Peer response:

For this activity, I read Ryan’s response, in which he discusses how as a child, Gregory had no way to control or change the circumstances he was living in. Ryan also explained that they feelings of shame were created about of embarrassment of his socioeconomic status being recognized by others. I also talked about this in my response, as it wasn’t so much his status that he was unhappy about, but more so the recognition of his status to others. Ryan also talked about the intense shame that’s felt when you get embarrassed in front of your crush, while I saw Helene in more of a symbolic way, where she represents what Gregory dreams of being and Gregory likes her because of envy.

 

Individual Writing:

Over the summer, I watched a Korean historical drama depicting Korea’s struggle for independence in the early 1900s and the beginning of the Japanese control of Korea. At the time, Korea as a country was really weak after isolating itself from the rest of the world and not being current with the technological advancements of the rest of the world. Because of this, they were super vulnerable to occupation of other countries. The Japanese end up colonizing the Korean peninsula and because Korea was so weak as a country, they could barely fight back. However, resistance fighters, calling themselves the Righteous Army, made informal attempts to fight back against the Japanese, but they were unsuccessful as they were no match against the powerful Japanese forces. During this time under Japanese rule, Koreans were severely mistreated by the Japanese, with the men being deported into forced labor or conscription into the Japanese army and the women forced to become comfort women for the Japanese military. Korea remained a Japanese colony for 35 years, until Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in WWII. Though they were no longer under Japanese rule, Korea had become a divided peninsula, which is still divided today. Because of this era in Korean history, many Koreans still have deep rooted negative feelings towards the Japanese, who never formally apologized.