Oberstufe, Leistungskurse Testberichte

Tests und Erfahrungsberichte

• Englisch LK - Death of Macbeth in the Timemachine

  

  12.05.2003, 11:33 Uhr von
  Nyaasu
  Ich bitte euch, bei allen Bewertungen, die schlechter als sn sind, einen Kommentar mit Begründung...

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  Pro:

  nicht allzu schwer / Arbeitsaufträge bereits aus der Sek I bekannt / Parallelen zum Deutschunterricht / viel Literatur für Lesefreudige / wenn der Lehrer stimmt, macht es manchmal Spaß

  Kontra:

  Themen nur wenig unterschiedlich >> viele Wiederholungen / aus Dauer langweilig

  Empfehlung:

  Ja

  Letzte Woche Montag habe ich meine Englisch LK Abiturklausur geschrieben. Der letzte schulische Kontakt mit der englischen Sprache, da sie nicht in meinem Studium auftauchen wird. Zeit also, diesem Fach und meinem LK einen Bericht zu widmen.
  Wie der Titel dieses Berichts zustande kam, werdet ihr spätestens nach der Themenübersicht wissen :-D
  
  
  
  WARUM ENGLISCH LEISTUNGSKURS?
  Irgendwann im 2. Halbjahr der 11. Klasse (meistens nach den Osterferien) muss die Wahl der Leistungskurse für die letzten 2 Jahre der Oberstufe feststehen.
  Der erste würde Deutsch werden, das stand für mich von Anfang an fest, denn auch wenn ich mich oft langweilte, machte Deutsch mir Spaß und ich war gut (das einzige Fach, in dem ich wirklich mal glänzen konnte). Aber welches Fach sollte ich noch nehmen??
  Eigentlich wollte ich ja Sozialwissenschaften nehmen, aber meine Schule bietet für dieses Fach keinen LK an. Ebenso für Philosophie, was meine zweite Wahl gewesen wäre.
  Nun war guter Rat teuer. Es blieben Mathe, Physik, Geschichte und Englisch über. Mathe und Physik fielen von vorneherein weg, weil ich da schon immer kämpfen musste, um auf eine 4 zu kommen, und Geschichte zog ich nur bis zur 12 durch, um es dann abwählen zu können.
  Also entschied ich mich für Englisch – als dritte Wahl.
  
  Kein guter Start? Da mit Herrn K. ein wenig beliebter Mann auf der Liste der möglichen LK-Lehrer stand, hatte ich schon ziemlichen Bammel. Und Herr Krämer bekam auch einen ELK, aber ich kam in den anderen, und den hatte Herr S. bekommen, mein absoluter Lieblingslehrer, bei dem ich schon von der 8 bis zur 10 Englisch gehabt hatte. Also war ich dann doch glücklich mit meiner Wahl und bereue es bis heute nicht.
  
  
  
  WAS BRAUCHT MAN FÜR DEN ELK?
  Man muss sich immer vor Augen halten, dass dieser LK nicht unbedingt billig ist, da er ähnlich wie der Deutsch Unterricht viele Lektüren benötigt.
  TIPP: *** Vieles wurde bei uns schon in der 11 angeschafft, aber wenn man Englisch nicht als LK nimmt oder es gleich nach der 11 abwählt, reicht es, muss man die Sachbücher nicht unbedingt kaufen, und wenn, dann gebraucht. Aus manchen Büchern wurden nur wenige Seiten genutzt, diese kann man auch von Mitschülern kopieren. ***
  
  Unumgänglich ist das Langenscheidt Dictionary (DCE), ein sehr großes und dickes rein englisches Wörterbuch, ähnlich wie der Duden aufgebaut. Es darf und sollte auch bei Klausuren verwendet werden, denn es bewahrt einen vor so manchen Rechtschreibfehlern und ähnlichen.
  In vielen anderen Schulen bekommt man das DCE nur für die Klausuren, wir haben dieses Buch jedoch bereits in der 11. Klasse geliehen bekommen, und jeder, der Englisch als GK oder LK weiterwählt, kann es bis zur Abschlussprüfung behalten. In der Abiturprüfung bekommt man allerdings ein anderes, das eigene darf nicht benutzt werden, um Spicken durch Notizen im DCE vorzubeugen.
  Die Softcoverausgabe mit CD-Rom kostet etwa 35 Euro, man sollte sich die Anschaffung also überlegen. Bei Geschwistern, denen man es weitervererben kann, lohnt es sich erst recht.
  *** TIPP: Auch außerhalb von Klausuren, z.B. bei den Hausaufgaben, auf das DCE zurückgreifen, um den Umgang damit zu lernen, da nicht jeder Lehrer genau erklärt, wie es zu benutzen ist (mein Lehrer in der 11 tat das aber zum Glück). ***
  
  Ebenso mussten bei uns am Anfang der 11 (also auch schon für den Grundkurs) das „Student’s Glossary of Literary Terms“ und „Words in Context“ angeschafft werden.
  Beim SGOTL handelt es sich um ein Buch, in welchem alle möglichen Fachbegriffe aus den Bereichen Lyrik, Literatur etc. auf Englisch und mit lustigen Comics veranschaulicht werden, z.B. Stilmittel oder Texttypen.
  WIC dagegen ist kein reines Nachschlagewerk, sondern ein Buch, mit dem wir – zumindest in der 11 – auch gearbeitet haben, denn hier gibt es sehr informative Texte (englisch, natürlich) zu den verschiedensten Themen (z.B. Politik, Medien oder Schule), aus denen die wichtigsten Vokabeln und die entsprechende Übersetzung ins Deutsche auf der linken Seite stehen (die Texte dementsprechend auf der rechten Seite).
  Beide Bücher sind praktisch als Klausurvorbereitung und gerade fürs Abi als Wiederholung.
  Kosten für beide zusammen liegen bei etwa 20 Euro.
  
  Des Weiteren werden in den 2 Schuljahren durchschnittlich 3 Lektüren gelesen. Diese werden meistens vom Lehrer besorgt, da dieser dann Mengenrabatt rausschlagen und sicherstellen kann, dass auch wirklich alle die gleiche Ausgabe und Auflage besitzen. Es handelt sich dabei oft um besondere Ausgaben, die mit Annotations (Erklärungen), Hintergrundinformationen usw. dem Schüler beim Verstehen und Bearbeiten der Lektüre helfen.
  Bei 3 Lektüren, die meistens als Softcoverausgabe gekauft werden, kann man schon mit 20 bis 25 Euro Kosten rechnen, auch wenn die Lektüren oft sehr dünn sind.
  
