Different Views on Eileen Chang’s Early Fiction from the 1940s to the Present essayEssay Writing Service

Different Views on Eileen Chang’s Early Fiction from the 1940s to the Present essayEssay Writing Service Different Views on Eileen Chang’s Early Fiction from the 1940s to the Present essay Different Views on Eileen Chang’s Early Fiction from the 1940s to the Present essayEileen Chang is the writer, whose works were neglected in China because of the suppression of her literary works by the Communist regime. She remained virtually unknown in China for decades, while her works has gained the public and critics’ approval at the international level. Her works became renowned and popular in many countries of the world.However, the question that begs is whether her works were dangerous for the ruling regime in China that forced it to ignore her books and her contribution to the modern Chinese literature or probably she just became the victim of the undemocratic, repressive regime that fears all ideas, which are different from those promoted by the regime. In fact, the originality of her works and the writer’s focus on the position of woman and her role in China, which was quite different from Communist ideals, but close to the real life. Eileen Chang has uncovered the role of women in China through her major works, such as The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City, which are a quintessence of historical awareness and moral judgments about women in China.According to the feudal ideology, female had no independent personality in ancient China, and this traditionalfeudalideologyevenaffectthenewgenerationwomenaswell. EileenChanghad a distinctiveunderstandingon female thatdifferentfromotherauthors. She paid a lotofattentiontowomenanddescribedmanytragic female characterswithherunique perception. Female characters play the main part in many of Eileen Chang’s works, including The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City.At the same time, the author does not just tell a conventional story of a woman but also uncovers the historical context and the role of woman in Chinese society. She uncovers the real life of women and the emerging conflict between their strife for self-realization and changing their social role, on the one hand, an d the dominant, biased and prejudiced view on the role of women in Chinese society of that time. In such a way, she uncovers the intrinsic conflict between attempts of women to become more independent and equal to men and the male-dominated ideology and culture of the 20th century China. At this point, a sort of marriage obsession determines, to a significant extent, actions and life of the main character of Love in the Fallen City, while the main character of The Golden Cangue has failed to lead the life she wanted to and marry the man, whom she really loved, and became the loser, whose failure in her life extrapolated on her own children.Love in a Fallen City  describes the lives of women located between the modern and the traditional, trapped by limited options and social constraints, and forced to find a balance between respectability and freedom (Yee, 2012). The main character of the short story views the marriage as her life’s priority but she confronts numerous chall enges on her way to the attainment of this goal. However, the problem is that her dream of marriage is rather the result of the impact of gender-related biases and dominant social views on gender roles. She believes that marriage is essential for her as for a woman. She turns out to be vulnerable to the impact of social norms and belief that a woman should be a good wife and mother but, eventually, her personality comes into conflict with the dominant social view on the role of women. As a result, her pursuit of personal happiness and independent life, on the one hand, and the burden of social biases and stereotypes, on the other, come into clashes and make her life virtually unbearable.Love in a Fallen City  portrays BaiLiusu and Fan Liuyuan as selfish people thus their so called love is just to get what they need instead of chasing love. â€Å"He was just a selfish man, and she was just a selfish woman† (Chang, p. 277), they tried to exchange what they really need with th eir â€Å"love†.  In such a way, the main characters of the short story were selfish in their love and they pursued their own goals and did not love each other.At the same time, the strife of Bai for marriage becomes obvious in the episode, when Fan mentioned the verse in The Book of Songs: â€Å"Life, death, separation- with thee there is happiness, thy hand in mine, we will grow old together.† But Bai said â€Å"Why not go ahead and just say, flat-out, that you don’t want to marry me, and leave it at that!†(Chang, p. 268).Marriage was so important to her that made her lose the ability to love someone without counting the profit she can earn from the relationship. She would lose the trade with Fan because she misunderstood the rules. Fan repeated again and again that he needed her to understand him by saying â€Å"I don’t understand myself- but I want you to understand me!†(CP p. 263). In such a way, she wants to live the happy life and e njoy her life without any responsibilities and obligations but, on the other hand, she has to marry and the marriage bounds her freedom drastically. In such a situation, she cannot understand Fan Liuyuan, who looked for a different love and relationships with Bai. In fact, â€Å"it turned out that what Liuyuan cared about is spiritual love†(Chang, p. 264). She agreed since spiritual love leads to marriage, but she is just using Fan to reach her goals. In such a way, the main character of Love in a Fallen City challenges conventional norms and destroys the idealized image of a Chinese woman, who is a faithful and devoted wife, who adores her husband. Instead, Chang depicts a pragmatic, cold-blooded woman, whose reason is stronger than her feelings and, in this regard, she has features, which were traditionally attributed to men rather than women in China.The resolution of the story comes at the end and  it is the ending haunted by uncertainty and dark premonition.