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 Table of Contents
 My student exchange to the USA Eliza fails her first test, but is she to blame?
 Russell reveals his own diffculties through Rita The River by Bruce Springsteen
 Mrs Higgins plays a short but important role American Society: Melting Pot or Powder Keg ?
The Catcher in the Rye: How does Holden show his feelings?

My student exchange to the USA

My most exciting and best experience was definitely the time during my exchange student program year in Oklahoma, USA. Actually, when I heard from my organisation that I would go to Oklahoma, I was glad that they had finally found a place for me but on the other hand I had hoped I would go to a different place such as Long Island or to a big city. Today I'm happy that it went to Indiahoma, though I had a hard time there. When I got there, my host family didn't pick me up from the airport. My area representative told me that my host family had changed their mind and I had to live with her. I had to share one small room with the son of my area rep and a Japanese exchange student. I had a lot problems during the first weeks, and there is nobody who helps you.

I thought about going back to Germany, since I couldn't do anything than wait that something would change soon. Fortunately, my German organisation took care about this and talked some clear words to my area rep, so she tried to find a host family. It took about 4 weeks to find a new host family for me. My host family was really nice to me, but even there were some problems too. I made a lot experiences and I got to know a lot people there. I learned a lot about Indian traditions. My town was very little (population was 256 people) and my school was small. My senior class was just 14 people. That all sounds very bad, but it wasn't so bad at all. You knew everybody and everybody knew you. It was something completely new for me, since my real home city has more people than Oklahoma, which is as big as Bavaria. Indiahoma had only one small gas station and a lot of farms; however, the nearest "big" city was only 20 miles away and since all my friends had cars (actually they had more pickups than cars) we went there at the weekends. All together I don't regret my stay in Oklahoma, it was something new and different. (Sep 2000)

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Russell reveals his own diffculties through Rita

Reflecting his life in Rita, Willy Russell seems to have written the play "Educating Rita" not only to tell a love story but also to reveal his own fight to become a writer, considering that he didn't care much about school and that he became a hairdresser, just the way Rita did. They both grew up in a working class family and they went to not very demanding schools where they weren't interested at all in getting educated. He had the ambition to become a writer very early, but since his family and friends all belonged to the working class and were no educated and high ranked personalities, he went the way of his social class and became a hairdresser. Bored with this job, he felt he didn't live to be a coiffeur. As a result he gave up his hairdressing life including his surroundings with all the consequences.

In the play Rita first is a hairdresser, too, and did not receive a good education when she went to regular school, but she also recognised that it was not her goal to stay in her class. Rita also has great difficulties to become an educated woman, so she changes her life by 180°.

Both then went to college at an older age than usual students attend universities even though they had to give up their old life which included "to break away [from his friends and the people he had to deal with before]". Rita also has to get through to this process and to shake off the surroundings of her past.

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Mrs Higgins plays a short but important role

Without her support of Eliza the play would end tragically

In the play Pygmalion, written by Bernard Shaw, Mrs Higgins, who only appears in Act III and V and is only mentioned at the end of Act IV, has just a short role, but nevertheless the play would be incomplete without her. One gets the impression that Mrs Higgins is very important for the whole play since she supports Eliza so well.

Mrs Higgins is also a very sympathetic person, she treats Eliza respectfully, she steps in when her son, Mr Higgins, speaks very rudely to or about Eliza, almost like a mother would defend her own daughter, and even though she is a member of the higher class, she does not have the typical snobbish attitude, which Bernard Shaw ridicules in his plays. She seems to pretend at her at-home parties to be a part of this arrogant culture.

She also has other qualities in dealing with Mr Higgins. Although he is her son and he has no manners, she knows how to make him understand that the way he and Pickering treat Eliza is not humane, so at the end of Pygmalion Mr Higgins considers for the first time that the way he treats people might be wrong and that he might have made some mistakes. She notices, even more, she gives him a warning not to experiment with Eliza and that she is not just a doll for him to play phonetic games with. Certainly Mr Higgins is a grown-up, but she still has to treat her son like a small boy, but this makes her so important as she plays the role of an objective advisor in this play.

