Diaspera

In response to World Literature Blog 12:

The Ibo people had changed from the reaction to the contact points that was listed in the blog.  I think the most strong reaction to the change were the churches.  The Europeans came to the Ibo village and set up the church at the Evil Forest, and converted many Ibo people.  This caused the destruction of the Ibo’s traditions and the people’s way of life.  Because of the European’s disruption of the way of life, it ruined the lives of the Ibo people. That is the only negative part of the diaspora.  The positive factor for this diaspora is the schools (because it helps educate the Ibo people), courts (helps create a stronger justice system), markets (more trades and economy grows from the village), hospitals (help heal more people and save more lives from unknown sicknesses), and military (more advanced weapons are given and help protect the village).

In Korea, there are many changes all around the country. Everything here in Korea changed because of the American society.

Example 1: Language
Lately, Korean schools are teaching students English so that they want the students to become more international.  In society, if you were born here in Korea and fluent in English, then you get much praise from many people.  If you were a Korean born in the States, then you become an outcast of the social groups in Korean school.  The language English gave both positive and negative impacts on the Korean society.

An American teaching english to elementary Korean students

 Example 2: Music
Many of the music here in Korea are adapting to the style of Western music, such as rock, pop, rap, or R&B.  The traditional music is slowly forgotten by the younger generations.  Many young Koreans are crazy about musicians and their appeal in televisions.  I think media had a big impact on music, where face and looks are more important than the art of music.  When a Korean artist, Rain, became a worldwide star, he was criticized as a musician, and many people say his dances are very similar to Michael Jackson’s dance moves.  He was harshly criticized by critics because he was listed on the Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people. Time

Rain, a popular R&B and pop artist

Example 3: Beauty
Lately, the Korean Society standard of beauty began to change very much.  Because the American standard of beauty, Koreans wanted to become very beautiful like the Americans so cosmetic surgery became very popular in Korea.  The funny thing is that sometimes the results of a cosmetic surgery makes their image worse.  Celebrities tend to overdo surgery on their face and their face sometimes turn to Michael Jackson’s.

Here is a picture of "before and after" cosmetic surgery. See the differencet?

“The Second Coming”

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
hings fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand;
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus
Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries
of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

1. Q: What is the meaning of the phrase “Things Fall Apart” within Yeats’ poem?
    A: I believe that the book, “Things Fall Apart,” used the poem to show the coming of the end of the world. In this poem, there are many biblical references about how the world is going to end.  I think that the poem is influenced from the last chapter of the bible, the Revelations, because that his poem is refering to the beast in the Bible. Since this poem was written right after World War II, Yeats must have seen the destruction and envisioned the end of the world.

2. Q: What does the Second Coming refer to in general?
A:  In general, I think the Second Coming is the coming of Jesus Christ from Heaven to Earth. I had “googled” the Second Coming and found a chuck of information about the Second Coming from Wikipedia. It is also refered to the “last judgement of the dead and the living,” which is the end of the world, and the establishment of the “Kingdom of God” on earth. There are videos I found the the poem is related to the bible on youtube (7 part video).

3. Q: What does the Second Coming refer to in Yeats’ Poem?
A: The Second Coming in Yeat’s poem used the Bible to show that the World is coming to an end. Yeats mentioned the signs of showing the end of the world is coming  and the event is in evitable. I think Yeats supports the idea that the Second Coming is when the world ends.

4. Q: As you read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, note how the novel both takes up and changes Yeats’ version of the Second Coming. Who or what in the novel represents a “rough beast” that “slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
A: The “rought beast” refers to the demon, or the antichrist. I think that in the novel, the “rough beast” is the Church, where they took away the natives land and force the natives to believe in something they are not accustomed to.  The Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and the rough beast slouches towards there to destroy it. Just like the Europeans, they slouched toward the Ibo village and caused chaos to the Ibo society and destroyed the culture and the traditions of the people.