"Harvey," a famous play by Mary Chase, is a fun trip into the world of Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible friend, Harvey. This play has been loved by people for many years, and the recent show I saw made me appreciate its timeless appeal even more.

Summary of the Plot:

The play follows Elwood P. Dowd. He's a bit quirky because he's friends with an invisible rabbit named Harvey. Elwood's family gets worried about him, thinking he might be a bit crazy, but Elwood's kindness is what really stands out in the story. His sister Veta tries to put him in a sanitarium but there is a mistake made by the doctor and Veta is admitted instead. At the end his sister changes her mind to admit him because the taxi driver tells her that Elwood wouldn`t be the same after getting the vaccination that should heal him from seeing Harvey.

Audience Engagement:

The audience laughed a lot and clapped, showing that "Harvey" is still a hit. Everyone there seemed to enjoy the play, making it a great visit.

I think Harvey was a friend Elwood started to imagine after the death of his mother. Maybe this was his way of grieving. I don’t think that he is mentally ill and maybe one day Harvey will disappear, but I hope not because Elwood wouldn’t be the nice and humorous man he is anymore.

I really recommend going to the theatre to watch it if you have the chance to. It’s a really nice experience and I am sure everyone would enjoy it as much as I did.

An Interview

(Interviewer: Anna Hackl)

Anna:             First of all, why did you choose to read this book?

Naomi:           I chose this book because as you can tell I’m also half black and got bullied because of my skin colour and the book is based on racism towards black people.

Anna:             Who is your favourite character in this book?

Naomi:           My favourite character is obviously the main character Starr.

Anna:             But why is she your favourite character?

Naomi:           She sees her best friend die after he is shot by a police officer. During this whole time, she is really brave. I don’t know how I would react if someone got shot before my eyes. In addition to that I like how she changes her opinion. At first, she is quiet and doesn’t want people to know it was her, who witnessed the death of Khalil. But once she realises that the people don’t care about him and talk about him like he was a criminal, a thug. She stops talking to a friend because she sees that the friend is racist and, in the end, she speaks out for the whole black community and isn’t scared anymore to tell the whole world what happened to her best friend.

Anna:             Besides Starr, which character do you also like?

Naomi:           I also really like her father. He is such a wise and caring man. He always has good advice in every situation. But that is not the only thing I like about him. When he was younger, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a gang member and gang leader, but when his wife got pregnant with his daughter Starr, he wanted to stop all of this and drop out of the gang so he could give his daughter a peaceful and non-violent life. And when he starts to help a younger boy to get out of the same gang that he belonged to, he definitely won my heart.

Anna:             Would you recommend that book to other people?

Naomi:           I definitely would. I don’t really like to read books but this book was able to touch my heart. It’s not only because I’m black. It’s because you are allowed to look into the life of a person who, just because they look different, have a different culture and a different lifestyle, has to fight against the police and white people. As a person from Austria, I could never imagine fearing for my life when I walk down the streets or when I get pulled over. My parents didn’t have to teach me as a kid what to do when I get pulled over. But let’s get back to the book. If you want to get to know a little bit more about racism, this is the perfect book to start with.

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Anna’s Blog

Hey guys! It’s me again. Today I want to talk about a book I just read. It’s called “Love Letters To The Dead”, and I have to say that it is one of the most emotional books I’ve ever read. I can identify with the main character and put myself into her shoes. When I finished reading, I was really sad at first because I wanted to know more about her life. But let’s start with the beginning.

Firstly, I want to describe the content. The main character is called Laurel. She is 16 years old and starts at a new school. She doesn’t know anyone and is often alone at first, but that doesn’t bother her. On her first day of school her English teacher gives her the task to write a letter to a dead person. She chooses Kurt Cobain, because it was the favourite singer of her sister May, who died only a few months before. So, the whole book is made up of letters she writes to different celebrities in which she shares her life, like in a diary.

Laurel writes a letter every day and at first, she only talks about basic things, like what she has eaten for lunch. But soon she begins to express her feelings in her letters. She talks about her new friends at school, then she tells us something about the first-time drinking alcohol. She speaks about her first school dance and her first kiss from her big love Sky. Laurel talks about parties and about her adventures with her friends and Sky. She writes down nearly everything.