Shaw also uses Mrs Higgins as an expedient to make Eliza's scene in Act III maybe the funniest part of the whole play. When Eliza meets the Eynsford Hill family at the at-home, and they all remember they have seen Eliza before and it gets close to uncovering Eliza's camouflage, Shaw makes a diversion when Mr Higgins sits down on his mother's writing table so Mrs Higgins has to admonish him to get up. Without this distraction, Eliza's first public test would have been over and the disaster which develops after this, would never have happened.

Without Mrs Higgins Pygmalion wouldn't have been as funny and reasonable as it is. She is probably the only normal person in this play who is not mad about the phonetic bet, instead she sees Eliza's real problem of emerging out of the gutter. Without her support the play would end tragically. She acts like a mediator between her son and Eliza and gives one the hope, Eliza will become a lady if she is treated like one.

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Eliza fails her first test, but is she to blame?

Her failure is the funniest part in Shaw´s play "Pygmalion"

In the play Pygmalion, written by Bernard Shaw, Mr Higgins, a scientist in phonetics, and Colonel Pickering, a wealthy hobby phonetician, pick up by sheer coincidence Eliza Doolittle, a very underprivileged young woman who has to sell flowers for living. When Mr Higgins is bragging that he could turn Eliza into a fine lady by teaching her how to pronounce and speak proper English, Eliza takes him by his word and the next day she knocks at Mr Higgins's door and calls on him to teach her. Mr Higgins accepts the challenge and bets Pickering that he could pass her off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party within six months. After a couple months Mr Higgins is confident that Eliza has made adequate improvement to attend a high society meeting, so he invites her to his mother´s at-home afternoon Shocked by her son's appearance, who is not allowed to visit her at her at-home parties, she first disagrees to let her son experiment with Eliza, but Mr Higgins just ignores her and when the other visitors arrive, it is to late for Mrs Higgins to prohibit her son's little "game". She therefore has to make the best out of it so she will not look like a fool in front of her guests, Mrs, Miss and Freddy Eynsford Hill.

Nevertheless Mr Higgins's "game plan" does not start as well as he designed it in his mind. He got it all figured out, he told Eliza what to talk about and gave her strict orders; however, the first little obstacle is that more people have come than he assumed . The next more important mistake is that they all, except Mrs Higgins, met before (in Act I) when Eliza was just a flower girl from the gutters. Fortunately, even though Mrs Eynsford Hill says that she thinks she has met Eliza before because she remembers her eyes, she cannot figure it out why she thinks that she knows Eliza, and also Freddy, who even says that he "has certainly had the pleasure" (Act III, page 98, line 18 and 19), doesn't discover Eliza's real identity. At that moment Bernard Shaw made a good cut by a distraction when Mr Higgins sits down on his mother's writing table so Mrs Higgins admonishes him and she also recognises that if she did not start a conversation the whole thing would go wrong, consequently she gives Eliza a cue by asking if it would rain (Act III, page 99, line 9-10). Eliza now acknowledges she should recite what Mr Higgins instructed her to say, but despite all her efforts and not making any mistakes with the pronunciation, the first major mistake is made. Freddy laughs at her because Eliza's gives a detailed scientific weather report instead of just briefly answering Mrs Higgins's easy question. Confused what she did wrong, that Freddy is amused by her statement, she asks Freddy what is so funny. Mrs Eynsford Hill who is surely not pleased by her son's reaction, tries to be friendly and comes back to the actual question about the weather and mentions with the word influenza which makes Eliza interpret that she could try to put right her mistake by starting to talk about her aunt who died of influenza. Eliza forgets her orders and just talks about private family matters, especially about the death of her aunt. She also fails to notice the words she uses are low class vocabulary. Mrs Eynsford Hill confused and startled by these new words puzzles, so Mr Higgins tries to save the situation by giving explanations and telling this is the "new small talk". But Eliza doesn't pull herself together and continues giving more details and using wrong grammar and language and that she shocks Mrs Eynsford Hill only further. Freddy, who surely enjoys the new small talk, just watches, but Mr Higgins, who now has to give up the test because it failed, gives Eliza an arranged sign to let her know thy have to go now.

Bernard Shaw did a really good job of making the test, which Mr Higgins had planned so well, a fiasco. This is probably the funniest part of Pygmalion. Returning to the main question, if Elza's first public test is positive or not, I come to the unequivocal conclusion that Eliza just wasn't ready yet. But it was not her fault; Mr Higgins certainly taught her how to pronounce correctly, but that is not all you need to be a lady. She was not prepared how to talk and when she felt insecure she returned to her old language. It will need a lot more work and practise to pass Eliza as a duchess.