  Ansonsten braucht man nur ein Heft, Ringbuch o.ä. und was zu Schreiben, aber das ist ja normal.
  Mit den ganzen Büchern kommt man aber schon mal schnell auf 80 Euro, und wenn man evtl. Ausflüge, Kinobesuche o.ä., mit hinzunimmt, kann der Betrag auch mal dreistellig werden. „Klingt doch gar nicht nach sooo viel“, sagt ihr? Gut, aber da man durchschnittlich 9 Fächer hat, kann das auf Dauer ganz schön ins Geld gehen...
  *** TIPP: Bekannte und Verwandte nach entsprechenden Büchern fragen, oder einfach mal bei ebay oder auf dem Trödelmarkt kucken – fragen kostet nichts! ***
  
  
  
  WAS MACHT MAN DENN JETZT IM ELK?
  Wie schon der Name sagt, wird hier mehr geleistet als z.B. in einem Grundkurs. Die Themen sind die selben, aber im LK werden sie intensiver behandelt. Nun ja, sollten sie, denn Herr S. hat sich andauernd beschwert, dass er hier nur einen Grunzkurs bekommen hat, wo er doch so gern einen LK gehabt hätte... Aber das ist ja eine speziell auf unseren LK zutreffende Eigenschaft, das darf euch also nicht abschrecken ;-)
  
  Während ein GK 3 Stunden pro Woche ausmacht, ist ein LK 5-stündig. Man hat also rein vom Zeitvolumen her viel mehr Möglichkeiten, sich intensiv mit einem Thema auseinander zu setzen und dabei auch einmal ein bisschen außerhalb des Lehrplans zu machen, auch wenn wir uns schon an diesen gehalten haben. Bedenkt bei den folgenden Angaben aber bitte, dass es sich um den gymnasialen Lehrplan NRW handelt, er ist also nicht allgemeingültig!
  
  
  12.1
  Das erste Halbjahr der 12, das erste Halbjahr des LKs.
  Das erste Thema war „American Dreams – American Nightmares“ mit allem Drum und Dran, dem „Melting Pot Myth“ und allen Klischees mit der Frage, ob dieser Dream überhaupt existiert, wobei besonderer Wert auf die Stellung von Farbigen und späten Einwanderern gelegt wurde. Dieses Thema war also auch stark geschichtlich angehaucht (socio-cultural and historical background/development)
  
  Im zweiten Quartal stand ein (relativ) modernes Drama auf dem Programm, welches jedoch allein von Herrn S. bestimmt wurde – „Death of a Salesman“ von Arthur Miller. Da ein weiteres Klischees die amerikanischen Bilderbuchfamilien sind, passte dieses Drama ganz gut zum vorangegangenen Thema. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt war bei der Bearbeitung des Dramas die Verdrehung von „Values and Virtues“, also Prioritäten und Tugenden, da der Salesmann als Hauptperson ganz andere Dinge für gut und wichtig für seine Söhne hält, als man es erwarten könnte.
  Die Lektüre war vollständig auf Englisch, jedoch keine spezielle für Schüler, also ohne Worterklärungen etc., was das Bearbeiten deutlich erschwerte, für einen LK aber angebracht war.
  Dazu wurde auch der Film auf Englisch gekuckt um zu untersuchen, was im Film gemacht wurde und wie diese Szene auf der Bühne dargestellt worden wäre.
  
  
  12.2
  „Great Britain – a changing country“: Der Schwerpunkt hierbei lag besonders auf dem politischen System und seine Entwicklung bis heute, ebenso wie die Entwicklungen der Wirtschaft (trade unions), wobei natürlich auch auf den Sklavenhandel und die Kolonien eingegangen wurde. Aber zum Glück war das Thema recht schnell abgeschlossen. *gähn*
  
  Als nächstes sollte eine (relativ) moderne Lektüre zum Thema „Science and Technology – social consequences and ecological effects, dangers ans opportunities“, und wir hatten die Wahl zwischen „Brave new World“ und „Time Machine“. Ich hätte ja gerne ersteres genommen, da wir das bereits in der 11 in Philosophie durchgenommen hatten (auf deutsch natürlich), aber es wurde abgestimmt, und die Mehrheit entschied sich für H.G. Wells’ „Time Machine“, weil man das ja sicherlich mit dem gerade angelaufenen Kinofilm verbinden könnte. Positiv war aber, dass Herr S. das Ganze nicht allein entschieden hat, sondern uns die Wahl überließ.
  Bei der Lektüre wurde besonderer Wert auf die Pros und Contras der modernen Technik und der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung gelegt, aber auch auf die Verwendung von Stilmitteln und die Erzählstruktur, welche gerade bei „Time Machine“ sehr ausgeprägt sind (Autor erzählt über den Erzähler – der Erzähler berichtet vom Zeitreisenden – der Zeitreisende erzählt von seiner Reise – der Zeitreisende erlebt Abenteuer in der Zukunft).
  Diese Lektüre war glücklicherweise eine spezielle Ausgabe für Schüler und Studenten, wodurch uns einige Erklärungen zu Vokabeln, Umständen etc. zuteil wurden.
  In Verbindung damit sind wir tatsächlich ins Kino gegangen, aber der Kinobesuch war freiwillig, und ich hatte keine Lust und blieb daheim.
  
  Als kurzer Einschub und Rückblick zum Thema Großbritannien folgte zum Schluss dieses Halbjahres noch das Thema „Great Britain’s capital – a changing metropolis“, also London, welches hauptsächlich durch passende Gedichte veranschaulicht wurde. Das meiste war einem aber schon aus dem Unterricht in der Sek I bekannt.
  
  
  13.1
  „Shakespeare and his time“ – alles über die Zeit, in welcher der gute alte William gelebt hat („Elizabethan time“). Da wir in Verbindung dazu aber Macbeth gelesen haben, standen natürlich besonders Hierarchie und Tyrannei des Adels im Mittelpunkt, aber auch das mystische, Aberglaube, Magie etc.
  Macbeth wurde sehr ausführlich besprochen, wobei besonders Wert auf das schon genannte Mystische gelegt wurde, aber auch auf das Kernmotiv von Macbeth, „conflict between legal power ans personal ambitions“. Stilmittel, dramaturgische Struktur etc. wurden natürlich auch gründlichst analysiert. Dabei kam das alte Englisch, welches in keinem Wörterbuch nachzuschlagen ist, erschwerend dazu. Die erste Hälfte des Dramas wurde nach und nach gemeinsam besprochen, die zweite Hälfte vom Kurs in Form von Referaten erarbeitet.
  Unsere Lektüre war sehr gut, denn während jeweils auf der Rechten Hälfte einer Doppelseite das Drama abgedruckt war, war die linke Seite voll mit Annotations, erklärenden Bildern usw., und am Anfang jeder Szene stand sogar deren Zusammenfassung, es war also nicht sehr schwer, Inhalt und Sprache des Dramas nachvollziehen zu können.
  Zum Schluss wurde dann der Film von Polanski gekuckt (mit deutschen Untertiteln, höhö) und in einer Art Review mit dem Drama verglichen.
  
