My Style

At first I want to say, that I don’t want to peg me as a member of a typical youth group. I am an individual and that should never change! Anyway it is highly visible that I am a fan of Metal music. Also most of my friends are so called “Metaller”. You can recognise a Metaller on the long hair, the leather wristbands and belts adorned with many spiky buckles, and very important: The band shirts. Usually are the clothes black coloured. That’s maybe why Metal often is associated by people with Satanism… Put your Horns up!

To understand the lifestyle of metal you have know, that there’s a selection of different music types. There is for example Black Metal. Black metal is generally opposed to Christianity and many black metal artists seek to reflect their surroundings in their music. You can recognise them on their black/white make up- the so called “Corpse Paint”. Also Death Metal is a subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs deep growling vocals, fast tempos and distorted guitars. But that was not all! There’s also Doom Metal, Trash Metal, Folk Metal, Melodic Metal, Speed metal… I am mostly listening to Death metal and Gore grind, but I am not able to describe a typical ideology. If you want to know it exactly, you have to listen to these songs, because the ideology of every band could be found in their lyrics.

The only thing I can say is that Metal fans are normally very peaceful people. Sure, they like wrestling and there are also some brawls, but they have no concrete fiends like Punks and Skinheads for example. They go to their local, concerts, or have fun on festivals, rather than provocation other youth groups. Instead fighting, they reduce feelings of aggression with crowd surfing (also called “stage diving”), running into the moshpit (= the activity in which audience members aggressively push or slam into each other), or the most famous activity for Metalheads: headbanging. Headbanging. All in all you really have to watch out for steel bar shoes or elbows with buckle- wristbands around. Bruises or scars are nothing special!

Metal is influenced by rock music and has got roots in blues-rock. Critics who connect metal with expressions of aggression have to know, that only a handful of metal artists are actually satanic. In fact much metal music has got thought provoking and meaningful lyrics.

Exactly 400 words

Correction of the exam

More and more violence is shown to us in the media. Is it that what we want to see in the cinemas and on TV?

I partly agree with Michael Medved, a British author, with the four big lies of the media. In contrast to Medved, I think that violent movies don’t influence us. On the one hand it’s true that there are some copy-cat killers, but on the other hand a minimum of all people, who watch those films. I strongly believe, that this people are mentally disordered and that violent films are only the last push to put the arranged murder into action. A reason is, if we watched a dance film, we also would never walk out of the cinema and start dancing. He also claims that it’s a lie to say, that movies only shoe the reality. Likewise I’m also sure that reality isn’t like this fortunately. Another point is that harmless films like “The Lion King” are more successful than violent films. In my opinion that’s a very good argument. Finally, I also understand the media. Violent is everywhere in the news, in the newspaper and on the streets. We are confronted with violence every day and we can’t do much against it, but we haven’t watched the violent films in the cinema. So we can choose, if we want to watch a violent movie or not. Why we are getting exciting over it?

I personally believe that there are some good reasons for the violence in this world. First, we are born with it and we are getting violent, because of frustration. Second, we learn it from our parents. If a child got hit by the own father in punishment of something, I am sure that it is going to do same with the own children. Third, I think it’s the result of stupidity. Many people are only able to solve a conflict with knocking down the opposition instead talk together. That’s a sign for debility in my opinion.

There has to be done something about the violence among children and there are many things we could do. For example we have to reach agreement with the television companies that they have to broadcast violent films at a later time on TV, when the children are sleeping. There also has to be an age-limit on DVD’s and computer games. I think that these measures would be very successful, as long as they get strictly enforced. As the last point I would claim, that the parents should try to bring up their children without any violence. They should read books with them, where violence is present as something very bad. The children should watch Disney films instead of KILL BILL.

To sum up, I am convinced that not only the films influence us. I am more the opinion, that the other people, like for example superstars, have a influence and so they set an example to us.

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" Review

The book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky is telling about a 15-year old boy called Charlie, who describes his life in a series of letters.

Charlie is a wallflower without any friends at the beginning of the book. His sister has got problems with her boyfriend and his brother is a baseball talent. There are also his favourite aunt Helen who died in a car accident and his previous friend Michael who killed himself. Now his only friend is the English teacher Bill, who always gives Charlie books to read. All is changing at a baseball match, where he meets Patrick and Sam. Immediately he is falling in love with Sam, but she doesn’t rejoin. At the party’s he went with Patrick and Sam, he faces with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol for the first time in his life. All that things included his gay friend Patrick, are completely new experiences for him. Also his first girlfriend Mary Elizabeth. With her Charlie gains experiences with dating and sex. He is a good guy and helps everybody, for example his pregnant sister and Patrick in the fight against Brad. As from now he has got a higher self-esteem, what is suiting Sam. Unfortunately he buggers the friendship to Mary Elizabeth and Sam, but later all come up roses. There are only two things left: all his friends are going to colleges and his dark secret…

In my opinion it was a awesome book. Not only because I could identify me with some of their Teeny-problems, but also because of the thrilling individual fate of Charlie.

