Discussion 1: "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
It is a world famous story, and I've read it for several times, both in Chinese and English. Now, as a sophomore, I think the author wrote the story to express his criticism to the class distinction.
Mathilde was a woman with extraordinary vanity, but as a punishment to her vanity, in my opinion, ten years was much too long and hard. During the ten years, Mathilde showed that she was brave and industrious, not only a snobbish woman. I don't know exactly how the author himself evaluated Mathilde, the character under his pen. But to think deeper, it was the special society constructed by class distinctions that resulted in Mathilde's vanity and then the 10-year punishment to her. Mathilde herself was a victim of that time. The author criticize the society system through Mathilde's tragedy. So I suppose, maybe to Mathilede, the author's attitude was sympathetic.
As we all know, Maupassant, the author of this story, lived in the time after the French Revolution, during which class distinctions were still an integral part of French society. Thanks to his personal experience, such a vivid character could be molded.

Discussion 2; "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen"
The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen is a entirely new story for me.
Shadrach Cohen was such a great father, who finally won respect from others, including his two sons, though his “Americanization” was not the same as theirs.
Having read the story, I thought about several things. There are two that I think are worth mentioning here.
First, sticking to one's religion is so important a thing for everyone. Everything can be changed, but one's faith should be maintained. When we go to a totally new environment, we start a new life. We learn to be used to the customs there, we absorb the good things from another cultural system, but we should never forget our own.
Nowadays, with China's reform and opening up, more and more people go abroad, for various reasons, to study, to make more money, to realize dreams of childhood, or to see a bigger world. The outside world is colorful, we can learn a lot from it, but in my opinion, one should never forget his root. We Chinese people, should always remember and remind ourselves, whenever and wherever we are, that we are Chinese, we come from China, which located in the east of the world. We should never forget that, just like Shadrach never forgot his religion, even when he finished his “Americanization”.
Secondly, the story also proves that, differences between cultures are never barriers. Through cultural exchanges, we can learn from other's strength to offset our own weakness.
It is amazing that the author, who lived about 100 years ago, can wrote such a story that can tell us so much, in such a time of globalization.

Discussion 3: "Dead Men's Path" by Chinua Achebe
It's a short story, but the result comes out a little shocking. But after my second reading, I turned to think that it is so reasonable and comprehensive.
Different countries have different cultures and beliefs. I don't want to say too much about the fact that the Britain gained control of Nigeria at turn of the 20th century, for it happened long ago, in line with the times and the situations in that age. But the failure of Michael Obi shows obviously that if one wants to use one culture to cover or eradicate another, he will never succeed.
Nowadays, in a time of globalization, the cultural exchanges are no longer something fresh. Along with cooperation on politics or economic, cultural exchanges are developing rapidly. Not only statesmen but also ordinary people pay more attention and even take part in cultural exchanges. Through this short story written by Chinua Achebe, we can see that, diversity of civilizations all over the world should be cherished, though one can learn and absorb other culture to enrich or improve his own, the process of which is by no means one of simple imitation. And one can never try to eradicate another culture, as no culture should be taken as inferior and barbaric, people or country with different culture and beliefs should respect each other.

Discussion 4: "The Grass-Eaters" by Krishna Varma
The first feeling after I read this story is that, the author's writing is very exquisite, and at the same time, astonishing.
First, some descriptions are very vivid. For example, “a bag of bones” expresses a very thin person, “a hill of a man” indicates a man with a very strong body, and “whirling a tree over his head” describes one's hair in a mess. Those expressions are so fresh to me that exact images emerged in my mind as soon as I read them, which make the story much more real and vivid.
Second, the author's strain is special. Although it is a story with very poor people and lives, the author used an easy tone to tell it. “I lost the other (leg) after a fall from the roof of a tram.” No one may think that losing a leg is a small thing, but the author wrote about it, as if that's nothing serious. Maybe it is his own experience that made the author take everything easy, but in my opinion, write a tragic story in an easy tone, in a sense, can make the story more astonishing.