Author Archives: kjc2889

Gloria Analdua’s question “how do you tame a wild tongue, train it to be quiet, how do you bridle and saddle it? How do you make it lie down?” can be answered in two ways: literally and metaphorically. In the literal sense, the more a tongue feels threatened that something will choke it, the more it will try to resist and be “wild.” In order for the tongue to be relaxed or tamed, the tongue must feel safe and that there is no threat. I think this literal picture of taming a wild tongue can be related to the metaphorical meaning as well. Taming a wild tongue can also look like quieting a person who is talking very wildly. Many times people speak up in wildness, anger, or rage, because they feel threatened. When people feel like they are not being seen or heard, they will speak up and use their voice. However, if the individual feels heard, seen, safe, and understood they will calm down and be tamed. Therefore, my answer to the question “how do you tame a wild tongue?” is to listen, understand, and make it feel safe in order for the tongue to quiet down on its own.

Kristine Chin

There was a wild woman lurking in the shadows with dark curly brown hair and eyes of a raven.

The wild man was running around naked, screaming that he had lost his pet monkey.

The wild animal had escaped from its cage and was now running around on the loose.

Everyone saw the lion as a wild beast because it had sharp teeth and claws and kept growling at anything and anyone it saw.

My closet was a mess of disorganized clothes and hangers, and everyone who saw it called it a wild thing.

– Kristine Chin

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet born in 1854 part of the Victorian literary period and was known for being a spokesman for the new Aesthetic movement which encouraged “art for art’s sake” where people expressed what they viewed as pure beauty instead of being constrained by moral expectations of the time. His poems were primarily categorized in genres of drama, criticism, and epigram, and he was famously known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest as well as his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. At the time, Wilde was received very well because of his witty and flamboyant personality, and his plays were widely performed. However, in 1895 Wilde was exposed for having a homosexual affair with another man, was put on trial, and was arrested with charges of “gross indencency.” Wilde was imprisoned for two years and died from meningitis not long after at the age of 46. 

I believe that Wilde was a wild writer because even though he wrote about stories and topics that may have been controversial, he did not hold back from fully expressing himself. Wilde boldly wrote about homosexuality, lust, murder, and other topics which were seen as controversial at the time in his works. Furthermore, Wilde was able to express his opinion on larger social themes through his works despite criticism from others. For example, in the poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Wilde writes about a man who is executed for killing his own wife. Wilde goes into gruesome detail that “blood and wine were on his hands when they found him with the dead, the poor dead woman whom he loved…” He goes into further detail saying that “each man kills the thing he loves,” alluding to his own affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, and how his love for their relationship resulted in his imprisonment. 

The “Good Lion” and “Where the Wild Things Are” are both stories which portray wildness in the context of animals that are not domesticated and portray traits of savageness. For example, in “Where the Wild Things Are,” the creatures “roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.” This shows the wildness of the creatures in the fact that they are portrayed as violent and undomesticated creatures. In “The Good Lion,” the bad lions are also portrayed as wild in the description that they had “blood caked on her whiskers and he smelled her breath which was very bad because she never brushed her teeth ever.” This quote depicts the fact that the bad lions not only are savage and eat animals and people, but they are also very dirty because they do not clean themselves. The wildness of the creatures and bad lions are both seen to be very savage, violent, and dirty. 

The two stories are different in the fact that the good lion and Max react to the wild animals in different ways. In Hemingway’s short story, the good lion travels to visit Africa to find that there are a lot of other lions living there as well. However, these “bad lions,” he learns are much more savage than he is because they would drink “the blood of the Hindu traders” and “eat eight Masai cattle.” The savageness of the bad lions really scares the good lion, causing the good lion to leave and go back home. On the other hand in “Where the Wild Things Are,” Max is not scared by the creatures, but instead stares at them without blinking. Because of Max’s unwavering boldness, the creatures crown him as king of the wild things. Furthermore, Max joins the creatures in their wildness and leads a “wild rumpus” with them.  These two stories highlight two different ways to respond to “wildness.” On one hand, the good lion was scared and rejected the bad lions’ wildness whereas Max embraced the creatures and was able to join them in their wildness. 

Kristine Chin

The communicator of the Wizard of Oz is L. Frank Baum (the author) and is written in the perspective of the main character Dorothy. In the introduction, Baum reveals that he wrote this story as a fairy tale for children. I see it as a children’s story because it explores a “fantasy” world which Dorothy falls into after getting caught inside of a tornado. In this fantasy world, Dorothy bumps into Lion, Tin Woodman, and Scare Crow which all teach her valuable lessons. Finally, Dorothy meets a wicked witch which causes her to want to go home. All of these fantasy characters are used to appeal to children, as they would be entertaining for younger children to read about. 

The first mention of wildness in this book is when Dorothy is walking through the woods with Tin Woodman and “there came a deep growl from some wild animal hidden among the trees.” The growl frightens Dorothy and Tin Woodman, however they later find out that the growl came from Lion. The author mainly uses pathos to instill fear in the readers, as the Lion lets out a “terrible roar” when coming out of the forest. Even Toto is frightened by the Lion as he “had an enemy to face” and starts running “barking toward the Lion.” The author builds up fear in both the characters and the readers leading up to the reveal of the Lion. Ironically, however, the Lion is the one that is scared of them and only wants to learn how to not be a coward . In this passage, the word wild means untamed and ferocious as the Lion is thought to be an untamed and ferocious animal from the forest. However, the audience later finds out in the story that the Lion is kindhearted and not as wild as he is first presented to be. 