  Da Shakespeare sehr viel Zeit in Anspruch genommen hatte, fiel das zweite Thema dieses Halbjahres, „English around the world“ auch dementsprechend kurz aus, zumal es ein Rückblick auf „Great Britain – a changing country“ war, da es hierbei um die Ursachen und Entwicklungen der weltweiten Verbreitung der englischen Sprache und ihren Status als „Weltsprache“ ging.
  
  
  13.2
  Wir nähern uns dem Ende, sprich den Abiprüfungen, denn die 13.2 ist kein Halbjahr sondern gerade mal ein Quartal.
  Das erste Thema war „Understanding Poetry“, welches erstaunlicherweise unter „Learning for Life“ lief. Da viele Gedichte um Schönheit, Vergänglichkeit, Ende und Bedeutung des Lebens gingen, kann man es unter philosophischem Aspekt aber durchaus gelten lassen.
  Um ein Gedicht zu verstehen, muss natürlich erst eine klassische Analyse – Reimschema, Metrum, Stilmittel etc. – durchgeführt werden, und genau das haben wir auch gemacht. Es war also im Großen und Ganzen nichts neues.
  
  Abschließend folgte das Thema Sprache in den Medien, die Besonderheiten des jeweiligen Mediums und wie so zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen aufgebaut werden können („Human Interrelationships“). Die Medien wurden in Form von Referaten vorgestellt, was nicht schwer war, da sich gerade in unserer Generation jeder mit Fernsehen, Internet usw. relativ stark identifizieren kann.
  
  Bis zu den Abiklausuren folgte dann eine kurze Wiederholung der Themen von 12.1 bis jetzt, und dann war es auch schon vorbei.
  
  
  
  KLAUSUREN
  Wie in jedem Abifach werden auch im Englisch LK Klausuren geschrieben, und zwar 2 pro Halbjahr, als eine pro Quartal. Die hier genannten Regeln gelten auch für jeden anderen LK, z.B. Deutsch, Biologie oder Geschichte (Mathe und Physik mal ausgenommen), sollen der Vollständigkeit halber aber mit aufgeführt werden.
  Von der 12. bis zur 13.1 machen diese Klausuren 4 Schulstunden aus (4 mal 45 min + Pausen, also insgesamt 205 Minuten), wobei in den Pausen durchgeschrieben wird, man darf den Raum also nicht verlassen, und wenn, dann nur um zu Pinkeln oder wenn man mit der Klausur fertig ist.
  In der 13.1 wird nur noch eine Klausur geschrieben, welche Abivorklausur genannt wird, da diese schon in die Wertung der Abiprüfungen miteinbezogen wird und nicht mehr zum herkömmlichen Durchschnitt (Nebenfächer etc.) gezählt wird. Da sie wie eine normale Abiklausur aufgebaut ist, bekommt man hier zwei Themen zur Auswahl, zu den 4 Schulstunden kommen also noch 30 Minuten Auswahlzeit hinzu (also 235 Minuten). Die Regeln sind die selben wie bei der vorangegangenen Klausur.
  Die Abiklausur letztendlich macht 4 Zeitstunden plus 30 Minuten Auswahlzeit aus, also insgesamt 270 Minute. Die Regeln sind ebenfalls die selben, jedoch führt der Lehrer, der Aufsicht hat, genau Buch darüber, wer wann und für wie lange auf Toilette war und wer wann abgegeben hat. Das ist zwar nur so pro forma, gehört aber dazu.
  
  Mittlerweile habe ich sämtliche Klausuren hinter mir (Dienstag, 13.5. ist noch die mündliche Prüfung in SoWi), und ich denke, ich habe mich ganz wacker geschlagen. Lag immer zwischen 2- und 3-, also zumindest in Englisch.
  
  
  
  NOTENGEBUNG
  Da relativ wenig Klausuren geschrieben werden, zählt die mündliche Leistung zu ca. 2/3, die schriftliche zu 1/3, aber das ist von Lehrer zu Lehrer verschieden, manche werten sie weiterhin 1:1.
  Zur mündlichen Leistung gehören sämtliche Beiträge zum Unterricht, also Hausaufgaben vorlesen, Referate, Fragen beantworten etc.
  Da ich in Englisch lieber schreibe als rede, hat mich meine mündliche Note immer etwas nach unten gezogen, das heißt, wenn meine Klausur 2- war, kam auf dem Zeugnis nie was Besseres als 3+ zustande, aber das war auch ok, ich bin kein Mensch, der sich ein Bein ausreißt, weil er unbedingt überall 1 stehen will.
  *** TIPP: Spätestens 2 Wochen vor Quartalsende habt ihr ein Recht darauf, eure Noten gesagt und begründet zu bekommen, auch wenn der Lehrer sich weigert! Zur Not zum Direx gehen! ***
  
  
  
  FÜR WEN IST DER ELK WAS?
  Du solltest ELK wählen, wenn du Interesse hast an...
  ... (klassischer) Literatur und Lyrik und deren analytische Bearbeitung
  ... englischer und amerikanischer Geschichte
  ... Entwicklung, Form etc. von Sprache
  Du solltest ELK wählen, wenn du...
  ... die englische Sprache mündlich und schriftlich gut beherrscht (Faustregel: Man sollte in der 11 mindestens 3- gestanden haben, und in Deutsch sollte man sich auch in diesem Bereich aufhalten)
  ... keine Scheu hat, sich aktiv am Unterricht zu beteiligen
  ... gerne und aufmerksam liest
  
  Solltet ihr die meisten Angaben eher verneinen, überlegt es auch. Man schafft es auch ohne das nötige Interesse (sieht man ja an mir), jedoch kann es einem dann passieren, dass man sich zu Tode langweilt und start zum Blaumachen neigt... (nicht, dass Letzteres auch auf mich zutreffen würde...)
  
