Young and Old - Happy Birthday

War; a subject which can scar even the most innocent man, in the most horrible way. Despite the scars not always being shown ed, they exist in the mind of the individual. Even though the man might seem to be calm and brave, there will always be something underneath that will constantly will (langt biled ikke adskille s + v) remind him of the horrors he has survived. In “Young and Old” we meet and old man and a young boy, and their view on the past war, which has clearly has (langt biled ikke adskille s + v) touched them in different ways. Fint (

The story is about a young boy and an old man, who are (kongruens) during the war is united by faith during the war (langt biled ikke adskille s + v). It takes place shortly after the war, because soldiers are still walking though the streets, but they are friendly, and the population of the city is free to wander around. In the beginning we learn that the man and the boy spend an awful lot of time in the catacombs of cellars beneath a shattered city, which sets the mood in the text. ( We imagine a city in ruins and a dark and creepy hangout place especially for the young boy. It’s is told by an objective, third person narrator, which results in us not taking any of the protagonist’s party, and therefore makes us capable of to experiencing e both of the characters in an equal way. ( (

Due to this fact, it is important for us to look at the protagonists separately. At first we have the old man, who seems to be a caring and loving man. When a complete stranger hands over a helpless infant to him, he raises it as if it was his own child. At one point, he actually refers himself as the father of the child: “I haven’t been a very good father, letting you go without birthdays this long…” (p.1 l. 30-31) ( He feels that he is the real father of the child and therefore has the obligations to give, what the boy is entitled to, thereby meaning a birthday present.
But the fact that the man lived during the war y has caused him to be afraid of everything concerning the war. ( He fears the friendly soldiers, and is shaking by the bare thought of them.
He decides that the most amazing gift for his “son” is a day away from the way – no soldiers and no memories of the past, and therefore he arranges a journey into the woods. (

When they arrive, the man describes the wood as a following:

“The pine forest was very still. The centuries-old carpet of needles and green roof deadened the sound floating up from the city. Infinite colonnades of thick brown trunks surrounded the old man and the boy…”

As can be seen in the quote, tThe forest is as a fantastic home to the old man. He feels that this is where he belongs. He refers to the needles as “a carpet” and the crown of the threes as “a roof”, which and creates a homely environment, which gives us a clearer understanding of his passion for staying in the forest instead of being in the city. > meget flot her , Louise, fordi du dels finder relevante citater og dels virkelig BRUGER dem til noget I en tolkning.
During their journey they discover a deserted tank:

“”There! And what do you think of this? Eden!...” “…Here’s a bend up ahead, and around that we’ll find exactly what we want.”” (p. 3 l.105-116)

Even though the man has just named the place Eden, he decides to walk on, because a reminder of the war turns up, and disturbs the peace and harmony, he felt the place had. Godt – du ser her kontrasten mellem hans “paradis” og så den udbrændte tank, der forstyrrer dette billede. When it comes to his fear of the war, he forgets about the boy’s missing experiences.

This leads us directly to the young boy, who, as earlier mentioned, has had a very different childhood in contrast to the average child. His mom gave him up, when he was just an infant and he was raised with no idea of his real name, birthday or national origin. All of his life he has been living in hiding and by stealing food with his “farther”. His is very fascinated by the war (, and memorized the different colours of the military’s men:

“”Black and red is the engineers,” interrupted the boy seriously. “Plain black is the military police, and red is the artillery, and blue and red is the medical corps, and black and orange is…”” (p. 2 l. 88-90)

His fascination of the way is very clear clearly stands throughout the entire text, because he knows a lot of things about the military forces, and we can be sure that it isn’t the old man, who has told him about it. When the boy and the old man discover the tank in the woods, the boy is thrilled to take a closer look at it:

“”How can we cross the water to get to it?” said the boy.
“We don’t want to get to it,” said the old man irritably. He held the boy’s hand tightly. “Not today. Some other day we can come out here, maybe. But not today.”
The boy was crestfallen. His small hand grew limp in the old man’s.” (p.3 l. 112-115)

The boy was so excited to experience the tank up close, but the old man refuses, which made the boy sad and loose all interest for the rest of the trip. ( Igen meget fint her, fordi du egentlig refererer teksten, men samtidig løfter du det op og bruger det I en decideret tolkning.
But in the end, when (tidsangivele altid “when”) re the old man falls asleep, the boy sneaks off to play with the harmless tank, and even though the man is worried about him, he keeps on playing as the young soul he is.
We sense that the boy has no memory of the war as the old man has, because he likes the city, where the soldiers are, and opposite of the old man, he finds the forest too quiet.

Even though we don’t know the author of the text, we sense that he is a fan of Hemingway’s “Iceberg Technique”, due to the minimalistic way of writing, which leads us to read between the lines, to truly understand the text. There is a lot of symbolism in the text, which mostly comes to show in the boy’s and the old man’s way of looking at the war related objects. ( Due to the different life experiences the man and the boy possess, their reactions to the war are complete contradictions. Where the old man’s memories keep him suspicious of every war related subjects, the boy’s ignorance about the past war makes him curious, and therefore might help the old man to discover the harmlessness of the deserted war machines and friendly soldiers.

This leads us ( to the theme of the text, ignorance, and how it sometimes is good not knowing too much. The boy has a lot of fun through out the text, because he hasn’t got the unfortunate memories of the things he plays with as the old man has. This fun is accepted by the reader mainly because it harms no one, and it reminds us of the joys of a child’s imagination.
But to justify the actions of the old man, I can relate to my own life. If I where to talk about a joke, where a Nazi related gesture where involved, my grandparents would be repulsed and mad that I would even find a joke like that funny, where all of my friend laugh every time they hear it.
I can’t relate to their feelings, having been born 50 years after the war, and the boy can’t relate to the fears of the old man, due to him not remembering the war.

Without revealing much more than the plot, the author succeeds in writing (fast udtryk, skal læres) successes to write an amazing story.
The deeper meaning of the text reveals the different perceptions of war, and the mind of an old man, trying to take care of a child whilst dealing with terrible memories.
Louise: flot stykke arbejde! Din komposition bærer tydeligt præg af, at du har en god forståelse for teksten, og du ved, hvor vi skal hen. Du indleder fint og fører din læser sikkert gennem en fortolkning af novellen med focus på tematikken og symbol-brugen, som her er meget tydelig.
SUPER. 12