Kristine Chin

Volleyball is a team sport played with two teams of six players separated by a net. The players score points by getting three hits to get the ball over the net following a set of rules specific to the sport. The main rules include that each team can have up to three touches to get the ball over the net, an individual player may not hit the ball two times consecutively, the ball may not touch the ground, players may not catch or throw the ball, the ball must fall within the boundaries of the court when hit to the other side, and players may not touch the net. There are the twelve people on the court, and the audience includes the people interested in watching or supporting the game. The game is typically played with all women or all men, but sometimes games are played co-ed (with both genders). In women’s volleyball the net is typically shorter than the men’s volleyball net, but all other rules remain the same. 

Although there are both men and women who play volleyball, the sport is more popular among women. Therefore, the audience of people that watch volleyball are probably more female heavy. My personal view of the interplay of playing sports and playing gender is that I think it is very nice to have a female dominated sport in a society where most sports are male dominated. The video shows clips of a women’s volleyball team playing and they are able to play the sport very well. Wildness in this sport might be displayed in the way that the ball is hit with much power and force when “attacked” to the other team.   

Kristine Chin

“Wild Things” is a pop song by Alessia Cara released in 2015. In this song, Cara begins the song by relating with those that feel like they don’t fit in with society’s definition of what “normal” should be. She notes that “we will leave the empty chairs to those who say we can’t sit there,” indicating that she has felt rejected by society, and is tired of trying to appease others. Instead of trying to change herself to fit in with the “cool kids,” Cara embraces her “wildness” by paving her own way and “carving her own place into time and space.” Cara finds that instead of trying to “walk on eggshells” to gain people’s approval, she gives herself permission to be herself and find her own definition of what is cool. In the chorus of this song, Alessia Cara tells others to “find [her] where the wild things are” because she is no longer going conform to what society tells her is right to do. This lyric is very interesting because she recognizes that her idea of what is “normal” is what society would deem “wild.” 

I really enjoy this tune because it analyzes and criticizes society’s definition of the word “wild.” Cara encapsulates in this song that wild is a relative term that is defined by the majority of society, or those that society deems to be “cool.” However, Cara empowers others to embrace their uniqueness and allow others to see them as “wild.” She tells her listeners to not conform to what society tells us to be but that it is normal to be different. 

• Kristine Chin

Volleyball is a team sport played with two teams of six players separated by a net. The players score points by getting three hits to get the ball over the net following a set of rules specific to the sport. The main rules include that each team can have up to three touches to get the ball over the net, an individual player may not hit the ball two times consecutively, the ball may not touch the ground, players may not catch or throw the ball, the ball must fall within the boundaries of the court when hit to the other side, and players may not touch the net. There are the twelve people on the court, and the audience includes the people interested in watching or supporting the game. The game is typically played with all women or all men, but sometimes games are played co-ed (with both genders). In women’s volleyball the net is typically shorter than the men’s volleyball net, but all other rules remain the same. 

Although there are both men and women who play volleyball, the sport is more popular among women. Therefore, the audience of people that watch volleyball are probably more female heavy. My personal view of the interplay of playing sports and playing gender is that I think it is very nice to have a female dominated sport in a society where most sports are male dominated. The video shows clips of a women’s volleyball team playing and they are able to play the sport very well. Wildness in this sport might be displayed in the way that the ball is hit with much power and force when “attacked” to the other team.   

A film I would consider to be wild is the Korean TV series Squid Game. This is a 9 episode long South Korean survival drama released in 2021, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. This series is about a contest where 456 people deep in financial debt risk their lives to play a series of Korean childhood games for the chance to win a cash prize of 45.6 billion won. The nature of the games is that if the players pass the game they can move onto the next round. However if they fail to complete the game they are murdered. I thought this film was “wild” because it was very violent, unusual, and deviated from what would be considered “normal” in today’s society. 

A specific scene that highlights the wildness of the film is during the first game of “Red Light, Green Light.” At this point, players do not know that they will be killed on the spot if they move during a red light or if they fail to win the game. As a result, when shots are fired there is a huge crowd of people running to escape the game, resulting in them being shot, and there is essentially a blood bath of over half of the players killed during the game. This scene was particularly wild because before this scene, the TV series is relatively light-hearted. However, this scene quickly turns violent and chaotic as the audience realizes, along the with players of the game in the show, the morbidity and inhumanity of this game. The scene depicts an unregulated, “wild” game which would never occur in normal society, as it violates countless laws and basic rights of human beings. 

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, “wild” means uncivilized or barbaric. Other dictionaries, such as the Cambridge dictionary, describes wild as being “uncontrolled, violent, or extreme.” Many dictionary definitions of the word “wild” use the word to describe things that are out of the social norm or “civilized” way of life. Additionally, the term wild can even be used to describe things that are “attractive” or “exciting.” The definition of wild found from Merriam Webster’s dictionary is very interesting because it describes the term as relative to what is “civilized” or normal. However, because civilization and social norms are not absolute and are constantly changing, this definition would therefore imply that the meaning of wild would also not be absolute, but would instead be constantly changing as well. On the other hand, the definition of wild described in the Cambridge dictionary indicates that wild things are often uncontrolled or extreme. This definition indicates that wildness is opposite of something that is “controlled” or not extreme. However, things that are considered controlled or not extreme have also changed throughout time in different societies and cultures, and therefore wildness is also constantly changing. 

I agree with the dictionary definitions in that I believe that “wildness” does not have an absolute meaning throughout time, but rather changes meaning depending on the social norms of different times, contexts, and cultures. Wild is a term used to describe things that are unusual in the context of each unique situation. For example, it would be wild for someone for someone to walk around naked on UT campus in 2022. However, in pre-historic times before 10,000 BC, it may not have been so “wild” for humans to be going around undressed, as it was normal in that society to dress in that way.