Jason and the Argonauts Reflection

There are many different heros who went on difficult quests in Anicent Greek. Whenever a hero went on a journey, they often fit into the cycle of the hero. This cycle was created by Joseph Campbell, which shows the life cycle of a hero. Like most myths, Jason and the Argonauts is a good example of the cycle of the hero.

Birth/Home: Jason’s father was an honorable king named Ioclus, but Jason’s uncle, Pelias, took over the throne from him. Then Jason’s mother hid Jason from his uncle because she knew that Pelias will immediately give an order to kill Jason when he found out Jason was alive.

Call to Adventure: When Jason got older, he went to Pelias himself and ordered his uncle to hand over his throne. Pelias responded to Jason that if Jason brought him the Golden Fleece, only then Jason could take over the kingdom.

Elixir: The Golden Fleece was Jason’s goal and aim of the journey.Helpers: In the story, Jason’s helpers were the Argonauts. The Argonauts were a group of stron and powerful people such as Hercules.

Crossing the Threshold: In order for Jason to reach the Golden Fleece, he and the Argonauts had to go through the ocean and get to the kingdom of King Aeëtes. In the ocean they had a challenging time with the massive waves, and had to go through difficult obstacles, which made their journey even more of a challenge.

Helpers/amulet: For Jason, his best helper was Chiron and his sword. Chiron and the sword gave Jason hope to carry on the journey in difficult situations and supported him trust himself and believe that this journey was possible to accomplish.

Tests: Throughout the task for the Golden Fleece, Jason and the Argonauts went through many tests. Some examples are the dangerous clashing rocks in the ocean, the fire-breathing bulls, and the dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece. Each test showed how courageous Jason and the Argonauts were.

Climax/Final Battle: Jason’s climax of the journey was when he had a battle with Medea to save the Argonauts from going into the Underworld. Chiron’s sword was a huge help to destroy Medea, to free the Argonauts and to bring the Golden Fleece to Pelias.

Return/Flight: Jason and the Argonauts returned to Jason’s kingdom on a ship through the ocean and made haste to prepare for Jason to take over the throne from Pelias.

There are a huge amount of different variations for the myth, Jason and the Argonauts. In some myths, Aphrodite puts a spell on Medea to make her fall in love with Jason and help him throughout the quest. In other different myths, Medea is on the bad side and uses magic to stop Jason from accomplishing the quest. Another difference between the variations of the myth was Jason’s strength. In some of the myths, Jason is expressed as a weak hero and depended on the Argonauts for strength. But on the videos on the class blog, he is shown as a very courageous and strong hero. Even though there might be different thoughts to the myth, the story is basically the same; Jason going on a journey to get back his throne.

There are lots of evidences that indicate that this myth happened for real. Although I am not 100% sure, maybe Jason really existed as a person who went on a challenging task to take over the throne from his evil uncle. Here are some evidences I found while watching the video in humanities class…

· Mount Pelion does exist

· The myth happened at the time of the Trojan War, which is a true history

· Archeologists found the Argo ship that Jason and the Argonauts used and people could manage to build one for real

· The first quest took place on the real island of Lemnos, Greece

· The cliff where the Lemnian women murdered the men exists

· Jason and the Argonauts wanted to reach the Black Sea

· Istanbul, which is where they went exists

· There is a sacred cave with drawings of Jason

· Georgia is the “Land of the Golden Fleece”

· There is a drawing and a record of all the people who went on the quest.

. The bronze maze destruction, which was a historical artifact, was found by Archeologists

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step -Lao Tzu-

I chose this quote because even though a journey might be challenging and almost impossible to achieve, you must at least try and do your best. You should never give up and keeping on going and there will be greater chance you will achieve your goal. Having a go at something is still better than giving up and doing nothing about it.

Curiosity in Orphan Boy and Pandora

The African myth, Orphan Boy, and the Greek myth, Pandora, warn us that curiosity can often lead to unpleasant change. In the Greek myth, Pandora, Pandora couldn't bare with her curiosity and opens the box that Zeus gave her. Therefore, all of the evil things came out and spread across the world. In the African myth, Orphan Boy, the old man couldn't bare his curiosity and follows the Orphan Boy. When trust between the Orphan Boy and the old man was gone, everything that used to be wonderful died. Because of the old man's curiosity, even water dried away and the world was left with nothing. Curiosity made a negative change in both myths. This is fascinating because many things were discovered and created through curiosity. Curiosity can lead to a positive change in the world.

My Name

Unknown like a single leaf on a green meadow. Outstanding. Difficult for some to sound. Bright as my personality. Graceful as a crane. Kindness flowing everywhere. Full of wonder as cranes flying and dancing together. Like an unknown forest in the middle of nowhere. A song of pleasure. A fantasy.