  
  
  FAZIT
  Der Englisch LK unterscheidet sich nicht wirklich vom herkömmlichen Unterricht. Alles, was man macht, hat man bereits vorher irgendwann durchgenommen, schließlich wurden Texte, Gedichte etc. bereits in der Sek I analysiert, und parallel dazu auch noch in Deutsch. Die eigentliche Leistung besteht darin, dass man mehr macht (bedingt durch 5 Stunden die Woche), aber nichts Schwereres macht. Die Grundkurse haben teilweise die selben Themen und Werke behandelt, nur halt etwas kürzer, man wird im ELK also nicht überfordert.
  Im LK wird das ganze nur etwas ausführlicher besprochen als im Grundkurs, wobei Literatur und Lyrik deutlich überwiegen, man muss also schon recht lesefreudig sein. Das bin ich, allerdings nicht bei Büchern, die mich nicht interessieren, und ich habe sowohl Macbeth als auch Death of a Salesman nicht zu Ende gebracht, und Time Machine auch nur unter Anstrengungen. Ich hätte ja lieber was von Stephen King oder so gelesen, aber es geht hier halt um klassische Literatur. Wer keine Probleme hat, Englisch zu lesen, aber klassische Literatur öde findet, hat also auch schon mal ein Problem.
  Da ich als LK1 Deutsch hatte, war es für mich relativ einfach, da ich z.B. Stilmittel und Reimformen eines Gedichtes nur einmal lernen musste, und damit trotzdem beide Fächer abgedeckt hatte.
  Insgesamt lässt sich also sagen, dass im LK nur auf bereits Bekanntes aufgebaut wird und nichts wirklich Neues dazukommt. Wer also bereits in der Sek I Probleme mit Englisch hatte, sollte einen großen Bogen um diesen LK machen, da er nicht damit rechnen kann, mit etwas völlig anderem konfrontiert zu werden. Wer in der Sek I gut in Englisch war, es aber insgesamt wenig interessant fand, sollte sich überlegen, ob er sich auch bis zum Abi weiter langweilen möchte.
  Ich gebe zu, dass ich mich oft ziemlich gelangweilt habe, da analysieren auf Dauer mehr als ätzend ist, aber dafür war es für mich echt einfach und ich konnte mich auch durchmogeln ohne einen Finger krumm zu machen. Das soll aber nicht als Vorbild dienen, nicht überall ist das möglich, und auch zum Improvisieren gehört ein gewisses Maß an Talent (das einzige Talent, das ich habe...).
  Aber wenigstens hatte ich einen Lehrer, der witzig ist, Spaß versteht, jede Frage zu beantworten versucht und dessen Sarkasmus unübertroffen ist >> der einzige Lehrer, der mir wirklich fehlen wird...
  Fragt am besten euren Englischlehrer aus der 11 und vielleicht auch den davor, ob sie der Meinung sind, dass ihr euch für den LK eignet würdet, aber seid nicht deprimiert, wenn sie euch vom ELK abraten. Aber auf der anderen Seite habt ihr immer noch das letzte Wort, und wenn ihr unbedingt in den ELK wollt, weil ihr das Gefühl habt, dass es das richtige für euch ist, auch wenn es vielleicht nicht leicht wird, solltet ihr euch nicht von irgendjemandem reinreden lassen. Aber vergesst nicht: Gewählt ist gewählt, ein Zurück gibt es nicht!!!
  
  Ich gebe dem Englisch LK 3 Sterne. 2 Sterne Abzug gibt es, weil die Themen sich alle sehr ähneln und auf Dauer langweilen und weil man nicht wirklich mehr leistet als im Grundkurs. Dies würden einige vielleicht eher als Vorteil ansehen, weil man ja so leichter durchkommt, da es aber nicht dem eigentlichen Sinn eines LKs entspricht, muss es als negativ gewertet werden.
  
  Die Angaben unten sind ziemlich doof (Preis/Leistungsverhältnis???), daher gebe ich da einfach überall ein gut. weiterlesen schließen

• Facharbeit im Englisch LK

  

  23.08.2002, 13:56 Uhr von
  Beikilein
  Faith - is believing in something when common sense tells you not to.

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  Ja

  Vorwort:
  In unserer Schule waren wir der erste Jahrgang der eine Facharbeit im Englisch LK schreiben musste, wovon keiner von uns wirklich begeistert war. Wir bekamen um die 20 Themen vorgegeben, von denen wir uns eins aussuchen konnten. Nach anfänglichem Gerangel, um die beliebtesten Themen hatten wir aber schließlich alle ein Thema mit dem wir uns anfreunden konnten. Die nächsten Wochen verbrachten wir dann unsere Freizeit zum größten Teil in der Bücherei oder zuhause an den PCs und brüteten über unseren Themen. Bei mir kam folgendes dabei raus:
  
  Thema der Facharbeit:
  
  FACT AND FICTION – SLAVE EXPERIENCES DESCRIBED IN A NOVEL AND AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. “THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS” AND MARK TWAIN: “THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN”. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXEMPLARY PASSAGES.
  
  Preface
  
  One reason to choose this topic was a very personal one. I was interested to read an autobiography of a black slave like Frederick Douglass. Since I’m fascinated by black history anyway I thought this might be an interesting topic to work on. In both books I chose the passages were Frederick Douglass and Jim escape slavery. I chose those passages for an interpretation because they are the most thrilling parts in the books. Those passages tell a lot about the feelings, about the fears of an African-American being hold in slavery. They show us what different reasons one could have had to escape slavery. And how differently one prepared for an escape if one prepared at all. I started to approach both passages about the history of African-American slaves. But first of all I summarized both passages and also told the reader very briefly what have happened before and after those exemplary passages. I talked about the Civil War and gave examples for black protest other that told in both books. I also gave background information about the authors and the books. interpreted and compared both passages looking at the aspect of escape. I further on looked at the aspects of friendship and fear Frederick Douglass and Jim might have had. Looking at the aspect of fact and fiction was another part of my interpretation.
  
  2) Summary of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
  
  2.1) First part of the story
  
  This book tells the story of Huckleberry Finn and Jim. Huck is an orphan, his mother died years ago and his dad is an alcoholic and also supposed to be dead. That’s why Huck lives with Miss Watson a widow and slaveholder. Jim is one of her slaves. One day, Huck’s father who everybody thinks is dead suddenly appears in town and takes Huck to live with him in a cabin down by the Mississippi. But since his dad is abusing him, Huck does a trick to escape from his father. He lets him think that some criminal killed him and flees with a boat down the river. He lands on a little island and that is where he crashes into Jim.
  
