Oliver Twist

Oliver Twistor the Parisch Boy’s Progressis Charles Dickens second novel and was published as a serial between 1837 and 1939.

Charles Dickens was born in Porthsmouth in Englan on Februar 1812. He is consider like the greates novelist of the Victorian Age. He lived in larg family. But they joinged the father in london, they lived on big poverty and Charles Dickens stopped his studies. When he was twelves, he was employed in sheeting factory. This nostalgia for happy and pure childhood, this obsession with hunger and poverty are themes and real feelings that are found in his work. In 1833 he made his debut as a writer in newspapers and tale magazines in the popular districts of London. It was in 1836 that his first book of tales « Les esquisses de Boz » (Boz being his pseudonym) appeared. From 1837 he began to reveal his talent with « The Adventures of Mr. Pickwick », his success was immediate. Between writing and great journeys, Charles Dickens is prolific and inspired. It was at this time that he married Catherine Hogarth.All of Charles Dickens’ novels will be published monthly or weekly. Overworked and very nervous, Charles Dickens does not merge and his health suffers. On June 9, 1865, he had a terrible and serious railway accident that physically diminished him. The same day, five years later, he died.

In the film Oliver was born and raised into a life of poverty in wokhouse around London. He is an orphan beacuse his mother died during his birth. Because he is poor he must live in a workhouse, it’s the new poor laws. It replace the old poor law that appear in the XVI century. This law was a poor relief to help paupers. this system changed with the new poor laws, pauppers were instead in workhouse. It was an institution where people did unpaid work and had food and accomodation in return. So Oliver Twist spends the first nine years of his life in a baby farm int the care of Mrs Mann. Around of Oliver’s nine birthday, Mr Bumble, the parish beable puts him to work in a workhouse. He lived there with very little food for six months. One day he asked more food with the famous request: « Please, sir, I want some more ». After many adventures, he finds him in London where he met Jack Pawkins, a joung pickpocket. This boys invites Oliver Twist in his band. Jack, Bill, Nancy and other stole in London streetfor Fagin. They took Oliver with them but one day the thieft turned badly and Oliver is arrest by the police. The man who was stole, he helped Oliver Twist to go out the police and they lived together. But Fagin found him and force him to stole the old man. After some times and adventures Fagin was arrested and Oliver found the old man.

In this example of social novel, Dickens satiries the hypocrisies, includng child labour, the recrutement of chidren as criminals and the presence of chidren in the street

Mark Twain brought up the character of Tom Sawyer in 1876 (in England) in the adventures of Tom Sawyer. And later in other works. To create his character, he was inspired by his youth and the name of his friend: Tom Sawyer Spivey. Tom Sawyer is a character who has become a symbol of freedom in popular culture. 

Tom is an orphan boy with a changing age because in a chapter he loses a tooth but his love for Becky shows that he is in pre-adolescence. His friends are identified with the favorite adventure novels of the author’s youth. 

Tom Sawyer represents in the eyes of the public, a certain ideal of the American child by his qualities of spirit and intelligence. The novel has been adapted several times to cinema. It should be noted that Tom Sawyer Island is the name of an Island in the Disney Parks of California, Florida and Tokyo. 

          Tom Sawyer is a child living in a village in the southern United States: St. Petersburg (imaginary name). Orphaned, he lives with his aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid and his cousin Mary. His aunt has a good heart and remorse both to punish and not to punish his nonsense. Sid is a model boy who is always ready to denounce the incarcerations of Tom. Mary, probably a little older, is the only one who has any influence over Tom. He steals jams, skips school and escapes when he wants to punish him. He is fighting with a newcomer, too well dressed. Obliged on Saturday to baste the fence, he manages to convince his friends that it’s exciting and makes them do the work for him. 

       I think this book is very childish but we learn a few things about life that is to say that there is a moral in this story. It’s very interesting to read. I liked the character of Tom. Last his nonsense he is all innocent and adorable

