Tuesday 2 December 2008

Group 5: different attitudes to beauty in men and women

Pro:
- from a mans perspective it's an advantage (more respect than they probably should get)
- it's natural, we accept it because it's in so many cultures
- good for selfconfidence
- women allowed to look better than men
- also a man should try to look good in front of a woman

Con:
- prefers man -> women are expected to look young and beautiful
- old men look wise and experienced, old women look like witches
- women don't get as much attention than men
- makes people unhappy with this pressure
- people start to neglect themself
- discriminative tradtition, pressure on women

Additional thoughts:
- difference between men and women, created by upbringing
- nowadays the situation is changing
- now looks are important for both genders
- society should change!

Wednesday 22 October 2008

That's Me

If you see me, you would first notice that I’m corpulent. That’s the reason, why I often wear black clothes, because they don’t show any shadow and so you can’t see my flabs. I’m always wearing shirts with band prints on it. I’m a really music maniac and I think I have to show how important music is. Sometimes I put on my paisley bandana and combine it with some normal shirts. About 90 percent of my clothes for casual wear are band shirts with a lot of cool motives on it, like skulls or blood stains. I’m really proud of my natural blond hairs. About seven months I had long hairs, but when they started to curl, I made the decision to cut them. Now I have 6 millimetres long hairs, with a 3 centimetres high Iroquois. To make the Iroquois attractive I put some gel on it.
The best lifestyle would be, if you aren’t a member of a specific group like Goths or Hippies. Build your own one, with your own ideologies. You can’t be a member of such a group, because sometimes you have different opinions and you change them to be a part of the crowd. I’m not in a typical group. We are four and sometimes more boys, with total different opinions and music tastes.
You should enjoy your life, but even care about your job or school. Music and my religion are the biggest influences. I can‘t live without my music, its relaxation for me and I can relieve the whole stress and forget all the troubles. I’m listening very aggressive music, but also it changed my opinion about politics. Since I’m a fan of System of a down, it changed my life completely. I look critical on the Iraq politic and I’m an enemy of Bush. If my visions are blinded, I look for a shelter in my religion. I think God shows me the right way I should handle. I have five attitudes towards my life, which I try to achieve. Stick out of the crowd, make new changes, stay positive, be honest to yourself, and care about your friends and family.-361 words-

Wednesday 14 May 2008

Review about the book

Review about the book
The book is about Charlie, a 15 year old boy, who cries a lot; sometimes he didn’t need a reason. He writes down his experience he writes down his experience he could collected during the first year in high-school. It’s like a diary, but his story are quite more interesting than others.

Charlie is an outsider in his school, but soon he met Patrick and his beautiful sister Sam. After some days Charlie got a very close friend of them, but nevertheless he got confronted with a lot of problems, which started with their friendship. Bill, his teacher, is also becoming a good friend of him, he gave Charlie many books to read, which he really read in his free time.
With his friends he always went to the Big Boy or to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Too early he became involved in business from older people, like drugs, abortion, abuses, rapes and homosexuality. He acted older than he really is. During the whole book he had a crush on Sam. Finally when he had the chance to become her boyfriend, he realised that it would be better to stay together as friends.

In my opinion it’s the best book I’ve ever read, but that means nothing, because I always like the latest book I’ve read. I can imagine that there are people who have such a crazy and interesting life. I really had the feeling that I’m his anonymous friend and sometimes you get the impression that you are Charlie! The book is easy to read and I liked the explaining of the vocabularies at the lower right side.

About Charlie

About Charlie

Charlie writes a lot of letters to an unknown person, if you read the book you get the feeling that he is writing just for you! Charlie’s life is very amazing and interesting, because he is confronted with a lot of problems. At the beginning he hadn’t many friends, his best friend died and so he felt very lonely. He had a very strong emotional relationship to his aunt Helen, but she also died. But Patrick and his sister changed his boring life. Charlie also becomes a new older friend, his teacher Bill. Bill gave him very interesting books, which Charlie loved very much. Sam and Patrick showed Charlie a life full of drugs, sex and fun. He enjoyed the new life and soon he was turning into a freak. It seems that Charlie is suffocating under Sam because she loved her boyfriend Craig and Charlie could hardly bear it. He also missed his brother, who went to another College and he liked spending time with his brother when he returns back from school. Most of the pupils in his class and school gave Charlie a wide berth, because he didn’t talk with them, but they heard about his experience and so they got “afraid”. I think Charlie is a very good friend, because he was always there when somebody needed him. He doesn’t care about that his best friend is gay, he is very tolerant. Charlie is one of the best pupils, although he spent so many times on parties.

The perks of being a Wallflower

Charakter Map
Charlie


1. What does he look like?
He is 15 years old, but he is becoming older. His birthday is on the 24th of December. There are less of details about his appearance.

2. How does he act?
He is a very sensitive boy and cries a lot. He wants to be a perfect guy, first it seems that he is an outsider, but soon he is becoming very popular in his crowd. He thinks he had to try the drugs and smoke cigarettes to be accepted by his friends. Charlie is also nice, too. His presents are very special and many friends entrust Charlie with their problems and secrets.

3. How do other people react to him?
Many pupils think he is a freak, because he is always crying if he is confronted with a problem! I guess the pupils have a lot of respect but didn’t show it often, because he had a lot of important and influential friends.

Sister: First Charlie and his sister are like enemies. She was very angry, when he told his parents about her aggressive boyfriend. When she got pregnant, he was the only person she could trust and so he went with her to the abortion. Since that moment they like each other.

