Harrison Bergeron by: Kurt Vonnegut

I chose to pick Harrison Bergeron because it sound so thrilling after reading a couple of lines. The story takes place to year 2081 when everybody is finally equal. Not only before God and law but also in every way. Harrison Bergerons father George and mom Hazel are starring on leading roles in this story.

In that time people were made equal by putting some obstacles to intelligent people. One of them was putting handicap radio on their heads which would send sharp noise to their ears and scatter their thoughts. Second was Handicap bag which was filled with forty-seven pounds of lead and hanged to peoples neck.

Handicapper General was the one who invented the items which would equalize people. In story Hazel thinks that she would be great handicapper general. She would transmit only chimes on Sunday, nothing more and just on Sundays to honor the religion.

Harrison is the main bad guy in this story. He was taken from his parents and put in to jail.He had to escape from jail to commit one last thing. He resembles people about the time when they weren’t so equal.  He wants to be the emperor and also he commands everyone to do just like he says. Harrison snaps out of all his handicaps on live television and gets shot to death whilst his mother was watching it on TV.

In the story Hazel and George different from each other by that Hazel is perfectly average intelligence while George’s intelligence is way above normal, so only George must use those handicap items. That highlights the theme of the story about what is normal and what isn’t.

In my opinion I think that Harrison was already full of this world and also full of picking out that equality. He didn’t want to be the same as everyone else. He wanted to be more. Even thought he died in the end doesn’t mean that he wasn’t happy. I think that he died at doing something what he wanted and that’s how we are all supposed to pass away.

Full stop

Full stop is a short story which is written by Alecia McKenzie. It tells about correspondence between grandchild and grandmother. I red it from the Open Road. The grandchild Carmen is almost thirty and the grandmother`s name is Scottie who is pretty old. Scottie raised Carmen and her brother in an island.

Now, grandmother lives there alone and Carmen lives in New York with Normy. Normy is Carmen`s husband which Scottie calls hubby in the letters. Scottie hasn`t seen Carmen for a while so in a letter Scottie tells to Carmen that she would like to see her and her brother Richard before she die. That is Scotties excuse for getting Carmen to visit her.

Carmen regularly sends money to Scottie involved in the letters because she is so old and not so rich. With the money Grandma Scottie is able to buy a new mattress to her bed and a dress to a funeral. Scottie also put the money in the bank and get to buy some paint for her old house, but she hasn`t money enough to pay for a painter. Carmen doesn`t like an idea that Grandma will paint the house herself, but Scottie tells that there is another reason too than money: she thinks that painters on the island are all thieves. And Scottie manage to paint it.

Carmen also send money to Scottie for getting somebody to put burglar bars over all the windows, because on the island there are thieves who are breaking into everybodys house. Scottie says that she doesn`t like the burglar bars and that God will protect her. However, at the end of the story, she decides to put up the burglar bars because the robbers were broke into Scotties friend`s house. I think that her decision is symbolic of changes in her relationship with Carmen in the way that she agrees to change things because of Carmen and in the way that both of them takes care of each other.

Carmen has a mother too, who live in England, but Carmen doesn`t want to meet her mother because she have seen her only once and she hasn`t forgive her it. Mother`s story what happened once is a little different than Grandmother`s. She blame Scottie almost everything, but Scottie says to Carmen that don`t believe her.

Carmen`s brother is Richard and he lives in California. He doesn`t write very much to his Grandmother because of his work, he says. Someone could think that Richard is just like his mother, who just leaves and doesn`t care her relatives, instead of believe him. In the other hand, some believe him because they have themselves been in the same situation where they hadn`t no time to keep in touch their relatives.

My opinion is that Grandmother Scottie is caring, sense of humor and polite, because already at the beginning she says:”Thanks for the money.” When Scottie upbraids her grandchild of her way to write, I think that she says it a bit joykingly. Scottie also prays for Carmen every night and sends the letters to her so, that means me that she is caring.

My opinion of a question ”Is Grandma a good Christian?” is that I can`t classify who is a good or who is a bad Christian because all people are equal. Only which means is question that has a person accepted Jesus as your personal savior or in other words, is a person believer. The only one who knows the answer to the question, is a human believer or not, is Lord. What I can see on the text, Scottie prays, so she must to believe in God. She also tells points from the Bible, so I would assume that she is a believer.

I think that Scottie speaks the truth of that why she raised Carmen. Of course, I can`t be sure, but I think that if Scottie is a believer how could she lie to her own grandchild that her mother couldn`t take care of her? Carmen`s mother says that when she came back for her children, Scottie refused to give them up. But who could take the mother`s children away from her?

 

 

 

 

Harrison Bergeron

Name of the novel is Harrison Bergeron and its written by Kurt Vonnegut. The Novel tells about year 2081 when everybody was equal. Nobody was smarter or stronger than anybody else. People who were smarter than others, had for example a mental handicap radio in their ear. Every people were forced to be equally stubid.

The story tells about George and Hazel Bergeron. Their 14 year old son Harrison Bergeron was kidnapped by the United States Handicapper General. One day George and Hazel were watching ballerinas dancing on television. Suddenly there was a special news bulletin. The news told that their son, Harrison, had just escaped from prison. He was arrested because of suspicion of plotting against the covernment.

Because Harrison was a big guy and very strong, he escaped. He screamed that everybody needed to obey him. He wanted to choose himself an empress. Very beautiful ballerina volunteered to be his empress. They started to dance. Their romantic dance was interrupted by Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General. She shot both Harrison and the Ballerina to death. Harrison’s parents didn’t quite understand what had just happened. So they continued their lives.

The story was a little bit strange but still it was quite interesting to read. I hoped that the end of the story would have been happier.

Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. It tells the story of a dystopian world where everyone is equal ”every which way”. In this world of equality smart people are forced to dumben down to the intelligence level of the least smart. Basically making everyone equally dumb. Smart people are forced to wear equipment meant to stop strains of thought. Equality is also extended to physical qualities for instance everyone is the same height and beautiful people are forced to wear ugly masks.

The story is told from the eyes of two parents, George and Hazel Bergeron whose 14-year-old son Harrison is taken away into a prison for being too perfect. George was also similar to his son and had to bear a heavy bag full of lead balls and a ”mental handicap radio” in his ear. His wife, Hazel, on the other hand was ”average” intelligence which meant a very short attention span. Hazel is the ideal kind of person in the society, the kind the whole society was made for. In other words she’s the ”winner” in the society as in the normal world there would be many people much smarter than her. The son Harrison was so smart he became a menace to the society and an enemy of state. After being locked in prison with extremely severe handicaps he still managed to break out and cause havoc on live TV. Harrison recognized his own intellectual and physical superiority over the other severely dumbed down people and got the idea he was supposed to lead them.

Compared to present day America this dystopian world has several differences concerning peoples rights and freedoms. The dystopian world doesn’t allow people to freely live their lives unless they’re absolutely ”normal” and proceeds to limit the freedom of anyone better. The rights are the same but the society removes the means to exert these rights.

 

Homer and Bart

One day on 20th century Homer and his son, Bart were going to local Pizza Hut to eat. On the way to Pizza Hut they saw an old man on side of the street screaming some unknown  words. Homer and Bart were disturbed by this and went to ask the man, what bothers him. Man told them that he was homeless and needs help. Homer and Bart ingnored this and continued their trip to Pizza Hut, but the man remained on the street yellying .

After eating Homer and Bart went to home, and because it already was night they went to sleep. At night Homer wakes up to a loud beating of door, he wakes up and opens door where is the same old man who was yelling at the street at afternoon. Man demanded Homer to let him in and give him some food since he was starving to death and Homer left him without food earlier but Homer shut the door.

24 hours later, There was same knock again and once again Homer went angry open the door but suddenly there wasn’t the old man but a pile on horsepoo. Homer stared the pile confused, why was the pile there?, and why his garden? Homer got his answer soon as the pile turned into bart’s face and swallowed him. Nothing was heard about homer after that.

Later that night Bart was sleeping on his room, when he heard a knock on his door and wondering about that he went to open the door. And he saw homer, but he was not normal, there was something smelly and brown about him. Bart just said ”Go sleep old man” and closed the door, but Homer came throught the door and streched his neck and tied it which killed Bart.

The End

Written by LindaK

Full Stop

I chose a short story by Alecia McKenzie, because it seemed quite interesting. Full Stop is a story about Carmen and her Grandmother Scottie, who has raised Carmen and her brother Richard. It’s also a story about the ice cold relationship between mother and daughter. The story consists of letters which Carmen and Scottie send to each other. Through letters reader can form an image of the characters’ lives.

Carmen is almost thirty years old woman who is married to Normy. In her letters Scottie writes about “hubby” referring to Normy and asks Carmen to give regards to him. Carmen and Normy live in New York. Carmen is raised by her Grandmother because her parents weren’t able to do it by themselves. Carmen’s parents were really young when Carmen was born, so this arrangement was quite necessary. Nevertheless, Carmen’s mother is stubbornly trying to contact her daughter. Carmen isn’t happy about that because she doesn’t consider her as a mother and her mother is completely strange to her. That’s also the reason why Carmen by herself doesn’t want to contact her mother or in any way be in touch with her.

Scottie is Carmen and Richard’s Grandmother. Scottie and Carmen write letters to each other quite a lot. Carmen sends money enclosed to her almost every letter for some specific purpose but Scottie spends the money always to something else or puts the money in the bank. For example, Carmen sends money to Scottie for getting a painter, but Scottie decides to paint her house by herself because she thinks that painters can’t do the job right and she would have to do it anyway. Carmen also sends money to Scottie for putting up some burglar bars, but Scottie needs a dress to funeral so she buys a dress instead of the burglar bars. Scottie asks Carmen to visit her in almost every letter she sends. Scottie is a little worried about her time in the earth and she would like to get to know Carmen’s husband before she passes away.

Richard – or Richie – is mentioned in the text a couple of times. He is Carmen’s little brother. Grandma Scottie is waiting a letter from him but Richie is too busy to write. When he finally sends a letter to Scottie, he writes that he has worked overtime and just moved into a new apartment. However, Scottie is a little doubting about the reasons why he hasn’t written earlier. I think that there may be many different reasons why Richard doesn’t keep in touch with Scottie. Maybe he is telling the truth and he just simply is too busy to write. Or maybe he isn’t that much into writing. But I think it’s more likely that Richard has just never found his relationship with Scottie close enough to be in touch with her.

The way that Grandma Scottie writes her letters is rather interesting. She writes everything without any punctuation. It isn’t explained in any point why is she doing like that. Maybe it’s something in her personality. Maybe she just isn’t interested enough to pay attention to them. Or maybe she is not that educated to know how to use punctuation. That’s why it’s really weird that it’s so huge a problem to her when Carmen writes her first letter without any punctuation. Scottie even seems to be a little disappointed in her because of that. But why should Carmen use punctuation if Scottie doesn’t use them by herself?

Grandma Scottie writes a lot about God and she uses phrases from Bible. She strongly believes that The Lord will take care of everything. At first Scottie seems to be a good Christian. She believes in God, she prays, she knows phrases from Bible, etc. But is that enough? Are you really a good Christian if you know Bible by heart? I don’t think so. What about charity and forgiveness? I think that those are the most important Christian virtues. Nevertheless, Scottie is comparing her own daughter to “a snake in the grass” and she even seems to be a little disappointed in her. Scottie didn’t like Carmen’s father either. However, she tells Carmen that she should forgive “seven times seven” like God has said. So why isn’t she doing that by herself? I think that Scottie has a little bit different values that Christianity represents. That’s why I think that Scottie isn’t a good Christian.

It’s quite obvious that Scottie doesn’t like much her daughter. I get a feeling from the text that Scottie is trying to manipulate Carmen against her mother. Scottie keeps telling Carmen that she can’t trust her mother and that Carmen’s mother is a liar. Despite that, Scottie always tells Carmen to write her mother. Is she trying to make amends for something? And who is right in the end? In the last letter Grandma doesn’t explain properly what has actually happened between her and her daughter. I think that Carmen’s mother has some point in her accusation. Why would she fake all that? Because her guilty conscience? Yes, maybe, but not entirely. There must have been some disagreement in some point. But if Carmen’s mother would really have wanted to have her kids back, she would have worked harder because she does have a legal right to her own children. I believe both stories partly and I think that there is something true in both versions of events. Grandma Scottie has probably done something wrong but Carmen’s mother must have some faults as well.

Carmen takes a really good care of her Grandmother. She writes several times that Scottie should install the burglar bars for her own safe. However, Scottie refuses to do that until right at the end of the story. Scottie promises to install the burglar bars right after Carmen has asked her about her mother. Maybe she is trying to draw Carmen’s attention to some other things instead of her mother. That can also be seen as a symbol of their relationship. In the beginning Scottie is Carmen’s trustworthy guardian but after Carmen’s mother’s visit, everything changes. Carmen starts to question her and Scottie approves Carmen’s insistence to install the burglar bars. Maybe that’s some kind of atonement.

All in all, I think that Full Stop is quite an interesting story even though it was really hard to read the text in some points because there was no punctuation. I also found the ending a little weird, the story just ends. Nevertheless, Full Stop is an impressive narration of the relationships between three women.

Full stop

Full stop is short story in Open road. It was written by Alecia McKenzie. The story is told by letters.

Short story telling Carmen and her grandmother. Carmen living in New York with her husband. Carmen woks a doctor in local hospital.
Cramen’s grandmother living in Scotland. Grandmother never use commas and full stop in letters. Grandmother cites every letter about God because she is Christian.

Carmen and her brother Richie are crown up with them grandmother. Carmen and her brother parents were not able to care of them. That’s why Carmen and her grandmother are really close to each other. They write each other quite often.

Carmen send money to her grandmother. Grandmother is writing Carmen that thieves have broken houses in there. That’s why Carmen wants that grandmother put burglar bars the house windows. Grandmother don’t like that idea.

Grandmother wants that Carmen write her mother in England. Carmen doesn’t want to do that but soon she agrees to do that.
She write her mother and get hear that her mother has a cyst in her eye. Her mother also told that she wants to come in New York for the operation. Carmen doesn’t like that idea.

Soon Carmen’s mother arrives to Carmen’s house. Carmen’s mother told her that she and her husband gave Carmen and Richie to their grandmother to short period of time to stay. Because they went to work in England. But the grandmother refused to give them back to their parents.

Grandmother told Carmen that her mother and dad didn’t go England to work. They doesn’t ready to raise Carmen and her brother. That’s why they live with her grandmother.
Carmen believed her grandmother.

I like this short story. But grandmother’s letters is hard to read.
Because commas and full stop missing. Still I like the story.

 

The Last Spin

The last spin is short story which is written by Evan hunter. Story tells about Russian Roulette which is game where the loser are that one who shoot him self first. In the story Danny play against Tigo, who is an enemy.
The story begins when Danny and Tigo sits around the table, and Tigo shows the gun which is Smith & Wesson .38 Police Special. Guys are talking about why game has to play and the reason is that Tigo’s club has ordered that the relations between club and Danny is going to clear that way (So Tigo has nothing to against for Danny). The game starts when Tigo decides to pull trigger first. Both of them are very lucky and they both survive from ”first stage” (1 cartridge in one of the six cylinder). Then next they put one more cartridge, and somehow they survive also that ”stage” and Tigo wants to stop the game and he decides to put one more cartridge to cylinder. Tigo starts first, but only what hears is ”CLIC”. Between The shooting shifts boys talking about their own lives and get to known each others, and they planed to make a boat trip on the lake on Sunday, but before that Danny’s must pull the trigger for the last time. ”The explosion rocked the small basement room”- that’s the sentence, which is written in last chapter in The Last Spin short story by Evan Hunter.

In a story were ironic moment when Danny didn’t dare to close his eyes while he was pulling the trigger, because he feared that Tigo going to do something to him, if he close his eyes.

The narrator in this story is impartial. Story narrator is good I like the way how the plot is told.

Written by Paavo

Remember me?

Remember me? (2008) is a novel written by Sophia Kinsella. It tells about Lexi Smart who wakes up after a car accident and can’t remember anything about last three years. All she remembers is that she’s 25 years old, she has crooked teeth and not so fabulous love life. But when she wakes up she has everything she ever wanted. She is the boss of her department, has a perfect row of teeth, designer bag and clothes and a husband that everybody dreams of. It all seems great but is it really what it looks like?

