Characterization, "Laura", robert'oneill, tipps?
The Story: "Laura", by Robert O'Neill
Everybody in the crowded restaurant stared when the young woman suddenly threw a glass of wine in the face of the older man sitting opposite her at a table near the window. The young woman was attractive and well dressed. The man was at least twenty years older than she was. He looked shocked. The young woman suddenly stood up and ran towards the door. ”Laura, come back, please,” the older man shouted. But she had already reached the door. The man ran after her. It had started to rain outside. She ran out into the middle of the street. ”For God's sake, give me a chance to explain,” the man shouted. She turned around and stared at him. A car had just turned the corner and was coming towards her very fast. The driver had not turned his windscreen wipers on, and he was talking to someone on his 10 mobile. Then - suddenly - he saw her -directly in front of him, so close that he could see her eyes when she turned her head and looked at him.
My Characterization: The author Robert O’Neill gives us a short story named “Laura”, in our hands without a detailed beginning and a conclusive ending. We can just follow the situation – Laura is sitting in a restaurant with a man, but it seems that he had done something wrong so that whe throws a glass of wine into his face and runs out of the restaurant. The man wanted to explain, but as she just turns around and stares at him, a driver turns into the street where Laura is standing. In the End, we are not know what is happing to her, because it just ends with the fact that the driver was destracted and Laura now turns her head to the driver, while the car is close to her.
So what we can take from the story, especially when it goes around Laura, we can read out, that she seems to be young, around eighteen and above. The fact that she throws a glass of wine in the face of the man, is enough to assume, that she is of age. And this part shows us, that she is impulsive, mean, respectless, but fair enough angry, even if we don’t know what was happening. A Mixture of agressive, confidend and dissapointed. We also don’t know, how she looks like, what for a type of human she is and which thougts in her actions she might have. Anyway, as she runs out and does nothing more, than just turning her head back to the man, while standing in the middle of the street, it is hard to say, how she could actually felt, wheter she is just too desperate to realise, that she is standing on the street or wheter. The situation where Laura turns her head to the driver, in front her, in the car, begs for the same question; Was she just so stressed, dissepointed and desperated and what is the point of the whole story?
1 Antwort
Question is, what is the story about? Or who is Laura? Or how do we get to this point? What led up to this point in time? - I looked at the brief description of that story on the internet - and it isn't a story as such. It is an exposition. So what exactly is your question?
Ok, this story has a number of possible interpretations. Since we do not know what happened everything is speculation. You could open with that.
Here are some pointers:
Put yourself in her shoes? What would drive you to throw wine into someone's face? Is she sitting there with her father? Lover? Teacher? Decide who they are and what they might be talking about. A break up? A family dispute? A business proposition? A blackmailing attempt? They are all possible. Which one do you find credible or do you have another one altogether?
Choose a scenario and make it credible. It has to be dramatic enough for someone to react in this way - how would she feel in that moment?
She runs out into the middle of the road - which is dangerous. What makes her that reckless? The story seems to imply that something that happened previously makes her this reckless. What could that be?
Ask those hypothetical questions and answer them. That would give your interpretation of the character, other in your class will have others. That's the point of this exercise, there is no one right answer.
Your text sounds a bit 'German'. Send it again when you are finished with it and I'll give it a once over.
If you want to improve your English in general, read books in English. Pick your favourite genre or read something you already know in German - Harry Potter is great for that :) It will improve your understanding of the language and your use of it immensely.
I might not be on later, so if it is for tomorrow you need to send it sooner rather than later.
Here my corrections, I left some 'German' in there, only took out the grammar errors past/present tense and some spelling errors.
Have a read and use it if you like it. Good luck - and fair play to you that you are doing the whole discussion in English!!
My Characterization: The author Robert O’Neill gives us a short story named “Laura”, without a detailed beginning and a conclusive ending. We can just follow the situation – Laura is sitting in a restaurant with a man, but it seems that he has done something wrong so that she throws a glass of wine in his face and runs out of the restaurant. The man wants to explain, but as she just turns around and stares at him, a driver turns into the street where Laura is standing. In the end, we do not know what is going to happen to her, because it just ends with the fact that the driver was distracted and that Laura now turns her head to the driver, while the car is coming closer.
So what we can take from the story, especially about Laura, she seems to be young, around eighteen, perhaps a little older. The fact that she throws a glass of wine in the face of the man, is enough to assume, that she is of age. And this part shows us, that she is impulsive, mean, lacking respect, and obviously very angry, even if we don’t know what has happened. A Mixture of agressive, confidend and dissapointed. We also don’t know, what she looks like, what type of a person she is and which thoughts go with her actions. As she runs out and does nothing more, than just turning her head back to the man, while standing in the middle of the street, it is hard to say, how she actually feels, whether she is just too desperate to realise, that she is standing in the middle of danger. The situation where Laura turns her head to the driver of the car in front of her, also leaves questions: is she just so stressed, disappointed and desperate not to notice or even care?
Your interpretation that she is mean and lacking respect might be something that you will get comments on as the text doesn't necessarily show that.
She could also be throwing HIS wine in his face, so she could be a lot younger.
Sorry, I forgot the story - This is the short story:
"Laura", by Robert O'Neill
Everybody in the crowded restaurant stared when the young woman suddenly threw a glass of wine in the face of the older man sitting opposite her at a table near the window. The young woman was attractive and well dressed. The man was at least twenty years older than she was. He looked shocked. The young woman suddenly stood up and ran towards the door. ”Laura, come back, please,” the older man shouted. But she had already reached the door. The man ran after her. It had started to rain outside. She ran out into the middle of the street. ”For God's sake, give me a chance to explain,” the man shouted. She turned around and stared at him. A car had just turned the corner and was coming towards her very fast. The driver had not turned his windscreen wipers on, and he was talking to someone on his 10 mobile. Then - suddenly - he saw her -directly in front of him, so close that he could see her eyes when she turned her head and looked at him.
And that what I wrote should be my Characterization for School about Laura and the point is, that I don't know - What is right and what's wrong, grammatically and could it someone correct it and give tips.