Month: June 2020

In The Lady or the Tiger, the king has a way of determining if an accused person was guilty or innocent. The guilty person would go into the king’s arena and face two gates. One gate would have a tiger and the other would have a beautiful maiden. If the person chooses the gate with the tiger, that would mean that he was guilty and deserved a punishment, which would be getting killed by the tiger. If the person chose the gate with the maiden, that would mean that he was innocent and deserved a reward, which would be getting married to the maiden. All of the people believed that this was fair because the person won’t know which door is which. It is also exciting for them to watch because they do not know which door the person will choose.

I don’t think the king’s ways are fair. Even though nobody knows what will happen to the person and it will therefore not be biased, but it is still not completely fair. The fate of whichever person is accused depends on chance. The door the person chooses does not necessarily mean that he is innocent or guilty, it is just random. Also, the person might be innocent, but gets killed because he chooses the wrong door, or vise versa. Overall, I don’t think that the king’s ways are fair.

This short story is a fate themed, in which a young princess of a barbaric king falls in love with a young prince. Obviously, the king didn’t like this, come on, which barbaric king would? He was a fate believer and also believed in justice, so fate would decide, but would it?

After all, this is just probability in modern days, fifty fifty chance. Yet, back then, it was fate, (because people were dumb dumb). His plan accommodated of a beautiful, young maiden, and a hungry, vicious tiger. He would summon the prince in front of two doors, one was the maiden, and the other the tiger.

If the prince were to get lucky and chose the maiden, he was forced to marry her. If you got the tiger, it would rip you apart and eat you alive. My sentiment towards this would be, get lucky and suffer, or die.

You might not understand, but this means, you pick the tiger and die a painful, bloody death, or you pick the maiden and get your girlfriend or wife to come after your head. Basically, it sucks both ways. Also, you might not like the maiden, she may be beautiful and all, but her personality is what you look at.

There is an advantage to getting killed by the tiger, it will be a quick, but painful death, whereas your wife could torture with Chinese water torture ( developed by the Chinese, it sucks). Although there is a slight chance you can get away with out getting hunted by your wife.

Also, you haven’t considered the fact that, even if you die from the tiger, you die with loyalty your wife and her family. That is a happy thought.

In the short story “Hearts an Hands” by O. Henry,

In ”Hearts and Hands,” a woman, Miss Fairchild, spots an old friend named Mr. Easton on a train handcuffed to another man. That man calls her friend Mr. Marshal when she sees the cuffs. Turns out, the man is actually the marshal, and Mr. Easton is the prisoner. But the marshal is a kind man, and lies to her that he is the prisoner. He helps save Mr. Easton from the embarrassment of being a prisoner to a friend. He sees the horror on Miss Fairchild’s face when she first sees the handcuffs on Mr. Easton and speaks up. He calls Easton ”Marshal” to detour her thoughts. Later, after he sees that she seems interested in Mr. Easton, he cuts the conversation short without revealing the truth to save her from embarrassment. After that, he helps Mr. Easton get out of the conversation by asking to go and smoke, leaving Miss Fairchild oblivious to the fact that he was the prisoner, although people who were listening knew that Mr. Easton wasn’t the real marshal.

The theme of the story is kindness. He sees that Mr. Easton doesn’t want to be embarrassed in front of his old friend, and decides to play along with the fact that he was the prisoner, although he doesn’t gain anything from it, and is just being helpful and kind. This is an important lesson, and a pretty interesting story to go with it.

In “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry, the author demonstrates how subconscious bias can blur the view of reality. Mr. Easton, a well groomed man, is chained to a messy looking marshal who is escorting him to prison for counterfeiting. They get into a coach with Miss Fairchild, who automatically assumes that Mr. Eaton is the marshal because he looks elegant. At the end, all the other passengers who don’t hold prejudice notice what is wrong, but Miss Fairchild still is oblivious.

First, she fails to notice that Mr. Eaton has the chain around his right hand. Something as clear as this should have been noticed, but Fairchild was too focused on his handsome face and wealthy appearance. Next, all the people around her noticed that Eaton was not the marshal. They do not have a bias point of view regarding social class and appearances, so they were able to see the obvious.

