James' Blog

Its raining. Its cold. I love it. Its been nearly 4 month since I first come here. However, the day, April 30 is still so clear in my mind.

Its was haft past eleven on the clock, and I just walked out of Vancouver International Airport. Late at night, unable to contact my driver and worried, I thought I was hopeless. But, the kind and helpful people of Vancouver helped me. They showed me the way to use public cellphone (no, not in a red box, its Canada, not Britain), then helped me getting the information I need about the transit system,… and many thing more.

After about thirty minutes, I finally found my driver, and I was driven home. The city was like the Milky Way on the ground. I stared outside of the window the whole time.

I just told myself, “I’m in love with this city.”

Last Friday, I got a chance to visit Bill Reid Gallery in the city of Vancouver. It was the first time I ever visit an art gallery. Through out my one hour visit of the gallery, I was very impressed with the masterpieces from the hand of the acclaimed Haida artist Bill Reid (1920 – 1998).

The gallery is located in the beautiful center of downtown Vancouver. It’s the home of the priceless Simon Fraser University Bill Reid Collection. At the gallery, I was shown the work of the talented artist not only in clothing, but jewelry, sculptures influenced by his Haida Gwaii culture.

Bill Reid, or William Ronald “Bill” Reid Jr. was born on 12 January 1920 in Victoria, British Columbia. He passed away on 13 March 1998 at the age of 78. He was a Canadian artist, his works is comprised of painting, jewelry, sculpture and screen-printing. His love for the Haida First Nation is developed in the time he worked as a radio reporter in Toronto.

The artwork that I am most impressed at the gallery is the Milky Way Necklace. This priceless necklace is the result of two years of work from Bill Reid. It come with a detachable brooch, and made from the combination of 22 karat, 18 karat and white gold, with 118 diamonds.

This necklace under the careful hand of Bill Reid will reveal underlying culture of the Haida Gwaii First Nation in it’s beauty if you look closely at it. The smoke hole of every Haida longhouses is represented as the repeating pyramid on the necklace. In the culture of the Haida Gwaii, this is where the soul of a person come and leave when he of she is birthed or passes away. The Raven, a very powerful cultural hero in the Haida culture, escaped through a smoke hole to bring the moon and stars to the humans. Also, by putting the diamonds onto the tops of each pyramids, he represents the beautiful Milky Way full of stars, and thus, connects the two thing seemed to not related to each other.

   Books help people retain knowledge. Books help people connect with each other, whether they are from two faraway places. Books also teach people about life by telling stories about moral values and love. I was lucky to read the book in my English 10 class, The Fault in Our Star by John Green. The novel tells a story of two teenagers suffering cancer, yet they still appreciate and enjoy the gifts of life. It is a touching book that teaches me a lot about the value of life through two very beautiful souls. I am impressed at the way the novel uses metaphor to build its beautiful characters and employs references to give the story a deep and thoughtful meaning. 

   Metaphor is an essential component of the novel that construct a foundation on which the main characters are built. There are two very important metaphors in the story. The first is Augustus’s cigarette, and the second is Hazel’s grenade. These two metaphors make Hazel and Augustus more interesting, smart, and thoughtful. On page 20, Augustus Water stand bravely next to a Hazel who has lung cancer, and put a cigarette in between his lips. He says to her as she gets mad, “They don’t kill you unless you light them, and I’ve never lit one. It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing” (20). How splendid! Everyone knows that cigarettes can cause cancer and other lung-related diseases. Some people even call it a “cancer stick”. However, Augustus is different. He has the name Augustus, an ancient Roman emperor, and he wants to maintain the ruling over his life. In order to achieve that, he but a “cancer stick” between his lips, without lighting it up. This is his way of showing that he is in control of his empire, not his nurses, his doctors, his parents, or even cancer. Then we have Hazel, the most important piece of the puzzle. Hazel is a sixteen year old girl who loves books, especially a book called An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. However, as much as her family loves her, she is depressed, to the point that she thinks she is a grenade that will eventually hurt everyone. She says, “I’m like. Like a grenade, mom. I’m a grenade and at some point I’m going to blow up, and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?” (39). She shuts herself in her world of having only family and books with no friends except for one outside of her cancer support group. She is afraid that she will break the hearts of everyone. She “would like to minimize the casualties” (39) because she loves and cares for her loved ones. The grenade metaphor paints a picture of a girl who feels insecure about her health and unable to reach for love. She is stuck on the second level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (212) which dictated five levels that human care about depend on needs. She is stuck at that stage until Augustus says: “Oh, I wouldn’t mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you” (176). Finally, Hazel gives herself permission to love and to be loved. She realizes that it’s okay to be a grenade, and she move from the second level of the pyramid to the top of it. From the two examples above, we can see that metaphor is important for the novel. 

