ESSAY : SCHOOL EDUCATION TO SEND ALL STUDENTS TO COLLEGE

  

Worldwide, people understand college to be the benchmark of achievement and the gateaway to a better life. Yet sadly many poor and minority students have been denied the opportunity to to attend college. Denying anyone the opportunity to go to college is a loss, not only for individuals, but for a society as a whole.

In past decades, many U.S. high schools have had two tracks, that is, distinct programs of study for groups of students based on their ability. One was for college-bound students ad one for work-bound students—and this led to a practice of advising poor and minority students to take the career or vocational track. Classes in the career track were typically not as rigorous, challenging, as those in the academic track, so once students entered the career track, they quickly dropped behind their peers. Because the curricula (programs of study) and the rate of study of the two tracks were so different, students in the career track found it nearly impossible to transfer into the academic track. To make matters worse, the vocational track did not always prepare students for employment. Too often, students graduated from vocational programs without the skills that they needed to secure well-paying jobs. The inenvitable result of an inferior, that is, low-quality, education is a lifetime of work in low-skill, low-paying jobs without the opportunity to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle, and this has been the fate of too many underserved students.

If a society is committed to fairness, it cannot exclude any of its people from its benefits. College is a unique experience for youth in that it offers them an abundance of resources. It offers intellectual stimulation of all kinds, opportunities for social networking, and, most importantly, the chance to acquire the skills and knowledge that are the key to satisfying employment and economic security.

Yet a post-secondary education is much more than a benefit to individuals: An educated population is an asset to an entire society. Educated people are the innovators who start new businesses and develop new products. They design the systems that help companies run smoothly, and they guide and inspire others. Furthermore, in today’s challenging business environment, educated people are essential to a country’s economic competitiveness. Technology is rapidly changing, and, at the same, transnational corporations are shifting operation accross borders with growing frequency. According to Anthony Carnevale (25), director of the Global Institute on Education and the Economy at Georgetown University, “workers with the most education are likely to be the most effective learners in the high-performance work  organizations” of today. College prepares young people to welcome challenges and to demand the most from themselves. Moreover, college degree programs have become increasingly aligned with occupational demand (Carnevale 25). Therefore, the majority of college graduates have knowledge and skills they can apply in well-paying jobs immediately.

A final and sometimes overlooked benefit or higher education is that it assures the viability of democracies. A democratic form of goverment requires the participation of citizens. Citizens in a democracy must be able to absorb information, evaluate it, and form opinions independently—skills cultivated nowhere as effectively as in college. College students are required to explore subjects in depth; they learn how to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. Furthermore, college campuses are place where debating issues in college, they tend to remain civically engaged all through their lives—a key to the health of a democratic society.

In sum, a college-for-all policy, because it is and it offers the greatest number of people access to the benefits of higher education and a pathway to a comfortable life, promotes individual happiness. In addition, a college-for-all policy is iin the self-interest of any country that wants to be economicallt competitive and fully democratic.

 

 

 

 

 

ESSAY : SUKSES TAK HARUS BERGELAR

 

Dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat, tingginya jenjang pendidikan seakan menjadi parameter keberhasilan masa depan seseorang. Bangku kuliah dianggap sebagai penentu profesi yang akan dijalani setelah lulus. Tidak hanya itu, titel atau gelar pun sangat dipertimbangkan dalam proses mencari pekerjaan. Namun sebenarnya pendapat tersebut tak sepenuhnya benar. Sukses atau tidaknya seseorang tergantung pada seberapa keras orang tersebut dalam berusaha, serta seberapa kuat tekadnya.

Bangku kuliah memang membawa peran penting bagi alur kehidupan seseorang di masa depan. Masyarakat sudah terlanjur memercayai bahwa nama seseorang yang di akhir atau depannya ditambahkan embel-embel Prof., Dr., atau Ir. merupakan orang-orang sukses. Sebagian besar kebenaran dari anggapan tersebut tidak diragukan. Namun tetap saja, sebagian berarti tidak sepenuhnya. Kuliah dan gelar memang setidaknya berpengaruh dalam menentukan jalannya karier seseorang, namun tidak bagi semua orang.

