Ich habe mir gestern einen neuen Blog für den Reading Log angelegt:

www.whenmanslogblog.wordpress.com

                                                                                                                                 16.04.2008 Heat and Dust                                                                                                            HA

How is it to be explained that Olivia falls victim to a man who is nothing       

more than a ruthless seducer?

Olivia is a British women who came to India just because of her husband`s work there. She does not seem to know much about the conflict between independent India and British India. She is a very naive person. The Nawab, also quite childish, nevertheless must be more clever. On the one hand he lives toghether with his domineering mother in his palest, but on the other hand he is a ruler who is very proud of the territory one of his ancestors once gained in a battle against the British. Behind this background it is easy to understand that he hates the British comunity living in India. However, he pretends to like Olivia. Towards her he is a friendly and charming man who cares for her, entertains her and gives her the impression of being loved and also safe. While her husband is at work most of the day and afterwards talks to her about his work, the Nawab is always there for her and does not confront her with any bad things happening in India.

I think Olivia is a very easy victim because of her situation. She is bored of being alone all day and this bore the Nawab takes away from her. He is able to always be around and offer her things Douglas cannotsince he works so much. Additionally, he shows her a totally different way of life, which for her is more interesting and funny than the British one. As a result of her naiveness and the facts just given, Olivia does not notice that the Nawab actually is a ruthless seducer who just wants to take revenge on the British.

Heat and Dust                                                                                                            HA

Significance of the graveyard (pp. 100 ff.)

On Sunday evenings Douglas and Olivia go for a walk through the graveyard, talk to each other and have a look at the graves of the dead Brtish soldiers having died in India.

So, in my opinion it stands for Olivia`s inner conflict..

On the one hand she wants to have a baby in hope to thereby become a normal British lady with a normal British family, which you can consider from the passage on page 102, lines 11-15. “ She thought if she had a baby – a strapping blond blue-eyed boy – everything would be all right. She would be at peace and also at one with Douglas and think about everything the same way he did.” But she is feared because of the high rate of dead babies in India and in my opinion she does not know what to think about British-India. On the one hand there is Douglas who tells her that Britain always did and still does the right , who wants to offer her more and who says bad things about the Nawab and India and on the other hand there is the Nawab who cares for her and shows her India from another view. I think that this inner conflict becomes quite clear in this extract. She mentions her wish to have a baby and a caring husband (p.100, l.13-16), her hope concerning this (p.102, ll. 11-15) and her fear of having a baby (p.100, ll.23-25), bur she also takes the opposite when Douglas talks badly about the Nawab. Concluding all this, her affection for the Nawab probably is the problem that causes the inner conflict represented by the graveyard.

Wollt nur sagen, dass ich seit letzter Woche DSL habe ( in Wiesens!!!) und das seit heute auch funktioniert

Meine Hausaufgaben kommen aber trotzdem zu spät, weil ich mein Passwort schon wieder vergessen hatte. Sorry.