A letter to a Jim(Final)

A letter to a Jim(Final)
A letter to a Jim
Nina Yang
W&CIII
09/29/2014
  Hi, Dear Jim:
        
    This is Nina and I’m writing to you because I disagree with your decision on following your dream. I’m an 18-year-old girl who is studying abroad in the United States. I’m pursuing my dream right now since my dream is to become a psychologist. My whole family is supporting me to follow my dream and I feel glad they put a huge effort on me in order for me to achieve my dream.
    As a human being in this world, I think everyone should take responsibility for their whole life and also the people have close relationships with him or her. However, you said: “ I promised Annie and her parents I would buy her a house, a car, and finish our wedding before 2015. She said she wants a garden wedding with a lot of cute cupcakes. She wanna invite all her friends and relatives, she dreams to wear the wedding dress of Vera Wang. Plus, she plans to go to Maldives for honeymoon.” But you refused to accomplish your promises and to follow your dream instead. The decision you made is very selfish and harmful not only to your fiancée but also to the whole family. The action you did is not called follow your dream, in fact, it’s called being a slacker. You were afraid to take responsibility to your promises. The decision you made is really an annoyance to the people around you especially your fiancée. Your fiancée was really upset about what you did to her: “your dreams? What about mine? You are so selfish. If you insist doing that, our relationship will definitely be over. Cuz I don't think I would be happy with someone who didn't listen to me.”
    When someone is following their dream to do something, they must get some of the support from either your friends or family members. As for you, I don’t think anyone would support your decision except for Sam because the only thing he cares is how much money he can get from you. As a result, I don’t think you should still following your dream. Instead of that, why don’t you fulfill your promise to your fiancée first and then think about following your dream and achieve your dream together with your wife. Isn’t that more attractive and sweeter enough than the situation right now?
    At the last of this letter, I really suggest you to go back to Annie and make an apology to her; tell her that you are sorry and ask her to forgive you. The most important thing in the world is trust from the people you love. If you ask me how can you get their trust, I would tell you that to take every responsibility you have to take in your life instead of being a coward.

Letter to a Jim

Letter to a Jim

Nina Yang

W&CIII

09/29/2014

  Hi, Dear Jim:

        This is Nina and I’m writing to you because I disagree with your decision on following your dream.

    As a human being in this world, I think everyone should take responsibility for their whole life and also the people near to he or she. However, you said “ I promised Annie and her parents I would buy her a house, car, and finish our wedding before 2015. She said she wants a garden wedding with a lot of cute cupcakes. She wanna invite all her friends and relatives, she dreams to wear the wedding dress of Vera Wang. Plus, she plans to go to Maldives for honeymoon.” But you refused to accomplish your promises and to follow your dream instead. The decision you made is very selfish and harmful not only to your fiancée but also the whole family. The action you did its not called follow your dream, in fact, it’s called being a slacker. You were afraid to take responsibility to your promises.

dialogue+video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKZd8QHkj6k&feature=youtu.be

We have been here on the island for two weeks. I woke up early this morning; when I came out, he was just sitting in front of the easel. He is really old and taciturn.
[I come a little bit closer in order to watch the painting clearly. ] “Are you sad?”
“Sad?”
[he turns to me, but his eyes are looking at another point right behind me ] "I am not sad, girl, you don’t understand.”
I know what he was looking at—my grandma’s flowers.
This old man is my seventy-year-old step grandpa Patrick. I have never met him before because he and my grandma moved to this island fifteen years ago.
However, a few weeks ago, my grandma died.
My mom said she had no father when she was born, and her sixth birthday party was where my grandma and Patrick fell in love.
He loved my grandma so much, and promised that he would take her to everywhere she want, and never leave her alone. He did, actually, right after I was born, they came here

Every morning Patrick would make two cups of coffee, and set up his easel out on the mountain. He always works in the morning, before the sunrise. I don’t know why, maybe it is just one of the artist’s weird eccentricities.
“Do you miss her?”
“Look at mountain, what can you see?”
[He points at one of the conner of the painting.] “Trees. What is that mean? 

[I look straight into his eyes, but he is still looking at somewhere else.]
“We planted them, me and Joanna, your grandma. Now they are as old as you are.”
[He smiles]
“ and look at the sky; you can distinguish the colors. The clouds are not just white and grey; there are yellow, lilac, pink, and sapphire. And look at the sea water, there are beige, gold, and navy blue. We used to argue a lot about the colors. I am the painter, but Joanna always won. She was very sensitive on the colors, and that did make her really excited and talk about them for the whole day.”
[He puts down his pen, and sinks into memory.]
“The first time I met her was forty years ago. I was just some guy who traveled through the town, and going to find my uncle in the next village, but I saw her. She had amazing brown hair as a waterfall was poured from the sky, her cherry-like mouth, attractive eyes, and my favorite white dress."
Past
J" Hi, where are you from?"
P " XXX, just a stupid village, never mind."
P " so you live here?"
J " yeah, with my daughter, I just came out and water those plants, they are crazy, don't they?"
P " They do...wait, you are married?"
J " I did, actually. He was just...just gone."