DESCRIPTION OF CHARLIE

Charlie, the main character of the book, is a nice inconspicuous 15- year old boy, who has got a horrible past. The first stroke of fate was the death of his aunt Helen. Then, after some time, his friend Michael killed himself, what wasn’t easy for Charlie. He is a very emotional person, shy and a maverick. Anyway he lives in his own world and isn’t very open-minded in the beginning.

That all is changing when he met Sam and Patrick at a baseball match. He is loosing his heart to Sam immediately. Charlie is a guy, who mostly does the same things like the others. That’s not always the best for him. This is why he starts smoking, takes drugs and drinks alcohol! On the one hand, he was a very well- behaved boy in the past, but on the other hand he has got lots of friends now and the relationship to his sister got better, because he helped her with her abortion. All in all he is nice to everyone and always wants to do everything right, but that’s not the right way in his case. It wasn’t the right decision to have sex with Mary Elizabeth, and kissing Sam during “true or dare” anyway. And so he lost his first girlfriend after a short time. He also was kissed by Patrick although he doesn’t really want it. Charlie has got no self- confidence and he seems to be a very naive boy. But his character is changing until the end of the book…

A pro/con essay

Violence is a normal course of life. Every day, we are faced with brutal films, computer games, or violence on the streets. Many people blame the violent movies on the increasing of violence everywhere in the world since many years. But is the only solution for a non-violent life a ban on violence in movies? Or would it be successful to censor or forbid brutal films?

A powerful argument which is for a ban on violence in movies, is for example that there are also many good non-violent films which are very successful. Maybe because there are too many brutal films to buy on the open market and to watch in the cinemas, that it doesn’t shocks us anymore. Some good examples for non-violent films are for example “Finding Nemo” or “Winnie Puuh”. Moreover it’s proved that violent movies have got an extremely high influence on children less than twelve years. Little children, who are watching to many horror films, become more violent to others. Some of them want to copy their killer idols and that’s very frightening. Furthermore it could be, that people are thinking, that violence or suicide is a solution after watching such films! If they are depressed and helpless, and they are watching for example a film, where someone kills himself, they try to imitate because they believe it’s their last solution.

In contrast to these arguments, there are also arguments against such a ban.
First is so much violence not realistic anyway. The most are even so unrealistic, that no normal person would copy it. It seems almost incredible that someone is running out of the street to kill some people after watching a horror film. Sure, there are a fistful stupid people, who copy such violent scenes, but I am sure, that they had got a big mental disorder before! Secondly, the majority of people doesn’t get violent or copies cruel scenes, after watching films with violence in it. Thirdly, we don’t turn into a non violent society, just because we don’t show violence! Violence is everywhere. You can hear violent song texts, you can read it in books or you can see affrays live on the streets. Even the newspapers are full of murder and crimes.

Personally, I am against a ban! Everybody has the chance to choose it by himself, if he or she wants to watch films with cruelty in it. So all in all it is irrelevant, if violent films will prohibited or not, we still will get confronted with violence as long the human stays on the world.

snow falling on cedars

When we look at the end of the novel and at the beginning, we notice similarities and differences in the love life of Ishmael as a little boy and grown up man.

To start with, I want to discuss his childhood. He grew up with Hatsue, a Japanese girl. They were only good friends, but a closer inspection reveals, that they fell in love. Ishmael and Hatsue weren’t friends in public, because of their differences. Identical to the situation when he got older. American influences allowed Hatsue to have an affair with him, nonetheless her Japanese influences said she should forget him. They always played earlier in the wood, to a cedar. There they kissed first time. In contrast to Ishmael who was determined to keep that feeling forever and wanted to marry her, Hatsue knew that it wasn’t forever. Hatsue broke up with him and she and her family ushered to an interment camp. During her first kiss with the Japanese Kabuo, she remembered Ishmael. Identical to Ishmael, who remembered how Hatsue didn’t want him. On the contrary to Ishmael, Kabuo didn’t spend as much time with Hatsue as Ishmael did, but she married him for helping her to get over Ishmael. Alternatively to Ishmael who began to hate her, she spent her time putting Ishmael out of her life. He addressed a letter to her and told her how much he hates her, but he never mailed. When he was a grown up man, he met Hatsue in a courtroom where Kabuo was defend. They talked about injustice together and the situation was strained. She meant injustice in the trial in contrast to Ishmael, who meant the injustice that she hadn’t gave a chance to them. In the end he found proofs which would relieve Kabuo. Instead of immediately telling it to a judge, he considered if he would get back Hatsue, when Kabuo will get arrested. Nevertheless he told it to the judge and Kabuo got free. Although she didn’t come back to him he felt good, because he just wanted the best to her. In thanks she hugged him...