  For a few decades, the whole world has been the stage of brutal, outlandish and bizarre political ideologies, whose Orwellian emblems –Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Mao and many others- were so ruthless and maybe even bloodier than some Ancient World’s megalomaniac tyrants such as Caligula, this insane and self-absorbed Roman emperor.
But although mankind is supposed to improve and learn of its errors, some recent systems were so Orwellian that even Orwell would have had troubles envisioning them. One of them could be Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which unfold from 1966 to the dictator’s death, about 10 years later. Its purpose was to eradicate the educated upper class in the name of the communist ideology, which implies the equality of people on every level. It aimed at erasing the « Four Olds », so old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits, which means everything this era’s Chinese society was based on…The so-called « young intellectuals »- youths who attended secondary school- and bourgeois were deemed to be as many ennemies of the people. According to the government, they needed to be « re-educated‘, and to do so, were sent off to the underdevelopped peasants of the countryside, alleged more virtuous. Between 1968 and 1975, around 12 million youths were thus  »rusticated. »

Dai Sijie, a Chinese filmmaker and writer, who is also the author of the novel I am going to tell you about, was one of these young men. He lived and worked in the Sichuan Province’s mountains between 1971 and 1974 and has then turned his experience into a poetic and touching story « Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress », published in France a few years ago, to huge acclaim. He shows that way China’s ambivalent attitude to both its past and present.

The novel’s narrator, Ma, is a serious, silent, and talented violonist and son of two hard-working doctors, whose crimes were to be « stinking scientific authorities. » His friend Luo, who shares his adventures on the countryside is his whole contrary; not only bold but without scruples in helping himself to what he wants. He is also the son of someone altogether more dangerous: Mao’s personal dentist, who couldn’t prevent himself from telling his relatives about his exalted patient.

 »Here was an eminent dentist stating publicly that the Great Helmsman of the Revolution had been fitted with new teeth, just like that. It was beyond belief, an unpardonable, insane crime, worse than revealing a secret of national security. »

Packed off to the damp, remote mountains that you can easily imagine if you have already seen stylized paintings of pre-Revolutionary chinese landscapes, our first nameless narrator and his friend Luo realize that their « re-education » is entrusted to a group of illiterate and former opium traffickers, whose wisdom is justified by being part of the respectable peasantry. Solicitous to get rid of anything « western » or « reactionary« , the head of the village, called Chief, goes through their belongings and finds a cookbook and a violin. The cookbook is quickly thrown in the fire after the reading of it spreads expressions of longing into villager’s faces. The violin was about to follow the same path, since Chief decreed that it was a toy. No, says Luo, it is for making music and Ma plays it very well. The first bars of one of Mozart’s sonatas sound like an odd birdsong in the mountains as the villagers are completely unaccustomed to classical western melodies and harmonies. They are eventually allowed to keep this strange instrument as they present this piece as « Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao« . Later on, Chief will hear Swan Lake, but only agrees to like it once the young men insure him that it was « written for Lenin ». The gap is felt between the town and the mountain. The peasants have never seen an alarm clock for instance; they wake up everyday with the sunrise to go to bed at the sunset. This incredible invention leaves the chief flabbergasted, but he finds it very efficient to make the villagers and laborers work in time…until Luo and Ma change the hands so many times, they quickly lost all notion of time.

Indeed, books and ideas that don’t emanate from the ruling regime are forbidden in the village, as well as western music. Life in the village is hard: Luo and Ma are in charge of some arduous tasks, such as backbreaking work in a coal mine or carrying huge containers of human waste down to the fields, where it is then used to fertilize crops. Their daily life is quite dull, until they meet the bold, full of life, beautiful daughter of the local tailor, known as Little Seamstress, who brings a ray of sunshine in their existence. Although she is unschooled, both of the young men grow fondly attached to her, in different ways.

One of the only true entertainment comes in the form of projection of politically correct North Korean and Albanian movies in another village nearby. Because of their intellectual backgrounds, they are sent by the head of the village to narrate them next to the whole village. The first time they go, they swap the initial plot for an engaging tale, even adding some home-made « snow » crafted from rice skin to enhance their effect. But they soon discover something even more important. One of their bespectacled fellow nicknamed « Four-Eyes« – glasses being of course, the most obvious sign of decadent intellectuals- the coward son of a well-known poet, hides a wooden suitcase full of western books in his hut. After stealing this collection, Luo and Ma begin a new kind of « re-education« ; they read books by Flaubert, Balzac, Kipling, Dostoievski or Gogol out loud for the Little Seamstress. In order not to be caught, the three companions hide their treasure in a far-away cave, where they read the works one at a time, teaching their avid pupil how to read.