  2.2) Exemplary passage
  
  In this passage, Jim tells Huckleberry how he escaped from his slaveholder and Mistress Miss Watson. Before he starts telling Huckleberry how his escape went, he makes sure Huck won’t tell anybody anything about it. Jim escaped because his Mistress was about to sell him to another slaveholder in Orleans, even though she had promised him she never would. Jim escapes in the early morning but before he leaves town he has to hide in an old tumbledown copper shop because people are already stirring and he does not want to be seen. About nine ‘o clock he hears people talking about how Huck has been killed. When it is dark Jim goes down to the river and takes a raft to cross it because that way neither the slaveholders can find him nor can the dogs smell his odor. But when he is already half way there, he spots some people at the riverside, so he has to let go of the raft in order to hide, but he is able to get his raft back. He is planning to be about 25 miles further down the river by the next morning and get ashore on the Illinois side of the river, but the plan does not work. After a while Jim again spots somebody near, so he drops from the raft and swims to a little island that is right in front of him. When he gets ashore on the little island, Jim goes into the woods and tries to find a place where he can stay and watch the slavers look after him on the mainland. A few minutes before he and Huck run into each other, Jim hears a cannon being fired and knows that it is after Huck, so he has to be near.
  
  2.3) Second part of the story
  
  After a few days, Huck and Jim decide to take a raft and go further down the river, so that they won’t be found. After a few days on the river, Jim and Huck find a floating house with a dead man inside. Huck doesn’t dare to take a look, so Jim covers him in blankets and then they throw him overboard, in order to overtake the floating house. A little while later, they hear, that there are 300 Dollars offered for whoever finds Huck’s killer. There is also the murmur going around that Jim might be it. Huck and Jim continue their journey down the Mississippi, they hope that some day they’ll go ashore in Cairo. After days and days of sailing Huck and Jim meet two guys. A duke and a king who are also fleeing. They take them aboard and continue the journey with them. Unfortunately those two guys appear to be slaveholders also, and by the time they find out Jim is a slave they take him as their property. Huck and Jim are trying to get rid of them, but it does not work, they have to keep on travelling with them. Then Huck does a trick. He passes himself off as his friend Tom Sawyer, because Tom has relatives near who have not seen him before and in order to escape Jim from the king and the duke Huck passes himself off as Tom. On his way he meets Tom who promises to help Huck. After planning it for a long time, Huck and Tom manage to escape Jim, even though Tom gets shot in his calf. But in the end Jim gets back but as soon as Toms aunt gets to know how good he has been taking care of Tom, while being shot, Jim gets the privilege to spent time with Huck and Tom and is allowed good food and normal clothes. After a while, Jim is being told that his old Mistress Miss Watson died and that one of her last wills was to let Jim free from slavery.
  
  3) Summary of “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
  
  3.1) First part of the biography
  
  In his first years of life, Douglass gets to know the brutality of slavery pretty well. He hardly gets to see his mom and when he finally does it is just for a few hours at night. He is about 7 when his mom dies because of some illness. His first Master Mister Anthony also called Captain Anthony is a really bad Master he beats everybody who disobeys his prohibitions really badly. By the time Douglass is about 8 years old, he goes to live with another family. The Mistress starts to teach him how to read and write, but that does not last long, because his Master thinks that it is not right for a slave to be able to read or write. But by that time, Douglass is already so interested in learning to read and write, that he starts teaching himself. It takes a lot of time but by the time he is a grown up, he is finally able to read and write like any white man. Douglass lives through many pains of a slave before he finally escapes. He also falls in love with a girl called Anna.
  
  3.2) Exemplary passage
  
  In this part of the book Frederick Douglass tells us about his escape and how he prepared for it. It is the year of 1838, when Douglass applies to his Master, Mr. Hugh to hire his time. First of all Master Hugh is not very pleased with that request, because he has heard that Douglass has applied to Master Thomas before and that he has refused his request. But after he though about it for a while, Master Hugh gives Douglass the privilege of hiring his time. Douglass can now get employed by himself, but in return he has to give Master Hugh three Dollars at the end of every week and he also has to find himself calking tools, board and clothing. Douglass is working very hard to cover all of his expenses and still have a little money to save in order to escape slavery some day. But all of a sudden Master Hugh refuses Douglass to hire his time any longer. It is a failure on Douglass’ side that makes Master Hugh decide to do so. Douglass left town without Master Hugh’s permission, which is the reason to take away Douglass’ privilege. In retaliation Douglass refuses to seek any work for a whole week and he doesn’t pay any money to Master Hugh. Master Hugh gets very angry and tells Douglass that he will get a job for him. But Douglass gets up very early the next morning and gets a job by himself. The following week, he is able to pay Master Hugh about 9 Dollars and his Master is so satisfied with him that he gives Douglass 25 cents which is a lot for a Master to give his slave. Douglass only sought for a job by himself so that his Master would not get suspicious. But now that the time to escape gets closer Douglass becomes very sad, thinking of all the friends he has to leave behind. That is the reason why he almost can’t do the escape but in the end his strong will to become a free man wins out. On September 03, 1838 Douglass escapes slavery and finds himself in New York, finally being a free man. The escape goes without any interference. Being asked how he feels as a free man Douglass answers, he feels as “one who has escaped a den of hungry lions.” But after a little while fear and loneliness overcomes Douglass. He has nobody to go or talk to and he is afraid to be caught and brought back to slavery. But very soon an old man, Mr. Ruggles finds Douglass, takes him home and watches over him as he had with many slaves before.
  
  3.3) Second part of the biography
  
  Mr. Ruggles manages for Frederick Douglass and Anna to get married and finally be husband and wife. Anna was also freed from slavery at that point in time. Then they both move to New Bedford, where Douglass gets employed right away and even attends an anti-slavery convention, where he starts telling about his life as a slave and about his escape.
  
  4) Background information
  
  4.1) About Frederick Douglass
  
  Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 as a son of an African-American woman and a white slaveholder. Douglass once stood up to his Master and suffered severe injuries from the result, but unlike the famous Nat Turner, he came out of it alive. He was still a young man when he fled to the north where he was befriended by the abolitionists. Very helpful for his plan to escape was the lucky circumstance that he had learned how to read and write and that he got to read newspapers from the North, so that he could see how the people there were thinking about slavery. He learned, that slavery was not willed by God, but that it was an inhuman system of exploitation. That way all of his doubts about his escape vanished. His biography was first published in 1845. Later on Douglass became the secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission, Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia and United States Minister to Haiti. He died in the year of 1895.
  
  4.2) About Mark Twain
  
  Mark twain was an American writer whose real name was actually Samuel. He was born in Florida, on November 30, 1835. He grew up in Hannibal near the Mississippi. After the sudden death of his father, Mark Twain worked as a printer, a pilot, prospector and journalist. He became a writer in the year of 1867 and with that he became wealthy. Mark twain was the first American writer of world –famous from West of the Mississippi. His work is based on the tradition of the literary journalism, most of all in the sphere of Speech and landscape portrayal and of the humour. In most of his works he relates his stories to the journeys he undertook.
  
