Daniel Jangwon Yang: Immigration

These days, most people know the living conditions in the other parts of the world thanks to the telecommunication technology such as the Internet and satellite TV. Consequently, they can easily compare the qualities of life and choose the place where they would like to live in the future. There are many factors which stimulate people to move to far away from their home countries. They are environmental circumstances, education and health services, and political and social securities. Contemporarily, many developed countries have opened their doors to attract young generations to balance the age structure of their aging population. Those countries are all desperate. They can’t avoid the catastrophe without filling the producing layer to prop up the whole country. For these reasons, sociologists project that the immigration is the biggest topic during the decade to come. At this time, we need to consider the effects carefully. There are both positive and negative effects that immigration has had on my life.

There are positive effects of immigration on my life. Firstly, new immigrants can find different opportunities from those of their home countries because each country has its own characteristic industries. Accordingly, there are varieties of occupations for the new comers. Especially, it’s better for the aged. For instance, Canada, which welcomes immigrants, provides job opportunities or volunteer positions to the old who have already retired in their home countries. Secondly, new immigrants can enjoy the supports from the governments or societies. They can receive the language education and useful skills. These are very helpful in adapting to a new country and to extend capabilities. Besides, they can take advantage of medical and social benefits such as unemployment insurance and child benefits.

There are negative effects of immigration on my life, too. Firstly, there are many barriers to the immigrants. The first and the most crucial one among them is language. It may decide the success of settlement in a new country. Even though all the immigrants agree on the importance of language, they can’t sort out the issue. That is why adults have serious difficulties to master the new language with totally different structures. On top of this huge barrier, unfamiliar social systems and uprooted networks are the other obstacles to them. They can’t get used to the regulations and practices of the new country. They don’t have close friends whom they ask questions from and share interests with. Secondly, the emotional loneliness is a serious problem new comers suffer from. They are suddenly secluded from families, long-time-friends, relatives and neighbors. Human beings are social animals and should live together. They feel solitude in a crowd of strangers. Moreover, they have lost the ways to release the mental stress due to the different cultures. It may take a long time to learn a new approach to restore the stability of feelings.

The effects of immigration vary, depending on the personalities and traits of the people. Successful immigration sometimes relies on how well they prepare in advance and endure the struggling early stage. The preparation includes efforts to minimize the expected negative effects. Breaking through the early struggling stage needs patience and self-confidence. Anybody who completes the preparation and gets over the settling period will enjoy the positive effects of immigration. There are both positive and negative effects of immigration. The outcome will be decided by individual immigrants.

Sepideh Shahverdi : Gotta Dance

What are Katie’s important quality?
As we read in “Gotta Dance ” by J.Daviss, Katie loved dance and desired it from her heart but her family is critical of her desire so she left her family .After her brother passed away, she went to their old house and remembered her sad days that she had there. She went to her brother’s room and danced there. Then she took a bus and went to another town. She went to a diner because she arrived soon and ordered some food but she gave the most of that to a poor man in the diner and also she left a good tip for the waitress. Actually, she didn’t have much but money was not her problem. After awhile she went to a place in the street near the theater and started dancing very well. Although she received a job offer from a man who came from the theater, she left there to another town. She was very generous and ambitious person.

She had a great talent for dancing. When she was disappointed with her family, she decided to change her life so she planned to travel from a town to another in the world
and dance where and when she could. She decided to forget her gloomy days .Her heart’s desire is having freedom and dancing, so she planned to live as a homeless and danced “on a tour ”.

Daniel Jangwon Yang: Gotta Dance

Gotta Dance

“Gotta Dance”, a short story written by Jackson Jodie Daviss, is about a born dancer, Katie. She is a born dancer. She has uncontrollable passion to express herself in dancing while her family doesn’t like her to dance. Due to this reason, she leaves home and comes across many people during her wandering. She responds to them with love and care. Katie is a caring person.

Katie is a caring person. She easily feels sympathy for people whom she meets. She doesn’t pass by the people whom she feels sympathy for. For instance, she offers a meal to a young gaunt man at the restaurant. She couldn’t ignore that, when he eats up the soup and asks for more bread without a main dish. There is another example showing her traits. She leaves coins for the street kids after her performance in front of the theater. Actually, she could expect some coins from the audience in the case. However she empties her purse for the kids instead of collecting the money. She loves and cares for people, whenever she meets people deserving her sympathy.

Katie meets many people since she leaves home. She feels sympathy for people such as a young gaunt man at the restaurant and street boys begging for coins in the crowds in front of the theater. She also feels sympathy for a boy in a bus from her heart, expressing that she hates him. She acts most of the time when she feels sympathy. This action can’t be performed, unless she is a really loving and caring person.

Faiz Mirza Mohammad: Country and City

What are the advantages of living in the city and in the country?