Di satu sisi, bangku kuliah menawarkan ilmu dan pengalaman belajar bagi setiap mahasiswanya. Di sisi lain, kuliah hanya bersifat teoritis, bukan praktis. Sementara dalam dunia yang luas dan kejam ini, hidup tidak melulu soal teori. Ironisnya lagi, banyak orang berhasil mencapai kesuksesan tanpa harus menimba ilmu sebagai mahasiswa. Berdasarkan riset yang dilakukan di Eropa dan diikuti 8.000 perguruan tinggi dari 35 negara, hanya kurang dari 50 persen alumni bergelar yang siap be­kerja. Sementara di tahun 2017, hampir 10 juta lulusan perguruan tinggi di dunia masih menganggur.

Menilik dari pokok masalah yang sudah diuraikan, contoh nyata dari kasus tersebut adalah kisah yang dimiliki Larry Ellison, pemimpin sekaligus pendiri Oracle, perusahaan piranti lunak ternama di dunia. Ia kini termasuk salah satu tokoh teknologi tanpa gelar yang memiliki kekayaan yang luar biasa. Padahal dulunya, Larry adalah seorang yang berasal dari keluarga sederhana dan gagal di bangku kuliah.

Masa kecil Larry boleh dibilang tidak begitu menyenangkan. Sejak usia 9 bulan, ia telah divonis pneumonia atau radang paru-paru. Larry kemudian masuk Sullivan High School dan dan melanjutkan pendidikan ke Fakultas Fisika Universitas Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Sayangnya, ia harus berhenti kuliah karena ibu angkatnya yang selama ini membiayainya meninggal dunia. Ia pun kemudian mencari kerja serabutan untuk bertahan hidup bersama sang ayah.
Larry Ellison kembali mencicipi bangku kuliah di Universitas Chichago. Namun, lagi-lagi ia tidak bertahan lama karena masalah biaya.

Karena termotivasi dari kegagalan menempuh pendidikan, Larry Ellison kemudian mengikuti kursus komputer. Dengan modal kursus, ia pun diterima di perusahaan Investasi Fireman’s Fund sebagai teknisi komputer. Kariernya di perusahaan inilah yang kemudian membawanya sampai sekarang. Di Ampex, Larry Ellison menemukan sebuah tulisan tentang teori Database relasional yang ditulis oleh Edgar F. Codd. Karena tulisan itu, ia menemukan ide untuk membangun sebuah bisnis yang mengusung konsep “Structured Query Language”, seperti apa yang ditulis oleh Edgar F. Codd. Ia pun mengaplikasikan konsep yang kemudian dikenal sebagai SQL tersebut ke dalam Sistem Database Server. Ia menamakan proyek ini dengan nama Oracle. 

Jika melihat kisah Larry Ellison, bisa saja masyarakat jadi berubah pikiran dan merasa bahwa pendidikan tinggi tidak selalu menjamin kesuksesan. Bekal yang dibutuhkan untuk menuju kata ‘sukses’ adalah tekad dan kerja keras. Di dunia yang sesungguhnya, IPK dan gelar hanya akan menghantarkan seseorang sampai ke gerbang wawancara kerja. Setelah itu, kemampuan dan kemauanlah yang menentukan langkah selanjutnya untuk berkarier. Sikap kreatif, inovatif, kerja keras, pantang menyerah, kemampuan berkomunikasi, kemahiran bernegosiasi, hingga kemampuan berbahasa asing akan dinilai jauh lebih berguna untuk menjamin kesuksesan.

Apakah kemampuan itu bisa dilatih dengan duduk manis di kelas sembari mendengarkan dosen memberikan kuliah? Tidak. Soft skill bisa didapat dari kegiatan organisasi, interaksi dengan masyarakat sosial, hingga diperoleh dari belajar mandiri. Dengan demikian, tentu tidak ada alasan untuk untuk bersembuyi di balik frasa “tidak kuliah” untuk enggan mengejar keberhasilan.