The young Chinese Peasant has already became aware of the existence of an unknown world and is eager for discovering it all. As soon as they read the first book of the case, which is Balzac’s « Ursule Mirouët« , the effect is devastating, absolutely revolutionary for the three of them, since even in the hometown of the two young men, the only western books allowed are the complete works of the Albanian Communist leader, as Albania is « a great friend of China ». The subjects mentioned blow their minds away, as they slowly discover a sensual and romantic world, until then missing from their lives, as the Communist ideology studiously forgets them. Moreover, these are as many deep emotions justified and implified by Balzac and the other authors found in the suitcase. The narrator’s own favourite book is no other but Romain Rolland’s « Jean-Christophe », without which, he says: ‘‘I would never have understood the splendor of taking free and independent action as an individual. »

“It was a totally new experience for me. Before, I had no idea that you could take on the role of a completely different person, actually become that person––a rich lady, for example––and still be your own self.” -The little Seamstress

Luo becomes the Little Seamstress’s paramour, and although his attachement is for sure genuine, he can’t help but trying to « civilize » her and to do so, forces many things upon her. For instance, he wants her to use her arms as she swims, rather than dog-paddling like the other villagers do. He also would like her to speak and act more like a city girl, that she isn’t. However, we can easily wonder about who educates-or re-educates- who in this story… Luo, a quite arrogant character, talks about his « fellow Balzac« , with whom he feels equal and certainly superior to the uncivilized peasants, and even his Seamstress, as he seems to think that he is the only one who can provide something to her, and certainly not the contrary. But here comes the irony; it is not Luo and Ma who understand these stories the most, but the Little Seamstress who read into them the sense of what she was missing in such a petty and backward world, that she decides to leave behind. Dressed in her new western clothes, she runs away without listening to her friends, who later understand the frightening power of literature, and why it is feared by the government. Balzac’s words, that Luo calls a « wizard », transformed the little peasant and rose her consciousness as she left the Sichuan province for the city.

 »Had we ourselves, » the narrator asks,  »failed to grasp the essence of the novels we had read to her? »

Then comes an ellipsis and we are propelled 30 years later. Ma became a successful violonist living in Paris and Luo a father, husband and a professor in dentistry. Although their lives are happy enough, the western culture they embraced looks now common. They both decide to go back to this village they grew up in and it’s merely as if they travelled in time, to the Middle Ages. Nothing changed much, only the crystal-clear laughters of the Little Seamstress are gone with her and Chief’s face looks a lot more wrinkled. They learn that this place lost in the mountains is about to be wiped out by flooding, to build a new electrification dam. The valley will disappear into thin air, just like their memories of this time, that slowly flow by. Both men yearn to see this woman they both loved, but whom they repelled with their books and music. They look after her during a long amount of time, but no avail. Inspired by Balzac, she took control of her life and went exploring this brand new world and herself. But no one knows where she is.

As Luo and Ma are reminiscent of their youth together, their memories are shaped into an underwater vision of this village in 1971, which feels like a tale. The water closes in on them; however it is obvious that something meaningful remains.

Hello !

Today I would like to speak about Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Aldous Huxley was an English writter. In his novels, Huxley criticizes use of social norms and ideals, he was also very interested by the scientific progress which for him can harm humanity. His works are often studied in philosophy in English and American university. Brave New World was published in 1932 and it is a futuristic novel

In this future society, all children are conceived in test tubes. They are genetically modified to belong to one of the five categoriesof the population. Of the most clever in the most stupid : Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta or Epsilon. This five categories are like the caste system. Huxley in his book descrieb also what would be perfect dictatorship: a dictatorship which would have the appearance of a democracy, a prison without walls (…)

I loved this book, while this book is written in 1932, it evokes very well our current society. The psychology of the characters dans of the society is well thought out and realized realistically. Brave New World is a disturbing and frightening book about society. After this reading, many questions appears. This book is still relevant like 1984 by George Orwell.

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”

Hi Everyone ! 🙂

Today I would speak about a book that I discovered for our « TPE » : 1984 by George Orwell. Orwell was an English author but he was born in India. 1984 is a dystopian science fiction novel, it was published on the 1949. For this novel Orwell was influenced by Aldous Huxley. Orwell describes a totalitarian area guarded by a Chief Big Brother.

In 1984 the world is divided into tree mains areas : Oceania, Eurasia and Estasia. These three areas are constantly at war. Oceania lives under a dictatorship :  » Big Brother is watching you « . Winston, the main character, thanks to his job, discovered some Truth, that he noted in a secret diary. So he is against the society and decided to rebel by integrating a group of rebels. But all that is not it a lie ?

