Childhood Trauma: The fixed shoes (revised)

With a pair of shoes, you enter the repair shop. Just by glance, its size is about thirty feet square from the outside but as it turns out, it feels much larger when you enter. Inside, you can easily find shiny leather shoes which are placed on the shelves. The man who is probably in his fifties has very friendly expression in his face. At the moment when you enter the room, he is polishing a brown shoe.

     “Can you repair these shoes?” you tell him as you point the bottom of your ripped shoes. He answers with a gentle nod. You feel very assured because they are one of your favorite pairs of shoes. Then you ask the person about the price. He tells you that it is only five thousand won. Compared to what you have expected, it turned out that the price is much cheaper. You give him the shoes and money right away and thank him for such service. The shop keeper tells you to come back few hours later. As you stroll back to your home, the only thought in your mind is your fixed shoes.

     Few hours later, because you are gone somewhere, your mother goes to the shop instead. About ten minutes later, she returns with the shoes. They look like a new pair of shoes that seem like you bought them yesterday. However, your mom asks you a strange question. “Did you really pay the money?” At first, you are baffled that do not get the meaning. Few seconds later, you speak to her about the purpose of the question. Then she tells you about what happened at the repair shop.

     After finding the shoes, she is about to leave the shop. But then the shop keeper tells her to pay the price. She is confused since you already told her that you already take care of the payment. But the shop keeper insists that you have paid nothing but only gave him the shoes. So she has to pay the shoes again. Your shoes are fixed only once, but they were paid twice. Later that day, you visit the shop again to tell that you already paid for it. But with skeptical glance, he tells you that he never receive the money.

     

     You feel betrayed by the shop keeper. You do not insult him or show impolite attitude, but asked politely and paid the price. It can be a tiny mistake because anyone can make mistakes sometimes in his or her life. However, inside your mind, it is filled with anger and frustration. If you were an adult, would you be treated the same way as this? Why would not he believe you?

      

     The shoe repair shop is in the middle of the road to your middle school so you always have to pass it every morning. In the beginning, you almost try to kick the door because you are angry. However, as time passes on, your negative feelings lessen and you no longer care about it. Although it might have been a mistake, it was the first time you realize that the world around you is not always perfect. As time passes, it turns out that there are more “shop keepers”.

Reading Journal: Quotation

"You think we're insane, and we're not," said the captain.

     We are insane. But we are not insane.
   
     Then what is the boundary that determines this insanity?

      People think and act based on what they know. Like an old proverb,  "You are what you see", people cannot understand other cultures or knowledge because they are out of their scope. In history, when different cultures or people conflict with each other, the results were always tragic. In our class, we constantly related the stories of Native Americans to the novel. When the immigrants from Europe and those indigenous people collide, they had gone through violent battles that resulted so many casualties. In the end, one of them had to suffer terribly. Why could not they befriend each other and accept the differences?

     Same thing is happening the book. The captain faced many Martians who were not welcoming them but showed no interest toward them. What he received was death caused by a psychologist who could not accept the different form of an "Earth Man". For Martians, the captain was "insane" but for the captain, the Martians were "insane". Then what and who can define the 'insanity"? At least, both humans and Martians cannot, I guess. If this kind of attitude toward each other does not change, there would be similar consequences in the end that resemble the history of Native Americans.

Childhood Trauma: The fixed shoes

     With a pair of shoes, you enter the repair shop. Just by glance, its size was about thirty feet square from the outside but as it turned out, it feels much larger when you enter. Inside, you can easily find shiny leather shoes which are placed on the shelves. The man who is probably in his fifties had very friendly expression in his face. At the moment when you enter the room, he is polishing a brown shoe.

     “Can you repair these shoes?” you tell him as you point the bottom of your shoes which are ripped. He answered with a gentle nod. You felt very assured because they are one of your favorite pairs of shoes. Then you ask the person about the price. He tells you that it is only five thousand won. Compared to what you have expected, it turned out that it is much cheaper. You give him the shoes and money right away and thank him for such service. The shop keeper tells me to come back few hours later. As you stroll back to your home, the only thought in your mind is about your fixed shoes.

     Few hours later, because you were gone somewhere, your mother goes to the shop instead. About ten minutes later, she returns with the shoes. They looked like a new pair of shoes that seemed like you bought them yesterday. However, your mom asked you a strange question. “Did you really pay the money?” At first, you are baffled that do not get the meaning. Few seconds later, you speak to her about the purpose of the question. Then she told me about what happened at the repair shop.

     After finding the shoes, she is about to leave the shop. But then the shop keeper tells her to pay the price. She is confused since you already told her that you already take care of the payment. But the shop keeper insisted that you have paid nothing but only gave him the shoes. So she has to pay the shoes again. Your shoes are fixed only once, but it was paid twice. Later that day, you visit the shop again to tell that you already pay for it. But with skeptical glance, he tells you that he never receive the money.

     

     You felt betrayed by the shop keeper. You did not insult him or show impolite attitude, but asked politely and paid the price. It can be a tiny mistake because anyone can make mistakes sometimes in his or her life. However, inside your mind, it is filled with anger and frustration. If you were an adult, would you be treated the same way as this? Why would not he believe you?

      

     The shoe repair shop was in the middle of the road to your middle school so you always have to pass it every morning. In the beginning, you almost tried to kick the door because you were angry. However, as time passed on, your negative feelings lessened and you no longer care about it. Although it might have been a mistake, it was the first time you realize that the world around you is not always perfect. As time passed, your idealistic view of the society was slowly destroyed by many 'shop keepers'. Shoes were the only things that were fixed.