About a Boy Characterisierung von Will + seine entwicklung

Blumm · Gast

Hey Ho,

wie im Betreff steht brauch ne recht umfangreiche Characterisierung (ca. 800 Wörter) mit besonderem Gesichtspunk auf Wills veränderung gegenüber Marcus und den anderen Personen.

Ich hab mir schon etliche Stunden mit dem Buch und Hilfen um den Kopf geschlagen aber komm einfach nicht so recht weiter.

wenn jemand hilfen oder gar eine characterisierung hat, wär ich über glücklich wenn er mir antworten würde oder ne mail schriebt!
!
[email protected]

vielen dank im voraus!

Blumm · Gast

Keiner?

Niemand?

Wirklich garnichts? Hilfe

Bitte ihr müsst mir helfen :o) ich brauch alles was zu dem Thema passt :o)

Bitte!

Wink

hiho · Gast

Nick Hornby: About a Boy

A. Will Freeman: His way of life and his attitude towards people

1. Will's way of life and wha keinet it tells us about him
- he lives alone, without a family
 single, uncommitted bystander, does not take a real interest in others,
avoids any commitments and obligations
- took drugs; likes parties; is interested in fashion  self-indulgent
- he does not have any plans for the future
- he does not work
 1. lazy 2. easy-going 3. irresponsible 4. no real purpose in his life
5. has never faced a challenge, does not know about his own capabilities
- he thinks that he hasn't got any problems
- he is very superficial

 His life is marked by insincerity and indifference and a lack of maturity and sincerity

2.Will's attitude towards people and his view of life
- only superficial relationships  he doesn't want a lasting relationship;
avoids long-term relationships
- he exploits women’s emotions
- he doesn't want to get involved in problems of other people (for example after Fiona’s suicide attempt)
- he is only interested in the exterior of other people, not in their thoughts, feelings
- he doesn't worry about lying at people
- he hates/dislikes children
- he hasn't got a real friend he can talk to
- As he hasn’t got any responsibilities he is an aimless person

3.The change of his attitudes towards people and his view of life
- he cares about people, there is a growing sense of commitment and empathy
 he wants to help other people (duck day, trainers for Marcus)
 he is happy when he is able to help them
- Will realizes that there is something else in life than himself  develops
feelings
- he is able to take up responsibilities
- he realizes that lies aren't a good base for relationships
- he likes to be with his friends and becomes genuinely interested in other people

4. The difference between his relationship with Rachel and his previous affairs
- he wants to marry her
- he is really in love with her and wants to be honest to her, becomes vulnerable
- he is also interested in her son
- he does not want to lie to her and is afraid that he might lose her if she finds out that Marcus is not his son  honesty becomes important to him !
- THUS Racher represents some kind of turning point in his life, as he begins to think about other people’s feelings
- She tries to teach him to take responsibility

ale · Ehrenmoderator Anmeldungsdatum: 19.01.2005 Beiträge: 237 Wohnort: Hessen

bitte kein emailadressen angeben. immerhin wollen andere doch auch was davon haben, wenn es hier nützliche linksoder hilfen gibt Augenzwinkern