All in all, making assumptions based on appearances can alter what one sees. Even when everybody else saw the clear truth, the one who was holding prejudices could only see their narrow point of view.

Curtis Zhang

6/17/20

Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a famous composer born in 1756. His dad was a relatively successful musician, but Mozart was going to be way more famous than his dad. Mozart was a child prodigy and showed off his musical abilities when he taught himself the violin and composed little pieces when he was still a child. His father decided to send him on a tour to show off his abilities(which I think is stupid) and they had lots of troubles along the way.

Mozart got his first job when he was 17 as a court musician for the “Prince Archbishop of Salzburg”, and at first he composed lots of concertos and symphonies, but later, he got bored of his life as court musician, so he left as court musician to go to Paris, but paris had no jobs for musicians, so he went back and this time his dad got him a position as “court organist.” This time his employer treated him as a servant, and after a long time of trying to quit and not being allowed to, he was relieved of duty but humiliated. 

After he was relieved of duty, he decided to be a freelance musician and started publishing his music alone and also got married. He made a wide variety of music and even a few operas. At this point, Mozart’s financial situation was at his best, and he started living in an luxurious apartment. At one point, he was even called “the greatest composer known to me in person and in name” by a famous composer during the time. 

In 1786 musicians were finding a hard time to stay alive during this time because they were losing their main source of money which were the rich people of their country. Mozart started to lose his fame, so he made tours all over europe to try to restart his fame. In 1790, things started to look better, as his financial situation was starting to get better. He made tons of new pieces during this time, but in 1791, he got sick and he frantically wrote his latest piece which he thought was going to be his “funeral piece.” Ultimately, he failed to complete it on time, and he died on December 5, 1791 at age 35 with his funeral piece still unfinished. 

Though Mozart died without being able to live his life through, his short life produced many of the best concertos of all time. He may have had a short life, but he will always be considered by some as the greatest composer of all time.

Wording is very important in communication, whether it be in talking out a problem or conveying a message, and O. Henry’s short story Hearts and Hands is and example of that importance.

In the story, a marshal and the couterfeiter he’s arrested switch roles in front of a high-society lady the counterfeiter knows when they meet on a train (the role switch is the plot twist that readers are given small hints to until the reveal at the end). The marshal is handcuffed by his left hand to the counterfeiter to keep him from escaping, meaning that the counterfeiter, Mr. Easton (who is presumably right-handed) has his right hand cuffed, and to anyone listening to his conversation with the lady, he is the marshal. The lady apparently does not see anything strange about the “marshal” (Mr. Easton) having his right hand cuffed, but another pair of passengers had been watching and thought it odd that the “marshal” should have his right hand cuffed rather than his left.

That is what leads readers to the assumption that Mr. Easton is actually the counterfeiter and the other man the marshal; however, a few other meanings could be taken from that observation, going off the assumption of the observer that Mr. Easton is the marshal and the other man the criminal.

Firstly: that Mr. Easton is left-handed, and the buildup of the plot twist to that point was all just a clever ruse to make readers laugh and groan at the ending. The observer says, “Did you ever know an officer to handcuff a prisoner to his right hand?”, deeming it strange, which is reasonable considering that the vast majority of people are right-handed. Therefore, rather than perceiving the plot twist as the role-switch that the author intended it to be, readers might see it as Mr. Easton simply being left-handed.

Secondly: this is a bit of a stretch, but the twist could be perceived as the two men being a homosexual couple, Mr. Easton being left-handed and the other man right-handed and traveling as officer and criminal to avoid questions and judgement. The author describes Mr. Easton as handsome and having a “bold, frank countenanced” and the other man as “ruffled, glum”, and “roughly dressed”. Two traveling companions so different in appearance would no doubt draw stares, judgement, maybe questions, all unwanted; so to avoid the attention, they play roles that draw upon the people’s implicit bias for authenticity. And Mr. Easton’s right hand is cuffed to the other man’s left, which would explain their being left-handed and right-handed, respectively.

