Avainsana-arkisto: ENA5.3

A Shocking Accident

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A Shocking Accident is a short story written by Graham Greene.

The story is about Jerome, when he was nine-years-old his father died. Jerome worshiped his dad, he admired him a lot and liked to imagine him being a secret agent, although he was an author Jerome heard about it when he was at school, his headmaster Mr. Wordsworth told about it. His father died when he was in Naples; he was walking to the Hydrographic Museum and suddenly a pig fell on him. During the next few years Jerome thinks about the death of his father, especially the way he died and they way he explains it to different people. When he is about to marry Sally he is worried because he hasn’t told her the way his father died.

The school Jerome went to seemed a little bit cruel, but probably the main reason of the cruelty and harshness wast to give the boys a disciplined education environment and in hope that they would behave well and properly when they were older. When it’s told that Jerome is about to get married the reader finds out that he hasn’t told Sally about the way his father died. This pretty much means that Jerome is a little scared of Sally’s reaction. He has told different people the way his father died, and people often have responded in a comical way. But when Sally finally finds out and is shocked Jerome is relieved and happy. It really meant a lot to him that Sally didn’t laugh, because Jerome’s love towards his dad was really strong and it would’ve made him upset if Sally had laughed.

I think the pig died after falling on Jerome’s dad, but I think it died on the scene of the accident and it didn’t suffer a painful and a long death. Also I think it was probably eaten afterwards by the pigs owner.

Why Honey?

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
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We got this assignment with different variations and I
chose to read short story Why, Honey? by Raymond Carver
from our English text book. I decided to pick this one
because I enjoy reading this kind of mysterious stories
which let the reader use his/her imagination at intervals.
The story is written as letter from a mother to some man
who asks about her son. In the letter mother tells her and
her son’s story how they got apart.
The mother thinks that everything beganat her son’s
roughly 15th Independence Day when their cat, named
Trudy, got lost. Their neighbors told her that some boys
brutally tormented Trudy at nearby field and they were
pretty sure that one of the boys were her son. The son did
act caring but after he was neutral about Trudy.
This event was just the beginning of his odd behavior.
The mother isn’t able to understand why he had to lie about
everyday things like his earnings. This lying thing continued.
Mom got permission ask for field trip from the school, but
weird thing was that last day son had told her how amazing
things he saw at field trip that day.
As son grew up, so did distance between mom and son.
He bought a car and started hunting. One night son didn’t
appear back home from hunting trip. Mom spent whole
night worrying and finally at the morning he came back. But
he didn’t answer exactly where he had been, just laughed
at his mom’s worry. Mom decided to check son’s car trunk
while he was in the shower. She found hunting stuff from
the trunk, but bloody t-shirt made it impossible to keep
questions inside her. She couldn’t sleep for couple of nights.
One night she went to son’s room, but answer was furious.
Son blamed her on stalking etc. and next day he left the
apartment.
Rest of the letter tells how mother didn’t see her son ever
again. She just heard how he had continued his life, became

marine, got married and also got into politics. She became
scared of him which made her change her name, move, get
unknown phone number. Mother never got to know what
she did wrong and what made son hate her so much. She just
keeps wondering; ”Why, honey, why?”

Written by Robert

The Last Spin

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The Last Spin is an English novel. Evan Hunter has written this short story. Story tells about two club members from rival clubs. Those two clubs decide to solve their quarrel with one guy from both clubs playing Russian roulette because they don’t want fight on the streets.

The story starts when story’s two main characters Tigo and Danny are sitting in the small basement room. First they were like normal rival club members, with little excitement in the air. In Russian roulette you must put one cartridge in the cylinder and twirl the cylinder and then put the gun against your head and pull the trigger. Odds for that you are going to die is one-in-six. Both survives the first stage and they but other cartridge in the cylinder. They are lucky and still survive. At same they have started to talk about their lives. They tell about their families and girlfriends. But they must keep playing. Odds in third stage are one-in-two. Both pull the trigger but only what they can hear is “click”. They keep speaking and notice that they don’t like their clubs other members very much. They understand each other and become friends. They still keep playing and put fourth cartridge in the cylinder. Tigo still make it. It is Danny’s turn. They agreed to go rowing on the lake at next Sunday if Danny survives. Danny pulls the trigger and like Evan Hunter writes: “The explosion rocked the small basement room, ripping away half of Danny’s head, shattering his face.”

I expected totally different ending to this short story. I thought everything will end happy and both survives and become good friends.

