Character Analysis

Jungsoon Park

Jungsoon is a twenty-seven year old Mafia boss who successfully runs the Choi Agency he established (with a little help from his best friend Aiden) after deserting his parents' house. Jungsoon and Ashton's uncle are long time friends; in fact, it was Ashton's uncle that took Jungsoon in after he left and helped Jungsoon receive his business degree. Being the top chief, Jungsoon has a bit of a temper, and his appearance comes off mean, but deep down he is actually nice—if he wants to be. Jungsoons' main goal is to prove his parents wrong, that if he lives life on his own terms it actually works.

Preston Park

Preston is the younger twin brother of Jungsoon Park. This twenty-seven year old, sophisticated, elegant and playful young man dreams of becoming a well-known artist. However, he works as an accountant at McCorp Affairs, who eventually lives with his brother after finally deciding to leave his parents. Preston is frustrated that he is taken advantage of and often has to suppress his gayness when working. Soon, Preston decides to work as an accountant at Choi Agency full-time.

Aiden Lee

Born in Guangzhao, China, the twenty-five year old has come to SMTown, South Korea in search of the highest fashion line. His best friend (Jungsoon) offers him a job as a business associate to help out with the business and Aiden doesn’t hesitate to accept! When it comes to handling business, Aiden is a true diva because he wants to help expand the company and stay extremely successful. His colleagues get jealous of him rather quickly and even attempt to sabotage his work ethic. Unfortunately for them, Aiden loves all the attention. Due to his fashion style, Aiden often comes off feminine, but his overtly aggressive and masculine manner hinder any assumptions of a woman. Eventually, Aiden thinks it time to settle down and find his special someone all the while working alongside Jungsoon.

Ashton Baker

Ashton is a twenty-two year old sophomore attending Colgate University and his dream is to one day own his own bakery; he's majoring in the Culinary Arts. His mother is Cherokee-Indian and his father is Egyptian and they both use to run a successful bakery not too far from The Itis. However, on Ashton’s sixteenth birthday his parents hung themselves which left Ashton often disconsolate and reserved. To help pay for his college tuition, he works part time at his Uncles’ burger shop, called The Itis. His Uncle sometimes mistakes his nephew for a girl because of his feminine looks which irritates Ashton. Thus, Ashton wears baggy clothing whenever he goes out in public.

Rei Moretto

Rei is a twenty-one year old that comes from a poor family in Rome, Italy. His parents are both prominent pianist and have influenced their son to become a singer. However, since money is tight, Rei is no longer able to attend the University of Sannio, so his parents decided to fly him to SMTown, South Korea to continue majoring in Performing Arts for a cheaper price at Colgate University. There, he meets Ashton and the two instantly become friends. Rei also works part-time at The Itis to help pay his college fees. However, his boss almost fired Rei once for messing up an order because he often carries around an iPod. Rei is easy to get along with due to his easy-going, friendly and humorous personality; he has lots of fans and makes new friends on a daily basis. Although he jokes around a lot, he gets serious when the time calls for it and his up-beat attitude vanishes within seconds.

 Lindana and Moose Park

The parents of Jungsoon and Preston, are rich and own a private company that uses child labor to produce the goods. The Parks have a lot of influence in government through lobbyist, and are a part of the top one percent. Moose, the father, wants his two sons to become congressmen, and shoves his ideas down his sons’ throat. He's been prepping and grooming them to be the right congressmen ever since their childhood. Lindana, the loving mother, tries her best to make the pressures of their father bearable, however. The eldest son, Jungsoon, ends up leaving and later on so does Preston. Torn and heartbroken, by her son’s absence, Lindana turns bitter and joins Moose in his plot to rebuke their son’s choices.

Maxwell Warelock

Maxwell is Preston's lover and is only two years younger than him. Preston and Maxwell were friends back in elementary school and all the way through college. However, they're love didn’t last long. Preston caught Maxwell cheating on him with a girl. Preston got mad at Maxwell and out of revenge had an affair with a girl himself at a college party, but the incident was just a huge misunderstanding. Eventually they became rivals when working for different businesses. Maxwell is like the slightly emo, dark horse character who plays by his own rules. He's an accountant as well but he wants to be a musician. He's extremely attractive with his dark hair, lean abs, and hands as smooth as a baby's bottom. Maxwell's rival business is called Corporate LifeTouch.