  4.3) The biography “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
  
  Frederick Douglass wrote three biographies from which this one: “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is the first and the best known one. Douglass had two motives to write this autobiography. First of all he wanted to support the battle against slavery. Therefore he chose the form of an autobiography to provoke the white slaveholders. The book was published by the Boston anti-slavery society and became an important part of the African-American literature. Secondly the autobiography should dispel the doubts whether Douglass had really been a slave. A lot of people did not believe him that he had been a slave when they saw how educated he was. Blacks have not been listed in any birth register so you could not exactly tell their birthdays. Even here a part of their personality was being taken from black people.
  
  
  4.4) Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
  
  The book “the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” belongs to those books of the World literature that are read and loved by everybody, no matter what class they are. That has been so since its first publication about a hundred years ago. It is less a book for younger people than “Tom Sawyer” but it stayed popular in that age group also. This book ha been burned in some school libraries shortly after it was published because some people though it contained too much immoral contents and indecent speech. The same thing is happening nowadays but this time because some blacks think it contains racist vocabulary. The word “nigger” seems to be more important than the anti-racist context of the book. Kind of ironic thinking about the aspect that one though one had found the solution for racism.
  
  4.5) The Civil War
  
  The Civil War took place in between the years of 1861 and 1865. It was also called the War Between the States. The reasons to start this war are still disputed. When Abraham Lincoln as a candidate of the Republican Party, which was against slavery, was elected President of the United States, eleven of the Southern States dropped from the Union. Those eleven States joined together to a confederation, drafted a constitution and elected J. Davis President. Lincoln was determined to fight for the maintenance of the union and against slavery. “No doubt, as one of his compassions has said, “Slavery ran the iron into him then and there”” That led to the Civil War. Even though the North had big superiority over the South, the South kept up embittered resistance. But in 1863 when the See blockade became more and more effective, the South began to give up their resistance. Later in the year of 1863, Lincoln proclaimed the liberation of all slaves. But only 2 years later, in the year of 1865 the South capitulated unconditionally. Just a little time later a man from the Southern States killed Lincoln. The Civil War demanded a lot of victims on both sides. The economy of the South was totally ruined. Formally slavery was gone now, but not in the society. There was still a lot of racism in the U.S. Racism still caused a lot of victims, years later. Just think of Martin Luther King, who was brutally murdered. Even today there are still people who are being discriminated because of their skin colour. There are also organisations that terrorize black people. One example is the Ku-Klux-Klan.
  
  4.6) Slavery in the U.S.
  
  Slavery in the U.S. was very important in the Plantation work in the southern part of the U.S. There were about 700 000 Negro slaves in the year 1790 and about 4 Million in the year 1860. Moral opposition after the Revolution lead to the removal of slavery in the North and North-West of the U.S. because there the slaves were less important to the economy. On January 01,1808 the moral opposition also led to the prohibition to bring any slaves to America.
  
  5) Interpretation
  
  5.1) Comparing both passages looking at the aspect of escape
  
  5.1.1) Reasons for the escape
  
  Both Douglass and Jim escaped slavery, but in a very different way and because of different reasons.
  
  Jim had a pretty good life for a slave at that time. He escaped because his Mistress was about to sell him to another slaveholder in Orleans and he was afraid of being treated worse than he had been before. Jim told Huck: “ Well, one night I creeps to de do’ pooty late, en de do’ warn’t quite shet, en I hear old missus tell de wider she gwyne to sell me down to Orleans, but she didn’ want to, but she could git eight hund’d dollars for me and it ‘uz sich a big stack o’ money she couldn’ resis’.”
  
  Douglass escaped slavery because he had the strong will to be a free man. He wanted to have a wife and children and be able to earn his own money without giving the most of it away. He wanted to make his own decisions without anyone always telling him what to do and what is right or wrong. He wanted to become self confident.
  
  You can see two very different reasons for the escape here. Jim does not escape because he wanted to become a free man like Douglass but because he wanted to stay with Miss Watson, and by the time he notices that that is impossible he decides to flee because he thinks that that is a lot better then being sold to another slaveholder. Jim felt quite well in the situation he was living in with Miss Watson, in contrast Douglass who felt very uncomfortable in the situation he was in as a slave. Douglass once said:” I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have been killed.” Jim would not have made an attempt to escape if Miss Watson would not thought about selling Jim to another slaver. He felt betrayed by that thought because Miss Watson had promised Jim never to sell him. Douglass wouldn’t ever have stayed with his slaver no matter what might have happened. His urge of wanting to be a free man was stronger then anything else and he was treated much worse then Jim ever had been.
  
  5.2.) The course of both escapes
  
  5.2.1.) Preparation for the escape
  
  Douglass had a very long preparation time for his escape. He prepared weeks and months to be able to escape slavery. First of all he tried to save money to be able to escape and still have money to live on in his “new” life. In order to be able to save some money he had to ask his Master for the privilege of hiring his time so he could get employed by himself and be able to hold some money back. Douglass also had a turning point during his preparation. He became very sad because he had to leave all his friends behind.
  
  Jim on the other hand did not prepare for his escape at all, he heard Miss Watson talking about the sale and decided to run away the same day, which he did the following night. He did not have time to safe any money or prepare to take something with him. He escaped in a rush. He did not think about friends he might leave behind or Miss Watson who would actually be very sad about him gone. He really didn’t think about anything, he just ran and ran and ran.
  
  5.2.2) The escape
  
  Jim as I already said escaped in a rush. He could not get out of town right away, he had to wait until the next night, because there were too many people around, and of course he did not wan to be seen. On his way, he had to be very careful so that nobody would see him, because everywhere he went, there seemed to be people that were looking for him.
  
  Douglass Does not tell much about how he escaped. He actually tells nothing, because he thinks that it won’t be too good to let too many people know how he did it. It was maybe illegal and if someone gets to know that he would be in deep trouble. Fear plays a main part in this. The escape is enough for Douglass he does not want to have to deal with the consequences that might follow if he tells us the way of escape he chose.
  
  5.2.3) After the escape
  
  After the escape, Douglass finds himself in New York, being very alone and with that very sad. He is a free man now, but he has no friends, no family and no place to sleep, which he takes very hard and even thinks about the “old times” in slavery. But then he meets an old man. Mr. Ruggles and that man takes him home, wants to be his friend and gives him a home and some kind of family. Which Douglass enjoys a lot. He is happy now. He can go on with his live as a free man. He has the live he has ever wished for.
  