The second alternate perception was not completely serious, but it is as logically plausible as the first one and does still work as an example of how important wording is in communication. I guess the main point of this is to watch what you say as well as what you do, because words are powerful, powerful things and can have impacts just as great, if not greater than, actions.

Mozart is one of the greatest musicians of all time. He was a child prodigy at the age of four along with the rest of his family. at the age of four Mozart repeated classical pieces perfectly when his father gave him the pieces. He even started playing the violin. If he could do such astonishing things at such a young age, think about what he was like when he grew a couple more years older.

When Mozart was at the age of 17, he got a job as a court musician where it was a great opportunity to earn money for his family. Back in Mozart’s time, life was hard because there weren’t any transportation other than carriages. And wages weren’t as high as nowadays. During his time as a court musicians, Mozart thought that operas weren’t performed enough, because he wasn’t happy, he found another job! This job, a court organist, was worse than the other one because he was treated like a slave, but couldn’t quit the job because his employer wouldn’t let him. He finally left the job and felt relieved but was still humiliated.

When he grew a little older, he went to Vienna and was a keyboardist. Vienna loved him very much and appreciated him in the city, which was better than his previous jobs overall. While enjoying Vienna, he even won the heart of who he loves truly, Constanze Weber! Years later, he started performing concerts and had piano concertos reaching out to him to go to their theater and perform. He started to earn money and had a luxurious apartment with his wife.

Sadly, he started to perform less in public and loose his fame and struggled for the next years because Austria was at war. The new operas Mozart wrote were also not admired by the people of Vienna and he was going through a money drought along with other composers. He decided to go to other places to try and make money but there was no luck. Eventually, he started to get back his debt by submitting piece by piece and doing hard work. People liked him again and his life was saved!

In Prague, after Mozart performed one of his pieces, he started to become very sick and kept vomiting. His wife kept watch over him while he was writing his last piece for his funeral. Mozart, unfortunately, died for an unknown reason. There are many theories where people have thought about the cause, the most popular is a rheumatic fever (a sickness that affects the heart, joints, and skin).

Mozart was an extremely successful and talented musician. He composed numerous masterpieces that are even recognized today. Becoming successful is not an easy achievement. By looking at Mozart’s life story, one can conclude that success is not something that falls from the sky. Some life lessons that Mozart’s story has provided mankind is that in order to be successful, one has to put in hard work, one has to be unique, and one needs to never give up.

Hard work is the generic cause of success. Success is not solely measured by achievement, but more of comparison. Being successful requires people to admire one’s work more over another person’s. These means that one has to “outperform” every other individual. Since everyone’s wish is to become successful, everyone works hard. The only way to succeed is to work a significant amount larger. Mozart started learning how to play his first instrument, the clavier, at just age four. Many kids at age four are still busy playing with baby toys. In the following years, he quickly mastered many more instruments and composed many pieces. Even when he was extremely ill, he still wrote pieces to the best of his ability. In modern day, an extremely successful person is Elon Musk. He is a billionaire and the CEO of many leading companies such as Tesla and SpaceX. In a video discussing ten tips of why Elon Musk is successful, his first reason explained that one should “work like hell.” Trying to become successful without hard work is like trying to walk without legs. Hard work and success are forged together in an unbreakable bond. Don’t even think of becoming successful without putting in hard work.

School is something that prepares one for success. Remember those good old easy Elementary School days? The homework on the first day of school would often be to think of five personal objects that represents an individual’s uniqueness. Since children are young, they might simply think that this homework assignment is useless or just for an opportunity to show off. The truth is, being unique is extremely important in becoming successful. Mozart was not only hard-working, but was also unique in many ways. His pieces were original, and not some terrible remix of other music. Additionally, Mozart also increased his fame by performing in strange locations, such as in restaurants and apartment buildings. The famous Elon Musk also embodies uniqueness. One of his companies called Tesla produces electric cars. This is not only unique, but also much more beneficial when compared to gasoline cars. Gasoline cars release carbon dioxide into the air, which worsens global warming, but electric cars don’t. Ralph Walter Emerson, an American essayist once said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Once one has truly embraced their true self and potential, they are on a more probable path to success.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that perseverance, or not giving up, is defined as “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.” The key section is: despite difficulties, failure, or opposition. In many occurrences throughout Mozart’s lifetime, he was struggling, but still persevered through all of it and kept on going. When Mozart went to Paris, nobody noticed him much, and his employers neglected him. Mozart almost quit his musical career during his time in Paris. After moving to Vienna, he became a musical superstar. If he gave up during any of his many struggles, us humans would not have ever heard any of his amazing masterpieces. Not giving up is also shared in many of the most successful people yet. LeBron James used to never make it onto his high school team, and today he is a professional basketball player. Walt Disney was accused of not being creative, yet he created the world everyone calls their childhood. J.K. Rowling had an extremely tough life, yet she managed to create the entire Harry Potter series. Not giving up is one of the keys to success.