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The River by Bruce Springsteen

springsteen11.jpg (1808 Byte)

The River

I come from down in the valley
Where mister when you’re young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
When she was just seventeen
We’d drive out of this valley down to where the fields where green

We’d go down to the river
And into the river we’d dive
Oh down to the river we’d ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
And man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
And the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle
No flowers, no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we’d dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain’t been much work on account of the economy
Now all them thing that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don’t remember
Mary acts like she don’t care

But I remember us riding in my brother’s car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I’d lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
They haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true
Or is it something worse,
That sends me down to the river
Though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
My baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride

Bruce Springsteen

  The main character in Springsteen’s song "The River" is a young fellow growing up in a small village. He was raised in an old-fashioned way, meaning that he had to emulate his father’s professions. Still attending High School, he meets his girl Mary, whom later he will marry. In the refrain they drive out to the green fields, they go down to the river in which they dive into. At that moment the river stands for the promise they gave each other, that they would love each other for the rest of their lives and it stands for the expectations they have.

The next thing that happens is that he gets a letter from Mary telling him she is pregnant. The reason why she wrote a letter instead of telling him about this important news could be that he served in the military, because a lot of young Americans serve in the military after graduating from High School since it is the easiest way to find a job for them. So at the age of nineteen they marry. Their wedding is not really a dream wedding because he says that they went to the court house to marry instead of a wedding at the church with a lot wedding guests and all the extras: "No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle, no flowers, no wedding dress". Now the refrain starts again, but this time he does not sing that they would go down to the river but that they went down to river. So at the day of their wedding he took an important step into life.

He gets a badly paid job but he tells us that the economy is down so he has very little work. He is at a low point of his live, he does not have enough work and all his dreams have vanished away, but he recalls the good old times when they went down to the reservoir and when he held Mary very close. He says that these memories hunt him like a curse and wonders: "Is a dream a lie if it doesn’t come true". He thinks that this dream is a curse which sends him down to the river.

The river is a metaphor for the hopes and dreams you have for your life, such as happiness, a good job, a harmonious family, etc.. But now, after he lost his job (he might still have his job, but he tells us that it isn’t enough work for him to live), the improvised wedding, and the vanished passion between him and his wife, he knows that the river is dry. At the beginning of his life he had a lot dreams, every time he and Mary "went down to the river" they thought about their dreams; they pictured it and "dived into the river" (their dreams, hopes, and promises). Now he sees that they were very naïve because they dived into the river every time, but they didn’t see that if you jump into the river you will be swept away by the river.

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American Society: Melting Pot or Powder Keg ?

A statistical approach to the problem of racial equality

The Constitution of the United Sates of America contains the phrase "All men are equal!", but if you look at and consider America’s current problems, this fundamental right seems to get lost between violence and prejudice. Racial problems in USA are the predominant reason and that is why it cannot be claimed that America is a big melting pot for all different kinds of people.

Discrimination is still practiced in the United States against Black, Hispanic, Indian and Chinese Americans. Discussing all the problems of those different ethnic groups would be too extensive. Therefore I will concentrate on the African Americans, because their problems have always played a big role in America’s history. The discrimination of Blacks has many roots, which are impoverishment, criminality and, in general, things which happened years ago, for example slavery.

Through the time of slavery, Blacks were suppressed by white people. The Blacks had to do lower jobs and they experienced that they were second-class humans. And it is understandable that they have built up a kind of hate. But the Whites were superior and because of that the Blacks had no chance to compensate this situation. The period of slavery lasted until the middle of the 19th century; however, a cross reference to the working situation during the time of slavery is the employment at present time. But before employment will be discussed, there is unemployment is a major factor. In the late 80’s, the unemployment rate of Blacks was above 12 percent. This was more than twice the rate of white Americans, which had a 6 percent unemployment rate. It cannot be proved, however, that Blacks were discriminated against because according to the law they are required to be given equal opportunities in the job market compared to Whites. work_usa.gif (8217 Byte)

 

source: www.thuban.com/census/census.html

Later in the mid-90’s, over 1 million black males were unemployed compared to the 4 million unemployed white males. This may sound good, but only 12 percent of the American population is black, so the equation does not add up. Additionally, Blacks that are able to get jobs do not get paid as much as Whites (who receive $13 more on average).