Seorang wirausahawan pastinya memiliki jiwa optimis, ketekunan dan kesabaran, tekad kuat, suka bekerja keras, kreatif, dan berani melawan tantangan. Banyak wirausahawan sukses berasal dari lulusan perguruan tinggi, tetapi tidak sedikit pula lulusan perguruan tinggi gagal sukses disebabkan pertahanan mentalnya lemah. Mereka tidak berani menghadapi tantangan hidup dan merasakan khawatir jika harus menjalani sesuatu yang penuh dengan resiko. Banyak pengusaha gagal disebabkan oleh ketidakmampuan mereka tidak dalam bertahan menghadapi tantangan dalam mendirikan usahanya. Keuletan dibutuhkan untuk terus mendorong hasrat agar tetap maju. Pendidikan hanya menjadi penunjang, yang terpenting adalah keterampilan dan keuletan dalam menekuni suatu bidang.

Kisah perjuangan seorang yang gagal menyelesaikan studi namun sukses menjadi wirausahawan lain adalah Jack Dorsey, sang pendiri Twitter. Ia awalnya berkuliah di Missouri University of Science and Technology di mana pada akhirnya ia pun memutuskan untuk transfer ke Universitas New York dan mendirikan perusahaan sendiri atas hobi membuat software-nya. Tidak bertahan lama di kampus baru, Jack Dorsey memilih untuk keluar demi berkonsentrasi penuh pada perusahaan yang dirintisnya. Dorsey menciptakan sebuah website yang saat ini kita dikenal dengan nama Twitter. Pada 21 Maret 2006, Jack Dorsey diangkat menjadi CEO Twitter.

Orang-orang di atas telah membuktikan kesuksesan dapat diraih karena kerja keras dan pantang menyerah. Meskipun gagal di bangku kuliah dan tak memiliki gelar, tapi keyakinan mereka untuk fokus pada tujuanlah yang membuat kesuksesan itu datang hingga menjadikan mereka sebagai orang sukses.

ESSAY : Taking Short Semester is not Effective for Students

             Short semester is usually taken by students during their end of semester holiday in purpose to fix their bad marks or to pursue the course they missed on the previous semester. Most of students decide to take the short semester because the mark of particular courses they got on the regular semester has not enough to reach the Standard of Minimum Completeness. For example, a university determines score C, worth with 4,00, as the Standard of Minimum Completeness. If the students get mark less than it, they should take a short semester or repeat the course in next semester.  Therefore, short semester doesn’t seem effective to be applied. The reasons are because of the time it held, the cost incurred, and the false assumption about short semester’s utility.

The first is about the time. Since passing one full semester of study, students deserve for a long holiday, especially end of semester holiday. They need to have a refreshing after the tiring and exhausting days. For university student, the end of semester holiday will last for about three months. It is the good time short semester to be held.

Some people argue that taking a short semester during holiday will give positive activity to the students. They can spend their time by study, fixing the marks at once, instead of doing something useless at home. In fact, passing a whole semester is certainly tiring, either for physical or mental condition. It can even become pressure. According to the result of the study conducted by the National College Health Assessment in 2014, 33 percent of students who had the survey experienced depression because of hard-studying in university. Considering this case, the school breaks or long holiday should be used to have a refreshing. The students should enjoy their holiday time and have fun with relations. Moreover, short semester isn’t effective because the students will get and learn the same course as what took on the previous semester.

The second reason is the cost. Students without a scholarship (non-bidikmisi students) have been burdened by the tuition. They have to pay UKT in the beginning of semester. And if they take a short semester, there will be another burden they must pay. Short semester requires them who take it to pay more charge per SKS. Every course usually has 2 SKS. It means, the total fund they have to spend is the charge per SKS multiplied by the total SKS taken. This will be incriminating for the students, especially non-bidikmisi one. Beside wasting time, short semester is also wasting money.

