Can Lovers See Clearly?

    To me, Love is blind. It can mean that someone refuses to see his or her partners clearly but rather tries to avoid seeing it or someone sees the shortcomings of his or her other half but chooses to still blindly admire or love the other half. The couple in the Twilight sags, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, fell in love with each other after they first met. Without any hint about Edward’s personality or the fact that he is a vampire, she just blindly fell in love with her perfect type of mysterious man. Edward, too, fell in love immediately he met Bella and could not stop thinking about her. However, there seems to be no specific or concrete reason why he chose Bella out of all girls he might have known better in school. Even though they get to know each other better after they are together, it is blindness or the unrealistic imagination of perfection that brought them together. 
    Another couple is the one in a Taiwanese movie called ”You are the Apple of My Eyes”. This is a story that happened to two lovers who did not officially get together but is in love with each other. The love between them is also blind. Although the two of them saw each other’s personality and did not like each other so much when they first met, they fell for each other in the end. The boy used to think that the girl is too obnoxious and too much of a nerd. The girl used to think that the boy is too immature and too indolent on school work. However, when the two people who have a so different character had some to get to know each other, they surprisingly fell in love. They might have found out some advantages in each person’s character, but I still think without blindness, they may not fall in love at all due to their bias toward the other.

    I think love in fiction is often portrayed though a sense of blindness and romanticism. Two people who just seem so different and impossible to think of as being together just eventually get into a relationship. Usually, they go through a series of incidents and coincidences that male each other realize each other’s importance. They sometimes disregard the characteristics they used to hate and goon to love each other. In real life, though there might not be so many the kinds of coincidences that happen in fiction, people’s blindness and desire to fall in love can make them fail to see if each other is the perfect half or not.

Why Tell Stories in Song?

Lyrics: I'm comin' home, I've done my time
Now I've got to know what is and isn't mine
If you received my letter tellin' you I'd soon be free
Then you'll know just what to do if you still want me
If you still want me

CHORUS:
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tony_orlando/tie_a_yellow_ribbon.html ]
Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree
It's been three long years
Do you still want me?
If I don't see a ribbon round the old oak tree
I'll stay on the bus
Forget about us
Put the blame on me
If I don't see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

Bus driver, please look for me
'Cause I couldn't bear to see what I might see
I'm really still in prison, and my love she holds the key
A simple yellow ribbon's what I need to set me free
I wrote and told her this:

REPEAT CHORUS

Now the whole damn bus is cheering
And I can't believe I see
A hundred yellow ribbons 'round the old oak tree
I'm comin' home

One of my favorite songs that gets stuck in my head and keeps on replaying in my mind when I was in elementary school is “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” by Tony Orlando. I got introduced to this song by my fourth grade English teacher who made us try to memorize it and perform it on a ceremony celebrating our school’s birthday. The first time I listened to it, the melody was not that catchy or captivating. But once I listened to it carefully after several times of replay, I recognized the melody is much like country music and soothes my emotions. Moreover, after I got a look at the lyrics, I realized how well the melody actually goes with lyrics. The lyrics talk about how a man was in prison for three years and was finally freed. During the years in the prison, he has never forgotten about his lover or wife. He then wrote a letter to his lover saying that if she still wants him, she can tie a tallow ribbon around the old oak tree in her front yard. If he does not see one, he will get her point and never bother her again; for he knows that it is his fault leaving her alone. What really touches me is the last part when he saw a hundred yellow ribbons tied around the tree. I think the song was made popular because of the catchy melody and the rhythms of the rhyming words. Take example of the lyrics, “I’ll stay on the bus, forget about us” rhymes. It makes it easier for people to memorize the song. I memorized the lyrics fast that way. Also, the lyrics about the man’s story, which is very easy to understand and relate to it, make the song actually very interesting to read. I think it is better for the lyrics to be easily understood then for them to be aesthetically abstract. That way, it is easier to sympathize with the scenes the lyrics are meaning to portray. It is catchy also because of the straight forward story line of these lyrics. Also, there is also a little part in which the lyrics described the interactions between the main character and the bus drivers and the rest of the passengers on the same bus with him. It was kind of like a dialogue in which the main character talks with the bus driver. This makes the song a really memorable ballad.

