lorri hewett-coming of age

sonjachen1987 · Gast

hi @ all!!
also wir lersen in der schule gerade coming of age von lorri hewett....hat jemand da zufällig materlia zu...so was wie inhaltsangaben charakterisierungen und so weiter??? es ist egal ob sie auf englisch oder auf deutsch sind

Ulli · Administrator Anmeldungsdatum: 03.07.2004 Beiträge: 1389

Hi, sonjachen1987 Augenzwinkern

,

kenn' das Buch leider nicht, gibt doch einfach mal die Autor und Titel in google ein... Augenzwinkern

LG Ulli

Tine · Gast

Brauche auch Hilfe zu dem Buch " Coming of age" von Lorri Hewett...Muss in Englisch meine Facharbeit darüber schreiben...Wäre echt super wenn mir da jemand mit Charakterisationen und so weiterhelfen könnte...

lordkanti · Gast

ich auch.. bei google findet man schlecht was, da sich immer irgendwelche referat seiten in den vordergrund drängen. und da gehts nur gegen Bezahlung!

Gast

Hi Leute, ich habe das Buch in den Prüfungen für den Realabschluss und hab ein wenig dazu gefunden. Ihr müsst das bei google eingeben und die Internetadressen durchgehen. Auf jeder Seite gibt es dann einmal den Link zu einer homepage, wo ein meterlanger Text über Lorri Hewett steht. Der könnte vielleicht hilfreich sein, ist aber schwer zu lesen (auf Deutsch noch schwerer wie auf Englisch.
Ich hoffe das hilft euch smile

meleas · Gast

hät ich das vorher gewusst, dass es da so was gibt, hätt ich nich so probleme mit meiner facharbeit gehabt...
tja, hinterher ist man immer schlauer

Gast

Ist zwar jetzt schon ne Wele her, seit das Thema gepostet wurde, und wahrscheinlich braucht niemand von euch mehr was darüber, aber falls doch, könnt ihr euch ruhig an mich wenden. Wir haben das Buch nämlich auch im Unterricht durchgekaut. Also, falls jemand Interesse hat: [email protected]

Gast

Nachdem ich in der letzten Zeit unglaublich viele Anfragen zu meinem letzen Posting erhalten habe, habe ich mich entschlossen, das Ganze hier doch mal zu veröffentlichen, also alles, was ich so in meinem alten Englisch-Folder zu dem Thema finden konnte.

Lorri Hewett – Coming of Age

narrative techniques/point-of-view-techniques
- a narrator-agent is a narrator who is also a character of the story and involved in the action -> he/she has a limited point of view
- the main protagonists of the novel are also the main narrator-agents: Ruthie (15 chapters, 22000 words), AJ (12 chapters, 25000 words), Erika (14 chapters, 16000 words)
- the minor characters (Ronell, Imani, Andrea, Shanice, Monica) are not real “narrator-agents” because they hardly produce an effect on the course of events, they function as “observers”

the setting
- the school: Centennial High, public inner-city in Denver/Colorado
- student body: 40% white, 25% black, 25% Hispanic,10% oriental/Asian
- from all different kinds of socio-economic background
- student cliques:
- football players, athletes (AJ, Dough, Kevin, Jamil, Walceen): do sports, not interested in school, want to be free, parties, alcohol, girls…
- Erika’s clique (Erika, Monica, Kelli, Imani, Michelle): fight against “black cows”, care about their looks, mixture of black and light skins, aggressive, use obscene/vulgar language
- student council group (Ruthie, Andrea, Christian): like to go to school, well-off backgrounds, important school decisions
- the Black cows (Shanice, …): fight, obscene language
- the insignificant students (La Trica, Marc): no athletes, no cheerleaders etc.; take part in things like marching band

Blurb
“Coming of Age” is a story full of emotions: hate, problems with drugs and alcohol, fights with other people - but most it is a book about love.
The story takes part in a typical American high school where people with different skin colours meet and get to know each other better. In the development of the story some of the main characters start having a relationship with someone they never thought of getting to know.
Even in case you don´t like high school stories in general, you should immediately start reading this book – you’ll find out that this book is different to any high school story you have ever read before.