I love this book because it shows us how the world can be cruel, I also loved the writing of George Orwell it’s very interesting ! But this book looks strangely like our society, we are being watched all of the time whithout even knowing it… Big Brother is watching you…

After studying Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for my « TPE »(cross curricular project) which passionate me, I was interested in all the novels of Charlottes Bronte. I liked his novel called « Shirley ».
« Shirley » was published in 1849 and its popularity allowed to « Shirley » to become a woman’s name.
The story is set in Yorkshire during the last years of the Napoleonic Wars. Times are hard for the English, either for industrial or for the workers. In addition to the financial consequences of the war on trade, industry must deal with riots against their factories. Indeed, workers are worried about the arrival of new machinery. The main characters are Robert Moore, an industrialist and his brother Louis humble tutor. Caroline Helstone, pastor Helstone niece and cousin of Robert is in love with it. But Robert, with financial troubles and riots of the workers don’t want marriage. Fortunately for Carolina, comes to town the young heiress Keldar Shirley and his companion Mrs Prior.

                   
Charlotte Bronte was more proud of that novel that of « Jane Eyre » and I understand why. It’s more dense, it deals with politics, women’s issues, social classes, barriers of marriage and religion in general.
In this novel, Charlotte Bronte leaves an interesting evocation of life in England of the early nineteenth, customs, fears,the worker’s world face the bosse’s world, poverty and charity.
The novelist tackles the description of an entire city and is very frank to criticize the industrial and commercial class.

If you like Charlotte Bronte, I highly recommend you to read this novel. I really liked.

« The Chimney Sweeper » is the title of two poems by William Blake. « Songs of innocence » was published in 1789 and « Songs of Experience » in 1794.
Its theme is a period around the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century during which boys from 4 to 5 years old were sold to clean chimneys because of their small smize. These children were oppressed and had shortened existence but it used to be accepted troughout the society.
In his poems Blake denounces the horror of such working and living conditions which often lead to death.

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry  » ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! »
So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.

There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved, so I said,
« Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare,
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair. »

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black;

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And wash in a river and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
And got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

« Songs of innocence », 1789

In this first poem, especially in the three last stanzas the atmosphere is one surrounded by pleasant visions. (« green plain », « Shine in the Sun », « They rise upon clouds » … etc) despite the atual seriousness of the situation the kids found themselves into. Although it becomes understandable if you make the hypothesis that in this poem the narrator is a child whose naivety makes him believe there is hope. This guess seems even more obvious when you look carefully at the two first stanzas in which the way of expression is the one of a child.

A little black thing among the snow,
Crying « weep! ‘weep! » in notes of woe!
« Where are thy father and mother? say? »
« They are both gone up to the church to pray.

Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smil’d among the winter’s snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

And because I am happy and dance and sing,
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery. »

« Songs of experience », 1794

However in this second poem, the tone is very different. Now the narrator is an adult who has understood the hopelessness of the situation and thinks about his parents and their attitude towards the situation. According to him, they think they didn’t hurt him because he seems to be alright but for him what they did lead him to certain death (« They clothes me in the clothes of death ») which might be the only path to escape. (« God and his priest and king, Who make up a heaven of our misery »).

Anyone who was in my class in 10th grade is probably going to be like « Again ? » but I have to admit we read pretty good books that year so after « The island of Dr. Moreau » here is an article on « How sleeps the beast » by Don Tracy which was released in 1938 ine the USA and 1951 in France.
I’m pretty sure this book could fit  the notion « The writer in his time ». It tells us the story of a young african-american whose name is Jim, one night drunk and lonely he gives into violence and end up murdering a white woman. A crime, yes but that’s not what the author denounces even though he never decreases the guilt and responsibilty of Jim in what happened. But for any crime in a democratic country a criminal has the right to have a trial before the sentence is pronounced.
Jim never got a trial. Why ? Because this period was filled with racism and people turned this event into a reason to let out their anger, to feed the beast and its thirst for blood. How ? By taking Jim out of prison and lead him to lynching.
You probably understood by now this book is nothing like a gentle novel, it’s tough, rough, brutal and it contains scenes of an incredible violence even if their sometimes unexplicit. But even considering this I loved this novel obviously not because of the story line which is quite disturbing but because of every societal problem the novel deals with. Racism, savagery with group violence, cowardice with our submission to the common behaviour to garantee our own safety. « The writer in his time » maybe but those problems have no time, and maybe if more people read novels such as this one they could understand that looking away is our biggest problem, because every time you do so you let it happen again.
On the whole, I fiercely recommand this book, because the beast is truly sleeping in each of us and it’s not alone our humanity is in there with it and maybe its time for it to come the surface and keep the beast in its cage before it’s too late.