â€Å"Hong Kong’s defeat had brought Liusiu victory. But in this unreasonable world, who can distinguish cause from effect? When the  huqin  wails on a night of ten thousand lamps, the bow slides back and forth, drawing forth a tale too desolate for words - oh! why go into it?†(Chang, p.297). In such a way, the conflict between Bai’s personal identity and dominant cultural norms reveals the profound transformation that has started in Chinese society, as women came to the point, when they became aware of the necessity to change their role and stand on the equal ground compared to men.The Golden Cangue tells the story of a woman from a poorer family - she has worked in a shop selling sesame oil - who is married into a wealthy, traditional family, but to a cripple (Huang Keyton, 2011). Through her attempts to maintain her status and her prickly personality she alienates her in-laws as well as those of her own family who try to stay in contact. And then, after she has gained independence on the death of her husband, she takes out her bitterness and frustration on her own children (Sze, 2010). The main character of The Golden Cangue is quite different from the conventional female character traditionally depicted in Chinese literature. Instead, Eileen Chang focuses on the depiction of the female character, who wants to break through existing conventional social norms but fails and her failure to break down all those social norms that bound her and ruin all her life. In despair, she has nothing to do but to ruin the life of her own children. In such a way, the author shows how gender-related biases and stereotypes keep Chinese women within boundaries imposed on them by the male dominated cultural and social norms and which deprived women of their full freedom. The main character of the short story is virtually forced to marry a sick man because of his wealth. However, as she marries, she cannot take decisions and act in the way she likes and really wants. For example, she falls in love with her brother-in-law but she cannot break the existing social and cultural norms and start relationships with him or divorce her husband and marry his brother. Such an act would be absolutely unthinkable for a woman in China in that time. At this point, the main character of The Golden Cangue faces the similar conflict between her personal aspirations and desires and social norms and rules as does the main character of Love in a Fallen City. She wants to rebel against existing social norms but cannot dare to do it. As a result, she comes to the point, when she understands that her life was a sheer failure and the only way she finds out is to ruin the life of her children because probably she is so desperate that cannot afford their happiness and she is locked in her ‘kingdom’ created respectively to norms of Chinese society but, under the impact of those norms, which made her unhappy, she becomes tyrants destroying the life of he r children. Eileen Chang didn’t portray too much about the personality of Ch’i-ch’iao, but paid much attention on the spirit, focusing on the character’s inner world. In Ch’i-ch’iao’s mind, her inner world was dominated by human desire, thus we can observe extreme changes of her personality during the domination. Under Eileen Chang’s description of Ch’i-ch’iao, regardless of the ending and her fate, she already became the slave of money and the capture of human desire. We can see the overwhelming power desire has on Ch’i-ch’iao, regardless of her social class, causing a human tragedy in extreme circumstances when her goal is unattainable.Eileen Chang reaches her goals to show the position of women in Chinese society and their strife for changes using her literary works and vivid and challenging life stories of her main characters. At the same time, she also uses skillfully diverse stylistic devices t o convey her main points to the audience. In this regard, the rich imagery and profound exploration of human nature are distinct features of Eileen Chang’s major works, such as The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City. Chang attempts to explore the internal world of her main characters and show the audience how different the internal world of her main characters is compared to what the public can see. The main characters of The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City live a normal, regular life of typical Chinese women. However, as the author uncovers their internal world, the audience learns that their seemingly perfect and happy life is illusory, while, in actuality, they suffer and their life is unbearable for them.The Golden Cangue and Love in a Fallen City transcend historical awareness and moral judgments (Zaifu, 2009). The main characters of her short stories confront the problem of the conflict between their internal desires and wants and social norms and rules. Th ey want to break free of social biases and norms, which though turn out to be too strong for them.There is a mix of traditional Chinese and Western influences in Changs style as well as in the situations of her characters (Zaifu, 2009). Her descriptions of objects and clothing and little details are realist but also convey classical imagery and symbols (Zaifu, 2009). The events covered in these novellas span considerable periods of time - many decades in some cases - and they are almost family sagas, tracing the life stories of individuals and their families (Yee, 2012). In some ways her canvases are quite limited, but Chang fits a real diversity of characters and events onto them (Yee, 2012). In such a way, the main characters of her stories uncover her vision of the role of women and changes that occur in Chinese society.Thus, Eileen Chang reveals profound changes in Chinese society that have changed the role of women. She concerned about the ordinary womenwho have desolate fate s, and tried to tell people how difficult for these women to survive in this powerful male-dominated society. Women faced the problem of the persisting pressure of male-dominated cultural norms and values and their personal aspirations. The fate of the main characters of her short stories reveal the emerging conflict between women’s strife for equality and freedom and persisting social and cultural norms. AfterreadingthenovelsofEileenChang, I thinkeverywomenshouldlivedependentlybypursuingtheirownidealandrealizeself-worth, inordertolivebetterinthismodernsociety.

