From the time the main characters Oliver Barrett IV and Jennifer Cavilleri meet in the library of Radcliff University for the first time to the marriage of them they have to overcome a hard time. The father of Oliver is against the relationship of Oliver and Jennifer and naturally against the marriage because of Jennifer´s low social status. Oliver Barrett IV is from a noble descent, a millionaire’s son and a law student in Havard. Jennifer Cavilleri is an American of Italian descent and music major whose father is a pastry baker.

Then in the middle of the story the two hear from a doctor that Jennifer has leukemia and is going to die. The relation which they have worked on in spite of all the difficulties goes to an end. They both cannot enjoy life to the full. So it is no wonder that we ask: ‘Can this story be called "Love Story"? Lots of the readers say it can’t be, because the loving couple is separated by death, and because the novel has no happy ending, which makes a good conclusion for lot of people and could justify the title of the book.

In my opinion the story is a love story in spite of the sad progress and the death of Jennifer, because the main part narrates the process of how two people fall in love, how they get to know each other better and better and how they help each other in the most difficult and worst situation for the reason of love. They present to us what love really means.

Apart from the love between Oliver and Jennifer the story narrates another kind of love, that is the father-son love. Those two persons have a very strained relationship. Oliver cannot stand the responsibility of his family heritage and tries to be independent of his father, a behaviour which his father understands as rebellion against him. So the father wants to keep his son under control. Oliver does not go to the sixtieth birthday of his father and does not inform him that Jennifer has leukemia. The father appears in the hospital to help when Oliver does not expect him. Oliver tells him that she is already dead. His father apologizes and Oliver responds with the sentence he has learned from Jennifer: "Love means not ever having to say you’re sorry."

In my opinion it could become a bestseller because firstly the whole structure of the story is held so simple that readers need no effort to read and understand it, so they liked to read it. The reader does not feel inferior to the author. There are phrases which became famous and archetypical. Within the simple structure of the novel it was easy to include some (special) sentences which are conspicuous for the reader and stick in his memory as characteristics of "Love Story". Secondly the book deals with a theme which particularly addressed the readers at the time of publication: Rebellion against the old traditions.

In his article ‘Spiritual Uplift and the Bestseller’ (1974) Bruce Merry states that there is a rule for cultural references. It says that in a popular narration cultural references are included, but in a way that they are identifiable. I think it is not important if they are identifiable or not, but they have to fit in the plot and they have to contribute to the reader’s understanding of the culture in which the book was written. "Love Story" mentions some composers by their name or quotes Elisabeth Barrett or Walt Whitman. I cannot learn anything about American culture through those references as the author has them in his book.

J. B. Priestley broadcasting a Sunday evening "Postscript" in 1940 on the BBC

In the drama "An Inspector Calls" by J. B. Priesley the ruling class of society is criticized by the moral misfires and prejudices of one family shown to the reader / spectator. Especially the parents of the family, Mr and Mrs Birling, do not want have contact with the people in poverty.They regard them as the moral decay, although they are responsible for their misery in the drama. Mr Birling’s motto is "Every man for himself." and Mrs Birling says that it is the own fault of the poor to get into misery. Priestley, the author of the drama, saw the reasons for poverty and wars in such behaviours. In 1940 he proclaimed his message in a broadcast : "… if the privileges of the few are seen to be regarded as more important than the happiness of the many…if too many of us will simply not trouble to know, or if we do know, will not care, then the great opportunity will pass us by, and soon the light will be going out again." (Postscripts, Heinemann, London 1940, page 99). A few years later he had the character of his drama, Inspector Goole, repeat this message more drastically.

We are incautious and show indifference if the matters of other people have not got anything to do with ourselves. If we close our eyes to violence and oppression we will be responsible for the destruction of man´s dignity. Like the inspector says we are members of one body: the inhabitants of a country and also all the people all over the world are one community, one body. We live in a time in which the tasks are divided. Every man has his special role. A single person cannot survive without other persons. Actuallly it is for our own good to think and be reminded that we all belong to one body. Apart from the tasks of everyone we are connected through other things, even though we cannot feel the connections from the beginning. To make this idea clear let me tell an Indian fable which is about a bird with two heads and necks: A bird with one stomach and two heads lived close to the sea. One day when it walked along the coast it found a fruit which looked delicious. The right head took it, ate it and started to talk about its great taste. It said: "I can feel the bliss on my tongue!" The left head asked: "Could you give me a bit of the fruit to taste that big joy on my tongue, too?" At that time the first one started to laugh and answered: "You needn’t taste it because we have the same stomach, so we’ll have the same joy, too!" The second head became very sad. One day it found a poisonous fruit which it took and shouted: "You cruel creature, look at this! I’ll eat the fruit because of your disregard!" The other head replied: "If you eat it, both of us will die! For that reason forgive my selfishness! I’ll never hurt you again!" Although it had asked for forgiveness the left head ate the fruit and soon both died.