Utopia is a novel written by Thomas More, released in 1516. It tells us the story of Raphaël Hythlodée an explorer who discover the island of Utopia. He describes and explains us everything he see on this island. On this island everything is controled by mathematics the only way to ensure the equality.
When this novel was published it was for Thomas More a satire of his society. But with this novel Thomas More has create the notion of « utopia » wich didn’t exist before.

Hi everybody!

We saw the movie « 1984 » in class, and even if this film is disruping, I found that there are some interesting notions: for example the denunciation of totalitarian societies. Personally I don’t saw the movie entirely, so I tried to found something for know the end, because I was curious, and I found the book of « 1984 ».

These novel is a dystopia, and it’s the most famous novel written by George Orwell (also with « Animal Farm », which I recommand too. We studied it in class last year), and it is very interesting to read it because we found all the notions that we are actually learning at class: the « novlangue » for example.

Even if you don’t have understand the movie, go read it!

I want to talk about Brave New World written in 1932 by Aldous Huxley. It’s a dystopia I

The scene takes place in London in 632 N.F. (imaginary time). It shows a society based on genetics. Individuals are conditioned and controlled even before birth. The society plans their life. She chose genes, the personality of each individual and creating babies in test tubes. People vanish with a drug that makes them happy illusion: the SOMA. These individuals are boxes in the class smarter or dumber : Alphas (the elite), the Betas (performers), the Gammas (employees), the Deltas where even the Epsilons (for heavy work). And there the Sauvages who live on reserves and concervent a way of « normal » life. We will follow the life of Bernard Marx is an alpha whose genetic program failed in part: it is not like the others and suffers from its difference.

I think that this novel is really interresting for the notion science or fiction and it’s a interresting dystopia, I recommed it!

The great Gatsby is an Australian American drama film directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey Maguire.The story is based on Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.Nick Carraway is a young man aged thirteen who is Middle West. He leaves his region to work in New York in the field of finance. Then, he moves into a house next to Jay Gatsby. He is the main character. Nobody really knows him or his past.He often organises some parties at home. People like doing parties at Gatsby’s. They can listen to music (it’s the jazz period), drink (period of prohibition). It happens during the roaring twenties.

Oliver Twist is a novel by Charles Dickens  in 1837. It tells the story of an orphan, Oliver Twist, who was born in a workhouse. In the extract we studied he is sent in a branch-workouse under the supervision of Mrs Mann, and Mr Bumble, a beadle from the parish, visits the branch-workhouse. I found it interesting to work on it because we learned things about the poor’s life at this time, and because Oliver Twist is a story that everyone knows thanks to the book or different adaptations.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/BraveNewWorld_FirstEdition.jpg

      I was really astonished by the end of the film version of 1984, written by Orwell which we saw in class. I found it really hopeless and really upsetting with the fact that people could do anything to survive in a totalitarian system, until denouncing person they love. It’s really dreadful that people could torture their fellow being until having a real power on them, changing their mind in order to make them thinking what they want them to think, doing what they want them to do.  And I think that the more dreadful thing it’s that this is not really a fiction because we saw these things in our history during the World War II. It makes me thinking. After seeing this end, we wonder if we were in his place what we would have done. This dystopia is really upsetting. Contrary to this, O brave new world, written by Huxley which is also a dystopia which aims at denouncing totalitarian system, has a end more hopeful. I don’t know if you read the book, but people who think by themselves and find the society unacceptable, by rebelling, have access to the happiness. Indeed, at the end, they meet the administrator, the chief of the totalitarian system who explain them how works their society, why they conditione people and they learn that it’s for their happiness. They are conditioned into not fearing death, being pleased in their classes and if they are upset, they can take drug and stop thinking. By rebelling, people are not punished but have access to a paradise island where they could meet other interesting people. Moreover, the three main character choose really where they want to go. This end appears more optimist than the end of 1984. Nevertheless, O brave new world denounces also the totalitarian systems, this conditioning in order to have a semblance of happiness, to have more money by conditioning people into buying useless things, things more expensive.