    Another key component for a strong story foundation is the use of reference. It is just as important as the metaphor in giving depth to the novel’s meaning. References act as analogies to express the meaning of the story. Through out the novel, there are several references such as Shakespear’s play “Julius Caesar”, Anne Frank, and with the most important one being the Sword of Damocles. Damocles was a member of king Dionysius’s court in the 4th century BC. He praised that the king was truly fortunate as a man of great power, authority and wealth. Dionysius answered back by inviting Damocles to the castle, allowing Damocles to feast on the most delicious food and to view valuable treasure. Damocles eventually glanced up and saw in horror as a sword was hanging right above his head by a single thread of horsehair. Dionysius explained to his horrified court member that death was always hung above a king’s head despite how great the power he had, or how rich he was. It’s just as fearful as living with cancer. Death is always by their sides, whether they are declared “NEC – No Evidence of Cancer” or not. Cancer is just like the Sword of Damocles, hanging above a poor soul’s head, ready to finish a life whether they are talented or not. The prime examples are Patrick, Isaac, Hazel, and Augustus. Augustus has been declared NEC for fourteen months (83). He is a survivor of cancer. However, the fearful Sword of Damocles still falls into his head. Sometimes, life is ironic and cruel. At the end of their Amsterdam, Augustus confesses with Hazel that his cancer is back. Osteosarcoma is now all over his body. The reference “Sword of Damocles” is an analogy of a life with cancer, that life could end any minute. It links to the existential theme of the novel that life is short but precious. We should cherish our life while we still can. From the above example, we can see that reference is as important as metaphor in sending a powerful message. 

   Through references and metaphors, the novel gains its thoughtful depth and beautiful meaning. I would recommend this book to everyone. This is a book that reminds us to live our lives to the fullest despite the inherent challenges that comes along the way.

Work Cited

Green, John. The Fault in Our Stars. Penguin Book, 2012.

In the novel “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, the main character Augustus Waters is presented as a very beautiful, complex and interesting character. First, he is a man of metaphor and symbol. “they don’t kill you unless you light them, and I’ve never lit one. It’s a metaphor, see: you put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do it’s killing” (20). How splendid! People always know that cigarettes cause cancer and other lung related diseases. Some even call it a cancer stick, a symbol of cancer. But that chap, the chap who is brave enough to a girl with lung cancer always puts that symbol of death between his lips, to make a metaphor out of it. We can also see his love for symbol and metaphor on the picnic trip at the “Funky Bones” (which is a real thing in Indianapolis) with Hazel from page 86 to page 87: everything he wears, and even the foods that they eat are orange. Because orange is the color of Amsterdam, he has everything in orange to announce to Hazel the trip to Amsterdam. Next, the he was a good man that want to take control of his life and wants to be a hero as his name, Augustus is the name of a Roman emperor. From page 56 to page 61, Augustus Waters sacrificed his character in the game that they were playing. Simply, to buy some time for the civilians, giving them life like Waters. Even if it was just a game, is it heroic? Could be. And after that, he let Isaac destroy his trophies. Because he know Isaac pain must be expressed and for he know that he don’t need the trophies anymore. He know that he will die, but he refuses to go to the hospital and choose to go with Hazel to go with Hazel to Amsterdam instead, because simply, that is his life. The last thing is his conflict. He has to bravely face cancer in his life. The type of caner that he has is osteosarcoma. He say, “Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest” (18). Well, spoiler alert: osteosarcoma likes our Gus, as it already tried his leg (222). His ex-girlfriend has already passed away due to cancer. But this brave young man doesn’t let that knock him out. It just make him wants to have a full and good life. Because after all, cancer is just “a side effect of dying”, which every one must have. So, that is why he approached Hazel, rudely announced that he was beautiful, and subsequently fell in love with this “univalent” girl. All of that together make Augustus Waters a painfully beautiful, deeply complex and inherently interesting character.

It’s hot outside. I am walking back to my house. Holding a treasure in my arms. A few steps left, and I sat down in my room. That was it. I open the box and begin to assemble the Gunpla. I look at the assemble instruction, and cut out the parts from the runners, then put them together. The arms, the legs, the torso, and the whole gunpla started to take shape from just little parts.

As I said before, it takes both patience and skills to build a good gunpla. And when you build a gunpla, it is uniquely your, and there are not two gunpla that are the same. When you look at the finished model, you few a scene of accomplishment.

So, that is why building Gunpla helps me feeling happy.

I was at Canada Place with my friend on the 1st of July. Casually hold a bottle of Canada Dry, put on that Canada maple leaf fake tattoo on to my cheeks. Walking down the tight-packed street, hold the flag of Canada, Canada Balloon, basically, we did the whole shabang of fun Canadian stuff.

I was surprised at how many people who went to the place just to watch fireworks. Not only Canadians, but I also saw many people from many different country like India, Iran, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, … and many more. That just make me love Canada even more.

“It Happen, Often” by Edwin Meade Robinson is a poem about how people overcome their problem. It was a little lovely poem with 20 lines. It was divided into 5 stanzas, and each stanza has 4 lines.

The Poet used the “A B C B” rhyme scheme for the poem, we can see this by look at each stanza. The ending of the second and the fourth lines rhyme with each other, and the opposite happens to the first and third line.

The poem was about a man whose was name and lived in the Edwin’s town. He broke his legs by mistakenly stepped into the glue pot and falling down. But eventually, his legs mended, and they were stronger than they’d have ever been. Our author sometime later experienced some events that left a bad mark on his heart. But he looked at Gentlemen Jim, and he became stronger.

