Transition to Modernity

Transition to Modernity
Many of the characters we read about experience challenges as the world they live in changes. Choose
one character and write about his or her experience during this time of transition. Make sure that
in discussing their experiences, you use specific evidence to develop your own interpretation about
what ideas or concepts are crucial for us to understand modernity in the cultural context in which the
writing was produced.
Possible characters to write about are: Tzu Chun in “Regret for the Past”, Bai Liusu in “Love in a
Fallen City”, Uncle Ah-sheng in “Drowning of an Old Cat”, Sensei in Kokoro, the Madman in “A
Madman’s Diary”.