      A lot of people have opposed 1984 to O brave new world. 1984 shows the totalitarian systems and their inhumanity during the war whereas O brave new world denounces a totalitarian system whose some aspects could make us thinking of our condition like the consumer society.

     And you what do you think about these ends ? Do you prefer O brave new world or 1984 ?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/1984first.jpg

George Orwell is an english writer (writing under the name of Eric Arthur Blair) and jouralist. Throught his works he shows his commitment against the british imperialism, for socialism and social justice and against Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism. Thanks to his name, the adjectiv « Orwellian » was created to qualify the totalitarian universe imagined by Orwell.

He wrote many books like Down and Out in London and Paris or Burmes day. He wrote about one book a year. But his main works stay Animal Farm  and 1984. 

In the last one he created the Big Brothers concept. Big Brother is the main figure of this story, and depicts the totalitarian police and the monitoring society. Indeed in the story in every room a human is there is a « telescreen » which broadcasts (without turn itself off) message of government, and thanks to them police know every words and movement of every man.

What is ironical is that Orwells country is the most supervised country : one camera for fifteen inhabitant.

Be careful, BIG BROTHER is watching you.

The crucible is a play written in 1953 by Arthur Miller. This play would perfectly fit in the notion « The writer in his time » that we are studying in literature because it was written during Mc carthysm . McCarthysm is a periode in the USA in the 1950s, also known as the Red Scare (it should ring a bell people we talked about in class with « The Great Gatsby »), characterised by a great fear of communists. During the McCarthy era, thousands of Americans, including Arthur Miller himself were accused of being communists and became the subject of aggressive investigation. Suspected people were blacklisted and often arrested. A lot them lost their jobs and actually pretty much everything as their family or friends wouldn’t talk to them scared of being accused to.
The Crucible’s story sets in the 17th century Salem in a period of which hunts. The play used the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for McCarthysm. To understand that a little summary is I think needed. A few girls led by a reverend niece (Abigail) have been dancing in the Forest but when the reverend catches them a rumour of witchcraft spreads. To protect herself Abigail accuses Tituba to be a witch. For her trial another reverend this time a specialist of occult phenomena is sent. Terrified by the idea of being hanged Tituba turns to the same solution Abigail used, she accuses other women.
Although she contrary to Abigail doesn’t really come to the idea on her own. That’s at least the conclusion you come to with a little analysis of her trial. Indeed two main parts can be reveled. The first one could be Tituba’s questionning when the 2 reverends urge her to tell them who came to her with the devil which is already a sneaky way to ask her about the truth. This manipulation led by the reverends bring confusion’s to Tituba’s confession and this finally brings a general hysteria among the girls and the reverends. Manipulation and paranoia were as I recall also seen during McCartysm.
If the story line isn’t clear or if you’re just interested by seeing a movie adaption of this play here is a trailer of one which came out in 1996. (Yes, I know most of us weren’t even born yet but isn’t that what makes it interesting ?).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUIAxTxrnCc[/youtube]

I want to talk about Hard Times written by Charles Dickens and published in 1854. Charles Dickens made ??a critique of excessive industrialization in England, where the living conditions of the workers are exploited. In fact, this novel denounced education practiced on young English and the exploitation of the poor by the ruling classes.

In the fictional town of Coketown (which is actually Manchester), we discover the life of a prominent family: the Gradgrind. The two children of the Gradgrind family are educated in the utilitarian doctrine. This doctrine ban leisure for children. Charles Dickens shows the evolution of these two children and their father’s ideas will not make them happy adults.

If you want to know about the time of the industrial revolution in England it is very interesting, I recommend it.

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Segregation_1938b.jpg

The writer was always inspired of the condition of his century. It’s visible for instance with the case of a lot of writers during the racial segregation in the United States. Thus we have a lot of different account of this period.

Chester Himes, an Afro- American writer denounces his condition in his works such as in If he hollers let him go or in the third generation. With a harsh language, he told the black’s condition. In the third generation he speaks about an Afro-American family and their attempt to assert themselves in the society where as they live in the South of America which is known to be really radical and really racist during this segregation. If he hollers let him go, it’s a story of a rebellious Afro-American who doesn’t accept his condition and the fact that the Whites believe that they are above the Blacks. During the story, his mentality evolve and he try to find the best mean to assert himself in the society by rebelling or by being obedient to the orders and opinions of Whites. However, this segregation doesn’t just inspire the Blacks but also the Whites.