Last, it is about false assumption. Students think that repeating some particular courses will definitely fix their bad marks. Even though, what is being taught in short semester is same as in regular semester. Thus, short semester doesn’t encourage students to improve knowledge in regular semester because when they get bad marks, they just depend on it. As a result, there will not be hard effort they must exert to achieve good mark. Based on the survey in Yogyakarta State University, the repeaters, students who repeat the particular courses in regular semester, successfully scored a better result than students who take short semester. It means they stuggle enough, try best not to get the bad marks anymore, and do not think something like, “there is still a short semester.”

In sum, short semester may be more effective for students who have taken a long absence on the previous semesters. By that, they can pursue the course material rather than fixing marks. For those who take short semester only to fix marks, probably it is a bit useless. It spends time, money, and doesn’t encouraging.

Review "Children of Heaven"

    

Children of Heaven tells the story of brother and sister who live in a poor section of Teheran and have to make do with one pair of shoes between them. The polemic began when the older brother accidentally lost his sister's shoes. As a result, because they do not have any other shoes, the two of them share shoes so that they’re still able to attend school.

Children’s world is presented through the innocence of the gesture and behavior of the young characters. Since this film is based on a children’s point of view, which is also seen as an innocent point of view, the story mainly shows the simplicity and purity of childhood life. For example, the scene of encounter with an angry schoolmaster, a moment of blowing bubbles, a time of panic when a sneaker falls in an active sewage drain, the happiness of getting a gift, and the soothing comfort of cooling feet in the courtyard pond. 

As its title Children of Heaven, the film has great values ​​from the two heavenly children, Ali and Zahra. The world of children is reflected in the way they love and care each other as siblings. Although there is a small fighting, the sincerity, affection, responsibility, respect among family can also be caught. The value is also seen in Ali's figure who is although innocent yet full of responsibility as well as tough. It implicitly tells the real definition of ‘heaven’, makes the audience aware of how noble the character Ali is, for being so good, for loving his sister, for helping his parents, and for being everything that a parent would want a child to be.

Another moment showing children’s world is when Zahra followed her schoolmate having her shoes to home. It shows the child’s side which is still not willing to let others own her stuff. Besides, the mature side of the children is presented on their decision to not tell their parents about the lost of Zahra’s shoes. It shows that they really did not want to burden them.

Since this film takes the background of the poverty of the Iranian population and it represents the real-life situation in Teheran, there is a sharp contrast drawn of the poverty between the cities. One of the representation of the adult’s world is the hardships that Ali’s father goes through in trying to make a living for his family. Moreover, this struggle is shown in their poverty. That even if life is lacking, it doesn't stop them from doing good.

            Another example of representation of the adults’ world can be seen in the scene when Zahra made tea for her father. She innocently told his father to take the sugar cubes that he had broken. But he refused by saying that the sugar belonged to the mosque. From this scene, honesty becomes a valuable lesson that adult exemplifies to children. Besides, the role of adult is also shown in the way Ali’s mother sends their food to neighbor.

Repetition, didacticism, and innocence are the aspects of children literature conducted in this film. Repetition is reflected in the way Ali and Zahra exchange shoes everyday so they can still go to school. Those scenes are showed repeatedly. The childhood’s life itself, such as blowing bubble, playing with a new friend, pleasure for getting gift, shows didacticism, since didacticism means children story is written not only to entertain children, but also to educate them. The film teaches about sincerity, modesty, heartiness, and struggle, or to love siblings, to respect parents, to help each other, and to be honest person. While innocence is showed by the young characters’ purity. It consists of situations any child can identify with. As said above, Ali was scared to meet his grumpy teacher, or the happiness when getting a bolpoint, or the cheerfulness when they played bubble and washed shoes.

Children of Heaven is a simple yet wonderful story about family which is able to educate, entertain, inform and depict reality. The choice of setting, story line, dialogue and characterization of the film are complete pictures of reality, the reality of simplicity and the struggle for life. I, personally, think that the bittersweet ending of the film is well-created. With a heart-thumping finish, Children of Heaven reminds the audience that the dramatic life of a child and its never-ending anxieties will go on until they grow up to be adult.

