Reflections on Friday's texts

Here are some reflections on Friday's reading texts

Falling Leaves

Pre-reading activity.
In an age when most Chinese women stayed at home and tried to please their husbands, "Grand Aunt" emerged as a woman who wanted to radically change that view. She dared to go against the norms about occupations and lifestyles.
 TRY TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN CHINA IN THE EARLY 1900'S 
 or
FIND OUT ABOUT A SWEDISH  BUSINESSWOMAN OR INNOVATOR WHO WENT AGAINST THE TIDE IN THE EARLY 1900'S


Alternative title
Feminism-Chinese Style /My Great GrandAunt


Why included in the book
The text tells us nothing abouit the author but it is clear she was inspired by Grand Aunt for her courage. We see a picture of women who have the potential to liberate themselves. This is what Amy did later in her own life. The text is very relevant in our days when we can still see prejudice snd discrimination against women.
It is a good introduction to the later chapter entitled "The World of women".

 Dust of life
Pre-Reading Activity
 Liz Thomas was only a year older than most of you are when she left everything that was familiar and secure to work with war victims in Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War (around 1973).

Discuss what can make a person do as she did. In what circumstances would you do the same?

Comment
This text is a huge challenge to our lifestyle  based on comfort and self-indulgence. It really asks the question as to what is truly important in life. We need heroes and heroines (not heroin!) to shake us up and wake us up!

Alternative title
Leaving it all behind

What similarities are there between them and what differences are there?
Both texts tell the story of  women who were completely unafraid and ignored the restrictions placed on them by society in order to do what they felt was right. Both women have a very strong sense of social justice.
Both texts are set in Asia and even introduce the local language (Chinese/Vietnamese).
 In "Falling Leaves" Grand Aunt has her whole family around her but still manages to go her own way.
In "Dust of Life" Liz leaves everything to live in an extremely dangerous and precarious situation.
Both women are amazingly courageous.
I admire them both.
From the formal sense the texts are very different. "Falling Leaves" is written in the third person and is a stylized text.
"Dust of life" is written in the in the first person and contains elements of Vietnamese which are hard to understand.

It's all beer and no books
The article presents a very gloomy picture of the ambition level of 18 year-olds in Britain who are studying at University.
Thankfully, today many students take a gap-year or, in Sweden, wait until they are motivated (if ever!) to study.
One quote which I liked can be applied to the earlier texts:
"If you don't want to solve the world's problems at 18 then you surely never will"
The writer is somehow biased but achieves her goal.

The heroes in the rubble
I thought immediately about Shakespeare's quote from "Twelfth Night"
Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them
 
If Grand Aunt and Liz achieve "greatness" then the rescue workers of this text "have greatness thrust upon them".
The article is written like a TV script offering cameo pictures of the aftermath of the 9/11 attack. The aim is to highlight the bravery of the rescue workers and, in my view, it succeeds.