I think “The Last Spin” was pretty good but not a masterpiece. I think the story repeat itself little too much, nothing different didn’t happen for a long time. Story was still well written and interesting. The language in this novel was pretty easy to understand. There still was some hard words example some slang words and little bit guns special glossary.

Harrison Bergeron

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I read Kurt Vonnegut`s short story Harrison Bergeron. Work tell story about society which is reached completely equality. Hero in this story is Harrison Bergeron who is really handsome, clever and anyway gifted person than most other person. The story be placed on future more closely in year 2081. Equality is reached thus that all more gifted person have cutted at others person level. For examble the story hero get pack heavy weights, he had to kept plastic nose therefore that he wouldn`t seem handsome. Also his ears shutted by noice so that he can`t create anything rational thoughts.

All in all the story is really absurd but however interesting. Kurt Vonnegut`s short story show bare way and also generalizing that absolutely equility is not ever possible. The story is quite unhappy dystopia. Because the hero Harrison Bergeron finally died and his parents George and Hazel Bergeron leave grieve. Luckily it is only Kurt Vonnegut`s short story neither real life.

Hello Kitty Must Die

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The following is a work of fan fiction for the book ’Hello Kitty Must Die’ by Angela S. Choi. It is meant to be read after chapter thirteen.

We were at San Francisco Zoo. Originally called Fleishhacker Zoo for its founder Herbert Fleishhacker. Its first exhibits, in the 1930s, included only less than twenty animals.

Sean had called me that morning and told to meet me outside my house in forty five minutes.

”Sean, I have to go to work. It’s my second day, I’m not going to blow it off.”

”Of course you’re not. Because I had a little chat with Jack the Cheater and he gave you the day off!” He sounded way too enthusiastic about that. I felt exactly the opposite.

”You did what? Sean, what the hell did you say?”

”Oh, that’s not important. Might have mentioned something about Mei and his wife wouldn’t be too happy about it. Or the police.” I could hear his grin in his voice.

”You’re seriously fucked up, you know that?” But my anger was fading away.

”I thought we established that already. Anyway, fourtyfive minutes, Fi. Oh, now it’s only fourty, better hurry up!” I started to ask where we would be going but he’d already hung up. He wouldn’t even tell me in the car. I only found out when he parked the car in the San Francisco Zoo’s parking lot.

”The Zoo, Sean? The Zoo?!”

”A change of scenery. Besides, there’s this great cat I want you to see. I think you’ll come around.” I doubted it but went anyway. There was no saying no at this point anymore.

So now we were sitting in front of the Peregrine Falcon. Sean said it reminded him of him. I didn’t disagree. ”Peregrine Falcons catch medium-sized birds in the air with swift, spectacular dives. They often sit on high perches, waiting for the right opportunity to make their aerial assault. They hunt at dawn and dusk, when prey are most active, but also nocturnally in cities”, read the info sign. Sounded exactly like Sean. It even lookd liked him, with its dangerous eyes and beak but handsome and noble looks.

”So where’s this cat you wanted me to see?” I asked while eating my breakfast sandwich he’d bought for me.

”It’s coming, be patient. It’ll be worth it. So, date with Don?”

”Oh my god, don’t remind me. I’m going on the date with him on Saturday and then I never want to even…”

”Look! There she is!” Sean cut me off.

”Who? Where?”

”There”, Sean said pointing his finger to our left. And then I saw it. A big white cat with no mouth and no claws. A pink bow infront of its ear and a bunch of pink helium balloons with its face in them in its paw.

Hello Kitty. The bitch who gave American men expectations as to what Chinese women and children should be like. No one could be unique and anything else but cute, bright and warm and happy to stay at home taking care of the children, cook and clean. The bitch.

”So if I told you to pick one for me now, who would it be?” Sean interrupted my thoughts.

”What? No. No? I mean, really? You would?” I got hopeful. It felt weird but this time the thought didn’t give me nausea.

”Anything for you, Fi.” Always thinking of me, Sean was. I nodded. He stood up.

”Great. Go home. I’ll do especially intricate work, just for you.”

”No. I want to stay. I want to see it. I want to do it.” I could imagine what I sounded and looked like. Vengeful, thirsty for the blood of Ms Kitty be drained out of her. Sean looked surprised.

”Only if you promise not to back out and do exactly as I say.”

Now I was surprised. I would’ve never thought he would take me futher than this. I stood up too and we started following the giant white dispicable feline every kid wanted to have.

Hello Kitty walked behind the bathroom stalls, out of everybody’s sight. Sean took a waterbottle and a small baggie containing three roofies out of his bag. He gave them to me.

”Do the honors”, he said.