Analysis of Figurative Language in Taylor Swift’s Back to December Lyric

Back to December is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her third studio album Speak Now (2010) telling about an apology to a past lover. To beautify and create a deep impression of meaning, the songwriters commonly add figurative languages into their songs, like what Taylor did in her Back to December. Figurative language is a way of saying something other than the literal meaning of the world (Kennedy, 1979). Therefore, this essay focuses on the use of figurative language consisted in the lyric of Back to December by Taylor Swift. Thus, it aims to know the types of figurative language used and to describe the contextual meaning contained. There are five kinds of figurative languages found in Back to December lyric. They are hyperbole, personification, alliteration, symbol, and imagery.

The first figurative language found in Back to December is hyperbole. Dennis (1996:65) stated that hyperbole is a figure of speech that has statement containing exaggeration.

For example : He had tons of money (Wynne, 1989:520).

The application of hyperbole in Back to December can be seen in the line “because the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind.” The word “burned”, literally, can be defined as being on fire. That word is explicitly a daily word used for describing something becomes damaged, heat, or injured by a fire. But here, the term of “burned” refers to the emotion the writer/singer felt when her ex-boyfriend saw her at the last time. It means, she still hates the man. So, the sentence “burned in the back of your mind” sounds an expression of overstatement.

The hyperbole can also be found in the line “so this is me swallowing my pride.” The word “swallowing” is defined as to take into the stomach by drawing through the throat and esophagus with a voluntary muscular action, as food, drink, or other substances. While “pride” is the state or feeling of being proud. By the lyric, the meaning of “swallowing  my pride” implicitly shows that the writer/singer regrets of her mistake for rejecting the man. That part also expresses an overstatement.

Second one is personification. It is a figure of speech in which a thing, an animal, or an abstract term (truth or nature) is made human (Kennedy, 1979:495). By the lyric of Back to December, the line “and then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into my mind” contains this types of figurative language. The definition of “crept” (present: creep) is to move slowly with the body close to the ground, as a reptile or an insect, or a person on hands and knees and ‘fear’ is an adjective, abstract. It means the fear able to creep as humans do. Meanwhile it is only people and living creature that has hands and feet who capable to creep. Therefore, this sentence shows that the writer/singer felt scary and the fear came slowly into her mind.

In line “and then the cold came, the dark days when fear crept into my mind”, there is alliterations. Alliteration is the commencement of two or more words in close connection with the same sound.

For example : find me fifteen friendly friars. (Drabble, 1985:18).

By seeing the lyric above, we can see that there are some first letter of words which are same, so the sound will also be same. They are then-the, cold-came, dark-days. The pair of the same letters are called alliterative.

The next is symbol. Symbol is any object or action that represents something beyond its literal (Diyanni, 2004). The line “and realized I'd loved you in the fall” in the song consists the concept of symbolism. The literal meaning of fall is moving downward, typically rapidly and freely without control, from a higher to a lower level. “I’d love you in the fall” means that the writer/singer have love story in autumn season. Because the term of “fall” here has different meaning or more than it is (not the literal meaning found in dictionary).

The last figurative language found in Back to December lyric is imagery. “I missed your tanned skin, your sweet smile, so good to me, so right” contains imagery. Imagery is the use of figurative language to represent the objects, ideas, and actions in such a way that the appeals to the physical senses. It makes the use of particular the words that create the visual representation with ideas in minds. It also includes any information that appeals to the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell. From the lyric, the phrase “tanned skin” and “sweet smile” represents the visual which appeals to the sense of sight.

From the analysis above, it can be concluded that the writer of Back to December used figurative language to beautify the lyric and create the deep impression of the meaning to attract the listeners. There are five kind of figurative languages found in the song researched; hyperbole, personification, alliteration, symbol, and imagery. The dominant figurative language used is hyperbole, because it is found twice in the lyric of Back to December by Taylor Swift.

 

Aesthetics Values in Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" Music Video

 

Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. He, known as “King of Pop”, is regarded as one of 20th century most significant cultural figures and greatest entertainers in the history of music with more than 150 songs writen by him. Heal the World is one of his legendary song from his eighth album, Dangerous (1991). In documentary Living with Michael Jackson (2003), he said that he wrote Heal the World while in his "giving tree" at his Neverland ranch. This song was writen by the legend to call attention to awareness of children that needed help, such as children living in war zones, also to call for understanding and compassion, and decrying inhumanity. Making the world to be a peaceful and happy place is the main purpose this song wants to convey.  

