Ms. Todos

Sealed off (Zhang Ailing)
* Born 1920, May Fourth time
* Influenced by both eastern and western ideas
* Attended private school as child then westernize school at age 9
* Japaneseinvasion, edu stopped/interrupted
* Husband worked for Japanese
* Writings were in English (sometimes)
1960, u.s citizen
* Themes; focus on urban residence, trifling matters between sexes* Good imagery but readable
* Critiques communism a lot
* “Sealed off”:
- 1943
-story of passengers waiting for city to be unsealed after an air raid
-when apssengers waiting, they areforced to think about their lives
- (there’s more)
-“thinking is a painful business”(176)
-characters think about their life and if has been painful or happy
- people are so desperate toread that they begin to read street signs nd other advertisements
-they’re reading the same things over nd over again
-women don’t want to talk when they’re in love because both sexesmisread each other/misinterpret each other
- pg 180, theme of desperation of having/ searching for something real
-176, when she graded the student with an A nd realized it was because the student treatedher with respect nd seems to comprehend her (the only reason for the high grade)
-everyone in the train car were having a daydream
-they were all trying to figure out why everyone wasdoing what they were doing or what things they were thinking
-175, words printed on dumplings
-179, the man forces himself to like the woman by breaking her down into pieces b/c he can’t loveher/accept her as a whole
-he’s idealizing her
-they pretend to be in love just for the time in the train
-this love could have been real if they didn’t go back to their normal stateat the end (waking up from the daydream)
-the isolation helped the people interact with each other b/c they wonder about others
-their love wasn’t sincere, they just sincerely loved what they...