Is AP Biology Hard An Expert Discussion

Is AP Biology Hard An Expert Discussion SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips AP Biology is a popular AP class, and many students are curious about the challenges it presents. Is AP Biology hard? Will you spend hours upon hours studying for the class? Are you likely to fail the exam? Or are AP tests much easier than they seem? In this article, I’ll look at statistics, course material, and student perceptions to present you with a clear picture of the difficulty level of the class and exam. I'll also give you some tips to help you figure out how challenging AP Biology will be for you based on your academic strengths and weaknesses. What Factors Go Into Determining the Difficulty of an AP Class? There are a few indicators we can look at to make judgments about how hard a particular AP class might be. Here's a list of key considerations that I'll explore in more detail for the AP Biology course later in this article. Factor #1: Passing Rate The passing rate for an AP class is the percentage of students who earn a 3 or above on the exam. If the passing rate is on the lower side, it may indicate a more difficult class. However, the passing rate can also be a deceptive statistic. Sometimes, passing rates in the most difficult subjects are very high because only the most dedicated students take the class. A smaller pool of more serious students will be a better-prepared group overall. Factor #2: 5 Rate The 5 rate is potentially a better metric for determining the difficulty of AP classes. The 5 rate is the percentage of students who earn 5s (the highest possible score) on the AP test for the class. If the 5 rate is on the lower side, it may indicate that the material is more difficult to master (or even to understand reasonably well, since the 5 cutoff is around 70 percent correct on many AP tests). A low 5 rate also sometimes happens with very popular classes because the proportion of students who are prepared for an AP test tends to decrease as the number of students taking it increases. Factor #3: Content Difficulty The complexity of the curriculum is one of the most important factors that goes into determining the difficulty of an AP class. This essentially boils down to the amount of material the course covers and how advanced that material is. Some courses have high 5 and passing rates because their content is extremely challenging and only very driven students will take them, not because they are easy classes. Factor #4: Student Testimonials What do students say about the class? This can change from high school to high school, but there should be some consistency based on the fact that everyone is supposed to be learning the same curriculum, and everyone ends up taking the same test. Student feedback can provide more information about the day to day challenges of the class and whether the workload is especially daunting. Factor #5: Timing of the Class A final factor to consider is which year of high school students tend to take the class. The classes that students take later in high school will be more difficult overall though some students may perceive them as being easier than other AP classes that they took when they had less experience. The reverse is true of classes that students take earlier in high school. If you are one of the lucky few to earn a 5, you should get one of these candles, put it in a cake, and eat the entire thing by yourself. Only then will you truly possess the top score. What Do Statistics Say About the AP Biology Exam? Let’s take a look at the passing rate and the 5 rate for the AP Biology exam. The passing rate for the AP Biology exam in 2018 was 61.5 percent. This is a middle-of-the-road passing rate as compared to other AP exams, so we would assume from it that the AP Biology exam has a medium level of difficulty. The 5 rate, however, was only 7.2 percent. This is one of the lowest 5 rates out of all the AP exams. From the 5 rate, we would assume AP Biology to be a very difficult test. What’s actually going on here? Based on these statistics, is the AP Biology exam medium-difficulty or very challenging? We have to keep in mind that AP Biology is one of the more popular AP classes. This means that a large number of students take the class, which tends to increase the proportion of students who are underprepared for the test. Still, the 5 rate is so low that it can’t be completely attributed to the volume of students. It's clearly very challenging to get a high score on the test even if most students pass, so from this we can assume that the exam is difficult. Behold, statistics. Is the AP Biology Content Difficult? There’s no question that the breadth of content covered in AP Biology is extensive. It requires memorization of complex processes along with a deep understanding of how biological concepts and themes connect with one another. There are also many lab assignments that teachers have to schedule around lectures, so it ends up being a heavy workload overall. The AP Biology exam could also be considered more challenging than other AP tests because of its format. The multiple choice section also includes six â€Å"grid-in† math problems related to biological concepts. The free response section has eight questions (two long response and six short response), which is more than most other AP exams. The test requires extensive knowledge of many different topics as well as a lot of stamina. Do Students Think AP Biology Is Hard? Personally, I found AP Biology to be one of the most difficult