I took them from his hand, dropped the pills in the water and walked behind the bathroom. Hello Kitty had taken off her head, and she was trying to cool herself. Her brown curly hair was wet, clinging to her neck and forehead. I walked to her with a kind smile on my face and offered her the bottle.

”Oh, thanks”, she seemed embarrased that someone had seen her like this but took the bottle with a smile, ”this costume is so hot. Especially on a day like this.”

She took too sips and offered it back to me.

”Oh no, take it, it’s no problem.”

”Thank you.”

She was nice. About seventeen years old. But I didn’t hesitate or feel bad even for a second. Her head started to wobble back and forth and the waterbottle fell from her hand. Then she fell to the ground.

Sean walked next to me and put the giant Hello Kitty head back on her. To make it look like she had died of a heat stroke. I emptied the bottle in a toilet and gave the bottle back to Sean.

Then we left. As we walked across the zoo, I felt good. I felt awesome. Better than I had ever felt in my life. Hello Kitty had died.

The Last Spin

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The Last Spin is a short story written by Evan Hunter, a American writer specialized into crime fiction. It tells a story about two rivaling gangs, which are trying to get peace between each other by selecting one boy from both sides to play Russian roulette. That way they try to avoid fighting on streets. ¨

The main protagonist of the short story is Danny, a member in a gang that uses blue and gold jackets. Danny meets Tigo, a member of rivaling gang, in a basement. Boys state to each other that there is nothing personal in this event. The two boys have not even met before.

The boys begin the game with one bullet. Tigo offers to go first. He points the gun to his temple and fires, but there is no bullet in the chamber. He hands the gun to Danny, but again: no bullet in the chamber. The game goes on and on until Tigo decides to add one more bullet to speed things up.

During the game the boys are having a talk about girlfriends, their families, gangs, guns and army… The boys realize that they have more in common than it appears. Again Tigo ads one bullet, making the odds now 3:6. Still the game goes on. The boys start to think their lives and how they are controlled by the gangs. They decide that Danny is going to try one more time; if nothing happens, they would leave the basement and resign from their gangs and start a new life. Danny raises the gun to his forearm and fires. For Tigo’s horror, the gun fires, ripping away half of Danny’s head, shattering his face. The story ends as Tigo puts his face on the table and starts to cry.

Hunt’s story is more of a drama story rather than a crime story, which he is used to. Although it tells a story about gang members solving a conflict, it still focuses more into the growing friendship of the two boys. The plot itself is not very addicting as the key element, the Russian roulette, slowly sneaks into backgrounds.

Narration is often pretty straight forward, but you can find parts with quite a lot of description. Language of the story is quite is easy to understand.

Personally I don’t think that Ethan Hunt’s The Last Spin to be so wonderful. Still it is well written and quite entertaining.

 

Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights is a novel written by Emily Brontë which was first published in 1847. The Story is set in Yorkshire on the moors. Wuthering Heights is a story about doomed love and passion. The narration of the book is divided by several people including a traveler called Lockwood and a servant, Ellen who raises the Earnshaw children and is like a second mother to them.

The two main characters of the novel Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff create a very obsessive and unhealthy love for one another. They are brought together in the beginning of the novel by Catherine’s father who finds a young gypsy boy named Heathcliff in the streets all alone. Mr. Earnshaw decides to raise Heathcliff as his own son, so that Catherine and her brother Hindley would become the boy’s siblings. Neither of them, Catherine nor Hindley develop a normal sibship between Heathcliff. Hindley dislikes Heathcliff immensely and he hates living in the same household as a dirty, filthy little gybsy. Together Catherine and Heathcliff behave very badly and test the limits of Joseph, a servant at Wuthering Heights. Growing up Catherine and Heathcliff are like two peas in a pod, they spend every waking moment together. All this changes, when they spy on their neighbours, the Linton’s and a dog comes after them. The dog bites Cathy and she is taken inside by the Linton’s who want to care for her as long as she is ill. This is one of the main reasons why Catherine and Heathcliff fall out with one another. After these happenings their lives change irrevocably.

Wuthering Heights is a novel which contains a lot of dark and gothic tones. It is set on the Yorkshire moors which is a gloomy and daunting place in itself. The Wuthering Heights mansion is also filled with paranormal and unexplainable happenings. It is said in the beginning of the novel that this very building is haunted by Catherine Earnshaw. Emily Brontë has written a novel which captures the essence of a brilliant horror story. Even though Wuthering Heights is best known for its amazing tragic love story, it isn’t the only definition of this boundary breaking novel of its time. It is a story about an imperfect family and how they help a little orphan boy but also destroy the little goodness that is still left in him.

Catherine and Hindley seem to be spoilt brats even before Heathcliff comes into the picture. It seems that the only person that Mr. Earnshaw really loves is Heathcliff. He has tries to compensate, for the lack of love that he has forgotten to express towards his children, by buying presents and spoiling them. Probably one of the main reasons why Hindley treats Heathcliff the way he does is because he has been jealous of him, ever since that day when his father brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is a certain kind of replacement of a son, or that’s at least how Hindley feels about the whole situation. Catherine cares for Heathcliff much more than she cares for Hindley although in this case Catherine’s relationship with Heathcliff is a romantic one, and a platonic one between her and Hindley.

Although the novel contained a lot of violence which isn’t normally my cup of tea, I really enjoyed it. I also disliked both of the main characters vastly I really enjoyed the story. It was like, together Catherine and Heathcliff seemed nearly human. Together they were like one complete human being but separately two individual monsters. It felt like that the only real goodness in both of them was their love for each other. There are a few parts in this novel that explain the situation quite well for example Catherine says: “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. “Also later in the novel Heathcliff says: “I cannot live without my life. I cannot live without my soul.” Even though it contained a lot of kinks, altogether it was an enjoyable read which didn’t disappoint.

Fan Fiction- The Witcher

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My fan fiction is based on a book series called ”The Witcher” which are made by polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series follows a professional monster killer, Geralt, who travels across the lands of Northern Kingdoms and The Empire of Nilfgaard. Geralt is not a traditional hero, and isn’t clearly good or evil.

One chilly morning, in the shady town of Flotsam, a nice little town indeed, the silence of the night was broken when a  wretched scream echoed in the village. One unfortunate thing there is in this town, as it is in all parts of the realm… Racism is easily seen around towns. Dwarves and elves live in slums and they are poorly treated among humans. Not to mention their own controversies. This morning the city guards punished one of the blacksmiths, a dwarf, on the town square because of him not being able to pay enough taxes.                                                                                                                              Geralt, ”The White Wolf”, as they call him, woke up recovered from the long trip he had made before arriving in Flotsam yesterday. He yawned as he rised from the bed and looked for his clothes and money purse. He only found the former… That treacherous woman! But no wise man would keep all of his belongings in one place, so Geralt had given most of his money and his weapons, except the dagger he keeps with him in case he needs to use it. Geralt dressed up and headed downstairs where the inn keeper was viewing some papers, consisting mail and reports from the staff. He was quite a short old man with a long brown beard and hair. He had big round glasses and was quite sturdy. He didn’t seem to pay any attention to Geralt when he walked across the lobby. Geralt cleared his throat as he stopped before the inn keeper’s desk, who looked at him under his glasses.                                                                                                                               ”May I get my belongings from the safe?”, Geralt asked.                                                 ”Yes, of course”, the inn keeper answered hastily and rose from his bench and walked to the door of the storage room, picked the right key from his keyring and opened the lock. He entered the room. A moment later he came back with a sack, a bag, and two scabbards. The other contained a sword made of steel, and the other a sword made of silver, meant to be more effective against magical creatures. The sack was filled with coins and the bag was used to carry Geralt’s other equipment.
”Who are you gonna kill with those?”, the inn keeper asked with a grin on his face.         ”Do I look like a mercenary?”, Geralt answered with a deep firm voice and began to walk towards the front door. He opened the door and left the inn without saying anything else.

Perks Of Being a Wallflower, the

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
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The Perks Of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 movie directed and written by Stephen Chbosky starring Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller and Emma Watson. It is based on Chbosky’s epistolary book of the same name.

Charlie (Lerman) has just started his freshman year of highschool. The events of Charlie’s first year are depicted through a set of letters he writes to a friend who (it is let to understand) no longer, or never existed.

At first, Charlie has difficulty making any friends and talking to anyone, but his English teacher notices Charlie’s aptitude for English literature and starts to give him books to read.

Soon though, Charlie befriends two seniors, Patrick (Miller) and his step-sister Sam (Watson) towards whom he developes a crush. One night they take him to a friend’s party, where Charlie unknowingly eats a cannabis brownie. Being high, he tells Sam that his best friend shot himself merely months ago. Sam tells this to Patrick and they and all of their friends welcome Charlie as a wallflower.

At a Christmas party at Sam and Patrick’s house, Sam kisses Charlie just as friends leaving Charlie crushed and getting him high on LSD at a New Year’s party after seeing Sam there with her boyfriend. Charlie then leaves the party alone, starts seeing things from his past and passes out in the snow.

