Engelsk mundtlig eksamen
Different worlds * Film: Once Were Warriors
It is a movie from New Zealand about a family where the mother comes from a fine old tribe, and the father comes from a slave tribe. The family lives in a house in the modern civilization, and the father goes to a pub every day because he is fired. See the Plot document. * Going Home
Going Home is about a black boy called William or Billy. He is very successful as a painter and football player, and he has forgotten all about his aboriginal roots because he is ashamed of them. One day he meets his disgusting aunt and another day his uncle sleeps on his veranda so William has to move because the neighbors look at him. He decides to visit his family, but it’s not easy and he doesn’t feel comfortable. He gets a gold watch, because it is his 21 years birthday, but when he walks out of the door the next day he is grabbed by a policeman and so is his brother. * The Guilt
The Guilt is about an old woman who lives alone in South Africa. She is afraid when black people come to the gate in the high wall around her garden. She becomes irritated when they ask for money, but she feels guilt for being white and she always give them some change, food or clothes. One day a young black man called William comes to her gate and asks for a job, she says she don’t have any and gives him 5 rand. He says that he can’t accept it and starts fixing the garden. When he is finished he goes into her house and demands 10 rand more for his work. His attitude is a bit threatening so she commands her dogs to attack him and picks up her gun in the wardrobe. She then tells him to leave her ground. * The boy on the left had no future. The one on the right is a talented star pupil
This article about Ryan is about how new surroundings can make a huge difference to a person’s behavior. Ryan was in a bad public school and used to paint graffiti and walk the streets in London instead of attending his classes. Then a TV-company owned by a Labour politician makes him go to another better public school. Here he does great, both as a student and as football player. Later however he returns to his old way of behaving. * Adam
Adam is an interview with this yuppie (young urban professional) guy who studied science and economics. He didn’t want to be a scientist because you earn far more respect and money as a banker. He believes that money can make you happy if you are intelligent and healthy, and he thinks that marriage is a kind of teamwork to make the maximal amount of money. He has a very radical opinion towards criminal and he suggest that you should only have three chances in life, if you waste them all, then you shouldn’t go to prison, but get shot instead.
(Un)arranged marriage * Bali Rai: Unarranged Marriage
The book is about a young boy from an Indian family. He has grown up in Great Britain and he wants to live a normal life like his friends. He struggles to make his family happy while he tries to live his own life. Themes could be different cultures, arranged marriage, social alienation and pattern breaking. Parents expectations is also an important theme. * Indian dating site for arranged marriages
It was very interesting to look at this website. It is just like a Danish dating site I think, I have never been on one, but nearly all the profiles are written by the family. Most of the profile texts is like: this is a very caring and liberal-oriented girl, who is good at cooking and doesn’t ask too many questions.
Violence
* Rendezvous
Rendezvous is a short story split up two storylines that are combined in the ending. Payton is driving on the Interstate while he drinks beer and hears loud music. He has a tattoo of a cobra on his arm and he rubs it all the time because it is not made by a professional. We hear that he has just talked to a priest who told him to go to the police, and Payton try to get sympathy by saying he has visited the funeral home. So it is pretty clear that he has killed someone. Meanwhile Kim is hitchhiking along the same Interstate because she has run away from home. In the end she is picked up by Payton and probably killed. * Grouppresentations
Group presentations about various themes connected to violence. My group told about how young talented black people are often seen as betrayers when they do well in school. * Hooligans (film)
It is a feature film about a young boy who is kicked out of Harvard because he won’t stand up for himself. He then joins a hooligan group in England where he learns about friendship, violence and to stand your ground. After the dramatic events he returns to Harvard and tells about his roommate.
Hemmingway
His stories have unhappy endings, they are sad love stories. He makes use of the iceberg technique, the whole story is written between the lines.
Typical characters: * Masculine Man * Women described from the outside. Men from the inside * Men are easy to understand * Women are difficult * "A very short Story"
A Very Short Story is about a young soldier in the First World War who is in love with his nurse Luz. The fall deeply in love and want to get married, but they don’t have enough time. The main character returns to the front and when he is done he wants to get Luz with him to the United States. She says that she will, but only after he has got a good job. So the main character travels back to the United States and Luz goes to another town in Italy to start a hospital. After some time she falls in love with an Italian major and writes to the main character that their love had been a boy and girls love. Shortly after that the main character gets gonorrhea from a sales girl while in a taxi driving through Lincoln Park * "The doctor and the doctor's wife"
It is a story about a doctor called Henry who finds some logs by a river near his house. He hires Dick Boulton and some other local Indians to cut it. Dick knows that the timber isn’t the doctors so he turns it around and reveals that it is actually belonging to the mill further down the river. Dick says he doesn’t care whether the logs are stolen or not, but they are stolen. Henry becomes very angry and fires the men. Then he goes to his house and picks up his shotgun. He tells his wife that Dick only said what he said because he doesn’t want to work his debt off. His wife doesn’t believe that, so Henry goes outside where he meets his son and they go hunting together. * "Up in Michigan”
Up in Michigan is about this young girl Liz who falls in love with the new blacksmith Jim. She thinks about him all the time, and when he goes hunting with the other men she misses him deeply. When the men come back they drink whiskey, and Jim touches and kisses Liz. At first she feels uncomfortable, but then she likes it. They decide to take a walk down to a warehouse shelter. Here Jim wants to have sex with her, she tells him to stop and pushes him away because it hurts, but he continues anyway. Afterwards he falls asleep and Liz starts to cry. She kisses him on the cheek and put her coat over him. Then she goes home alone.

* "Hills like white elephants"
The story is about a couple sitting on a train station in Spain. The man tries to convince his girlfriend to have an abortion. He says that he doesn’t want anything but her and that it is a really simple operation. She doesn’t know what she wants and maybe she sees a baby as a way out of her trivial life where they just travel around and see things and try new drinks. In the end she just want him to stop talking. * "The short happy life of Francis Macomber"
Perceptions of war * Bertrand De Born: "My heart is filled with gladness when I see"
It’s a poem about the joy of war. The author likes war to such an extent that it would be very politically incorrect today. * Generation Kill
It’s a text about the victims of war; there is a focus on the individual soldier * Collateral murder (Videoklip)
It’s a video leaked on wikileaks showing some soldiers shooting down innocent people. Themes could be the madness in war and free flow of information. * Impeachment and bombing
It’s a text about how Clinton launched some missile attacks against Saddam Hussein in order to be reelected. * Excerpt from a transcript of a program about the wikileaks video
It’s a transcript about a former soldier who is a conscious objector, because he saw so many horrible things in war * SSgt Barry Sadler: Ballad Of The Green Berets
It’s a song written by a sergeant that glorifies war, and the men who fight it. It describes the marines as heroes. * Tom Waits: Road to Peace
It’s a Tom Waits song about a suicide bomber, god and the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It describes war as hopeless, and says that god can’t do anything about it. * Wag The Dog (Film)
The film shows how politicians can start a war just because they need it in order to be reelected.