Figurative languages was cleverly weaved together to form this beautiful piece of poem. We have personification, irony and imagery.

First, we have the personification. Jim’s legs was depicted as people. They mended, or healed themselves as they are human. They were hurt, but after they were healed, they became stronger as if they are human themselves. We can clearly see this in the poem on line sixth, seventh and eighth.

Our poor Jim limped and limped until the day he and his legs were healed. We can see this in our mind as we read through line seventh and eight. The poet draw a clear picture of Jim limping around in our mind using imagery.

But, the most prominent one in the poem is Irony. Take a look at our Jim. He broke his legs, but after he recovered, his leg became stronger than ever. The thing that hurt you will make you stronger. The same thing happened to our author. He was heart-broken. But he got over with it and became stronger.

That lead to the theme of the poem. The thing that hurt you, will make you stronger, no matter how hurt it would be. I can link this to myself as many time, I have fallen, and many time, have I stood up and became stronger. I wish every one can be the same.

Every one has a name. Every one is different. Some can even have more than one name. Let’s take an example: me! I have two names. James, the one that everybody call me. And my real name: Vo Minh Quan.

Because I have two names, you can say that my name is meaningless and meaningful at the same time. The name that I associated to in everyone eyes is James. It is a Western name, and we all know that a lot of the time, Western names are… pretty… meaningless. So, to me, “James”, is just a “flat character”, or as we know it: sound interesting, but deep down you are nothing but a boring name.

My other name, Vo Minh Quan, is a different story. My family name, Vo/Vu means martial art or literature, or perhaps success. Vo/Vu has a long history, as the name according to legend started in Vietnam as far back as the year 804. My middle name “Minh” means intelligent, and wise. My first name “Quan” means emperor or leader. So, combined together, my whole name means: successful and wise king.

Do I live up to that namesake of mine? I don’t know yet. Now, I am nobody, and I am finding a path to become somebody in this world. Perhaps ten to twenty years from now, we will know the answer.

It was a sunny day in the spring, the Grasshopper was playing around and eating delicious food. From afar, it saw a pack of ants hauling food back to their nest. It jumped down from the branch, and greeted the ants.

“Why are you working so hard?” It inquired. “Let’s come and play with me!”

“But we are working,” one ant answered.

“We are hauling the food back for storage,” another added.

“We need to store them to prepare for the winter,” one more chimed in.

“Oh come on, let’s come and play,” the Grasshopper insisted. “Winter won’t come for months ’till now!”

At this point, the Ant Queen came out of his carriage, and said, “food in the winter is very scarce. If we don’t prepare now, then when?”

“Alright then, you workaholics keep up the good work, the Grasshopper answered. “I will play by myself then.”

“Suit yourself, Mr Grasshopper,” the Queen said. “Alright gents, resume working!”

So, as time went by, the Grasshopper played and ate from dusk till dawn, while the ants kept up their good – hard work. Spring went by, then came the summer. The ants kept working, and the Grasshopper kept playing. Then the ferocious winter came. Food was so scarce that there wasn’t even a leaf for out Grasshopper to munch on.

“I am so hungry!” It cried out loud.

He kept walking, but eventually, he collapsed just before the ants’ nest. The ants saw what just happened and helped the Grasshopper.

“Ah… ” a gasp was left out from the Grasshopper’s mouth. “Thanks for helping me.”

“Don’t worry, we will be sheltering you and give you food for this winter,” one ant replied.

“Greeting, Mr Grasshopper,” the masjestic Queen appeared.

“It a pleasure to meet you, your majesty,” the Grasshopper answered. ” Thank you for saving me from starving in this terrible winter.”

“Don’t worry,” the Queen said. “You should be prepare the next time, as we can’t predict what future has in store for us.”

“I am sorry for what I have said in the spring,” the Grasshopper apologized. “I will work hard from now on!”

Everyone cheered and they lived happily ever after.

The weeks before, I was presented with 3 short stories from the book Inside Story: “The Persian Carpet” by Hanan Shaykh, “Sea Devil” by Arthur Gordon, and “Wild Horse” by Brian Fawcett. But, my favorite story is “Sea Devil” by Arthur Gordon.

The Protagonist of the story is a well-off man, in his late twenty. He is a man of nature, he loves testing his strength and fishing. As a wealthy and successful man, he does not fish for food, but for enjoyment. He loves the loneliness of the night, and the silent of the sky full of stars.

The story takes place in Florida, in the latter of the 20th century. The main characters gets out of his house, get on to his skiff and goes fishing with the net. He ties the rope connected to the net onto his wrist. He think he got some mullets, but nature has some trick at it’s sleeve. He instead catches a giant Mantra Ray. It pulls him off the skiff. He then has to fight a desperate battle for his life.

The reasons I love this story are… it’s realistic way of detailing, the beautiful imagery words in the story. The ironic metaphor in this story is that, we, the specie which has stepped it’s feet on the moon surface, should learn to cooperate, instead of trying to control the mother nature. I realized this as a modern passenger jet flew over the protagonist head, as he just barely get out of the God of Death’s scythe.