Sam: She was Charlie’s first big love. Sam was unreachable for him, she was “too old” and she was going out with Craig. Sam and her brother Patrick were the people who changed Charlie’s live. They took him to the parties and Sam showed Charlie how to react in front of a girl. He also got his first kiss from Sam.

Parents: His father always played the strong and unhurt able person, but he was soft and friendly. His mother doesn’t speak a lot with Charlie, although their friendship was great. He was like a pet of the family, because his parents didn’t want to see his psychological problems and his use of drugs.

Conflicts


1. What conflicts do you notice?
Sister vs. her boyfriend
His sister got a slap in her face, but she put up with the punch, because she was so happy with him.

Sean vs. Charlie
Charlie’s first school day was a disaster. He had a fight with Sean, but he won.

Brad vs. Patrick
Both were gay, but Brad’s parents didn’t accept that, so they forbid Brad to see Patrick anymore. Only Brad’s best friend knew that he is gay, everybody think he loves women. When Patrick wanted to talk about that, Brad called him a faggot in school. The beginning of a fight in the cafeteria!

Charlie vs. his best friends Craig/Peter/Sam/Patrick/Alice/Mary-Elizabeth
When they played a game, Charlie kissed the most beautiful girl in the room. He took Sam and not his girlfriend Mary-Elizabeth. So everyone was angry!
Charlie vs. his cousins
He had always to show his courage and coolness. His cousins thought he is a pussy.

Peter vs. Craig
Craig was cheating to Sam and Peter told Craig that he should tell her the truth. So he did. Sam broke up their relation and Peter and Craig fight.

2. How do the characters try to solve the conflicts?
Many of the boys solved their problems with a quarrel and strokes. Others drowned their frustration in drugs. They searched a sanctuary in joints and LSD, or they steered clear of the problems.

3. Suggest solutions:
I think most of them solved their problems in the wrong way. I think Charlie’s sister made a right decision with the abortion, because her boyfriend broke up the relation when he noticed that she was pregnant. The best way would be that they talk about their problems and don’t take drugs.

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Correction

Violence and violence in the media
Violence is becoming one of the biggest problems in our community. A lot of parents and many critics claim that children are influenced by cruel movies, but are they right?
Medved has attacked the movie industry and he's pointed out 4 big lies! Violent and bloody films are what the public want, which is true in a way as the cinemas are bursting at the seams. Every week hundreds of new brutal movies are released. Medved argues non-violent films are more successful. I don't hate such entertainment, but the film studios exaggerate so I partly agree with him. According to him, that the audience doesn't have to watch it. However public is talking about those shocking films and clips are shown in a lost of advertisements. So you can't really escape. I agree here too. The lie about the "big" success which the movies can achieve. Everybody knows that the non-violent films are much more popular and the take in a lot of money. Disney films are the evidence for this.
For me the biggest lie is that children or older people don't become influenced by such films so I agree with Medved, too. Every day you can read in the newspaper about copycat-killers. They imitate some scenes from their favourite movie-thug, because of curiosity.
So in short I think the violence on TV contributes to big part of the violence in everyday life as every child could watch those movies, without the approval of their parents. It's fun for the younger ones but they'll soon imitate these gags. In my opinion such films should be shown later. Not only TV is to blame for the violence, there are other aspects which influence children. Violence is also the result of a learning process, frustration and it's an instinct.
We should set an example and don't give vent to our aggressive feelings. If we look through the facts we will see that cruel movies aren't successful, influence younger people, but the community forces us to put up with the violence. If the parents change the children’s ideals early, we are well on the way to a peaceful world. There are so many ways to bundle up our aggression, like doing sport activities.
I come to the conclusion that the violence in the media is playing too big a part, it influence us in a negative way, therefore we should do sport!
~406 words

Monday 18 February 2008

A pro/con essay

Ban on violence in movies

Violence is becoming a very big problem in our community. Many experts say that the violence has its roots in movies and computer games.
There are a lot of aspects, which prove that violent movies should be banned or censored.
Firstly, in a lot of movies the violence is not realistic anyway. People are loosing so much blood, which can’t be inside of a body. They were stabbed by a fork, killed by an electroshock or died of a mad killer. Such situations are so rarely and exaggerate and most of the people aren’t so much mentally ill and kill their enemies because of anger or boredom.
Secondly, Walt Disney produces one successful movie after the other. That shows; non violent films are successful, too. Many families prefer family movies, which can be watched by little children, too.
In addition many murder in our community based on a movie. Movies give a lot of ideas how to kill people. A couple shot persons, because they think it’s cool. They liked the film “natural born killers”. There was also a group, which set fire in a tube, this action based on a scene in a film.

There are a lot of arguments, which prove that violence in films doesn’t influence our behaviour.
Most of the people don’t know a killer, that’s one important evidence. The majority of people don’t get violent, only by watching a film. I think the audience couldn’t change their mind, because of a film and turn into murderer.
The script writers exaggerate. The scenes are such brutal and clever, it would be too difficult to imitate the killings. People won’t copy such crazy murder, because if you are angry, you will kill your enemy so fast you could.
Violence is also a natural instinct. It protects us and helps people to defend their own lives. You can’t switch off instincts, they are normal but people have to learn to control your emotions. We don’t turn into a non violence society, just because we don’t watch violent films. Violence accompanies us in the news, in games and in our community.
I think there are a lot of violent films, but they shouldn’t be banned. The best thing would be, if the movies are censored. There should be stricter controls and adults should protect their children from too much violence in films.

~398 words