classes I took. There was just so much information to remember. Studying for tests took much longer than it did in any of my other classes, and I still forgot stuff. This coupled with lab assignments made the class extremely challenging. Then again, I didn’t take an introductory bio class before taking AP Biology, and it was my first-ever AP class. It’s a good idea to take a basic biology class beforehand if you have the opportunity so that you get a basic foundation for advanced concepts covered in the AP class. The most common way that students describe AP Biology (based on College Confidential threads) is that it’s very, very memorization-heavy. The test and curriculum were redesigned in 2012 to try and mitigate this a little, but it still covers a ton of conceptually difficult material. Most students take AP Biology their junior or senior year. This makes the claims about the difficulty of the class even more valid. Students have had a chance to adjust to the demands of high school academics and compare their experience in AP Biology to other high-level classes, and they still find it challenging. Since students see AP Biology as a hard class, it’s less likely that unmotivated or unprepared students will take it. This makes the low 5 rate on the test all the more daunting. Your lab assignment is to take this cutie for a walk! If only... Will AP Biology Be Hard for You? Since schools and students are different, I can’t say for sure whether AP Biology will be as hard for you as it might be for other students. To decide whether the class will be a challenge, you should: #1: Ask Reliable Sources About the Class The best way to learn what AP Biology is like at your school is to question people who are familiar with the class or have already taken it. If you know any older students or have siblings, you might ask them what they thought of the class. You can also speak with your current teachers (probably your science teacher is the best person to ask) and see what they say about AP Biology at your school. Since they know your academic abilities and have observed how similar students performed in the class, they might be able to give you a more accurate idea of how hard it will be for you. The same goes for your guidance counselor. He or she is probably very familiar with the grades that students earn in AP Biology and how people have performed on the exam in the past. Your guidance counselor may also be able to give you perspective on how challenging the class will be for you based on the grades you’ve earned in high school thus far. #2: Take Your Academic Strengths and Weaknesses Into Account As I’ve said, AP Biology is memorization-heavy, but it's also important to have a solid understanding of basic science and experimental design to succeed. There's a small mathematical component to the class as well, although it doesn’t go beyond algebra, geometry, and graphing skills. If math and science aren't typically your strong suits, AP Biology may be more difficult for you than it is for some other students. If, on the other hand, you've always done well in these types of classes, you might find AP Biology to be less challenging. Still, AP Biology incorporates skills from many different subject areas. Since there’s a lot of memorization involved, the actual study skills that you need to succeed are somewhat similar to those required in social studies classes. Well-rounded students may actually have the biggest advantage in the class because it draws on skills from a variety of subject areas but requires you to implement them in a scientific (and sometimes mathematical) context. #3: Consider Your Schedule If you have the opportunity to take an introductory biology class before you take AP Biology, you might find the AP class less challenging. You'll also be able to manage AP Biology better if your schedule isn’t loaded up with other difficult, memorization-heavy classes. For example, if you’re thinking about taking AP Biology and a class like AP US History at the same time, you should understand that both classes could end up being more stressful because of the time you’ll have to spend studying the material (which is extensive and complex in both cases). If you take too many intense classes, it can create a perfect storm of stress. Conclusion: So, Is AP Biology Hard? AP Biology is one of the more difficult APs based on its challenging curriculum, the low rate of students who earn 5s on the exam, and the consensus from students on the demanding nature of the class. Ideally, you should take an Intro to Biology class before you take AP Biology so that you’re fully prepared. It's a challenging class for most students, but it should be manageable if you’re aware of what you’re facing. What's Next? Want to get a taste of what you'll be learning in AP Biology? Find out what an enzyme is, what the differences between homologous and analogous structures are, and three tenets of cell theory. If you're already a biology pro, don't sweat- we have a few more in-depth articles for you, too. Review with our articles about the functions of the endoplasmic reticulum and cell membrane and what the photosynthesis equation is. Thinking about signing up for AP Biology? Read this article on how to register for AP classes and exams. You can also check out this article to learn which additional AP classes you should take in high school. Looking for an easier AP class than Biology? Learn which AP classes tend to be the least challenging for students. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: