Jingjing Fang

ENG 413
Dr. Robert Wilkie
23 March 2015
Reflection
Friedrich Nietzsche used to compare cattle to humanity, and he thought the
biggest different between cattle and humanity is that cattle have no memory, so they
live care-freely; but humans do have memory, so they have to bear their past.
Nietzsche said, This is a hard sight for man to see; for, though he thinks himself
better than the animals because he is human, he cannot help envying them their
happiness-what they have, a life neither bored nor painful, is precisely what he wants,
yet he cannot have it because he refuses to be like an animal (73). He not only thinks
that humans live with their past, but also thinks that humans cannot get rid of their
past, and the past will follow humans forever, he also wonders at himself, that he
cannot learn to forget but clings relentlessly to the past: however far and fast he may
run, this chain runs with him (73).
However, I do not agree with Nietzsche, and I think humans forget about their
past often. As far as I am concerned, people give up their past easily. If something is
not mentioned anymore in a short time, it will be forgotten forever--regardless of
whether it is the nation, the territory, the history, the name, or people themselves. I
think it also is one reason that people make monuments. They make monuments in
order to remember something are important to them. Otherwise, they will forget all

things with time past.

When one dynasty is replaced by another dynasty, people are very easily fit
into the new environment. For instance, when Qing dynasty replaced Ming dynasty in
China, the emperor asked everyone to wear the pigtail that people did not wear in
Ming dynasty. At the beginning of the policy, many people resisted this pigtail. When
Qing dynasty was replace by the Republic of China, many people began to resist to
cut off their pigtails. People easily forget their past if they do not recall the past
frequently. People also often forget about what they learned, such as the articles they
wrote, the books they read, and the classes they took. I am a person who is very easy
to forget about my articles that I wrote before, and I always make the same mistakes
that I made before. Also, every new semester I have a new D2L page, and the list only
has my current classes. My classes before are all gone, and just like that they dont
even exist. I also lost all memories about these classes, because I never recall these
memories after I finished these classes. In short, I have my own experience of
forgetting the same as the cattle forget about yesterday, forget about their past.
This also is one of the reasons that I made this portfolio--to remember the
articles I wrote, and at the same time, to improve from these articles, from this stage. I
think my portfolio is just like the monuments that people make to memorize their
past. My portfolio is like an archive on the internet. As Jacques Derrida said, the
archive has always been a pledge, and like every pledge [gage], a token of the future
(18). These articles that are chosen for portfolio are very important to me, so I do not
want to forget them. A portfolio on the internet can help to preserve my memory well.

Additionally, I hope that when I look back to my university life, I can find
something to present my writing abilities, products of my writing, and most
importantly my thoughts and how they have changed from my tendency at that time. I
also hope that this portfolio can be the monument to prove my existence at that time.
When I started to think about how to construct my portfolio, I had no idea
about it. At the first, I thought I could categorize my portfolio for the four years in the
university, but I am an international student for the 2+2 program, so I only have two
years at UW-L. It is very hard to combine different writings from different cultures,
and I also lost all my writing for the two years in China because I did not save my
articles. I also forgot about all the writing assignments in that two years. It also
determined my idea to make a monument to preserve my writing, to demonstrate
my writing abilities and thoughts at that time, and to improve my existence.
After thinking a while, I decided to present the articles that I wrote at UW-L,
but I also met some problems. Since every piece is very important to me, it was very
hard to pick out some pieces. How could I only make half of myself exist, and half of
myself not? I decided to categorize my portfolio into different writing abilities,
instead of different years at UW-L. Thus, I can show the whole of myself to people.
When I chose the writing pieces that I want to use in my portfolio, I had to
review the articles I wrote before. I found that I could hardly to remember the reason I
chose to write in that style, so I read all my writings again. I found that I started to
write in certain styles earlier than I thought; I found that I already formed some ideas
long time ago; I found that I have writing ability that I can apply to different fields,

but I did not before because I could never recall my memories after I finished these
writings.
As Edmund Burke thinks the important role of memory is in sustaining social
order, my portfolio also sustains my life order. Burke thinks, it has a pedigree and
illustrating ancestors. It has its bearings and its ensigns armorial. It has its gallery of
portraits; its monumental inscriptions; its records, evidences, and titles (65). Burke
thinks that people should not forget about their past, instead that they should respect it
and preserve it. He also thinks that people cannot give up their past and only live in
the present, you had all these advantages in your ancient states; but you chose to act
as if you had..everything to begin anew. You began ill, because you began by
despising everything that belonged to you (66). Burke thinks people who give up
their past are not a whole persons anymore. As soon as they give up their past, they do
not know how to walk, to talk, to write and to live, because all of these come from the
past. He also thinks that respecting your forefathers, you would have been taught to
respect yourselves (66).
My portfolio is like these sentences. It is my history, and I cannot give it up. It
contains all my writings advantages and disadvantages; it is a gallery of my writings
in these two years of study at UW-L; it records my mistakes and improvements; it is
the evidence of my existence, which I used to study at UW-L. If I forgot these things,
I would not find my history, and I would lose myself. No one can live without history
and the past.
I mainly divided my portfolio into three parts, one part is report, one part is

creative writing, and the last part is other writings. I have taken the Editing and
Reporting class at UW-L, and I wrote several reports for this class. I wanted to show
my writing ability about writing a report. I went back to my previous semesters at
UW-L, and I was surprised that I wrote this style of article when I was in my first
semester. I thought that I could put all these reports together. These reports can mainly
be divided into two parts, one is about culture and another one is about safety. Thus,
my first part of the portfolio is finished.
For the second part of my portfolio is creative writing. I took Creative Writing
when I was in the second semester here. I thought it was a profound class for me, and
I learned a lot from this class. I learned how to write some poems and fiction, and to
me, these writing styles are a new way to express myself. This class also helped me to
prepare for a potential writing career. These poems and fiction also contained my
thoughts and my homesickness at that time.
The last part of my portfolio is other writings. I named it other writing
because I did not know how to categorize these writings that are also very important
to me. I wanted to show more writings, but it would be too many. I decided to pick
out some articles that I like most and to put them together. It is one way to memorize
the best of myself. I included two essays about analyzing other novels and articles. I
thought that every university student will at least write one essay about analyzing an
article. This also showed the basic writing skill that I have learned at UW-L. Another
part of Other Writing is a project. This writing shows my preparation for employment
in the future. I gave two extremely different kinds of writing. One is analytical writing

that is taught at the beginning of university study; one is project writing that is taught
for employment. These two kinds of writing together show my comprehensive writing
abilities that I learned at UW-L.
All in all, my portfolio presents my writing history and my writing abilities in
different fields. It is also a monument on the internet to preserve my memories for
these classes, articles, and study experience. I also hope I can get more new ideas
from this portfolio when I look back on my writing history in the future.

Works Cited
Burke, Edmund. Reflection on Revolution in France. The Collective Memory
Reader. Ed. Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi, Levy. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2011. 65-67. Print.
Derrida, Jacques. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Trans. Eric Prenowitz.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 1-19. Print.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Uses and Disadvantages of History of Life. The
Collective Memory Reader. Ed. Olick, Vinitzky-Seroussi, Levy. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2011. 73-79. Print.