English Activity: July 2014

              The author of the story "The Spider's Thread" is Ryunosuke Akutagawa. He was known for piecing together many different sources for many of his stories, and "The Spider's Thread" is no exception. He read Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov in English translation sometime between 1917 and 1918, and the story of "The Spider's Thread" is a retell of a very short fable from the novel known as the Fable of the Onion, where an evil woman who had done no good at all in her life is sent to hell, but her guardian angel points out to God that she had in fact done one good deed in her life: she once gave an onion to a beggar. So God told the angel to take that onion and use it to pull her out of hell. The angel very nearly managed to pull her out, but when other sinners began to hold on to her so they could also be pulled out, she kicked at them, saying that the onion was hers and she was the one getting pulled out, not them. At that moment, the onion broke and the woman fell back into hell, where she remains.^[1]

          Another inspiration for Akutagawa appears to be from a story of the same name found in Karma: A Story of Early Buddhism, an anthology of five Buddhist parables published in Tokyo in 1895. He took from here the character of Kandata, who is also an evil robber damned to Buddhist hell until his bad karma expires. Here, however, Kandata does not have a path to immediately leave hell but instead is told that any good deeds he may have done such as sparing the spider, would return to help him rise again .

Qoutes from Akutagawa :

* Conscience is like a beard. To grow conscience, you need certain education.
* Any of us can die tomorrow. But if you think about it, life will lose all its meaning.
* Do not be afraid of weapon, but soldiers who know how to use it.

Discussion Director:

Plot:

On this day, Kandata lifted his head by chance and saw a silver spider’s thread slipping down toward him from the high heavens. Kandata grasped the thread tightly in his two hands and began to climb up and up with all his might.

Characters:

-Kandata

-Buddha

-Sinners

Conflict:

Kandata blinked his eyes at them with his big mouth hanging foolishly open in surprise and terror. How could that slender spider spider’s thread which seemed as if it must break with him alone, ever support the weight of all those people? If it would break in mid air, even he himself would have to fall headlong back to Hell.

So Kandata cried out in loud voice. “Hey, you sinners! This thread is mine. Who gave you permission to come up it? Get down! Get down!”\

Theme:

-ESCAPE

-DEATH

-GOOD VERSUS EVIL

Settings:

     -Paradise
-bottom of Hell
-deep forest

   Questions: 1) Who are the main characters of the story?
             Ans: Buddha and Kandata.
            2) Where was the story happened?
             Ans: Paradise
            3) Where was Kandata that time?
             Ans: Bottom of Hell.
            4) When did the story happened?
             Ans: One morning.
            5) Is Kandata a good man? Why?
             Ans: No, because he only did a good thing once and because salvation
   is not about doing good things but with our faith in God.

-John Louie Cuevas

Summary of the story:

Buddha was strolling along the brink of the lotus pond of paradise. He's eyes fell in a man that had done many evil things and he only did good thing once like saving the spider's life and he's name is Kandata. Kandata is in the pool of blood with the sinners. When Buddha remembered the good deed that Kandata did. Buddha decide to help Kandata out to the hell by grabbing him a spider's thread that he saw in the paradise. Kandata lifted his head by a chance and he saw the spider's thread and he hold it tightly and he began to climb. When he was finally exhausted and could ascend an inch higher he started to rest but he look below with fear, the countless sinner were climbing eagerly after him. Kandata was surprised because when he blink his eyes, the sinners were slowly climbing in the thread so that Kandata started to cry. He can't hold the thread longer so the thread break and Kandata fall down in the darkness.

-Claire Love Gungob

Character Captain:

1. Kandata- Kandata was a notorious thief who had performed murder and arson and other acts of evil. But Kandata made a one good deed, because while he walking through the deep forest, he saw a spider crawling along the road. At first he raised his foot to crush it, but suddenly he changed his mind and stopped. Even Kandata made a good thing. He did not made it to escape from the hell because he performed acts of evil.

2. Buddha- the God in the story. A powerful one.

3. Sinners- A group of persons who made sins.

Literary Luminary:

1. How lonely we must have felt

- i chose this because Buddha was concern to Kandata. Buddha was so helpful.

2. Kandata's lack of compassion

-Because he is not generous to others.

3. "Hey! You sinners! The thread is mine!"

-Because in this statement he is not.

4. Spiders Thread

-Buddha used it as a rope to help Kandata to get out away the depths of hell.

5. "Get off, Get off"

-In this statement he is bad and also showing of compassion.

-Francis Renzo Diaz

Connector:

Buddha is powerful. I connect him to God because Buddha has some descriptions in the story that is same to the description of our God.

I can connect Kandata to my cousin,but I don't need to mention his name. Kandata and my cousin's attitude is a little bit the same. If Kandata is selfish, my cousin is selfish also. If Kandata did a good thing once , my cousin have a good side not like Kandata because he only did one good thing. Stealing things to other people is also an attitude of Kandata and my cousin also do that sometimes, he's not asking permission to get anything from his sister.

- Krystal Joyce Tupaz

Vocabulary En-richer:

      1. emitted- (v) to give or send forth; discharge
   Ex. The group is continuing to study the sounds, including when they are emitted.
2. glimpse- (n)
              a brief or incomplete view
Ex. Not a twitch of the mouth or a brief glimpse of teeth, but a regular smile.
      3. writhing- (v)
   to move with a twisting or contorted motion
Ex. When you are told that someone lied to you and you become furious and extremely                     emotionally upset, this is an example of a time when you are writhing in anger.
      4. notorious- (adj)
            well-known for some bad quality or deed
   Ex. None came close to the successful track record of those tips identified as coming from
   the notorious Psychic Tipster.
    5. torments- (n)
           physical pain or mental anguish
Ex. I must be sure before I strike and not leave the psychic one behind to torment me.
   6. squirm- (v)
           to twist about in a snake-like motion
Ex. She finally managed to squirm from his embrace.
   7. slender- (Adj)
           gracefully slim
   Ex. He surveyed her slender figure with obvious appreciation.
      8. scurrying- (v)
           to flurry or swirl about
Ex. Lisa was barely aware of the ambulance or the people scurrying around her.
      9. severed- (v)
to set or keep apart
Ex. A'Ran reached forward to sever the connection.
   10. arson- (n)
            setting fore to another's property
   Ex. Thus, a man guilty of arson was burned alive.
   11. depth- (n)
   quality of being deep
   Ex. She's not comprehended the depth of my intelligence to see through her guise.
   12. various- (adj)
being more than one; of diverse kinds
   Ex. We're testing the growth reactions or rate of deterioration of various organics
exposed to a variety of energy and magnetic sources.
     13. frail- (adj)
            physically weak; delicate
   Ex. She felt somehow drawn to the picture of a frail looking girl with dark eyes
             that looked out hauntingly from a delicately beautiful face.
14. grasped- (v)
           to grip something firmly with the hands
Ex. He reached out and grasped her arm as she walked by.
   15. recourse- (v)
   turned or applied for aid or security
   Ex. He had no recourse against them yet.
16. queue- (n)
           a line of waiting people or vehicles
   Ex. To fasten the hair into a queue.
17. twang- (v)
to resound with a sharp vibrating sound
Ex. He sings this with a country twang, too.
   18. stroll- (v)
   to go for a leisurely walk
Ex. To assure myself he wouldn't sink our fragile boat I took him aside for a stroll
in the small    backyard.
   19. peering- (v)
             to look or search intently
   Ex. She lifted her head, peering into the darkness.
20. captives- (n)
   prisoner or war, forcibly confined
   Ex. I guess it's different for a woman who's been a captive of the Comanche.

   -Karla Miano