Talking about song, it sometimes can’t be separated with music video (MV). Heal the World has its music video which is directed by Joe Pytka. The music video features children living in countries suffering from unrest, especially Burundi (wikipedia). It is also one of  Michael Jackson's videos not to feature himself. Same as movie, music videos generally also use a wide range of styles and contemporary video-making techniques, including animation, live action, documentary, non-narrative approaches  such as camera movement, cutting, special effect, angle, shot, tonality, that all concluded as cinematography. Music video interprets scenes and images from the lyric of the song. Thus, it contains aesthetics values. Next, this essay will discuss about the aesthetics values in the visual elements in Heal the World MV by Michael Jackson.

This music video opens up with soft, emotional piano sounds and pictures of poor, sick children in a grungy hospital without electricity, shouting and crying for help. Some wrapped with bandages while some others are handicapped. There was a little boy reading a poem. His voice quenched the piano sounds as it says:

“Think about the generations and say that we want to make it a better place for our children, and our children's children, so that they know it's a better world for them. And think, if they can make the world a better place...”

From the poem, supported by the moments in MV, it can be concluded that the clip is refered to the younger generation, to make the world a better place for children and grandchildren. This music video, released in Youtube 10 years ago, shows the sequence of moments about the life of children in the war zone, as the examples, there are the clip of children playing, chasing around, the uniformed soldiers carrying guns, standing guard, and a mansion behind them which is set ablaze as a result of war. And the near ending of the music video, it shows touching clips that symbolize peace, where hundreds of children run and come together, holding hands, while the soldiers throw away their weapons and mingle with them. At the last clips, those hundreds of children seem carrying candles, signifying that the peace will bring the light in the dark.

From the sequence of clips mentioned, in cinematography, Heal the World MV is full of aesthetics values pictured by its techniques such as camera movement, cutting, special effect, angle, shot, and tonality. The first value is at the camera movement. As the concept of the MV is documentary video, the camera movements are set up intentionally trembling and keep moving following the objects. The purpose is to create documentary style and to make an impression as if the audience is the point of view. So, this is also related to the angle. Since the technique used is objective camera angle, it means the audience sees all the visual elements the director gives in the video (Fachrudin:2012). The camera angle also influences the camera shot. In the MV, some use close up and extreme close up shot to show the detailed expressions of the actors which imply sadness, pain, sorrow, fear, tension, and innocence of the children. The viewers can find the aesthetics values by observing those detailed expressions.

Next, it is the cutting technique which becomes the aesthetics values in the music video. In editing process, there are several techniques of cutting and the one used in Heal the World MV is jumping cut. The fade-through transitions used are also the aesthetics point here. Both of them are showed in the way the clips jump roughly from the one moment to another, signified by the fade of the end of the clip as the transition. These two techniques strengthen the impression of memorial, since memories are sometimes played by jumping quickly in mind.

The aesthetics values in Heal the World MV can also be found in its special effect. Since the tone and mood of the video are tense and gloomy caused by a war, the optical effects displayed such as smokes, ashes, and fire represent them. The effects describe the situation happened during the war. Besides special effects, there is also the animation of earth held by hands in the ending. The earth illustrates ‘the world’, as listed on the song title, while the hands holding the earth explain that we have protect our world, as contained in the meaning of the song.

Last about aesthetics values, it is tonality that consists of contrast, brightness, color, and speed. As mentioned above, the concept of video is documentary and the tone and mood of the MV are tense and gloomy. Therefore, the editor set the low contrast, under-exposure (low brightness), faded color tends to black-white, and less-than-normal speed (<24 fps). It brings the viewers to feel the atmosphere trying to convey.

