Page 31 - KIANGSU-CHEKIANG COLLEGE Yearbook 2018-2019

Your English teachers share the words that have shaped their lives and defined their philosophies from
various literary works. To find out more about your English teacher’s chosen literary quote/passage, read on:

Ms. Salazar Ms. Kwai-Pun Ms. Claypole

“If you are going into a very dark place, then “Respect was invented to cover the empty “The most beautiful things in the world cannot
you should take a bright light, and shine it on place where love should be.” be seen or touched, they are felt with the
everything. If you don’t want to see, why in - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy heart.”
God’s name would you dare the dark at all?” – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-
- Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King Tolstoy is a legend. Reading his insights on Exupéry
human character is like getting a high-five
This is one of many favourite quotes by one from a long-lost friend when you share an People are getting more materialistic these
of my favourite authors. I think Stephen inside joke, except it’s crazier because he’s days. They may think of money, possessions,
King is underrated and sometimes not taken a dead Russian man from a century ago. He branded items etc. However, we should
seriously because he is mostly known as a can distill a complex idea into a one-liner and always feel with our hearts, as that is the
horror writer. But I think there is some beauty make you wonder about it for days. beauty of life.
in the rich descriptions of his characters, who
are often deeply flawed and broken and deal
with situations that could happen to anybody. Ms. Mc Goldrick
Particularly, I like this quote because it is
telling us that, in facing our inner monsters
or life-changing situations we should not “So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But
forget that there is also good inside of us that even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go
makes us stronger and more brave. But if from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”
you don’t trust yourself, then do not grow and - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
stay in your comfort zone.
As someone who grew up in a small town in Wales, I never imagined I would have spent the
Ms. Pearson majority of my adult life travelling the world. This passage reflects my experiences, and how
no matter how small your start is, you can always choose the destination if you want it badly
enough.
“Now mind, you have a mistress instead of
a master. I don’t yet know my powers or my
talents in farming; but I shall do my best, and
if you serve me well, so shall I serve you. Don’t
any unfair ones among you (if there are any
such, but I hope not) suppose that because I’m
a woman I don’t understand the difference
between bad goings-on and good.”
(All.) “No’m!”
(Liddy.) “Excellent well said.”
“I shall be up before you are awake; I shall
be afield before you are up; and I shall have
breakfasted before you are afield. In short, I
shall astonish you all.”
(All.) “Yes’m!”
“And so good-night.”
(All.) “Good-night, ma’am.”
- Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) by
Thomas Hardy
From ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ (1874)
by Thomas Hardy (Ms. Pearson’s favourite
novel). The extract is taken from Chapter
10 and details Hardy’s female protagonist
(the beautiful and vain Miss Bathsheba
Everdene), speaking to her newly acquired
farm workers because she has just inherited
her uncle’s farm. Hardy was a feminist, or From left to right:
at least this passage would suggest that. In Ms. Pearson, Mr. Romero, Ms. Kwai-Pun, Ms. McGoldrick, Ms. Bou, Mr. Cox,
the course of the novel, Bathsheba moves Ms. Claypole, Ms. Gerlach, Ms. Salazar
from being a rather arrogant young woman,
in her early twenties, to being more humble Ms. Bou
and mature by the novel’s end, at the Ms. Gerlach
age of about twenty-six. It is her troubled
relationships with three men and the suffering “Happiness [is] only real when shared.” “He felt that his whole life was some kind of
for all concerned caused by them that bring - Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer dream and he sometimes wondered whose it
this transformation about. was and whether they were enjoying it.”
Mr. Cox Jon Krakauer’s 1996 non-fiction Into the - Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas
Adams
Wild is the sad and riveting story of Chris
McCandless, a young man from an affluent
Nick to Gatsby: “They’re a rotten crowd’, I family who severed all ties with his family While this quote isn’t my favourite (I think our
shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the and friends to live a life of solitude in the favourites change depending on our mood
whole damn bunch put together.” Alaska wilderness in the vain attempt to get and season of life too), it certainly reflects the
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald away from the various societal expectations fact that life itself, and the meaning we attach
of the modern world. The quote I have to it can be such a mystery. Sometimes I
I guess this quote isn’t the most beautiful in chosen appears at the end of the book think the quest of trying to make sense of it
English literature, however I found it pertinent when McCandless realizes the importance all can be confusing or painful, but it can also
as it serves as a reminder to stay humble and
respectful. It appeals to me as it is a lesson of human interaction and companionship bring us a lot of fun and joy along the way as
to stay grounded, and ensure that you treat despite his desire to be self-reliant. This well, which ultimately makes it all worthwhile.
people well wherever you go, and whoever quote also makes me think the famous quote, I love this novel as well, because it shows
they may be. There is always something that “no man is an island”. Both remind us that that even the most calamitous of events can
you can learn from someone, one just needs human beings are social creatures who not be navigated with humour - although, I’m
a little respect, patience and decency. I first only need one another but that two or more is not saying that I’d like to be caught in my
studied this text when I was in Year 11, and always better than one! dressing gown and slippers at the end of the
this message has stuck with me ever since. world ;)
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