The North Wind and the Sun

Yu 1

Calandra Yu

Hannan

English 1B: MW 8am DT-3

25th Oct 2009

JE#1: “The North Wind and the Sun”

Revision

Tai Chi

Do not misunderstanding that I chose this story because it is short and easy. I chose “The North Wind and the Sun” because it is one of the three stories I like the most from the book. When our teacher was discussing this story with us during the class, my mind popped out “Chinese Tai Chi”. Why? Tai Chi is a slow and smooth kung fu exercise. in Chinese we say, “Use gentle to beat hard,” which is what I believe this story is telling us. We do not always use a hard way to get results; sometimes we have to use a gentle way. This story caught my attention because it is related to Chinese Tai Chi’s meaning, so I thought about it. This story has no names for the only three characters, and it is short, but it conveys an important concept.

In this story the Wind blows as hard as he can, trying to strip the traveler of his cloak. But the harder the Wind blows the tighter the traveler wraps his cloak around himself. From this example, we can see that the Wind uses a hard way to strip the cloak from the traveler. Moreover, the more force he use, the more negative result he gets. The hard way does not always work best.

Afterwards, when the Wind fails to strip the traveler’s cloak, it is now the turn of the Sun. The Sun beams gently and easily A while later, the traveler takes off his cloak because he is getting hot. The Sun’s actions prove that using a gentle way can sometimes bring better results.

This happens a lot at school or work. As I am a first-time a president of a club, I face many different problems. The first week after I was voted as president, my treasurer gave me many suggestions so that sometimes my vice president and I felt that he wants to change the rules we have had since last year. I had a hard time communicating with him. The vice president cried because she is so tired of arguing with the treasurer....