Table of Contents

 Some autobiographical notes

My name is Silvia and I am 17 years old. I live in Berlin and I am attending the 12th grade of High School.

I have a lot of different hobbies. Writing is one of my hobbies because I like to express my feelings and thoughts in words, so I write a diary, memories and sometimes poems.

I also enjoy reading, some of my favourite books are "The little Prince" written by J.B. Saint-Exupery and "Lord of the Rings" written by J.R. Tolkien. When I read those books I feel like in another world and forget about everything that is happening around me.

Being a member of the School Rowing Team I row every week on the Wannsee, a lake not far from my house. I like being on the water because of the nature and especially the speed you can reach when rowing. Last year our team made a rowing trip for about 5 days!

Another hobby of mine is music. At the age of six I started playing the treble recorder and I participated in a treble recorder choir of the high level for four years. We gave a lot of concerts in churches in Berlin. Six years ago I started playing the piano, which I really enjoy.

Going out with my friends is a ritual every weekend. We go to parks or the theatre and we enjoy exchanging the latest gossip of the week before.

Last year I was an exchange student in the United States of America which was one of my most exciting and challenging experiences of my life. Living in the State of Kansas I had a wonderful host family with three host brothers, 12, 15 and 19 years old.

Getting involved in all the things boys like to do like wrestling and ballgames was quite different than at home where I am an only child. Outside the house we had a big trampoline and a go-cart.

My host family had three pets: a cat called Biscuit, a Collie called Kelly and a Husky called Patches. As you can see, there was always something going on around the house!

Attending DeSoto High School was also a great experience: I got to know another school system with block scheduling, joined the Cross Country team, went to school dances and even participated in the graduation of the Senior Class of 2000! One thing I really liked in the American High School was the relationship between teachers and students: teachers are like friends and it is nothing extraordinary to get invited for dinner by a teacher. This is because a lot of your teachers are also your coaches in sports like cross country, football or wrestling.

I made a lot of great friends during the year who showed me how American teenagers live and what they do at the week-ends. We often went to each other´s houses, had great talks and games, went to the movie theatre or a football game of the Kansas City Chiefs. Once my friends even invited me to go on a vacation to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri where we stayed at a cabin and had a great time.

It was a big challenge being by yourself without your parents and friends, speaking another language, but now as it is over it is great to say "I did it!". The whole year taught me a lot, for ex-ample getting to know foreign customs and traditions, gaining a lot of friends and learning how to speak English!

Now, being back in Germany, I will attend High School for two more years and I plan on going to university after graduating from High School.  (Sep 2000)

Educating Rita - not a conventional love story

In my opinion "Education Rita" by Willy Russell is a love story, but not in the way I would normally consider one. For me a real love story is dramatic, deals with broken hearts, committing suicide, hidden love, kissing and is romantic,  like for example "Romeo and Juliet". "Education Rita" doesn´t have a lot of these aspects in it so it is hard to say it is a true love story. On the other hand it is a love story, a story about unfulfilled love.

Frank and Rita trust each other as you can see in different parts of the story. They tell each other a lot about their relationships, their jobs and personal habits. Frank feels something more than friendships for her, for example he tells her that he wishes to take her by hand and run away or he even kisses her when she gives him a little gift from her trip. It is obvious that he likes her because he gets jealous when she wants to go on a trip with other guys from the university and he is waiting impatiently for her to arrive.

Rita also gives him hope that she also wants more than just friendship, she tells him that she likes him and makes him compliments. On the other hand she goes her own way and doesn´t depend on him. She makes her own decisions like changing her job and moving into a flat without telling him.

At the end of the play Frank decides to move to Australia. This decision shows that he realised that Rita would never become his companion and he wants to forget about her and start a new life away from her, the university and his old life.

  Educating Rita: An Autobiographical Play  

Willy Russell wrote his own life story in the play "Educating Rita".  

Willy Russell was born in Liverpool and talked in the same accent as Rita does in the play. He went to school in Knowsley but wasn´t a good student. There were fights going on every day and Willy Russell didn´t care much about reading books, maths or learning at all. He finished school and didn´t have a chance to get out of the way he and his family were living.

When he was at the age to start working his mom suggested to him to become a hairdresser. Willy Russell worked as a hairdresser for a while but was never good at it. He realised that writing would be his favourite thing to do. But now the question appeared where to learn how to write? It was not normal that someone of the working class decided to become a writer so first he wrote some poems and songs during his working time as a hairdresser. After a while he decided to get educated because that would be the only way to break out of the class he was living in. Willy Russell went to an Open University course and started to study English literature. He felt that he found his home and that he had the chance to start his life again.

The story of Rita being a hairdresser and going to an Open University course and not being understood by anyone is the story of  Willy Russell himself, his personal experiences and how he felt when making this decision.

Knowing the background of "Educating Rita" the story gets another dimension to me. It is more interesting to read it when you know that every little thing that is described in the book actually happened to a real person. I understand how hard it is to start all over again and not being understood and supported by your family and friends.

The film version completed my studies of Educating Rita

Normally I don´t like watching a film adaption after reading the book, but this time it was different.