Discriminatory acts are also found in the field of education towards Blacks. One way to prove that Blacks here are discriminated against, too, is the fact that 4 percent more 18- and 19-year old white students were enrolled in colleges in the late 90’s than Blacks. The reason for Blacks being discriminated in their education can be found in the fact that admission offices of colleges and universities do not have to accept an applicant unless they want to. That is why they want to know your race when you apply. This is mainly when Blacks are discriminated against. This might be the reason that in 1998 only 15 percent of Blacks got degrees beyond high school, compared to 27 percent of Whites and only 3 percent of Blacks had advanced degrees, compared to 7 percent of Whites.

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source: www.thuban.com/census/census.html

Those facts listed above are an attempt to prove discrimination in a statistical way, because these comparisons make clear the Black´s disadvantages. But it is hard to prove that to somebody who is raised in this democratic system. Usually prejudices are more distinct to people than facts. So if somebody is asked what he associates with Blacks, the first catchwords are crimes, drugs, and poverty. On the other hand it might be convincing for somebody to believe these prejudices, because statistics also show that every third Black lives below the poverty line and every fourth Black has been in prison at least one time in his life. Of course, those facts strengthen prejudices, and many different social problems have their source in racial trouble

As long as these prejudices and "fights" between the races exist, it will be impossible for America to fulfill its role of being a melting pot of different peoples and cultures and a union for democracy in which all humans are really treated equally. The melting pot is an antiquated concept, which only worked when the white communities were dominant; but today, when the number of Whites decreases and the proportion of Hispanics and Blacks increases, a society of all races is unavoidable.
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The Catcher in the Rye: How does Holden show his feelings?

The main character of the book "The Catcher in the Rye", written by J. D. Salinger, is Holden Caulfield, a seventeen-year-old boy who tells his story about the experience he made after he got excluded from school. Holden seems to be a very strange boy and differs from all the other persons he describes; altogether he does not appear like any normal person you know of. For the reader it is hard to see that Holden shows any kind of feelings or emotions. That does not mean he never gets angry about people or in special situations, but nobody could care less than him and he seems to be very unenthusiastic. But you have to analyse his behaviour to see that he has feelings and that he cares about a lot of things; he might even care too much about people (or ducks).

In the first seven chapters he reveals at least three times a lot feelings and caring. He seems to care a lot for others, even though he does not like those persons too much. When he wanted to go to the movies, knowing about everybody having a date or being home to their families, he worried about the other guys who (like him) did not have a date. So he asked one of the guys and he asked Ackley too, although Holden does not like him like everybody else, because he is an incredibly strange and disgusting guy whom really nobody wants to call a friend, but he feels sorry for him. That proves that Holden is good-hearted.

It seems that Holden has no real friends, therefore he should not have to protect or worry about anybody, but when Stradlater comes back from the game to get ready for a date with a girl who knows Holden from the past, and who used to be a good friend for a long time, Holden behaves quite strange. Everybody else would have talked to her for a few minutes, but instead of going to the visitor´s room, where Jane waited for Stradlater, he acts like a coward and just kept asking Stradlater a lot about Jane. He acts a little childish, but that could be a sign that he might love her or still have a lot feelings for her, for him she is more than just a good friend. After Stradlater got back from the date, Holden proves my thesis. When Stradlater talked about her like he always talked about his girls (this was surely not the first time he reported Holden about his dates), Holden got angry and tried to fight him, but there was not any chance for him to win this fight. He protects her like a big brother or, and that is my opinion, as if he is in love with her.

The last thing I want to mention is the way Holden talks about his dead brother Allie. During the whole book, Holden uses colloquial language, swearwords and tends to exaggerate. While he is talking about his brother, he shows a better style of language, so you get the impression that he really loves and misses him and that it is important for him that the reader knows how much he loved Allie and how much of a good guy he was. The first time he reveals a lot of feelings.

I personally think that Holden is a strange guy, but he cares a lot more for the weaker than "normal" teenagers do and he is good-hearted. After analysing his behaviour I like him more and sympathise with him a lot more than before.
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