The main character Lexi Smart is a person that you can really relate on. In the beginning of the book she is just an unlucky girl that has some family and work issues. And when she wakes up she feels just the same but everybody keeps telling her how she had changed her way of acting during these three years. She has some problems changing her old habits such as eating fast food and being such a couch potato . She now has an amazing apartment, closet full of designer pieces and she hears that she’s now as cold as ice according to colleagues that used to be friends. But she realizes that she’s not that person that everybody thinks she is. It’s really funny how Kinsella describes all the funny mishaps Lexi is going trough. It shows that life is not that enjoyable when you have to watch everything you do, eat and say.

The family relationships between Lexi and her mother and sister are complicated and quite funny to read. Her mother is a bit silly woman. She has many dogs that she cares more than her own children. She doesn’t understand why Lexi suddenly are acting differently and asks her help. Sometimes I felt frustrated when she didn’t understand her daughter. Lexis’s sister doesn’t help Lexi even the amount that their mother. She causes many trouble to Lexi who remembers her as a sweet and innocent girl that she was three years ago. But I thought that their relationship are quite normal for two sisters who are going trough different life situation. And in spite of all the problems she causes to her sister she is the only one who understand Lexi’s situation.

I don’t know if you can use the word genre when you are describing a book but I think that this books genres are drama and at the same time comedy. All the incidences that happens are quite dramatic but all scenes are sprinkled with comedy. I think that’s why it’s so interesting. You want to get to the end so you know what really happens to her eventually.

I really like the way Kinsella is writing. I think her focus group are mainly girls but of course boys can read it also. This book is easy to read and it’s just a perfect book to read when you want to relax and not think about anything. I also like Kinsella’s other work and I recommend them also for everyone to read.

The Dream Begins

Goal! The Dream Begins is the first part of goal trilogy, all of them tells about Santiago Muñes. Who is very talented and skilled young footballer. The Dream Begins tells how to Santiago comes the real professional player.
Santiago lives in poor family in Los Angeles, and they lives illegally in America. They left Mexico behind ten years ago, because of bad conditions and their mother had abandon them. Santiago works in La as a gardener and in Chinese restaurant and plays only for hobby in local team which consist of work friends. But Santiago’s live turns up suddenly when former Newcastle United player and scout Glen Foy notice Santiago and offers to Santiago try out to Newcastle United (big club in England). So Muñes works really hard for his dream in two work, and he gets the money that he needs, to travelling in England but his father stoles those money and spent moneys to the new car as an investment of fathers gardener firm. Anyway he gets the money from his grandma and goes to Newcastle secretly for his father. In England hi lives whit Foy and training in Newcastle United his try out is only a one month, so he has real hurry to show his skills to coaches. At first everything is not going so well, but anyway he gets place for a team, his first game is totally flop because he has asthma and jealous team meat breaks his inhaler. After game coach lets him go but way to airport Galvin Harris comes to same taxi, who the is star of the team and he talks to second chance to Santiago whit coach. Next downhill on his way to first team, when his dad dies suddenly in La. But Santiago decides to stay in New Castle whit his girlfriend who’s the nurse of team. The movie end for a big game which decides teams destiny. And for a last minutes New Castle gets free kick, and Santiago shoots the winning goal.

Kuno Becker acts Santiago Muñez. Becker is not so famous actor, but I think that he was really good. All Goal movies are very special for that at there are also real life football players acting them selves. however Santiago Muñez is not real life player and not also Galvin Harris (=Alessandro Nivola). But it make that movie very realistic when Santiago’s other team mates on the field also real life players.

The Dream Begins is a 2005 film directed by Danny Cannon, he has known about C.S.I tv series. The movie’s plot was good so good for him. Movie didn’t have so much special effects than I expected, but camera work was good because camera moves a lot.

The thing in the movie, which I didn’t like was that in the games Santiago were much better than the team mates and that feels very unrealistic in real life.
Movie’s genre is of course sport movie, also drama and romance.
movie’s soundtrack is PlayGround Superstar by Happy Mondays.

I recommend this movie for everyone who watches sport. I would give for grade: 8/10

Written by Paavo