Kaddi · Anmeldungsdatum: 29.07.2006 Beiträge: 5

Will’s relationships with women

In the beginning of the book “About a boy”, written by Nick Hornby and published in 1998, Will Freeman is described as a rich, lazy, self absorbed and sleazy man, who doesn’t care much about other people’s problems, people’s thoughts and feelings or even about getting married and having children. In his opinion, it’s more important to care about his appearance and being cool. Besides, he holds the view that things like expensive clothes, a trendy haircut or listening to HipHop music impress people, especially women and make him interesting for them. He sees himself as an island and believes if he doesn’t care about anyone, then the better off he is. (“He wasn’t much bothered either way about anything, and that, he knew, would guarantee him a long and depression-free life” p.87) Will usually goes for One-Night-Stands, mostly with women he doesn’t know very well, because he’s not able to hold up a serious relationship.
One day, Will finds out about the erotic qualities of single mothers. He starts going out with Angie, who split up with her ex because he was betraying her, and realizes how easy it is to get the sympathy of someone with a broken heart. Single mothers thank you for just being not their ex, (“In the end, the thing that swung it for him in his affair with Angie was that he was not Someone Else. That meant in his case he wasn’t Simon, her ex...” p.23) they are grateful for every little piece of recognition because they feel neglected and they’re longing for good sex. He just has to play “Mr. Nice Guy”, an understanding softie.
Another important aspect of picking a single mother is for him, that he doesn’t have to feel guilty when she wants to break up. Angie just wasn’t “ready to launch into a relationship with anybody new yet” (p.25), but says he was “great” and “brilliant” (p.25) and keeps building up his ego. It’s the first time for Will, that he doesn’t feel responsible for a crying woman because in former times it always meant that he “had done something mean, or stupid, or grotesquely insensitive”. (p.24) Will thinks that relationships with single mothers are the solution for his way of life because at the beginning they “wanted a regular fuck, and end up deciding that a quiet life is worth any noisy orgasms”. (p.26) In general he wants the same, and when he takes single mothers he gets as well “ a guilt-free parting” and “a lot of ego massage”. (p.26) Through meeting Angie, Will changes his view of women and with that his whole life.
Will is so convinced of the “invention single mother” that he joins a group for single parents, pretending that he’s got a two-year-old boy, just to get to know more victims for his new plan. Through Suzie, the one who Will is focussing on, he gets to know Fiona, a depressed and lonely single mother, who just tried to kill herself, and her 12-year-old son Marcus. For doing Suzie a favour, he takes these two out for dinner. As a result of this evening, Will decides to help them, even though he’s not at all sexually interested in Fiona. He just wants to know “whether it is possible to help someone without sleeping with them”. (p.85) But only after a fey days, Will changes his mind. He has the impression, that it was a mistake to believe that good works were a perspective for him and he is going to give up the whole “pick a single mother plan”.
But then Marcus starts coming around to Will’s house regularly, because he wants to have a bigger family for safety reasons, after his mother tried to kill herself. Will learns to be responsible for someone, he helps Marcus becoming more trendy, chases away the pupils who tease Marcus and he lends him an ear for his problems through their conversations. For the first time Will tries to imagine how other people feel (“But it must make you unhappy.” p. 103) and for the first time Marcus feels understood.
After a big argument between Fiona and Will, concerning Will’s lie about his “son” and Marcus feelings that he needs Will because he needs a father, they meet for a drink to talk about it. Will realizes, that it’s the first time, he goes for a drink with a woman, he’s got no sexual interest in. Furthermore he’s surprised that he’s interested in the conversation, even though he doesn’t have to be, because he doesn’t want Fiona to sleep with him. (“If he had no desire to sleep with Fiona, then of course there was no necessity to pretend that every single thing she said was interesting. But a strange thing happened: he was interested, mostly.” p.122) Will becomes aware that he’s the only person who is able to give Marcus the help he exactly needed: “Marcus needed help to be a kid, not an adult. And, unhappily for Will, that was exactly the kind of assistance he was qualified to provide” (p.138)
Will’s character changes a lot through the influence of Marcus. For example he starts to care about other people, he feels responsible for someone, he tries to help somebody without getting something from it and he realizes that interhuman relationships are the meaning of life and not One-Night-Stands.
As a result of his changements, Will falls seriosly in love for the first time when he meets Rachel. As Will used to think that people who fall in love are not able to “control themselves, or protect themselves (...)” (p.159), he now experiences the weak moments of life and feels vulnerable. He loses his self-confidence in the presence of her, because he thinks he’s got no qualifications that could impress her. Furthermore he is ashamed of his way of life, he thinks Rachel won’t be interested in him because he’s got a life “without context and texture” (p.160). Therefore he doesn’t correct Rachel when she believes that marcus is his son, when he mentions the 12-year-old boy. Will feels that his relationship to Marcus is the only interesting point of his life. He even brings Marcus with him to Rachel’s place, when she invites Will and his “son” to come around, because he’s afraid of losing her if he’s telling her the truth. He wants Rachel “to be his wife, his lover, the centre of the whole world” (p. 174) but after a while he realizes that his wish won’t come true if he’s not truthful to her. On contrary to his former relationships where he always pretended to be someone he isn’t, he’s now showing his real personality and learns to be loved for who he is and not for his lies.
Moreover, the relationship to Rachel differ to his others, because Will is really interested in her opinion, he doesn’t want her to think that he’s strange (“He didn’t want her to think he had a problem.” p.192). Besides, it’s not the main point for him to sleep with Rachel. Even though he’s got the longing to have sex with her very much, it’s as well important for him, to just have her around, to be with her, talk with her and so on.
Rachel helps him to better understand Marcus and to understand Fiona’s depressions. She even makes him to talk to Fiona about her problems and her life. In this situation he finds out that he is able to help Fiona, a fact he was never convinced of. The only thing he has to do is listen to what she says and “nod and ask pertinent questions” (p.223). He is used to these kind of things, but for the first time he is really the “nice guy”, the understandful listener, with no motive of trying to get the conversation partner to sleep with him. (“He didn’t want to sleep with Fiona, but he did want her to feel better, and he hadn’t realized that in order to make her feel better he had to act in the sam way as if he did want to sleep with her.” (p.224)
Summing up you can say that Will changes from a egoistic person, who only cares about himself to an understanding person, who cares about the feeling of others and admits himself that he’s vulnerable and who is taking the risk to be hurt by falling in love. (“Wanting Rachel so much still frightened Will. At any time (..) she might decide that he was too much trouble, or worthless, or no good in bed. She might meet someone else, she might come to the conclusion that she didn’t wan a relationship with anybody at all. She might die (...)” p.249)
At the end, you can say that all these experiences made Will become an adult.