There is only one thing she mentions in every letter: Her sister’s name. As the story progresses, she talks more about her childhood and her experiences with her sister. At the beginning of the book Laurel is so sad about her sister’s death, and she feels like she can never be happy again. She cannot think about her sister without crying, and she barely speaks about her. But with the help of her friends, she is able to get over her sister’s death and start to live her life again and just be happy. At the end she is able to write a letter to her sister May in heaven and finally she says goodbye.

Now I want to give you my personal opinion. I think this book is amazing. Since I have a sister myself and I have a close relationship with her, I can imagine how bad it must be for Laurel to have lost her older sister. The book is funny and sad at the same time. It’s so well written that you can see the world through her eyes. But enough about my opinion. Have you read that book as well? What do you think about Laurel and her friends?

The Great Gatsby, Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pages: 233

Content:

Nick Carraway, a young man, moves to New York in 1922 to learn about shares and the stock market. He rents a house in West Egg, a district of Long Island. Nick’s neighbour is a mysterious man named Jay Gatsby, who lives in a gigantic mansion and throws extravagant parties every Saturday night. Nick drives out to East Egg one evening for dinner with his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and her husband, Tom. Tom and Nick were classmates in Yale. Daisy and Tom introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, a beautiful, young woman with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. Nick also learns a bit about Daisy’s and Tom’s marriage: Jordan tells him that Tom has a lover, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the valley of ashes.

One day, Nick gets an invitation to a party of Gatsby’s. He meets Jordan Baker at the party. They have a lot of fun and finally they meet Gatsby, who asks to talk to Jordan Baker alone. Gatsby tells Jordan that he got to know Daisy in Louisville in 1917 and fell in love with her. Gatsby’s extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are simply an attempt to impress Daisy. Gatsby now wants Nick to invite Daisy for coffee to see Daisy for the first time after many years. Daisy comes for tea and after an awkward reunion they fall in love again. Tom Buchanan gets suspicious about Gatsby and his wife. He invites Gatsby for dinner at their house in East Egg. At the dinner Tom realizes that Gatsby and Daisy are in love. He is really jealous even though he has also been having an affair. He forces the group to drive into New York to the Plaza Hotel. At the hotel Tom and Gatsby get in a big fight and Daisy wants to go home, so she and Gatsby drive back in Gatsby’s yellow car. When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes, they discover that Myrtle, Tom’s lover, has been killed and that it was Gatsby’s car that hit her. They rush back to Long Island, where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car, but Gatsby wants to take the blame.

The next day, Tom tells Myrtle’s husband, George, that Gatsby was driving the car. George, who thinks that the driver of the car that killed Myrtle must have been her lover, finds Gatsby in the pool at his mansion and shoots him. He then fatally shoots himself. Nick stages a small funeral for Gatsby, no one shows up even though a lot of people came to his parties every Sunday. Daisy doesn’t come either because she moved away. Nick ends his relationship with Jordan and moves back to the Midwest to escape the disgust he feels for the people surrounding Gatsby’s life.

Film:

The book was filmed in 2013 and became very popular. The main role Gatsby is played by Leonardo Di Caprio, Daisy is played by Carey Mulligan and Nick by Tobey Maguire. The film was shot in Sydney, Australia. (The photos show scenes from the film.)

Carola Stadler presents: “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher

This book brings up themes like suicide and bullying, which are of great importance nowadays. We try to avoid such topics, but they occur daily. It is necessary to discuss these with teens. This book tells the story of Hannah Baker, a high school girl who commits suicide. Clay, one of her schoolmates, receives a box full of cassettes with the reasons for Hannah’s death on it. His only way to find out what happened to her and why he got this box is to listen to the thirteen tapes.

I really recommend reading this book. First, I fell in love with the high school story. Later the story of Hannah’s death and why it happened caught me. It was breath-taking. I sometimes felt myself in her problems and the fight she had against herself and her classmates. But then there is Clay who is shocked by the box filled with cassettes, by the way, he is my favourite character in this book. He is sympathetic and carries out all the instructions that Hannah gives to the people on the cassettes. Clay is struggling a lot because he doesn’t know why he is a part of this tape. You feel his grief. There are so many more emotions in this book which I can’t describe. The book is not that difficult to read. So just read it and form your own opinion about the story and the book.

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