When my mom was pregnant, she wished to have a good and graceful girl. So my parents named me as ‘Sun Hae.’ Like most of the Korean names my name has a specific meaning when written in Chinese letters; ‘Sun’ means goodness and ‘Hae’ means grace.

Since I was a baby, my ear and heart was well acquainted with my name. Mom and dad used to call my name with heart-felt love and other family members also called me with a lovely voice.

Sometimes people question about the meaning of my name; they may think it’s weird or beautiful and they may also make an unidentifiable face. Although these kinds of concerns on my name are none that matters to me, I’m always ready to explain the meaning of it.

I love my name which was given by my parent. And I think I should have a responsibility to keep my name in bright shape. I used to pray to my God for the sake of my name. ‘Sun Hae’ should be a devoted Christian and a compassionate girl at school and future lives to come.

Common Themes of Creation Myths

From the beginning of the human history, the curiousity of the existence of earth was driving people in chaos. Even now, people are still wondering how earth was created. That's how myths were made. 'The space of the universe was in the shape of a hen's egg. Within the egg was a great mass called "no thing." '-Chinese creation myth (Phan-Ku). This quote shows that in most Chinese creation myths, the universe had 'no thing' in the beginning, which is one of the common elements in many other cultures. Themes of 'from chaos or nothingness/void,' 'from earth-diving' and 'supreme creator who dies' are at the center of many creation myths, which is unusual because those countries with similar themes might not even have known each other. 'From chaos or nothingness/void' is a common theme both in Chinese and Japanese myths. Considering that China and Japan might not have known each other, it is interesting that they have a common theme. Other theme, 'from earth-diving' was shared between Native American Indian and Japanese creation myths. While thinking of the far distance of these two places, it also seems very strange to hold a same theme. The final theme, 'the supreme creator who dies-body gets incorporated into earth,' which was co-existed in the Chinese 'Phan-Ku' and the Autrailian Aborigine Creation myth is another amazing mystery despite of their rare communication each other. As shown above, from the ancient times, people liked to make a variety of different myths. However I, as a Christian, have a firm belief that our almighty God has created the universe and all things in the world as stipulated in the Genesis of the Bible.

'The Giver' Fishbowl Discussion

For humanities today, we had to expand on the fishbowl discussion our class had based on the book, 'The Giver.' We had a few good questions to discuss about, which were broken into two groups. One was about stirrings and the other one was about releasing. Here are my thoughts of what a release and a stirring means.

I think stirring is kind of like the beginning of puberty/adolescence. In Jonas's dream, he felt the wanting and need to be with Fiona, which obviously means that he likes her. With adolescence there also comes marriages and babies. I think the community made them take pills for stirrings because they want to keep the community perfect and nothing different, and if people start liking someone, they might not be focused during their work time and etc. Stirring is kind of like growing-up and when you start having crushes on a certain person.

I think releasing is some what related to killing because in the book it says that in the House of Old, they talk about a person's whole life time before they release them so it's like you're life is ending. When I read the book, 'The Giver,' I realized that people actually celebrated the release and was very happy and excited about. So, I think that maybe the community themselves might not know that being released is not a good thing. But, I am still not sure if others kill them or they naturally die.

I am looking forward to reading more of the book and finding more about the stirrings and releasing.

Octomom VS China's One-Child-Policy

In humanities class today, we had a discussion about if you agreed with the octomom or the China's one-child-policy. Each of us were given a post-it note and was told to stick it on a timeline-like line as to your thoughts about the octomom and the one-child-policy, and we were also told to write down our reasoning on the sticky note. I placed my post-it note almost at the middle but more towards the octomom. These are my reasons for my thinking:

First of all, I mostly don't agree with the one-child-policy because people should have rights to decide how many babies they want. Also, I don't think would give birth to octuplets or fourteen kids and almost all the people would just give birth to 2-3 babies, so the rule won't be that meaningful anyways. Therefore, I really don't think there's a point in making the rule.

Secondly, I mostly agree with the octomom because you have the right to have as many babies you want, it's just that you should also know that you will have to take responsibility with all of your children. Also, you should think about your future and if it'll be good for all of your children. I think that you should know that if you have like eight children, then you should love each one of them equally. But as I said before, if you know that you can take responsibility for all eight kids, then you have the right to give birth to eight kids or so on.

So, these were my reasonings of my thoughts towards the octomom and the China's one-child-policy.

Government Laws or Responsibility?

Yesterday in humanities class, we were given another six paged information to read. The subtitle above was my headline for the discussion. The paper given to read was mainly about a person named Nadya who gave birth to 14 kids! And also about other families with octuplets or sextuplets. We had the fish bowl discussion after, wether it was necessary for the government to give out a law about how many kids maximum to give birth to for some people like Nadya, who was interested in having babies since when she was twleve years old.

