Existents In Alfian Saats Umbrella :: Alfian Saat Umbrella Papers

Existents In Alfian Sa'at's Umbrella In the short story "Umbrella", the author Alfian Sa'at relates the tale of a young Malay Singaporean secondary school student, Hafiz. Alfian uses an older Hafiz as the narrator who recounts his experiences retaking his 'O' levels for the second time. Hafiz tells us about his relationship with Chris, a tuition teacher hired by his father to help him pass his examinations. I feel that "Umbrella" is essentially a story about the imposition of certain norms and standards on members of society. It tells us how students are conscious of the need to fulfill society's notion of success. Through Hafiz's eyes, we are led to see how he is trapped in this system that forces certain standards upon him but yet does not give him the appropriate training and skills to reach the standards. Thus, Hafiz is unable to fit into the identity that he is pressured to accept. We also see how Hafiz himself desires to achieve success as society perceives it, but finally realizes his true identity and comes to terms with it, even though it may not be the norm. However, how does "Umbrella" cause such an effect on the reader? What tools are being utilized in the narrative that can invoke such feelings? I believe that the author uses what Seymour Chatman calls existents to bring out such an effect on readers. Thus, in this essay we will seek to discover how existents, namely charac ter and setting, are employed to draw out such an effect. Firstly, let us look at character. Tzvetan Torodov, a French structuralist, discusses two categories of narrative. He labels them as apsychological and psychological narratives. By apsychological, Torodov means narratives that are plot centered and by psychological, character centered (Chatman 113). Readers can discern that "Umbrella" is essentially psychological in nature. Most of the story takes place in Hafiz's room and is generally presented through the conversations between Hafiz and Chris and through Hafiz's thoughts. There are few characters in this story. We have the protagonist Hafiz and his tuition teacher Chris as the two main leads. Along with them are less important characters such as Hafiz's parents and a certain maths relief teacher. Chatman emphasizes that characters are important to a narrative and they should not be treated as "mere plot functions" (119). As such, these characters must play a crucial role in bringing out the effect of the narrative, and we will seek to decipher how this is done.

Argument Essay Essay

As students we all have been challenged to do our best. Throughout our lives we have been labeled with our grades; in high school, the ones with low grades were left alone in misery, while the ones with higher grades were praised as the leaders of this horse race. Then, the question that comes into mind is: is it right to categorize students, does grading contribute to educationa? It is assumed and stated in the philosophy of the current educational system that grading encourages learning and without it students would not study. That is far from being true and also expresses another flaw of our education system. The system is based on fear: the basic motive for students to study is fear of low grades. Furthermore, because the grades are the main criteria for passing courses, students do not study: they just develop methods of cheating. Thus, without learning the subject, they keep passing. Since grades received in exams are more important than learning the subject matter, all students have to do to pass their courses is memorize how a specific problem is solved. Without knowing why such a method is used, students cannot apply their ability to solve the problem to daily life. However, they pass exams without learning why, how or what of the matter. Another disadvantage of grading is that grades of a student are not updated. That means the grades of a student for the first year of school will still be valid in the last year, whether his knowledge about the subject has improved or deteriorated. Considering all the factors that affect a student’s exams and marks, even a small incident may have a great impact in the long run. Apart from these problems, which can be virtually solved by optimizing and improving the grading system, the most important defect of the system cannot be repaired without changing the whole system. The grading system causes inequalities, superior-inferior relations, classifications and even conflicts. It may be maintained that societies of the modern world are structured on these basic principles, but the fact that something exists does not justify it. Moreover, the people grown up in such an education system will not be able to see the other side of the walls, or will be afraid even to take a glimpse. To sum up, grading students is not a good practice and should be abolished. It is clear that education, especially education during childhood, has a great effect on one’s life. And if you bring the children up in conditions of conflict and competition, they will look for conflicts in the future too.

Sign Language Essays - Deafness, Deaf Culture, Sign Language

Sign Language Essays - Deafness, Deaf Culture, Sign Language Sign language Lab Report: Beginning ASL 3 & 4 Sign language is a method of communication of which I am becoming more and more familiar. This is in great part to a series of videos I am currently watching entitled ?The Bravo Family,? Beginning ASL 1-15. I have recently finished watching videos three and four. I have discovered there are many things that I did not know concerning such topics as the culture and grammar of the deaf community. I feel these are two aspects which deserve an abundance of credit and require a large amount of studying. The culture of the deaf community is still thriving and continues to grow in strength. This in spite of the years of suppression that people have enforced on these unique individuals. Technology has extended a great helping hand to all mankind, especially those of a deaf nature. Flashing lights are becoming a very useful tool in deaf peoples homes. For example, to help accommodate the special needs of those who can not hear the telephone or doorbell ring, systems can be installed into someone?s home which alerts them of someone?s presence at the door or on the phone. The flashing light is also used to help wake people up in the morning; alarm clocks can also be connected to the lights. There are also dogs that are trained for sounds. For years blind people have used these animals to help get them from one place to another. Now the people in the deaf community can use canines to help alert them of sounds or noises. Another grateful tool that is used to help the special needs of those who can not hear is a device known as a TTY or TDD. This is a device that helps two people communicate over the phone lines by typing on a machine. The message is transmitted over the phone lines and received by another person on the other line. The problem with this was communicating between a deaf person with a TTY and hearing person without one. To solve this problem many states offer what is known as a relay station. This is where a deaf person can type a message on a TTY, the message is run through a relay station, and the hearing person on the other line hears a voice which states the message. The opposite is also possible. A hearing person on one line says something. It runs through the relay station and is transmitted to the TTY in a typed statement. There is also the entertainment aspect of the culture. The TV set is a universal tool of education and entertainment. Almost all TV?s and stations offer closed captioning. This is a great service which scrolls white letters on a black background across the bottom of the screen. People can see what is being said and still watch a program. Another aspect of entertainment which is greatly incorporated with culture is folklore and storytelling. ASL incorporates very creative storytelling with body language, facial expressions, and the numbering system in number story telling. In this form of relaying a story numbers represent people, actions, or things. It is very entertaining to watch someone tell a story using numbers. As you can see the culture of deaf people runs deep and involves a great many things. The technical aspect of ASL is just as important as understanding the culture. Proper grammar is essential when communicating with other people. In ASL you are required to put the negative at the end of a sentence rather than first. This is opposite, in form, of English. Another rule of grammar is known as the topic comment rule. This states that the topic is established first and then what you want to say about the topic, the comment, is stated last. These rules are very important and can not be overlooked. I thoroughly enjoyed these two videos over The Bravo family. I learned new signs for oven, living room, couch, onions, shop, and many more. I am looking forward to watching more videos and learning more signs. The culture of deaf people is amazing to me and although the grammar is difficult for me to understand I plan to stick with it and learn and apply all or most of the rules.