Week 9 Project planning: My project action plan #2

The project prompt I intend to respond to is:

Compare and contrast elements of two different texts. For example, explore the similarities and differences between two characters in the text, or examine how one theme is handled in similar and dissimilar ways in two different texts.

You may choose from any of the readings we have done this semester including poetry, short fiction, and drama. You may also choose two texts from two different genres to write about (a poem and a short story, for example).

The two texts I chose to write about are:

1)      Nguyen Du, “The Tale of Kieu” (546-586)

2)      Liu E, “The Travels of Lao Can” (602-611)

Theme: Corruption

I plan to discuss the similarities and differences between “The Tale of Kieu” and “The Travels of Lao Can,” like how each uses corruption in their stories.

Ex: Differences

1)      Du: Prostitution and society corrupting the Innocent (Kieu throwing away her beliefs).

2)      Liu E: Injustice of corrupt government (Character: Lao Can, seeks justice).

Ex: Similarities

1)      Society corrupts the innocent.

2)      People who hold power can use it as they please.

3)      Both may include justice but in different terms (Kieu: coming to terms, Can: seeking justice).

Note: There is a difference in how they portray how society corrupts the innocent.

Quotes I may elaborate on:

1)      Liu E:

·         “I hear that if he happens to see a man who doesn’t please his eye, he simply puts him in a cage and chokes him to death; or if somebody talks unwisely and falls into his hands, he is a dead man too” (606)

·         “Spiritual nature gives birth to feeling; feeling gives birth to weeping. There are two kinds of weeping. One kind is strong; one kind is weak” (605) Maybe this one?

·         “Dedicated to unmasking government corruption and cruelty at expense of the people…” (602). I may use this for comparison.

2)      Du:

·         “I showed them to our League Chief and was told your name is marked in the Book of the damned. We both reap what we sowed in our past lives: of the same League, we ride the selfsame boat” (554) maybe use this one?

·         “…a flower sold to board a peddler’s boat. She was now caught in all of his bag of tricks: a paltry bridal gift, some slapdash rites. He crowded within: “The flag has come to hand! I view rare jade-it stirs my heart of gold!” (566). Peddler’s boat=a women leaving a man for another man, could be considered an affair. Flag has come to hand=people with power are free to use it as they please.

·         “I’m just a girl, so helpless, to my shame-when could I ever pay a daughter’s debts? Lost here where water’s mud and dust’s soil-free” (567). Society corrupts the innocent. In her case, selling her and prostituting to save her family.

Thesis attempt:

1)      In two different stories, two author’s show their take on corruption in their respective stories. There is a take on power over the innocent and we see it in the characters Kieu and Lao Can’s journey. Kieu suffers through the struggles of morality and prostitution while Lao Can seeks justice for the wrongs done upon the innocent. Therefore, both stories talk about the struggles of being under a corrupt government that lies on the basis of those with higher power using that power as they please.