This week I will be writing a literary analysis on Wu Cheng'enis folk novel journey to the west. I believe the theme of this story is redemption for your sins and also the spread of buddhism to the west. What this means to me is no matter what you have done sometimes you can get a second chance, especially for things like mistakes which are things you didn't want to do on purpose. This plays out pretty welling the story because the disciples that committed these sins weren't truly bad creatures, they helped the monk a lot through there journey as they faced monsters, demons, and just plain bad people. I think the metaphor works well for what the author is trying to discuss in his story, that there is no straight path to enlightenment there are going to be obstacles and you are going to make mistake but it is never to late. The historical part that china was being influenced by buddhism during this time in history and there ideals. As well as new styles of literature which has shaped the journey to the west, due to china's interaction with the rest of the world. The elements I choose influence and informs the author's point of view as he was writing this folk tell which was one part religious and another part fantasy because of the new mystery of the west china has not come into contact with as much, which left there mind open to imagination. The literary elements that I liked the most was character because it gave pretty good description of the charters appearances as well as there character background and a little bit of there mindset. This also can go hand and hand with imagery since this is a folk story that involves a lot of fantasy creatures and places.
I appreciate your point of view of the theme of the story because even though mines were not exactly similar to your's it helped me understand the story even more. I say this because you introduce redemption and how the characters used this to be forgiven of sins a piece that I didn't even think of mentioning in my post. Also your information you gave about the Buddhism is a direction that was totally blind to me because I don't know anything about the religion and now I can see the comparison to make from it to the story and how it applied to actual history of China. In my post I did talk about how this story could have been told in this fictional way but actually be history just told in a more interesting way from the telling the history. So I suppose that this was a story telling the introduction of Buddhism to the people of china just told in an imaginary way.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your point of view of the theme of the story because even though mines were not exactly similar to your's it helped me understand the story even more. I say this because you introduce redemption and how the characters used this to be forgiven of sins a piece that I didn't even think of mentioning in my post. Also your information you gave about the Buddhism is a direction that was totally blind to me because I don't know anything about the religion and now I can see the comparison to make from it to the story and how it applied to actual history of China. In my post I did talk about how this story could have been told in this fictional way but actually be history just told in a more interesting way from the telling the history. So I suppose that this was a story telling the introduction of Buddhism to the people of china just told in an imaginary way.
ReplyDeleteHi Timothy, great analysis. I enjoyed your view on this story. It seemed to be different then a lot of peoples which is great. I like reading something that has a different take than usual. I like how you said the theme was the redemption of your sins, I didn't see this so reading you analysis really opened my mind and made me think about the story differently.
ReplyDeleteHello Timothy, I enjoyed reading your analysis. You did a good job on connecting both the story and any influences that the time period/author had when writing it. I especially like that you decided to include your thought's and interpretation's of the story. Really good job on the detail you put into your analysis, keep up the good work man.
ReplyDeleteHi Timothy! Your Analysis of Journey to the West was really interesting and enjoyable to read. You really covered Buddhism and the concept of having a second chance, which I did not see it that way until I read your analysis. You expressed your opinions of this story very well and explained them too. Great Job and keep up the good work!
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