The film and the book "Educating Rita" differ in some details. First of all there is no phone call at the beginning of the film as it is in the book where Julia calls Frank at work to ask when he will be home for din-ner. During the phone call the reader gets to know that Frank is expecting an Open University student to arrive. In the film Julia visits Frank herself and they talk about dinner and Rita.

When Rita arrives you are able to see very well that she has troubles to open the door to Frank's office which is a symbol that it is hard for her to enter into her new life.

During the film Julia has an affair with a family friend which is not de-scribed in the book. She kisses him secretly and it is obvious that she is in love with him and not with Frank anymore. Julia and her new boyfriend hide their feelings from Frank and whenever Frank appears Julias´s boy-friend pretends making a phone call. This element makes these scenes quite funny, especially when Frank comments: "I didn´t pay the bill yet so you can´t be on the phone! " At this moment in the film Julia and Frank break up. In the book their separation is described completely differently. Frank only says: "It was actually caused by something called oefs en cocotte." (page 56, line 22).

There are some more little details which are shown in the film and differ from the book, for example Frank does not kiss Rita to thank her for her gift, then Rita imitates a German soldier and later she meets Denny with his new girlfriend, who is already pregnant, but these little details do not change the story of "Educating Rita" at all.

In my opinion it was really interesting to watch the film after reading the book. It gave me a good impression of what British colleges look like and I got to hear the Liverpudlian accent. Reading or even imitating the accent was quite hard and I could not imagine how it would sound like. I would not have been able to understand Rita in the film without knowing the story before but it was quite interesting and funny listening to her.

Actually I don´t like watching a film after reading a book because it destroys my personal idea of what the persons and the surroundings look like but in this case I didn´t have a strong own idea so watching the film just completed my understanding of "Educating Rita".

The Victorian Sociey as presented in Shaw´s Pygmalion, Act III

In act III of "Pygmalion" the reader gets to know some interesting facts about the Victorian Society with its own traditions and customs.

In the upper class it was usual that everybody got a large living space as you can see at the example of Professor Higgins and his mother. Henry Higgins lives in a three floor house and his mother also has her own big flat in a famous street of London. They both have a housekeeper and several servants and parlormaids. The parlormaid´s job is to let the guests into the house and to announce them to the hostess.

In the Victorian Society the living rooms were furnished by several valuable pieces of furniture like carved chairs and paintings that had already been shown in famous exhibitions like a drawing of a landscape by Cecil Lawson, a famous English artist. It was also a tradition to have a painting of the hostess herself in her youth hanging in the living room. People would have a fireplace and a piano in their house, carpets and a balcony with flowers. The house with its furnishing represented the wealth of each individual family.

To be respected and honoured by the other people of the prosperous slice of society it was a custom to invite each other of the nobility to weekly meetings, which were called "at-homes". Each lady would have her individual at-home day when others would come to her house to visit.

After the arrival of the guests they would greet each other with a formal "How do you do?", but when asking this question they wouldn´t expect an answer and it was considered a misbehavior to answer in detail or to have a pause in between the question and the answer.

When all guests were seated and had a cup of tea the so called small talk could start. The aim of the small talk was not to get informed about the other person´s life or hobbies, but to gossip about others who are not in the room. Favourite subjects were the weather or gossip so the whole small talk was very superficial.

Some strict rules existed as to how to behave at the at-home: being well dressed, having an exquisite language without swearing or slang words, an excellent behavior and no exchange of personal matters. The guests did not stay long because they had several at-homes to go to on one day.

In my opinion the social life in the Victorian Society was a very strict one. Wrong behavior or language, solving problems and talking about personal matters were not encouraged, so people actually did not show how they really were, instead they were acting like living dolls.

Would you like more about the Victorian Era Etiquette? Click here!

What is Mrs Higgins´ role in Shaw´s play ?

She is the only one who is interested in Eliza´s future

In the play "Pygmalion" written by Bernard Shaw Mrs. Higgins is not introduced to the reader right at the beginning. She first appears in the scene when Henry Higgins visits her to tell her that Eliza, his student, is going to take part in her at her at-home day. Mrs. Higgins, of course, is the mother of one of the main characters of the play, Mr. Higgins.  She belongs to the upper class, lives in her own house and has her own house-keeper and servants.

Looking at these facts I would regard her a typical lady of the upper class of the Victorian Society. Mrs. Higgins is respected and honoured by her friends and neighbours and as part of her social obligations she is also hostess of the weekly at-home afternoon at her home including the very superficial small talk.

In my opinion Mrs Higgins takes the typical mother role of the play. This statement is based on different facts; for example, she talks very directly to her son in public, corrects him and tells him what to do and what to leave just like a mother would. In this play she also becomes kind of a mother for Eliza. When Eliza first meets her Mrs. Higgins is very polite and kind to her, she does not treat her not as a common flower girl but as a young lady. Eliza starts to trust Mrs. Higgins. At the end of the play, after the garden party and Eliza´s big test Eliza gets into a fight with Mr. Higgins and decides to leave him. The only place she knows to go to is Mrs. Higgins´ house where she is welcome and, most importantly, supported and understood.