Tony Baker ( Uncle)

Tony Baker is Ahston’s caretaker. He’s fifty-seven years old and wears a plain brown shirt with a white apron wrapped around his waist, exposing the fullness of his gut. Ever since the incident with his brother and sister-in-law, he’s been extra protective of Ashton…making sure his depression doesn’t cause him to commit suicide. For the most part, Tony works at his restaurant, constantly bugging his nephew with orders and constantly getting annoyed with Rei.

Plot/Central Conflict

The parents of the Park family try and sabotage their eldest son's business, Choi Agency, by bankrupting it. They think they're just teaching their sons a lesson, but ends up hurting Ashton, Rei, Aiden and creates an emotional toll on Preston and Maxwell's relationship.

Resolution

·         Jungsoon Saves Ashton from killing himself. 

Setting

SMTown, South Korea; The Itis; Colgate College University; Choi Agency.

Point of View

First person; Different first person Point of Views.

“For Colored Girls” vs. “Out of Our Fathers’ House”

            For Colored Girls, created by Ntozake Shange, is a poetic play depicting women of color facing struggles and shows them discovering their lives in the 1970’s, a time during remnants of the Vietnam War. The pressures of being African-American female whey down on them as their men face pressures of society. Out of Our Fathers’ House, is a poetic play about women in the 1920’s facing their own struggles in a ‘man’s’ world. The poems were taken from activist women in the suffrage movement. Each of the two poems is similar in goal, meaning they each strive for gender equality, as well as some other similarities. However, they differ as well. Some difference may be minor and others will be major.

The setting is different in each poem. For Colored Girls is in Harlem, around the time the American-Vietnam war was just winding down. Out of Our Fathers’ House took place in Chicago during the 1920’s. So, of course how things were done and the mindsets of the American people were different. The dialect of the women in the two poems were different; one was formal and the other was informal, yet they each spoke in a compelling way, enough to bring their audience to tears.

            Some other differences were their body gestures or body language.  The women of Out of Our

 Fathers’ House were less animated and tended towards the gestures that were proper during their time.

 During some poems, there were little gestures, but more facial and arm movement. On the contrary, the

 women of For Colored Girls had motley actions that suited each poem, and

facial expressions of their own. An example would be that during the poem “I want my stuff back” there was much movement, laughter, and facial gestures. The women, compared to those in Out of Our Fathers’ House, were much more relaxed. 

            In both poems the women were looking for a sense of belonging. They were searching for their identity and discovering who they are as women. Aside from all of them being women, they struggle for gender equality and recognition as an equal.  Even though the women of Out of Our Fathers’ House weren’t too much concerned with race, they were still striving for all gender equality.

            In short, both poems brought something of equal value to the table. The fight for gender equality and recognition from their male counterparts was vivid, yet the time periods and behavior seemed as if they were from far away dimensions.

What Will They Get Us to Eat Next?

Some people think school cafeterias should be required to provide low-fat and/or vegetarian lunch options to accommodate the eating habits of all students. Do you agree or disagree?

            Troubling as it may seem, it is indeed the truth that cafeterias still provide students with low nutrient foods. This is a problem because apparently, in spite of previous efforts, low nutrients must be the majority of what the food is made of and its pure junk— pure junk. What does that mean for the kids who are eating these foods? Let's be frank, students will either become obese or develop health problems. In addition, the kids develop bad eating habits. To help the students out, it is best for cafeterias to serve low-fat and/or vegetarian lunch options.

            Let's think for a moment. Synthetic foods have never done any of us any good. Most of the nation's public is obese, every street corner has a fast-food restaurant, and there are still thousands of people who are not educated about the foods they eat. No one mentioned to read the label! Yet, people still eat it because it tastes good, right? People like what they eat and, it will be a while before they stop, but what if they do not stop? Rather, what if the public cannot? Then it will slip into a habit and keep in mind people, children have trouble with self-control—they're worse off than adults.

