Friday, August 14, 2009

Pride and Prejudice by Betiana and Antonella

Extract of the novel:
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single manin possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Howeverlittle known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters".
This is a power point presentation about marriages in the past. We lookes for all this information in order to see in which context is set the novel Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen.

The Curse

I have to confess that I am deeply shocked by this writing. I believe that Arthur C. Clarke, the author, is trying to make us aware of how destructive and mean people’s acts can be since they do not think about the consequences those acts bring. Nowadays and all around the world, people can find technological and scientific development, lots of information, new inventions and more powerful devices to create, transform, and destroy things. The author describes a world destroyed by rockets and missiles, flooded, full of radioactive waste, with no towns left, not even a calm place to rest; a world completely changed. But this future is not as far as we think it is, that is the reason why the author wants us to react, for the most of the things we do take us a bit closer to that reality we surely don’t want to live. I think we should change some things now in order to keep that future as far as possible. Anyway, I hope I won’t be here when that moment comes.

Tales in the Sun

This wonderful but sad short-story written by Neil Gaiman tells us about Nada, a beautiful sixteen-year-old queen who falls in love with Kai’ckul, the lord of the dream world. The girl looks for him everywhere though she knows he can never be hers, and finally when she finds him, she is punished by the sun, realizing it is true that their love is impossible. Like in the story, people sacrifice things and do what they think is necessary to be with the ones they love. But often, they get tired of trying and feel all the things they do are not enough, realizing that impossible love not only exists in stories but also in real life. There is a moment in our lives in which we fall in love with someone who, for whatever reason, cannot be ours; in spite of this, we try to reach that love; and finally, we feel frustrated and forget him/her. I know love should not be impossible but I think all that suffering makes us stronger and helps us believe in love again when the right person comes to our lives. I think impossible loves are absolutely necessary to be stonger and wiser in the future.

Boule de Suif

Written by Guy de Maupassant, this short-story is set during the Franco-Prussian War. It is about the trip of ten high-class people who go from Rouen, recently occupied by the Prussians, to Havre in a coach. Mademoiselle Elisabeth Rousset, a very fat, short but attractive courtesan, is called Boule de Suif by the rest of the passengers of the coach because of her figure. In my opinion, the main theme of the story is morality. Morality is shown the moment Boule de Suif refuses to sleep with the Prussian Officer who, according to her beliefs, is the enemy that she hates so much. In spite of the fact that she is a courtesan, she respects her moral values and, in consequence, she remains inflexible. Finally, the rest of the passengers, who first applauded her patriotic act, convince her to leave her moral values aside and sleep with the Prussian Officer so that they are free to continue their trip. Immorality is also present in the story: at the end, the passengers do not thank her for the moral sacrifice she had to do in order to help them. In addition to this, they also stop talking and paying attention to her since they consider the courtesan to be unclean. To conclude, I think that people who leave their ethical principles to one side for the good of someone else deserve much better than those who don’t have ethical principles at all.