  Jim instead crashes into Huckleberry Finn on a little island and they both continue their journey together. So Jim does not have the feeling of being lonely at any time. He has got Huck to talk to. Because Jim escaped in such a rush, he did not have time to think about all his friends and family, so he did not get as sad as Douglass, who had the time to think about his friends. Jim just looks forward to the journey with Huck, even though they have to watch out for the slavers who are looking after Jim.
  
  5.3) Comparing both passages looking at the aspect of friendships
  
  A lot of people think that slaves at that time could only be friends with other slaves or other black people, but these two passages show pretty good, that it can also be the other way around.
  
  In “the adventures of Huckleberry Finn” it is obvious that Huck and Jim are very good and close friends, even though Huck is white and Jim is black. “I was ever so glad to see Jim. I wanrn’t lonesome now.” Huck does not care what skin colour Jim has he is just happy to have a friend who he can talk to and share his secrets with and who helps him to hide so that his dad won’t find him.
  
  With Douglass it is very similar. When he arrives in New York and thinks he has nobody to talk to or go to, Mr. Ruggles appears and takes him home to be his friend. And you have to know that Mr. Ruggles is also a white man. It is true that Jim had black people as friends when he was still a slave, and would probably never even have thought about having a white man for a friend.
  
  These passages show, that there were some of the white people that did not agree to slavery at all. And in order to not be punished, by standing up against the laws going into the streets and demonstrate, they at least helped the slaves hide, gave them food, clothing and a place where they could stay.
  
  
  5.4) Comparing both passages looking at the aspect of fear
  
  I think fear played a major role in both escapes. Jim feared to be sold to another slaveholder, where he might not have been treated as well as with Miss Watson. Frederick Douglass instead feared the slavery itself, which was his reason to escape. He feared to be hold in slavery his whole life and he could not stand the humiliation he had to live through every day any longer. He feared that maybe some day he would die of the hard work or the beatings or whatever there may come.
  
  Then I guess both Douglass and Jim feared to be found after and while the escape. Jim told Huck: “I tuck out en shin down de hill, en ‘spec to steal a skift ‘long de sho’ som’ers ‘bove de town, but dey wuz people astirring yit, so I hid in de ole tumbledown copper shop on de bank to wait for everybody to go ‘way.” Douglass probably feared more to be found than Jim, because I think Douglass would have to deal with harder consequences if he would have been found then Douglass. They might even have killed Douglass for running away. But I don’t think they would have been so harsh to Jim. At least Miss Watson would not. She kind of liked Jim so she wouldn’t ever have thought about killing Jim, when getting him back she would have probably put him to work harder or have another punishment for him but she wouldn’t have beaten him up or done any harder things to him.
  
  Maybe both Jim and Frederick Douglass also feared of living a life in freedom, because they have never been free before and they did not know what freedom really meant, instead of not just being a slave any more. They did not know what they had to expect. Maybe the fear of not knowing if escape was the right thing to do was also in their heads. They even had to leave their friends and family behind.
  
  5.5) Comparing both passages looking at the aspect of love
  
  Both Douglass and Jim knew what love is. Jim had a wife and two children who he loved and probably felt very miserable of leaving behind by escaping, but he did not a chance to take them with him. They wouldn’t have made it as a family, because the risk to get caught is much higher the more people there are and it would not have been easy with too little children to not be seen. Of course, Jim missed his wife and children, but he couldn’t do anything about it as long as he did not want to be caught.
  
  Douglass also had a wife but he married his Anna after the escape, when Anna was also free. So at that point of time he was luckier as Jim because he had his wife with him. They were not parted like Jim and his family. Douglass did not have children yet though. But both Douglass and Jim had loved ones who they had to leave behind in order to escape.
  
  6) Comparing both texts looking at the aspect of fact and fiction
  
  6.1) Fact and fiction in both books
  
  The book “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is a biography, which means that the book tells Douglass’ real life. He writes the autobiography by himself. and that makes it even more precisely. I don’t think Frederick Douglass used any kind of fiction in his book. He just simply tells the reader about his life. Which was of course not very easy, and not always nice and beautiful. The most of what Douglass experienced as a slave is “hard stuff”. You have to think it over and over to get it and really understand it. It is a very different kind of book then “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Most of this book is obviously fiction, but I have to admit that there is some fact in it also. Everywhere where the author Mark Twain describes how Jim is being treated, he tells facts. He tells us how slaves at that time really were treated and what they might have thought and felt while being treated so badly. And that is where you have a comparison between Douglass and Jim. Both know the feeling of being treated as second – rate. They know how it feels to not be accepted as a real human, but more seen as an animal. Douglass knows that even better then Jim, because Jim has not been down that low like Douglass has been. Jim has been treated pretty well for a slave while living with Miss Watson. Douglass on the contrary has always been treated very badly; it did not matter how much he got around and how often he changed his Masters. Of course there were better ones and ones that were worse, but there was not as big a difference as with Jim.
  
  6.2) The difference between an autobiography and a novel
  
  Of course there are big differences between those two types of books. The language and style is an important one. The language of both books differs in many ways. One of them is the slang uses which Jim in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Douglass does not use any kind of slang in his biography, he just tells his story in his own words. Jim does this also but “his language” is a language that most people would call slang. Mark Twain also uses a fairytale like language that is very nice and easy to read, not to mention Jim’s slang. Douglass does not do anything like that he tells his biography, right the way it happened and does not try to tell it in words that are easier to read because that would put mistakes in the biography. In the biography Douglass does a very good job telling the history so precisely, so exactly on the point of the truth. The novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain has the needed structure of any novel. It has a syntax and climax, and just everything that makes a novel nice and easy to read. Douglass biography does not have this structure; otherwise it would not be a biography but a novel. In contrary to Mark Twain, who describes Jim’s escape very detailed, Frederick Douglass avoids details about how the escape went and about any names of other slaves. He does that because he does not want to endanger former helpers of himself. He also does not want to close any ways of escape for other slaves, by telling exactly how he did it. A very profound difference is also, that “ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is written by a white man: Mark Twain and “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is written by a black man: Frederick Douglass. Mark Twain does not describe slavery as hard as it was. He makes slavery look much easier than it really was. Douglass who has lived through slavery by himself is able tell how slavery really has been. At least for him and he has a pretty good view on how slavery has been for all the other slaves. Mark twain in contrary has his knowledge from books or other people who told him what slavery was like. He has a very different view on slavery than Douglass has because he experienced the hardest slavery himself.
  