I don't think the government should give laws for giving birth because first of all, not all people are like Nadya, giving birth to 14 kids. I mean, people would be smart enough to know when to stop and even if they want to give birth to many kids, then they should know that it will be their responsibility.

Another reason I don't think the government should give laws is because people should have freedom as to how they want to live their life, but I think they should know what the best timing is because for example, Nadya, she doesn't have a job and she lives in a 3 bedroom house with the 14 kids including her previous 6 kids! I really suggest people should think about the right timing. I also think people should think about their future before their decision because even though they might want a lot of kids, it might not be good for the kids since not all of them can get the love needed.

So, these were my reasons as to why the government should give laws and why having 14 kids are not really necessary.

China's One-Child-Policy: Fair or Unfair?

Today in humanities class, we started discussing about the China's One-Child-Policy. The title above was my headline for our discussion, since we talked about if the one-child-policy was right or wrong.

I mostly disagree with the one-child-policy because of many reasons. First of all, it's against the human rights. People should have freedom as to how many children they want and have freedom to how they are going to live their life. Commanding to people about how many children they should have is unfair!

Chinese people favor sons more than daughters so couples try legal and illegal means to get a son for their only child. Also when daughters are born, some parents even leave them exposed to die! Poor girls! If this continues to happen, then the gender will have an imbalance! Officials even estimated that by 2020 there will be 30 million men known as ‘bare branches’, which means they wont't have or find a wife to marry. To add on, if there aren't any women to marry in the future, I think maybe the men may attack other countries for women and create a war.

But, even though I mostly disagree with the one-child-policy, I also agree a little bit because if there were too many people (and then the population explosion) then there won't be enough resources for everyone and some people might be even homeless...

I think the one-child-policy is really unfair, but there are also some problems with the resources if there are too many people in China.

My Thoughts to Shakespeare's Sonnet 7(Revised)

Today in Humanities class, we discussed more and thought deeper about the sonnet. We showed our thinking through performances: by drawing, playing music, and acting it out. All groups showed the sunrise and the sunset. Also, in all groups' performances, it seemed like it showed that the sun had the most power in the noon.

I think that now, I have a better knowledge of the sonnet after listening and seeing what others' inferences are on the sonnet. I still think it is about the sun rising and setting because of the first 2 lines of the sonnet. And then almost at the end where it says about looking another way, I think it means that after the people see the sun rising, then they don't give much attention to the sun and leaves to start their day. And I think the last two sentences mean that even though people have adored you and really carred about you, if you didn't get a son, you will be pointless and people will not care about you anymore like the sun.

My Thoughts to Shakespeare's Sonnet

Yesterday in humanities class, we were supposed to write briefly about what our thoughts were about the meaning of Shakespeare’s Sonnet. I thought that the sonnet meant something like there was a woman who was adored by many people, but if she didn’t get a son, then she’s in a big trouble. I had other thoughts like if she didn’t get a son and instead a daughter maybe they would kill the daughter and she would be unhappy for the rest of her life (and that would have been her punishment). I thought that this was really unfair because they can’t always expect a son to be born and always kill the daughters that were born because when daughters grow up and become women, they have to do the housework. That was my thought from yesterday. Today, near to the end of class, we were separated into three groups: the art group, the music group and the acting group. We were supposed to show our understanding towards the poem by either acting it out, playing music or drawing our understanding. Before we started, our group decided to read the sonnet word by word to make sure that everyone at least had an idea of the poem. We tried our best to translate the sonnet as accurately as we could. When I kept on reading it on and on by myself (in my head), I began to understand the poem a little bit better. Now, I think it means something about the sun rising and setting. I think it means the sun rise and the sunset because of the first two sentences of the sonnet. And maybe where it says look away, it means that the people look away from the sun after the sun rises till the highest point. These were my thoughts to the sonnet. I am looking forward to reading other’s thoughts.

About Me

Hi! I am Sun Hae Choi and I am 11 years old. Even though my nationality is Korean, I study in another different country called Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My favorite things to do are draw, read, and practice my clarinet and piano. I take clarinet lessons, piano lessons, and Mandarin lessons. I learn two languages: Mandarin and Spanish. I find both languages fascinating to learn. And I learn two instruments : the clarinet and the piano. I enjoy playing both instruments, but I think I like playing the clarinet a little more. I also really enjoy solving math problems. And I LOVE shopping! Places that I usually shop in are KLCC and Pavilion. I hope you learned more about me!
P.S.: I have a younger sister named Ju Hae Choi and she is in third grade. She also plays the piano and just started learning how to speak Spanish.