{"title":"Wharton's Allegory of the Cave: The Age of Innocence as a Metafictional Cautionary Tale","authors":"G. Hawkins","doi":"10.5070/l6161045563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/l6161045563","url":null,"abstract":"Author(s): Hawkins, Grace | Abstract: This paper examines the conflicting realities in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence using the allegory of the cave found in Plato’s The Republic. In The Age of Innocence, Wharton’s metafictional warping of reality can be confusing to the reader, and her disappointing ending can leave the reader wondering what the novel’s point was if Newland doesn’t choose Ellen in the end. But when one considers Wharton’s presentation of realities through the lens of Plato’s cave allegory—with the New York Reality, Newland’s Reality, and Ellen’s Reality representing the statues carried in front of the fire, the shadows cast on the cave wall, and the world outside—one comes to understand how Newland’s Reality was more real to him than Ellen’s Reality. This revelation disconcerts and scares the reader, transforming the novel into a tale of warning. The already established metafictional nature of The Age of Innocence provokes the reader to critically consider reality in the context of their own lives and to individually find true meaning and purpose both inside and outside of the novel.","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123799212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Prejudices and Obstacles Immigrant Students Face in the Los Angeles Unified School District","authors":"Natalie Yousef","doi":"10.5070/l6161045514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/l6161045514","url":null,"abstract":"Author(s): Yousef, Natalie | Abstract: California law states that “all children in the United States are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education without regard to their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status,” (U.S. Department of Education). If the previously stated law is true, why are immigrant students isolated in English Learner Development (ELD) classrooms? Why is it difficult to reclassify English learner students as English proficient? Why are teachers not properly trained to teach immigrant students? Why do foreign-born students perform poorly and drop out of school? My goal is to answer these questions as well as elucidate the prejudices, injustices, and corrupt enforcements that are inflicted upon immigrant students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The presence of these unjust principles is exemplified by my internship experience during the fall of 2017 at a LAUSD high school located in the San Fernando Valley; the school has asked to remain anonymous for legal reasons. Despite this anonymity, the obstacles and situations these immigrant students face should be known and addressed by the public.","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125991373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Burning Greenhouses with Miles Davis: Class, Empathy, and Toxic Masculinity","authors":"M. Gilbert","doi":"10.5070/L6171049219","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/L6171049219","url":null,"abstract":"Author(s): Gilbert, Matthew | Abstract: This essay examines a scene from Lee Chang-dong’s film Burning (2018) as part of a larger discussion around class conflict. A Korean filmic adaptation of a short story originally by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Burning tells the story of Jeong-su, a poor farmer who is caught in a love triangle with Hae-mi, an old classmate, and her new boyfriend, Ben, a mysterious, wealthy socialite. In a pivotal scene, Lee turns the camera on Hae-mi as she dances to a song by Miles Davis, creating a filmic parallel to Murakami’s liminal spaces and forcing the audience to question reality. Through a consideration of textual and paratextual material, I argue that the director Lee Chang-dong uses music and dance to critique toxic masculinity through subtle sound editing techniques and narrative and metaphorical signifiers of class and power. Ultimately, Lee breaks from the source material to simultaneously express and nullify Hae-mi’s agency and place her at the heart of the narrative.","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115513955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Education as a Population Control Mechanism in China: The Education and Policy for Migrant Children in Shanghai","authors":"Trinity Wang","doi":"10.5070/l6161045564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/l6161045564","url":null,"abstract":"Author(s): Wang, Trinity | Abstract: This research investigates the different educational opportunities available to migrant children here defined as children whose hukou (household registration) is incompatible with their residing locality due to parental migration. I focus on Shanghai, the city with the largest migrant population in China. In the first section of this paper, I introduce the hukou system which maintains the regional exclusivity of public education among other forms of welfare and debars migrant children from having the same education opportunities as children with local-hukou. Then, I historicize major policy changes and effects, drawing from official statistics as well as international literature. The second section is comprised of my interviews with principals, administrators, and teachers from seven schools in Shanghai. Through the cross-comparison of numerous factors, this research finds a recurring trajectory from 2008-2018 among the interview migrant schools. Due to Shanghai’s city-wide demolition of unauthorized constructions and increasingly stringent migrant student admission requirements, migrant families are radically expelled from the city, resulting in a continuing decrease of student enrollment which threatens the survival of the remaining private migrant schools.","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128934858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"U.S. Central American Students in Higher Education: Finding a Sense of Belonging","authors":"Maldonado Dominguez, Katy Joseline","doi":"10.5070/l6161045560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/l6161045560","url":null,"abstract":"Author(s): Maldonado Dominguez, Katy Joseline | Abstract: This paper highlights the overlooked experiences of U.S. Central Americans in higher education. Given the absence of Central American studies departments and various shared experiences with Mexican communities in the Southwest, this study analyzes how Chicana/o/x studies departments can serve as relatable spaces for U.S. Central Americans. This study draws from eight semi-structured interviews with U.S. Central Americans in UCLA’s Chicana/o studies department to provide insight into how they navigate and create agency within academia. The findings show that U.S. Central Americans in this study developed a dual sense of belonging as Latina/o/x and U.S. Central American students. As Latina/o/x students, the Chicana/o studies department offered tools and knowledge that affirmed their belonging in a predominantly white institution. However, as U.S. Central Americans, the Chicana/o Studies department lacked a complete inclusion of their specific ethnic and cultural experiences. This research argues that to document these realities is to begin to understand how to facilitate the success of U.S. Central American students to critically assess the multiple academic realities of an increasingly diverse population of Latina/o/x collegestudents.","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117220455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aleph Staff 2019-2020","authors":"Undergraduate Research Journal Aleph","doi":"10.5070/l6171049217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5070/l6171049217","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":196933,"journal":{"name":"Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121499073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}