Some people prefer to live in the city while others live in the country. There are some advantages of living in the city as well as living in the country. People who live in the city have more opportunities to find a job, get better education and more access to technology. On the other hand, the country is cleaner, more peaceful, and it is much cheaper to live there. Different people choose different place to live; It depends on their personalities.
City has a wide access to technology. People can use the internet anywhere they want, cell phones work at any location. There are more opportunities to find a job because there are many companies which need a lot of employees. There is much better education and lots of schools all around the city. In addition, there is no problem with transportation since schools provide students with school buses.
Compared to the city, the country is much cleaner because there are fewer roads, no big buildings and highways. It’s quieter because people who live in the country are not in rush like people who live in the city. The cost of living is much lower because mostly people who live in the country have farm animals from which they get some products like milk, eggs and meat. In addition, people have their own gardens where they grow vegetables and fruit.
Living in the city has some positive aspects such as: access to technology, more job opportunities and improved education.
However, the country attracts people because of clean environment, peacefulness and low cost of living.

Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman – Tariq Batto
The play, The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, (1949, Viking penguin, Inc., New York) is about the people who dream for the future to become rich and famous. The main character Willy, being a salesman, wanted to be rich and famous, but ironically, his dream had fallen apart. The reason for his downfall is the myth of the American Dream, and his personal weakness.

The play, The Death of a Salesman, talks about the events which took place in Willy’s Lowman’s house and in various places in New York and Boston. The main characters in the play are the father Willy, the mother Linda, and the two sons Biff and Happy. Other characters include: Charley and his son Bernard the neighbors, and Howard Wagner the owner the owner of Wagner’s company. Willy lives in the countryside in Brooklyn in a house he built; financed with a mortgage which is almost paid off. Willy is sixty three-year-old, works as a traveling salesman. His wife Linda is a realistic housewife who always wanted to spread peace and wisdom in the house when she communicates with her husband and her sons. The son Biff, the lazy bum as his father always labeled him, was thirty four-year-old, had no fixed job after the high school and later. His father raised him on the myth of the American Dream to become a rich and important person, but he is frustrated with himself and the hopes of being value and successful. Happy the second son, was thirty two-year-old, had a steady job in New York, and his ambitions is to become an important executive. Charley, Willy’s neighbor, is a successful man, and always Willy is jealous of him and his success.

Bernard, Charley’s son, was Biff’s classmate; he was smart, continued his education and became a lawyer in the Supreme Court. Howard Wagner is the boss of the company where Willy works as a traveling salesman for a long time, from the days of Howard’s father. The mythical American Dream of Willy was being rich and well known in his life, and people respect him even after his death; as it happened with the eighty four-year-old salesman, he became rich and after his death, hundreds of salesman and buyers attended his funeral ceremony. Willy wanted to work in a non-traveling job; he went to Howard Wagner his boss, asking him to find a new job in New York, but Howard refused his demand; instead, he fired him. Willy was disappointed too much he decided to commit suicide which was his third attempt, and he done it to redeem himself for his sins and the sins of his son Biff, who was unable to achieve his potential with the American Dream. In his funeral, only his family and charley were in the ceremony.

At that period of the time, people lived in the myth on the American Dream, in which, Willy began to dream which led to his downfall. Fame and fortune he successes to a certain limit in building his house outside New York, in an open place not surrounded by buildings, and acquiring a range of modern appliances. Furthermore, he took his business as salesman; he believed that his job would, make him famous and rich. He assumed being well-like will lead to success. Among the illusion of Willy, he told his sons Biff and Happy a secret, that same day he will have his own business. He will be bigger than uncle charley, “because charley is not liked. He’s liked he’s not well liked” (30). In addition, Willy liked to realize his hopes by imitation of the successful people, such as the eighty four-year-old salesman Dave Singleman who Willy met in Parker house. Besides, Willy found that his man reached his glories not only in his life, but also after his death when hundreds of salesman and buyers attended his funeral ceremony.

The other factor which contributed to his downfall is the weakness of his personality; for example, he was jealous of his neighbors Charley and his son Bernard. Charley was a successful man in his work; on the other hand, Bernard who was Biff’s classmate was a cleaver boy, he finished his education and became a lawyer in the Supreme Court, while Biff was lazy and he flunked math which deterred him from entering university. Moreover, Willey’s false pride let him to refuse insistently the job offers offered to him by Charley, despite his bad financial situation after he was fired from his job. Ironically his real personality, allowed his illusively to think that he would run his own business, and he will go north to providence, to meet the Mayor and had a coffee with him in the hotel lobby; then he went to Waterbury city to visit its famous clock, and finally he went to Boston.

Since the early 20th century, people of America have been dreaming to become the richest and the most powerful country in the world. This dream is realizing when they put themselves in the shoes of others. The write Arthur Miller in his play describes this dream through the character of Willy and his son Biff. When they were looking forward to achieving their illusions of rich and fame in the society. After he wrote his play, Arthur Miller was accused he was communist because the US in those years deemed every body who did not believe in its idea as a communist. Willy did not realize his hope and illusions when he took the job of a salesman which would permit him to achieve the glories of riches and fame; as he believed that his goal would be reached by imitating the old salesman Dave Singleman. Finally, Willy died without achieving the myth of the American Dream, and also failure is due to his weal personality.