AJ
family/background
2 brothers, Anthony and Franco
mother dead (suicide)
father doesn´t take care of his children, but pays bills
AJ takes care of Anthony
bad neighbourhood (drugs, alcohol)
appearance
good-looking
athletic
black-skinned
tries to be cool
famous football-player
interests
sports (football)
party
alcohol
friends, girls
education
not interested in school
doesn´t go there every day
wants to be free
not good grades
character/values/goals
wants to be good in sports -> “emotional fighter”
wants Anthony to have a better life than he has
sensitive (inside)

Erika
black father in Phoenix, white mother -> divorced
lives with mother, they argue a lot (embarrassed about “black” daughter)
appearance important (light-skinned, pretty)
singing in choir at church, performs leading part in school musical
special (sexual) interest in AJ; doesn´t really care about others
aggressive: fights (reasons: jealousy,…) shouts, swears a lot
not really interested in school, but finds an apprenticeship in the end
bad temper, violent
learns from her mistakes and becomes a better person

Ruthie
live with family (mother, father, brother)
middle-class family
appearance is important for her, dresses like business-woman
acts like a white
interested in school; is in the student council
one of the best students; wants to go to university
never had a boyfriend before AJ
emotional, sensitive
friendly, helpful
confused about her black identity

AJ´s process of initiation
In the beginning of the story AJ is the cool football-player who does not care about other people’s feelings. He is not interested in anything except sports, party, alcohol and girls, which are his only hobbies. He never shows his emotions in presence of other people, although he is an emotional and sensitive boy actually.
When AJ gets to know Ruthie better his metamorphosis starts, he grows up and becomes a totally different person. He realizes that there are more important things than sports, parties or alcohol; instead of that he discovers the meaning of confidence, affection and deep love.
Through Ruthie´s influence AJ starts permitting his emotions and shows his love to her whenever he is able to do it.
He is really grateful against Ruthie for giving his little brother a new home and the chance of a better life. But it is not just his gratitude which made him falling in love with her: He loves her because she is the most wonderful person in the world, at least for him, and he wants to be together with her forever.
The development of AJ´s and Ruthie´s relationship

1. class mates in chemistry
no real relationship
AJ´s opinion of Ruthie: happy to have someone who supports him; snob; show-off (hangs out with whites)
Ruthie´s opinion of AJ: arrogant, conceited, lazy, no future perspectives
2. Ruthie becomes Anthony’s tutor/contact with AJ´s family
3. The Great Confrontation

Book review
The novel “Coming of Age”, written 1991 by Lorri Hewett, is about the life and typical racial problems in American high schools.
It was Lorri Hewett´s first book she wrote when she was 18 years old. In her opinion there was not enough fiction available which dealt with the experiences of black young adults, so she decided to write this book when she was still in high school. She realized from her own experiences that it is not easy to grow up as a black-skinned person.
The novel describes the life of the three main characters AJ, Ruthie and Erika.
AJ is the most famous, black-skinned football player at Centennial High, Erika is light-skinned and his girlfriend, but they do not really love each other, it is more a sexual relationship they’re having. In the development of the story AJ gets to know the all-teacher’s pet Ruthie. First of all he thinks she is just a grind and a show-off, bus as he gets to know her better, he realizes she is a really special person. There are also many racial problems between the different cliques at Centennial High, but while the story develops, some of the main characters start finding their identity.
In my opinion the novel was a very interesting book to read as the reader is able to understand the problems of young black adults. With the first page of the book the reader enters a totally different world with another culture and a different English as he usually knows: There are a lot of slang expressions which the characters use. (“Yeah. See ya! (…)Whassup?”(…) Nothin. Comin back to school now?”(cp. p. 106 l.13)) I would recommend the book to other people (which includes private readers and classes) because it is a good base to understand the feelings and the world of black-skinned teenagers in the US.