In conclusion, Mozart has taught mankind many ways in becoming successful. Elon Musk, Walt Disney, LeBron James, and many other people all shared the same path to success as Mozart. One should work hard in order to outperform others and shine in the spotlight. One needs to be unique in order to be noticed. One can only fight through tough times with the power of perseverance. Money does not grow on trees, and neither does success.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific composer and pianist in the classical era. Although he died at the relatively young age of thirty-five, he composed an immense amount of musical works — more than six hundred. To this day, both fledging musicians and professionals spend hours practicing and performing his compositions.

Mozart was extremely famous from a very young age, unlike other composers such as Bach and Schubert who only achieved fame after their deaths. It is well known that Mozart was buried in commoner’s grave, and few people attended his funeral, but this isn’t an accurate representation of his fame. Then, only the nobility had the luxury of being buried in marked graves. Even at his death, Mozart was regarded as one of the best composers of the time. In fact, his memorial services and concerts were packed.

Mozart, a musical prodigy, churned out beautiful compositions. His melodies are sublime, towering over those of his contemporaries, perhaps because he was constantly experimenting with new forms and sounds. Mozart’s works seem so effortless and are quite seamless, yet they are able to contain many different emotions. His concertos, considered some of his best work, are especially imaginative and original. Many people say listening to his compositions often is an “otherworldly experience.”

But Mozart’s legacy can not only be measured with his compositions. He was also of great influence to later generations. Many famous composers, most notably, Beethoven, were affected by his works, similar to how Mozart himself was influenced by Bach. Often breaking new ground, Mozart’s unique sound greatly influenced the development of the genres he composed in.

Hearts and Hands by O. Henry is a story of two gentlemen whose hands and hearts were bound together. O. Henry or William Sydney Porter is famous for having a surprising twist at the end of his stories. How can this simple, plain story have an unexpected ending?

Mr. Easton and the marshal are on a train and are talking to a young lady named Ms. Fairchild. Their hands are bound together by handcuffs, as police do that to prevent the criminal from running away. Their hearts are bound together, figuratively, because of the marshal’s generosity to Mr. Easton. He notices that the lady is friends with the criminal and Mr. Easton doesn’t want her to know that he broke the law. To prevent that, he “switches roles” with him to prevent embarrassment.

With an unexpected ending, there are examples of foreshadowing displayed in the story. The first one is when Mr. Easton first displays uneasiness when he first saw Ms. Fairchild. Normally, people wouldn’t feel embarrassed when they see a friend, except that we know that he was hiding something after reading the story. Another example is when the marshal explained the situation to the lady very calmly. This is when he first introduces his little plan to the criminal. Usually, if you’re the criminal, you wouldn’t have a normal, easygoing, conversation with someone else whilst in the presence of the police. This foreshadows that maybe he isn’t who he says he is.

There are other instances in the story where it’s hard to understand without reading the full thing. Ms. Fairchild mentioned once, “…But people always misunderstand things and remain stupid–” (Henry) At first, you might not think much of this sentence, but after reading the ending, this becomes an example of irony. She is talking about people who don’t understand and she is technically talking about herself as she never noticed the truth that her friend was the criminal.

Many stories are more difficult to understand than others because of surprise endings, not just ones by O. Henry. Reading deeper into the story or rereading it reveals hidden meanings that you may have passed before in the story.