P "oh...I am sorry."
J "That's ok, it has been many years. It's a long story." P "I'm willing to hear all about you."
[Sitting on a bench]
J " we loved each other for ten years, we were happy. But as time passes, there were just something, stupid things, but no one said. But then all of those things piled up together, and for a while, we really could not understand each other at all. So after he met another beautiful woman who was younger than me, he just left to somewhere I would never know."
J " I raise my daughter by myself, day after day, I was exhausted, and even thought about giving up. But I can't, I am her mom, I would never leave her alone."
J " But it is so hard..."
P" maybe you can find someone to rely on."
J " I know...I tried, but every time after they knew about my daughter, they gave up."
P" Maybe I can stay..."
Present
"I can never forget that smile; I loved her with my whole life since the
first second I saw her.”
“I don’t even know her much,” “ I am glad to hear these.”
“ You remind me of her, girl.”
[he gets the pen again, and adds a little black on it,]

“she liked to stay here with me and talked whatever appeared in her head.”
“ Joanna missed you a lot. Every time she found there were some kids playing in the water she would start telling me about your mom in her childhood and you brother when he was little, and you, who she was not lucky enough to take care of.”
[Patrick paints some little black outlines of people on the beach. They are playing together, water fight maybe.]
“ But you asked me if I miss her,”
[he stares at the sea water with smile in his eyes, ]
“ No, I don’t.”
“She is just like the low tide in the morning; the new leaves of an old tree that we used to planted; the soft wind fly though my hair.”
“She is a part of my world.”
[He adds two people leaning together behind others.] “She is a part of me.”

Blog 3

Blog # 3

Nina Yang

W&CIII

09/28/2014

  In my opinion, creative writing should be totally different from traditional formal writing like academic writing. The differences between two types of writing make readers pay attention and become interested in creative writing because it’s original and not tasteless like academic writing.

  I’m going to make my creative writing pieces to have more differences compare to my academic writing. Creative writing could be a story, poetry, or a novel. The format of the creative writing could not include a thesis statement. In other word, the format doesn’t need to be very formal. I would use my own words or my tone to telling a story or express my feelings instead of using academic writing, which is a very formal tone to express. The grammar doesn’t need to be very precise. Grammar in academic writing should be strictly checked and cannot tolerate any mistake in grammar. However, since the creative writing can be a story or poem, the grammar sometimes can be inaccurate. The sentences that people say and the line in the poem may contain some grammar mistakes in order to show the characters’ personalities.

  On the other hand, I would write my creative writing as a story. I would add people’s conversations into the story to make the story to seem more vivid. Beside, the plot and the ending of the story are also important to a creative writing. The plot should be unpeaceful and the ending should be unexpectable. In my story, I created a love story between the two main characters. However, the girl’s dad refused they two get married. At last, the man died unexpected and the girl is so sad that she had not married until the end of her life.

  All in all, a creative writing should be written in your own style and don’t worry too much in the writing format and the grammar mistakes. Plus, when you are writing a story or a poem, try to write something that original and attractive. Make your story’s plot and ending be creative, and use some fresh words in your poem. That’s what I did in my creative writing.

  

First draft of the story

A Big Story Behind Van Gogh’s Last Painting

Nina Yang

W&C III

Ms. Guarino

09/23/2014

 

  Do you know why “Dr. Gachet” is Vincent Van Gogh’s last painting? Why the man’s face looks so depressed and the whole painting contains a big sorrow? Actually, There was a big story behind Vincent Van Gogh’s last painting “Dr. Gachet”.

  The man is a father of a beautiful and nice girl. After Van Gogh met Dr. Gachet, he also noticed that his doctor has a adorable daughter. He quickly falls in love with her as the moment he met her. His daughter was shy but also has a sense of feeling for this man. However, not all the love story goes romantically. Since Van Gogh is a great artist, his father was pretty satisfice with it and his snobbishness made him also want a feeling with Van Gogh. He asked Van Gogh to give most of his money to himself so that he could date his daughter. Then, Van Gogh draw a painting for Dr. Gachet. Although he was not willing to do that, he did it anyway for his daughter, the girl he loves the most. Van Gogh’s mental disorder became worse afterward. Although Dr. gachet would love to merry his daughter to an artist, but not Van Gogh since he was not famous at that time and he couldn’t make a lot of money. More importantly, he has mental disorder. He was afraid to merry his daughter to a person like him.

  At last, he decided to refused Van Gogh and hid his daughter away from Van Gogh. Van Gogh felt painful and hurt. He couldn’t live without the girl he loves. Finally, he decided to commit suicide. That’s the whole story behind Van Gogh’s last painting.

