. I am such a clown maybe all our human kind is a clown in the universe. One Chinese, an elite while three mean a team of nothing. That is the very explanation of that question. As Hawthorne says, there is evil in everyone’s heart. The evil takes away the kindness leaving hypocrisy and selfishness. What a shame! Do I have to be that or should I turn deaf ear to all? Sometimes, I turn to silence or obedience which turns out to be so ridiculous and funny. I am so silly. So I refuse the ego, and I should be tough and strong. Time tests!

今年比较懒，连自己饿北京有点冷了，我和家人说，和远方的朋友说。简单的几个字却勾起我无限的感慨。去年此时，我何曾想到我现在的境况，短短的一年，我做出的决定会影响到我的一生，其实已经在影响我。学习和工作的取舍，现状和未来的判断。一个决定，几秒钟，认识一个人，几秒钟，了解一个人，也许一生都不够。

写到这，忽然有件事情让我心里不舒服，于是我就放弃了，谁让我很懒呢。

花开寂寞

N天前，小猪来我这玩，就顺便从她家的紫罗兰上掐了几株带给我。说这个花很皮实，栽在土里就行，几乎不用管它。我胡乱找个个塑料罐，挖墙角弄了点土，就把它们丢进去了。某天早晨掀开窗帘，突然看到了花，这个小东西夹在叶缝里，似乎在偷看我，打量着新的家呢。现在它已经脱离了母体，成为单独的一株了，活得朝气蓬勃。小猪家的那株母体知道分离的痛苦么，知道自己生命的一部分被带到另外一个陌生的环境里，独立，自由生长么？这朵淡紫色的小花儿如同新生儿般用好奇，探索的眼睛观察这个世界，花如人，人如花。始终要离开，始终有寂寞，始终在相思。我不知道花儿是如何赶走寂寞，化解思念的痛苦？是因为它凋谢了么？

这孤独的一朵儿，独自绽放，花开寂寞。

It has been so long since I finished my assignment a few years ago. Now, I am experiencing the good old days as a student. The job for me is really so difficult and it costs me a couple of days to finish. However, I make it. Cool!

The Triumph of the Egg                        

To begin with, the plot of the novella falls on three parts. First and foremost, it tells us that a cheerful and kind-hearted man who used to be a farmhand living a simple and happy life just as his peers in the country when he is single. However, everything turns out to be so different when he gets married with an ambitious country school teacher who boasts great expectations and inspirations and she intends to realize the dream to be a relatively rich. With his wife’s inspiration and encouraging, he works hard by raising chicken but fails at last. The failure in the business dives the story to a higher-lever with the whole family’s move to a new place, a town where a train station is located. He ambitiously tries his hand on running the so-called restaurant according to his wife’s direction. The movement into a relatively modern word foreshadows the conflict between his outdated thinking with the modernization. The business does not go well, and he makes an idea of how to reverse the situation by entertaining the consumers. The climax reaches when he fails to amuse the young fellow in a raining night.

In the fiction, Anderson employs different symbols to refreshes us and gives us diversified images and in-depth understanding of one’s position and identity in the modern society. The crowning symbolic feature is the egg, which should be regarded as the most vivid depiction of American Dream. It is that the spirit of that dream spurs the grass-root to gain wealth, recognition and identity so as to realize the value of life. The business of chicken-raising and restaurant-running are the exact method and way to make the dream come true. Through the pilgrimage towards the dream, the egg servers as the output of his first business; for the second one, the dynamic character is supposed to win his success by playing a trick with the egg. However, he fails. We see clearly the essence of dual image of the egg or American dream hope carrier and destroyer. Further more, the different places and whereabouts serve as symbolic image in the short story. The poor stony land and the movement to Pickleville stand for the unrecoverable failure and dreaming to become a member of the modern world. We also see the train, running business as the coming of industrialization and modernization. Hence, we get to know that the outdated and traditional way of life is inevitably replaced by the modern institution. The raining night also foreshadows and symbols that outcome. 

As far as the character is concerned, father of the narrator, destroyed and depressed farmer-turned-businessman, is a typical round character of the novelette. Originally, he is just an ordinary country man without lofting ambition and enjoys his simple and sound bachelor life. Hence, his marriage serves as a turning point for his changing and revelation. He confidently starts his upward journey but meets his first failure-chicken raising in the country. The hard work and investment gain nothing but the lost. However, when he and the family settle down in Pickleville, he is determined to change and brave the twists and turns ahead. The protagonist gains the American spirit and becomes progressive. He takes it for granted that he will be successful by entertaining the consumer, to be specifically, Joe Kane, son of a merchant of Bidwell.

To his astonishment and surprise, he is totally wrong, what he is doing proves to be so funny, ridiculous and nothing joyful in the eyes of the young. Depression and disillusion prevails the former sense of becoming success.

Ironies here and there in the short story play an irreplaceable role to highlight the theme. Firstly, we know that man in that society shoulders the responsibility to support the family and is expected to be ambitious. The father in the short story is exactly the opposite. It is the narrator’s mother who gets the idea but she doesn’t realize it. The second irony lies in the narrator’s mother who does not have hope for his husband but for her son who will become a town people. The third and the most significant irony is that the diligent and progressive family does not receive what they expect. Their traditional way of thinking and doing business can not match the development of the industrialization progress.  

Now, as regards theme of this story, the author mainly lampoons American Dream and the destructive forces of industrialization and modernization upon tradition. The narrator’s family is one of the ingredients of the lower class and they are looking forward to rising in the world and making their dream come true. The narrator’s parents work hard and diligently in an attempt to make a better living and gain the position. The business they run ends up with failure which could be attributed to the power of industrialization and modernization. That power destroys the traditional way of life, while people are still in the tradition. The conflict between the two is generates trouble and uncertainties to those who could not handle it well.