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Full Stop, Alecia McKenzie

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Alecia McKenzie’s short story ”Full Stop” seems pretty simple when you read it first time. An old but obviously sharp-witted grandmother and her grandchild Carmen are writing short letters to each others. Letters dealt with everyday things like painting a house but also difficult family relationships. The interesting point is that Grandma writes without punctuation. Why is that, maybe she is lazy or she just don’t know how to write right? Carmen doesn’t either use commas and full stops in her first letter to Grandma. Probably she does that because she wants to test how Grandma would respond to it. Well, Grandma writes back wondering “Why are you writing me without punctuation?”. Clearly she can write right. Grandma also remind how she had to worked hard that Carmen would be able to go to school. From this we can deduce Grandma appreciates studying. She seems a little bit ungrateful too as she thanks Carmen for the money yet saying it’s not enough for the painter’s payment so she had to paint the house herself. This part of the text also reveals that Grandma really is a truly Christian. She tells example she prays every night and she wish God Bless to Carmen at the end of the letter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Grandma has raised Carmen because her own mother has left to England after having Carmen. Women have totally different versions of events. Carmen’s real mother presents that she made an agreement with Grandma but then Grandma broke it. The intention was that Grandma would have been keeped Carmen for a while until her parents get more money. Nevertheless Grandma had been hiding children, because she hates their father who wouldn’t go to church. Whereas Grandma concerned Carmen’s mother is a snake in the grass. And Grandma, a good Christian, believes ”The Good Lord appointed her guardian”.

Personally I do believe more the version of Carmen’s mother. If she really didn’t want to take care of her child why would she be interested all of the sudden when the child is almost thirty-years-old? On the other hand, could be possible that she just didn’t have enough money then. Anyway, Carmen thinks that Grandma is her mother because she raised her. That’s why Carmen wants to take care of Grandma, sending money for her. Carmen ask Grandma to get somebody to put burglar bars over all the windows. Grandma refuses until right at the end of the story. Probably she change her mind because the home island is not so safe anymore. There are thieves who break into everybody’s house. Other reason could be that Grandma is beginning to trust more Carmen. It feels like Grandma doesn’t have many people around her, maybe she is lonely. Carmen’s brother Richard doesn’t keep in touch with Grandma at all. That’s strange because Carmen does. May be that their mother is right, Grandma was really hiding them for their real mother and wouldn’t let them meet her. As a result, Richard would be embittered and angry and never want to meet Grandma again.

It was pretty difficult first read the text without punctuation but it was good to notice how important commas and full stops actually are. The interest and excitement increased towards the end of the story. After all the Full Stop is a good story and I would recommend to read it!

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

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“The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” was released in 2008.
The film based on the novel of the same name by Irish writer John Boyne.
It is a historical-drama film, directed by Mark Herman and produced by David Heyman.

This film has an interesting and new perspective to a difficult topic. A young boy Bruno befriend with another child Shmuel. Strange is that Shmuel is on an adjacent camp and Bruno’s father leads the camp. Friendship of these children will end tragically.

There are two main characters; eight-year-old Bruno who is a son of the Nazi commandant and Bruno’s friend Shmuel who is a Jewish inmate.
Bruno is really naïve and ingenuous, because he doesn’t even think of questioning of the purpose of adjacent camp, whereas Shmuel had to try to survive alive there.

Bruno’s father is also very important character in the film. He is a Nazi commandant but his children don’t know it. There are two totally different sides in his character; a loving family man and the other hand a heartless killer. His wife Elsa knows little bit of her husband’s job. Consequently, she has to suffer because of this secret. Bruno’s sister called Gretel thinks most of the time herself rather than the cruel world around her.

Asa Butterfield as Bruno is a quite good on his role even though he seems too naive order to be credible. However he is a skilled actor, in addition, he is only ten-years-old in the movie. Actor of Bruno’s father is David Thewlis. I think he wasn’t doing his best role in this film. He was way too bland. Jack Scanlon (as Shmuel) plays eight-year-old Jewish boy in the film. In my opinion he was the most plausible actress because he wasn’t trying too much.

The soundtrack for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is composed by James Horner. Music is big part of this film because almost in every scene you can hear some music, which wasn’t a good thing . The soundtrack is beatiful but it just doesn’t match with the film’s tough topic. Those songs would work better in some love story.

I had read the book before I see the film. I think the book is really impressive so my expectations were high when I started to watch the film. After seeing the film, I was disappointed. Characters weren’t feel as real than they were in the book. The ambience was different. All in all, the main difference between the book and the film is that in the film the denouement reveals too quickly.