Final draft of the story

A Big Story Behind Van Gogh’s Last Painting

Nina Yang

W&C III

Ms. Guarino

09/23/2014

  A long time ago, there was a man called Gachet who became Vincent Van Gogh' s personal doctor. After Van Gogh met Dr. Gachet, he also noticed that his doctor has an adorable daughter. He quickly fell in love with her as the moment he met her. His daughter was shy but also had a sense of feeling for this man, which was the feeling of love. "You are the apple of my eye." said Van Gogh to the doctor's daughter. However, not all the love story goes romantically. 
  Since Van Gogh was a great artist,  Dr. Gachet was pretty satisfying with it but his snobbishness made him also want something from Van Gogh. He asked Van Gogh to give most of his money to himself so that he could date his daughter. Then, Van Gogh drew a painting for Dr. Gachet. Although he was not willing to do that, he did it anyway for Dr. Gachet's daughter, the girl he loved the most. Van Gogh had mental disorder became worse afterward. Although Dr. gachet would love to marry his daughter to an artist, but not Van Gogh since he was not famous at that time and he couldn’t make a lot of money. More importantly, he has mental disorder. He was afraid to marry his daughter to a person like him.“There is no way you could marry my daughter." said Dr. Gachet. 

  At last, he decided to refuse Van Gogh and hid his daughter away from Van Gogh. Van Gogh felt painful and hurt. He couldn’t live without the girl he loves. After a few days, the girl got a letter fromVan Gogh:"Love or die, so I have no choice but to choose the second one." Van Gogh wrote in the letter. "Take care."The girl was sad and never married afterward.  

Reflect on my essay

    I found the painting easily on the website. It was easy because I really like Van Gogh's painting and I chose his last painting in life which is "Dr. Gachet". My strength is the way I analyze the painting is pretty different since I search a lot of background and stories about Van Gogh and his last painting. This in order me to write a lot and analysis it from inside instead of just write it from what I see. The difficulty was how I describe his painting. Although I did search a lot of information about the painting, I still have to describe it in the way I see it. His drawing is pretty complicated for one to describe. It's not that abstract like the way Piccaso was, but it's hard to describe his style. My weaknesses are grammar and  vocabulary I used. Although it's really hard to find a perfect word to describe his work, I should use more diverse words to describe it. I would improve on my vocabulary and I would add more details I know about the painting's background.  

Descriptive Paper

The emotion of "Dr. Paul Gachet"

Nina Yang

W&CIII

Ms. Guarino

09/20/2014

   Do you believe that every painting is alive? That’s because they contain the emotion and feelings the artists want to express. The artist Van Gogh likes to use two opposite colors to represent his emotions in his paintings. In Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Dr. Paul Gachet", the man’s dried face and fleshless body along with the dominant color blue throughout the painting express a feeling of sorrow.

   In the painting, there is an old man, who is Dr. Pail Gachet sitting behind the red table and using one of his hands to brace his head up. His eyes seem glazed and hopeless. There is something bright leaking out of his eyes and that might be his tears. The wrinkles on his eyes can show he is a hoary and aged man. He is also looking somewhere else instead of looking at the artist. This increases the sorrow in the painting.

   The background color of this painting is blue and there is a bit of bright red in the foreground of the painting, which is the color of the table. The sorrow emotion is pretty obvious in this painting since even the color of the old man’s jacket is  blue. The contrast of the dark blue and bright red even increases the depressed feeling the artist wants to express.

   Van Gogh’s painting is the realistic life of him. He has a mental disorder, which caused him goes into the psychiatric hospital. He met Dr. Paul Gachet who was Van Gogh’s personal doctor. Dr. Paul Gachet was the last doctor Van Gogh met before his death. He was a friend with Van Gogh. However, Van Gogh also had some personal disagreements with Dr. Paul Gachet and he thought Dr. Paul Gachet was even crazier than he was. Therefore, in Van Gogh’s last painting, which is Dr. Paul Gachet, he drew his doctor as a dull and depressed figure. There were many reasons why Van Gogh had disagreements with Dr. Paul Gachetd. According to a Chinese art website, some people thinks that’s because Van Gogh was really crazy at that time so he thought everyone was insane like him. Other people thinks that’s because he fell in love with doctor’s daughter and Dr. Paul Gachet would like someone paint for him. However, he didn’t want his daughter marry someone who is mad. Then, he and Van Gogh had disagreements. (http://culture.jwb.com.cn/art/2013/8/6/art_16448_3343806.html)

   Despite what people have said about Van Gogh, his painting “Dr. Paul Gachet” really contains a great sorrow and depressed not only from the dominant color blue, but also from the man’s spiritless face. As Van Gogh’s last painting in his life, this painting perfectly describe Van Gogh’s painting style which he likes to use two different type of colors to express his feeling of the painting. Besides that, “Dr. Paul Gachet” also faultlessly concludes Van Gogh’s whole life as an artist.