Indeed, don’t kill a mocking bird, written by Harper Lee, a white American woman is a good example. It’s the story of a little girl who tells his childhood. His father was a lawyer and he accepted to defend a black who was accused of having raping wrongfully a woman. This book is really amazing because the author even if she was white defends more the Blacks than the Whites.

Well, we can see with these examples that racial segregation inspires different people in order to write books.

However, American people were not the only writer to be inspired by this plague. Romain Gary, a French writer who was Consul general of Los Angeles, saw the evolution of racial segregation. In white dog, the author shows an overview of this period. He denounces the society and racism.  His point of view is really interesting because he doesn’t really take part, he emphasizes the fact that everybody need having a scapegoat. I really advice you to read it. I really liked this book. Romain Gary is one of my favourite authors.

Well, to conclude, we can see that a lot of writers were inspired of his century. Nevertheless, the case of the racial segregation still inspire different writer such as Kathryn Stockett who wrote The Help in 2009.

I would like to give Mathilde and Juan a wink for the time we have passed to realise our « TPE » (Cross-curricular subject), last year. By writing this article, I think about you and about all the time we have worked to make our presentation.

In popular culture, several elements are mentioned or are inspired of the Great Gatsby.

Haruki Murakami, the official translator of F. Scott Fitzgerald, write books in which sometimes he evokes the novel.

In South Park, The Great Gatsby is read by a doctor.

In the series Greek, there is a party like Gatsby’s party.

In the series Vampire Diaries, this is one of favorites books of Stefan.

In the series Gossip Girl, this is a source of inspiration of Dan Humphrey’s book.

In the series Californication, one of the characters is inspired of Gatsby.

In the series Pretty Little Liars, Aria Montgomery, one of the main characters, is disguised as Daisy.

In the series Smash, Julia Houston writes a play inspired of the book.

Moreover, there are quotations in the novel of Salinger which is entitled The Catcher in the Rye, in The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is a Stephen Chbosky’s book, and in The Fault in your Stars written by John Green.

Furthermore, in the song of Alphaville which is The Girlz, it makes reference to the last lines of the novel.

To conclude, this book crosses the time and the generations by being evoked in books, movies or songs. That proves that The Great Gatsby is always a success.

Oliver Twist waswritten by Charles Dickens and was published in 1838.

It is about an orphan who is in a workhouse. He meets Artful Dodger, a leador of a pickpockets, in London when he escaped of the workhouse and he meets also Fagin, the trainer.

Robert Blincoe’s autobiography inspired Charles Dickens because he is an orphan who is educated in a workhouse when he has suffered and he was going through hardships.

Dickens denounces the cruelty which the orphans are submitted at the Victorian area : he uses sarcasm and irony.

There are various adaptation of Oliver Twist which show us that it is a good success!

The video we watched :

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850. He was a scottisch poetist, essayist and novelist. After his birth in a wealthy family in Edinburgh, he chose to become a writer during his youth. But his father was against this choice because he wanted that his son become an ingeneer to follow him. So at 17 years old, Stevenson undertook ingeneer study but he left his University. Then he studied law and obtained a diploma.

He travelled in 1876 across France and Belgium, and met Fanny Osbourn. They fall in love but she was married and had two children. Moreover she lived in America and came back to this country to divorce. However Stevenson’s father said that if Stevenson go to join her, he cut his victuales. So in the goal to forget this impossible love, Stevenson went travelling in the Cévennes.

Finally, Stevenson and Fanny ex-Osbourn get married in 1880. After the Stevenson’s father death in 1887, Stevenson travelled to find a right climate for his health problems and died in 1874 in Vailama (Samoa).

I read travels with a donkey in the Cévennes and The amateur emigrant. This two books tell Stevenson’s travels in 1879 and 1879. The first travel is to froget and accept his love with Fanny Osbourn. At the end, he takes a decision: desobeys to his father in order to join Fanny Osbourn in America. This decision his take because during his travel, Stevenson meets many people, and walks. This facts  permit to him to change his opinion.The second novel: The amateur emigrant is Stevenson’s travel to America and the beginning in this new country. It permits to Stevenson to prepare him to his commitment with Fanny Osbourn.

You can remark that Stevenson is often considered like an author of fantastic and adventure novel for teenager with particulary his book Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or Treasure Island.  But we can notices with all this works that he exploited all the aspects of narration and practiced a real work on his writing.