If one part of the body is hurt the rest will feel the results of it, too. We can see that every single person and every country must belong to one body when we look at the wars and conflicts we had in the past and still have. The United States, for example, has been preparing for a war against Iraq for the last few weeks. The war has not started yet, but the USA and other countries are in fear and the economic situation becomes worse. If one country fights in selfishness it will never end in happiness and success. The country which feels to be on the right position and starts a fight will destroy itself and others.

For J.B. Priestley it is not enough that the reader / spectator of "An Inspector Calls" understands people´s dependence on each other. He demands charity instead of selfishness. If we only take the hopes, fears and sufferings of other people seriously a good world will be guaranteed. If we regard other people as a part of us how will be able to hurt them easily? We should not condemn and hate selfish people because then other conflicts and fights will arise again.

As long as we have "fire, blood and anguish" in the world the play’s social message can be applied.

At first sight the concept of the melting pot seems to be the best, in which all diversities are melted to one unity, so that differences which cause problems are extinguished. But melting pots cannot work with people. The customs and traditions which have arisen in many years and which have been practised for a long time, cannot be given up because the people migrated to another the country. But for the following generations it is easier to live with no customs of their ancestors.

The beginning of a good life together depends on the attitude of both sides. The newcomers should pay attention to keep the rules and habits of the Americans and try to adapt to their culture and the Americans should accept foreign cultures and let the immigrants be a part of their own culture.

America is a country which has got many different cultures in it. For many decades it has taken immigrants from all over the world. In my opinion this fact is the reason why America, a multicultural country, could grow to such an industrial power. Each country possesses its typical positive skills. One is better in art, others in technology, another can work more exactly or faster. In America the people with those various skills, which are necessarily needed, have gathered.

Sometimes immigrants are regarded as people of inferior quality, who leave their home because of money deficiency. The contrary is the case. People who do not feel to be promoted in their home country, can also leave it to develop themselves. Here America has its important duty. Once a newcomer has passed the gate into America, Americans have to help him to settle in his new home quickly. So the immigrant will contribute his skills to society, which will be an advantage for America.

But those immigrants who are not accepted by the native inhabitants or who cannot accustom to their new life will rather make trouble than those who find their place in society. The native inhabitants do not need to complain about the immigrants, who do not adapt to the Americans habits and only make "trouble". Multiculturalism in America does not have to be interpreted as its ruin. As long as America has the capacity to integrate immigrants well, which is of course not easy, the country will develop in a positive way. If a multiple unity can be established, multiculturalism will be the future.

Educating Rita by the Liverpudlian playwright Willy Russell was first produced on June 10th, 1980 by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Warehouse in London.

To answer the question if Rita is happier than before the completion of the education I want to examine Rita’s development of thinking and acting through the story of Willy Russell´s play Educating Rita. Rita applies for an Open University course to give her life a new direction through literature which is taught by a professor named Frank. She desires a change from the inside. Although she will break the rule of the working class through studying, she makes the step to the university with courage and resoluteness.

Then, on her way of searching for a better culture, which she wants to get through studying, she does not know any longer which class she belongs to. She says: “I’m a half-caste.” (act 1, scene 7). At the beginning of act 2 she seems to believe that she can be part of the middle class. The reader feels the change of Rita’s personality. She came back from summer school and thinks she is educated by the studies in the summer school now. Besides the studies she mingled with other students and professors with whom she talked about literature, went to markets and theatres in the summer time. This feeling of being part of the elevated class made her haughty. Back from the summer course she leaves Denny, her husband, and moves to a friend called Trish, who comes from the middle class. For her this movement means a change of her social background. Trish becomes her idol and Rita tries to live, speak, dress and eat like Trish.

At this station of her life, in which she is captivated by the middle class, she might have felt happy and might have thought that she reached her aim or a part of it. But the reader cannot share this feeling with her. For the reader she is alienated when she says: ”I’ve got a room full of books. I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what plays to see …” (2,5). The reader thinks, “Why did these subordinate things become so important for her?”. For the reader she is losing her qualities, which make her very unique and sympathetic. Frank also considers her change sceptically. He responds to her attitude with these sentences: “Found a better song to sing, have you? No - you’ve found a different song, that’s all.” (2,5). He knows that this is not the culture which she was searching for when she came to Frank for the first time.

In the last scene of the book (2,7) she comes to her senses. She visits Frank to thank him for teaching her important things. She tells him that she did not recognize the real meaning of Frank’s teaching and education, because she was so “hungry” to learn everything. She says: “I wanted it all so much that I didn’t want it to be questioned.” She realizes that she was deluded through her will to get to know everything and lost the direction she was going. She did not want to be questioned what she was doing, she did not want to be criticized on what she had started on her way to happiness. The attempt of Trish to commit suicide makes Rita think about herself and her values. She recognizes that not literary knowledge and wealth, which she wanted to possess, lead to happiness: “And it might be worthless in the end.” The really important thing she has realized is that she can choose in her life, which gives her contentedness inside. This is happiness. How she will use her freedom of being able to choose is not said in the story. She does not know which class she belongs to, which direction she will give her life. But no matter which class she belongs to or how much she is educated, she will decide for the best to keep the happiness. Not the literary knowledge brought her happiness, but the whole development during the completion of her education.