  
  7.1) Protest in both books
  
  Both books show pretty clear the protest against slavery. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” shows it even more precisely than “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The obvious protest in both books is the escape. By escaping slavery, Douglass and Jim both show that they really don’t approve of slavery. They show everybody that they are against slavery and that they are breaking free because slavery is an awful thing that hardly anybody can stand his whole life. The escape is a big exclamation mark, for everybody who wants to see it, and everybody who does not. Jim and Douglass both set a big sign for all the other slaves that have not been able to escape slavery by that time. Even if Jim is not the best example for a slave that escape because he would not have run away if Miss Watson would’ve kept him. Jim’s escape is not really a direct protest against slavery because the book mostly deals with Huck’s problems and just a bit with the problem of slavery. The book first shows the good treatment by Miss Watson, but in the end it shows also the other side of slavery, when Jim is with Tom’s aunt, where he is treated very well at first. Douglass has always been treated very badly, no matter what. He had a short little turning point when he came to Miss Auld who tried to teach him how to read and write. But afterwards he had been treated, as badly as before if not worse, it did not really matter with whom of the Masters he was. So his liberation was a very big protest against anything that had been done to him while he was being held as a slave. Douglass does not only want to show one single fate in his biography, but he wants to show the religious and humanitarian hypocrisy which slavery made possible. WM. Lloyd Garrison once said about one of Douglass speeches: “I shall never forget his first speech at the convention – the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind – the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise – the applause which followed from the beginning to the end of his felicitous remarks.”
  
  7.2) Different forms of Protest
  
  The protest shown in the books of Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain are what we would call silent protest. Even if you could say that by publishing his biography Douglass protest against slavery was not as silent as Jims in “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. But some different forms of showing protest against racism are for example “The Littlerock nine” . “The Littlerock nine” were nine students who refused to go to an all black school many miles away from Littlerock instead of attending the all white school right in the town of Littlerock. It did not make sense to them to travel many hours per day only to get to their school, as long as there was a school in Littlerock. So those nine students met before school every day and were brought in a car with lots of bodyguards to the all white school where they attended the normal lessons even though did have a very hard time there. One of them even graduated as the only black student two years later.
  
  Another example for Protest of blacks was Rosa Parks who caused the bus boycott in the year of 1956. One day she refused to stand up for a white man in the bus. That caused the Montgomery bus boycott. The blacks were told to stand up for whites in the bus or at least move to the very back of the bus; otherwise they were not allowed to ride the bus any longer. Rosa Parks reason to refuse to give her seat to a white man was “The section of the bus where I was sitting was what we called the coloured section especially in this neighbourhood because the bus was filled with more than two-thirds with Negro passengers and a number of them were standing. And just as soon as enough white passengers got on the bus to take what we consider their seats and then a few more, that meant that we had to move back for them even though there was no room to move back. It was an imposition as far as I was concerned.” So all the blacks in Montgomery, Alabama did not see a reason to ride the bus any longer. From that point on they walked everywhere they wanted to go. Some even had their driving pools.
  
  The most profound example of black protest was of course Martin Luther King Junior, who fought for the liberation of blacks. He was the leader of Black protest in the years of 1929 - 1968 until he was brutally murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. His most profound sentence in history was “I have a dream”.
  
  8) Comparing Nat Turner with Frederick Douglass
  
  Nat Turner was a black rebel. On August 21, 1831, Turner and some of his friends did what they had planned for month. In the middle of the night when everybody was already asleep, they went out and killed almost every white family in their town. They did not care how old or young they were. They killed everybody from infants to seniors.
  
  Frederick Douglass was more an agitator than a terrorist like Turner. Douglass wanted to change or better stop slavery politically. He wanted to become friends with all the white people. He wanted to be able to live with them together instead of fighting with them. He wanted to be on the same level with the whites. He did not want to be better or worse just equal.
  
  The profound difference between those two was that Turner did not want to share anything with the white people he wanted to carry out revenge on all the whites, for what had been done to all the blacks before. He though, okay you killed some of our men so we’re going to kill some of yours now. It is just fair. He was so angry with all the white people, which is understandable that he did not see a reason to try to change the situation in another way then starting to kill them. He wanted to give a sign by killing all the white people in his town, just like Douglass wanted by writing his novel and speaking to the people. Turner just had a much more brutal way of giving a sign and showing everybody that slavery was not the right thing to do and that black people have the same right to live as whites.
  
  9) Racism in America today
  
  For most of the Americans slavery is obviously over. It is a dark chapter in the American history and so is the bloody oppression of the Indians. Nevertheless you can still feel racism between blacks and whites in America. White people have the preference in almost all areas. One example is education. A lot of the whites let their children go to good and expensive private schools. A lot of the blacks don’t have the money to let their children go to private schools. And that is exactly how their lives go on. You hardly see a black man or women in a head position.
  
  But the time seems to change at least a very little. A good example here for is Toni Morrison, who is a professor for English literature at American Universities. She also wrote a few books, which deal with the problem of black history in America. She got the Nobel Prize in 1993 for her books.
  
  I myself experienced an episode in America, I won’t forget. I was riding the Alaska – Rail – Road from Anchorage to Denali and while having lunch in the dining car I saw the following. The door opens and a black man in a very noble suit enters the dining car. His outer look shows that he is probably a pretty much wealthy American. He sits down to order his meal. It takes a while until the waiter appears but when he finally does he tells the black man in a very unfriendly tone to move his legs out of the aisle. We all thought, that there was a fight about to start, but nothing happened, the black man simply moved his legs without saying a word. This episode shows, that there is still a long way to go to get equal with everybody.
  
  Epilogue
  
  I have to admit, that working on this topic was not very easy. First of all I had some troubles finding the right literature to start interpreting both passages but that problem did not last long. After a while I started to see some differences between Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and Douglass biography I thought were worth to interpret. Questions like “Where do the differences between both books come from?” arose. Slowly a frame of thoughts was building up in my mind. I started to write and suddenly I saw, hey the paper is not blank anymore. The pages began to fill up slowly. I didn’t even dare to think about how much work a comparative analysis could be before I started to do so. Besides working on slavery and the American history let my experiences I had while my stay in the U.S. stand in a different light. For example I drove with my parents through a suburb of Detroit and noticed that all the houses were pretty much disintegrated. The people that were living there were all black. It was a little different in Alaska though. The best friend of one of my host brothers was black and my host family did not go to church because they though the priest was a racist. All in all was the seminar paper alright, at some point I even had fun working on it even though I was not being able to write 15 pages.
  
  
  P.S. Diese Facharbeit ist von meinem Englischlehrer mit 9 Punkten bewertet wurden, was hauptsächlich daran lag, das ich viel zu spät angefangen habe intensiv an meiner Facharbeit zu arbeiten. TIPP: Fangt rechtzeitig an Euch mit Euren Facharbeitsthemen zu beschäftigen, so schwer es auch fällt, sonst geht es Euch mit der Note wie mir. weiterlesen schließen