Erica’s reactions of losing AJ
1. internal reactions/psychological
determination to kill Ruthie (p. 148)
compares herself with Ruthie and feels superior (p. 149)
doesn´t know what to do, is desperate (p. 153)
looks for reasons, feels self-pity (p. 157)
phantasizes (p. 157)
anger, full of hate, aggressive (p. 158)
feeling of emptiness (p. 158)
“I am nothing” (p. 158)
-> feels worthless
-> sees her own life realistically
2. external reactions
tears dress apart
tries to fight with Ruthie
throws AJ´s picture on the wall
destroys wheels
“gets high” with Dane, Franco
nearly makes love to Dane
makes love to Franco but thinks about AJ

Class test
1. Language/Form
a) Black English, a fully developed systematic language variety, is used a lot in “Coming of Age”. Read the following example and rewrite it into standard English: p. 150, l. 33-35: “Tomorrow … AJ again.”
b) The following metaphor is taken from the passage you have to deal with in the “Comprehension” part (2.).
Describe what this stylistic device means in the given context!
p. 181, l.42: “…I was getting… under her skin.”

2. Comprehension (use quotations)
Read the following extract carefully: p. 180 l. 31 – p. 182 l. 2.
Describe and explain the changes you see in the behaviour of both girls in this scene. Also compare their actions and reactions in earlier scenes.

3. Comment
Choose one of the following topics and write a comment on it (about 300 words):
1. Discuss whether “Coming of Age” is a typical love story.
2. Comment on the idea of school-uniforms for all pupils (and maybe teacher, too).
3. There should be no exams. Discuss.

1. a) “Tomorrow”, says Imani grinning. I have got to grin, too. Because it is going to be fun, smashing her up, messing up those nice clothes of herself, bruising her up really badly. I will mess her up so badly she will never go near AJ again! (5/5 points)

b) The metaphor in the text passage means that Ruthie really starts getting to hurt Erika. She hurts her not with fists, but with words and she injures Erika with them. She does not need any knives to cut Erika and to get under her skin for stinging her. (3/3 points)

2. In the scene Erika tries to fight with Ruthie, but instead of fighting back Ruthie provokes her, making her feel angrier and in the end she believes her she is a nobody.
In the beginning of the extract Erika appears like she always does in the novel, she is a self-important and egocentric person who wants to reach her aims in any possible way. Her normal way for solving problems is to use violence against other people, but as she tries to hurt Ruthie, this way is not working. Ruthie does not show Erika her anger, she is not afraid of her and provokes her with words, not with fists: “A nobody! You never meant anything to AJ! All you ever were to him was a nice body for him to use at his disposal!” (p.18, l. 31/32). These words make Erika unsure and frustrate her, she tries to hurt Ruthie worse than before, but she is not bale to do it because Ruthie “danced around her” (p. 180 l.33). Ruthie starts enjoying the argument with Erika, which the reader would never have thought of her from other scenes in the novel: “(…) in a sadistic way, enjoying myself.” (p.180 l.37). She always used to be the nice girl and the teacher’s pet who never showed bad sides of herself. As she gets on to make Erika feel annoyed, Erika starts realizing Ruthie is telling the truth. She remarks she cannot solve her problems in other ways than violent ones, and all she can do is to be beautiful and a good singer. She has no future and she is a nothing, that is what Ruthie makes her believe. As Erika starts believing this, she is really hurt by Ruthie: “My words were stinging her, I knew it(…)” (p. 181 l. 70). She feels much more hate than she felt before because she realizes there is nothing in her life to be proud of: “It was the frustrating hate you feel when you begin to realize something about yourself that you don´t want to know, something you’ve tried to repress.” (p. 181/182 l. 72-2).
(9,5/10 points: You could have added that part of Erika’s way of behaving in conflicts involves swearing and threatening people and this is also shown at least in the beginning of the given scene.)

Serena · Gast

an gast:
ich glaube ich spreche hier für alle, ein supergroßes küsschen und ein danke für die informationen über coming of age. du hast mir echt geholfen. jetzt hab ich nicht mehr so viel arbeit... Augenzwinkern

serena

Bjoern · Gast

Danke für das tolle gepostete!
Hat sehr geholfen!

Haben es nämlich im Moment im GK Englisch!

Gott