Is Honor Worth Dying for?

Honor has been a goal that every person is trying to achieve. However, in my opinion, the definition of honor has changed from that of the medieval times. I think to become a knight is an honorable thing itself. The name “knight” is chosen and granted by a king for who is considered brave, loyal, and devoted to his country and king. Thus a knight’s idea honor must had been to win in a jousting battle or war, to defend his country from any harm or attacks from enemies, and to maybe die in a war , which is considered very heroic. The modern day’s idea of honor is sometimes quite shallow. People nowadays often determine whether a thing is honorable by seeing its monetary value. For example, people can think that getting hired by a high paid job is very honorable. What is honorable can also be determined by whether that thing is honorable by its popularity. An awarded artist’s work can appear to be honorable and an artist who is obscure may be not as honorable. I think the main similarity between the two different period’s ideas of honor is the want for glory, sense of achievement, and the desire of praise from others. A modern-day knight can be the president who decided a country’s diplomatic strategy and works to remain a country’s safety and prosperity.

Revealing Your Own Character in Writing

        Chaucer is the person who wrote the Canterbury Tales and also the one who was on the pilgrimage because the story is written through a first person perspective. I think firstable, Chaucer reveals himself to be an every outgoing and talkative person  in order to get a such good sense of each character's array. He must have a amiable characteristic in order for people to be willing to talk to him.This can be proved by his words, " I'd spoken to them all upon a trip and was soon one with them in fellowship."At the very beginning of the story he mentioned how it is most proper that he should describe to us how each pilgrimage’s personality is, his or her appearance, and their demeanor  as mentioned: " It seems a reasonable thing to say, what their conditions was, the full array of each of them, as it appeared to me." Then he started describing each character in meticulous details. Take for example how Chaucer described the Yeoman: "He wore a coat and hood of green, and peakok-feather arrows, bright and keen and neatly sheathed..." I think this really shows how Chaucer can be a very attentive and observant person. He makes good use of descriptive words and had good insight of a character’s demeanor.

Through his words, it shows that he has a discriminate way of seeing things. For example, Chaucer describes the summoner to be a very ugly looking man with fiery red face and pimples which scares children. He said that  his pimple problem to be one that no ointment could have cured it as mentioned: "His face on fire, like a cherubin, for he had carbuncles..." Chaucer also showed how the summoner brags about his little knowledge of Latin hoping to justify his position as a summoner. Chaucer's discriminating words are those that are quite straightforward.

Chaucer can also be a somewhat humble person. He said in the story to excuse his language for sometimes he may be describing things through his own perspectives: " But first I beg you, in courtesy, not to condemn me. If I speak plainly with no concealings ...however rudely spoken or unfit, or else the tales he tells will be untrue. " But we can clearly see that he is a direct and straight because he wishes to convey the things as what they are without any excessive modifications. It shows that he is determined in his own view about what a true tale should be.He also shows how Chaucer can reason. He wrote, " The things pretended and the phrases new,...and Christ Himself spoke broad in Holy writ, yet there is no scurrility in it." He is trying to reason with people that he is not trying to be rude, but just trying to reveal the truth.

Do Men Understand Women?

People’s experiences or perspectives often lead to the conclusion that women are more sentimental and think more deeply and carefully about many issues. I will have to agree with this opinion and state that the differences between women and men are more of fundamental ones than superficial ones, meaning they exist from the start of our lives.

Women and men often have different thinking processes. When in relationship, women tend to be more vulnerable or crankier because they think in more detailed ways. Men are often more .This may be why in relationships women get jealous easily without the men noticing the reasons why. For example, women can get jealous when their men talk too much to other women. They can think that their boyfriends do not love them anymore that is why they are trying to find other women to talk to. Whereas men only treat other women as normal friends and do not know what their girlfriends are making a fuss about.

For me I think the difference comes from men not being able to understand that all women need is more time spent on them. For instance, sometimes women may throw a little temper about how tired they are. However, this does not mean they have bad temper, but just that they need comforts from their men. Then all thngs will be fine again.

In conclusion, men and women should spend more time understanding on the personality differences then they can elude arguments.