After New Year’s Charlie starts, rather reluctantly due to his feeling for Sam, seeing their friend, Mary Elizabeth. Charlie is unhappy in this relationship, but can’t break up with her either, being afraid he’ll hurt her feelings. Things end worse than anyone would’ve thought  though, when at a game of spin-the-bottle Charlie is dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, and instead of kissing Mary Elizabeth, he kisses Sam.

His friends then ’desert’ him and Charlie starts seeing traumatic things from his past again. He gets his friends back, after beating off a couple of guys at the school cafeteria because they were beating Patrick.

After the school year is over, Sam breaks up with her boyfriend and she and Charlie sleep together. But immediately after Sam and Patrick leave for college, leaving Charlie feeling abandoned. The things from his past come to haunt him even worse and Charlie trys to kill himself. He is then hospitalised for the summer, Charlie having to have therapy sessions.

When released from the hospital (and feeling a lot better) and starting his sophomore year, Patrick and Sam come to visit him and Charlie knows that even though they left town, his friends didn’t leave forever.

 

Charlie is the youngest of three, just starting high school. He has had a very traumatic past: his aunt and favourite person in the whole world died in a car crash when Charlie was very little. She was getting his birthday present at the time, so Charlie blames her death on himself. He started seeing thing and he was getting ”bad”. How, the movie does not specifically tell.

Sam is a senior at Charlie’s high scool and a step-sister of Patrick. She and Charlie become good friends, they even develop a crush on each other but Sam denies it well. Sam has a boyfriend, with whom she seems happy, but after her graduation it is revealed that the boyfriend had been cheating on her with several other girls. They then break up and Sam gets together with Charlie. Emma Watson depicts beautifully Sam’s rainbow of emotions.

Patrick is also a senior at Charlie’s high school and Sam’s step-brother. Patrick is dating Brad, one of the school ”cool guys”, in secret because Brad doesn’t want to tell anyone he’s gay. Brad’s father, however, finds the two boys in his house together and beats Brad infront of Patrick. The next day at school Brad calls Patrick ”faggot” which results in a fist fight. Patrick is a good hearted young man, who doesn’t want anyone to feel excluded or bad about themselves. He’s good-spirited and he always has a joke in him (mostly about the schools teachers).

One of the topics of the film is music. Sam and Charlie have an uncannily similar taste in music and the soundtrack consists of some of the songs they listen to. It is very fitting to Charlie’s, or the people surrounding him, mood. The bands whose songs are played in the movie are mostly 80’s and 90’s bands and they tell really well about who Charlie is.

All in all, the movie was a beautiful story of friendships (found and lost), the trauma of loss and mental illness.

The Last Spin

Julkaistu , kirjoittanut
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I read Evan Hunter’s short story The Last Spin. I chose it because of the story’s set-up, two rival gangs, two members of those gangs and some good old-fashioned Russian roulette in a basement. 

Two guys sit on the table opposite each other. Our main character is called Danny and the man sitting against him is called Tigo. The Russian roulette is a way to settle differences between the two gangs, to avoid fighting in the streets and getting busted by police, Danny and Tigo were only chosen by coincidence and that’s what Tigo keeps telling to Danny, that there’s nothing personal between them. Danny is new on the block and that’s why Tigo doesn’t recognize him. Danny comes from Bronx so it seems that the story is located in New York, although Bronx is quite known as a place all around the world. The boys begin the roulette and meanwhile start to talk about some really personal stuff, like girlfriends and family. The roulette goes on and on without the gun firing a bullet, when Tigo decides to add another cartridge to the chamber of the gun. Danny is kind of surprised by Tigo’s decision especially after their conversation but Tigo simply explains his action by that the gangs won’t be happy until one of them is ”capped”. The roulette continues without either of the men getting killed. Then Tigo decides to add another bullet to the chamber. Guys talk about taking a boat trip with their girlfriends next weekend and they decide to escape the whole gang situation if Danny survives from the next pull of the trigger. Even though the guys have got to know each other there’s still a small trust issue because Danny doesn’t want to close his eyes during the last shot cause he’s afraid that Tigo might do something to him.

I like the narration and the use of gang-related terms, although the word ”piece” is used a bit too much, how about using ”gun” sometimes? At some points the text gets a bit repetitive when the guys are just passing the gun to each other. Things start to get interesting when Tigo adds another bullet to the chamber, that’s the moment when the characters really start to have some depth and character when the tension rises to a whole new level. Narration describes the scene very well and every emotion is well described.

 Written by aseilori4