Heal the World is one of Michael Jackson’s pro-social song that preaches peace, love, giving, and care for all the children of the world. The meaning of the song itself and the aesthetics of its music video have given big impacts to the society and people around the world. By listening to the song and watching the MV, it makes us aware about creating peace and a better life in this world without fear, without war. We must not discriminate against race, ethnicity, religion or economic background even until hostilities occur. Until today, the legendary song Heal the World is still listened at the social and humanity events and becomes the icon of music background in several great memorials. It shows that the song has big influences in society.

In conclusion, Michael Jackson invites us all to heal the world, for us and for all the mankind. Not only by the song itself, but the music video which is full of aesthetics values is also meaningful, conveying the importance of achieving peace and humanity. From the MV, we can take many moral values, that there is no need for war and selfish accumulation of wealth at the expense of the poor, the sick, and the deprived. This may not lead to the absolute elimination of poverty, but it will help to improve on the basic needs of all human beings on earth. Therefore, make a little space wherever you are so that our world will shine again in grace for our children and our children’s children.

Review The Lady with Dog by Anton Checkhov

 

THE LADY WITH THE DOG REVIEW

            The Lady with the Dog is a story by Anton Chekhov about a man and a woman who fall for each other regardless the fact that both are married and each lives in a city a hundred miles away from the other's. The story is an adulterous affair story between Dmitri Gurov, a near forty-years-old-man who has been trapped for years in a loveless arranged marriage, leaving him bitter, unfaithful and cynical, and Anna Sergeyevna, the lady with the dog, a young married lady, who is also trapped in a suffocating marriage.

Gurov is a familiar character. He’s any one of a number of male characters on mad men and countless others. As the developments, Chekhov creates the protagonist Gurov to change as subtly and credibly, undergoing a winding course of emotional and moral growth. He realizes that he has fallen in love with Anna which is his first love in life, a life where arranged marriages are the norm and couples live loveless lives and in which he hasn't been able to shed his masks and express his real emotions. While about Anna Sergeyevna, she is a melancholy woman who falls in love with Gurov, a man she met in Yalta during her vacation. Although she realizes that it is a forbidden love, she can't simply stop loving him and be done with it. 

There are three diferent setting of places in the story, that is Moscow, Yalta, and the unnamed town of S. The seaside resort of Yalta serves as a romantic backdrop for their trysts. By contrast, Moscow is the social prison in which Gurov lives–locked in his loveless marriage and shallow friendships. While about the time, there is no clear explanation about when the story takes place. Can be said, it is timeless. Where the atmosphere, according to the characters said, they are bored, depressed, sad, melancholic. What makes it sad is the fact that Anna Sergeyevna is suffering from the same dilemma that Gurov is: dissatisfaction with her own, stifled life.

Chekhov's writing technique is able to draws the readers in. There's a kind of simplicity in it that resonates with them. It's not too flowery and purply, but its simplicity is remarkably beautiful and fits the subtlety of the story. He uses  some literary devices, such as personification in line “the wind howled in the chimney” or “the moonlight lay on its surface in a golden strip.” The writing style should be enjoyed, but the way he shows-not-tells was sometimes overally dull. There were specific parts that had not wonderfully written.

The romance elements are felt purely despite its utter wrongness. However, the story has underdeveloped and unlikeable characters, not that attractive one, but it also consits of intimate thoughts and dreams of two people in love. It is interesting since it explains how finding true love can be both life changing, excruciating, and completely wonderful. From the story, the readers can likely take a lesson that we don't get to choose whom we love. One of the suspense described is when Gurov found Anna Sergeyevna in theatre, then she leads him out and talks to him. That scene is something bringing a tension.

The Lady with the Dog is free of any plot-dependent constraints, still not betraying the storyline with no absurd nor pretentious claim for not telling a story, and the author does not create the plots complicated, lets it uncomplex and incomplete. Chekhov tends to concern on the apparent trivialities of the daily life of ordinary Russian people. There is no bold plot, but enough to have the readers involved in Anna and Dmitry’s sufferings and emotions. The ending is ambiguous. Chekhov finishes the story by saying that the end is far off and that the most complicated part is just beginning. He leaves the ending blunt with no resolution.