In my opinion Mrs. Higgins is a very important character in the play ,because she is the only one that does not admire her son as all the other people do and the only one that is really interested in what will become of Eliza.

Lord of the Flies: Civilization turns into Savagery

Is Golding´s message that man is basically evil ?

The loss of civilization is one on the main subjects in the novel "Lord of the Flies" written by William Golding. In the story a group of boys land on an uninhabited island and have to survive without the support and help of adults.

In the beginning they still have some items on the island which symbolize civilization, for example there is the shell as well as the fire and the shelters.The shell, which they call conch, symbolizes civilization because it is used to call the group together to have an assembly to discuss and talk things over. The shelters which the boys have built on the island stand for safety. In the night it is much more comfortable to be in the shelter of huts than being outside.The fire is the most important symbol for civilization. First it means giving a signal for rescue and on the other hand it is used very often in civilization: people need a fire to cook food and to be warm. At the beginning the group even make cups out of coconuts to have drinks and they have a lavatory place which is rather civilized.

After a while on this island the group starts breaking off and life becomes bad. Most of the group do not care about the fire anymore which also means that they forget about rescue. Even Jack needs to think one time what rescue means.The group do not care about the assemblies and the lavatory anymore, they slowly lose their civilization.

Jack starts to have another group, a group without any rules, a group that wants to have fun on the island as he calls it. The only thing his group will do is hunt. After a while his group turns out to behave like a tribe of savages. Killing becomes normal to them and they do not make a difference between animals and human beings. They start painting their faces with blood and dance cruel dances around the fire. The loss of civilization is complete.

The final scene in Peter Brook´s film (1963)

The members of the original group start to join Jack´s group, so after Piggy is killed Ralph finally is on his own. He is the only one who wants the fire to keep burning but does not get support of the others. The group of Jack is not able anymore to decide between good and evil, evil has taken hold of them.

Golding´s novel contains important issues

In this novel "Lord of the Flies", written by William Golding in 1954, a group of boys land on an uninhabited tropical island. They live on their own without any adults and have to deal with daily conflicts, fear and the decreasing hope of getting rescued. After a while the group breaks up into different interest groups and evil increases every day. One of the main issues described in the book is leadership, which still is an important issue of today. Already at the beginning of the book the boys decide to run an election by acclaim to elect a leader. A leader is necessary to have, a person that is in charge of everything."Seems to me we ought to have a leader to decide things" is an important statement of Ralph that turns the story in to a significant direction.

The fight for power between Jack and Ralph is a typical issue that apperars in everyone´s life, everbody already had to deal with this kind of fight and always will. The same as Ralph and Jack would like to be chief and have power, everybody wants to. Leadership, election and the fight for power are issues of today. The chief in a family, the fight for power between brother and sister, all the elections that are run in the world represent the issue of power and leadership. Having power and being the leader is a very responsible job. It can be used in different ways, one of those ways is able to support other people, a country or company, the other one is able to destroy everything. Both ways were already used in history. The leadership of Hitler destroyed a lot and had a country lose respect and power. The opposite way, the way of support, had a lot of companies have success.

In the novel"Lord of the Flies" both ways appear. First everything is fine, Ralph who was elected leader, decides things to have a better life on the island, he calls meetings and builds shelters for the night. Jack´s fight for power is the only problem. Jack starts having a group of hunters and he starts painting his face with blood. Things are breaking up. Nobody follows the rules anymore and Ralph realizes that he does not have too much power anymore. In his statement " What are we, humans, animals, savages?" it becomes clear that everything on the island turned into another direction. Jack becomes more and more a leader and a lot of people start to follow his rules. Jack has won the fight for power. Situations like this happen everyday. Envy controls people. When somebody is leader there always is someone else that wants to be in the same position. Looking at this fact I would consider leadership and the fight for power an important issue of today.

Another issue of today that is described in the book is the issue of losing civilisation. In the novel "Lord of the Flies" people are losing civilisation and do certain things they normally would not do, things that are not allowed in our society. First it starts slowly, for example when a boy is throwing stones at others. He would not do this under normal circumstances, but on the island normal circumstances are far away. The loss of civilisation becomes bigger and bigger, especially when the one big group splits up in two other groups. One is led by Jack, the other one by Ralph. In the end they even start killing human beings that have been their frieds before. The evil of mankind makes the boys hostages of themselves.

In today´s society the loss of civilisation is an issue, too. An example would be the conflicts between to cultures that happen all over the world. People forget that they are humans. Hate makes people wild, turns them to be evil. This hate is connected with envy as it is described in the the novel. Jack hates Ralph quite a lot and this hate is based on envy that he himself did not become chief. The same basically happens in today´s society. In the news you can sometimes hear about a murder in the family or one of the siblings for example believes that the other one has more rights so it gets so mad that it kills its own brother or sister.

In my view the fight for power and leadership, and the loss of civilisation are unfornately important issues of today It happens all over the world and everybody has to deal with them. In my opinion William Golding presents certain issues of today quite well and looking a this fact the book is interesting to read.