            Cafeterias should join in on the movement against obesity. Have the lunch lady or lunch man serve healthier foods instead of slapping two bread buns with hardly any meat on the them. Make it so that the students have no choice other than choose a healthier menu. It would also be a huge bonus for the students if there was a chart listing the sodium content, total carbohydrates, calories, sugars, trans fat. In other words, show the nutritional facts. Instead of just having milks and juice to choose from, cafeterias should have water as a choice, too. School cafeterias need to be consistent with these changes because in order to end a habit a person needs to be persistent with his or her changes.

            It would be interesting if the school cafeteria could grow their own food. You know the type of food where you don’t have to worry about the pesticides or added hormones. The very type of food parents would fall head-over-heels for in their student’s school. If a school were to grow its own food it would save money because it would limit the need to buy. Aside from that they could buy it from the farmers market (the organic foods). By doing this, it reduces pollution and minimizes the unneeded or unnecessary chemicals that go into making the food or making the food taste good.

            Overall, cafeterias need to stop what they are doing and make a turnaround in the kitchen. In layman terms, cafeterias need to provide healthier foods on the menu. Only then can bad food habits be on the verge of nonexistence. Perhaps this method of breaking habits should be applied to other problems too, such as watching too much TV and not getting enough exercise; reducing gang violence in neighborhoods; and top this, getting students to study more—we don’t want an educated fool.

Prompt 9: Reinforcing the Will to Help

            Many junior high and high schools around the country now require students to spend a certain number of hours each term doing volunteer work or community service. Some people believe this is an excellent idea that promotes good citizenship and cultivates compassion. Others feel that forced volunteerism is not volunteerism at all. How do you feel about this issue?

            Farcicality, I say…utter farcicality. Hardly any of the callow youth manifest a firm interest in lending a helpful  hand towards their community. The younger generation is too fixated on trivial matters, functioning as the latest gadget, online interaction, game devices, television, lascivious situations, and drug abuse. It’s a perpetual fling that deviates the young from having the slightest fervor of volunteering or to cogitate volunteerism. It has made this generation idle and remiss; therefore, they should be obligated to bestow their time into performing a community service, ensuring that community service will promote good citizenship and cultivate benevolence.

            First, we must push teens. The modern generation has a list of priorities and, to be frank, serving the community is not one of them. They tend to do what is in their self-interest—in fact, all people do—by means of pleasuring themselves. Usually, there is a dearth in self-motivation, which is the logic behind the demand of school officials making volunteer service mandatory. Consistently, the mature horde leads the way in community activism and it has been that way for quite some time. If the modern generation can't do it themselves, someone will have to tell them that they need some experience helping others and being altruistic.

            Volunteering pushes out selfishness and creates a well-rounded person.  It opens teens' eyes to the poverty this country is tainted with. Then will make them sick to their stomachs to see how worse off someone else can be. The modern generation, I will assume, has an adequate acquaintance with some characteristic of poverty, so they can't entirely ignore it. Once they volunteer, the charming qualities of a human being will emerge and those qualities will avail them throughout life. Usually helping someone makes a person feel good .Studies show people live a happier life when they are positive. Teens are sure to feel the same way when they help.

            Yet, that is just the beginning. There is more to it than simply volunteering and changing one's personality. They will build connections, meaning that when they are in a predicament they will have relationships established to accommodate as recourses to attain what they need. On the contrary, crime abates because the community helps all of its members; thus, people wouldn’t have to resort to dire measures when they are confident that they could rely on their community. Foremost, community service creates a nexus with the larger body and the individual. It gives the individual a sense of belonging—crucial for all people who are on the path to self-identity.

            Ultimately, community service should be a requirement and not something school officials hope for. There are too many things going on for us not to help out; not helping will make us bad Samaritans. Also, it is obvious that we need volunteers and community organizations to care for the basic needs of the worse off, so this is an extremely good help to improving ourselves and everyone around us. Just imagine every six billionth head in the world doing that and this world will be a much different place.