The Worst Part...
...of my job is grading papers and essay exams. It's hard to say which one is worse, but there are definitely some doozies in both. Reproduced below is the second paper for the course from one of my students. The assignment was to compare Evelyn Bluecher's An English Wife in Berlin and Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, using the two books to defend some kind of thesis in regards to the Home Front during the First World War. The spelling and punctuation are a little wonky, but I'm reproducing them as the student wrote them. Enjoy!
War, what do most people think of when they hear this word? The first thing that comes to my mind is death, well mostly. Also, it makes me think of my past a lot because I lived through it. Nobody likes war; I cannot imagine one person in this world who would like war. But again, it happens from time to time, just because one country does not like the other, also because one country want to own more land, or now days even because of religion. Even people who never seen war, who just heard about it or saw it on TV. They still know what it looks like, because you can see almost anything on television in now days, or look it up online. There had been a lot of books written about life war experiences, and the people who went through it and survived. Brittain and Bluecher are two of those books. But the interesting thing about them is something that a lot of people would not accept, which is that both of these books were written by women. I was also a little surprised, because I was not used to reading books about wars which were written by women. But after I read "Testament of Youth" which was written by Vera Brittain I found it more interesting, than a lot of male author books that I have read through out my life time. Testament of Youth, is a better book to read out of two, even thought both of these books are very interesting to read. But to me Testament of Youth was a better book, because I liked the non-stop action, there was something interesting going on at all times. Maybe it is because I read these books in the past two days; well that is when I did most of my readings because I was a little behind in my readings. Both of these books were very good sources to give a reader good look at First World War, from the home front and the battlefront. But, again like I said I would have to choose Brittain's work over Bluecher's.
I'm very familiar with the event in the war, like I said I lived through it, and I wish I never have to live through something like that again. These books I think are right on the spot with their writings and life experiences, in som parts on the books especially in "Testament of Youth" when Brittain is talking about home front and how life was there during the war; it was somewhat the same that I had to go through. Well the war that I went through thirteen years ago was not love of a war as First World War was, but the readings still take you back and remind you of some not so happy days in your life.
There was some things that I would liked if they had written about it more. I think the omitted some things, and one things that I would have liked to read about more was life experiences of other people around them. Both of these books mostly told the stories only from their perspective and they have not included anybody else. It would've been more interesting for me as a reader to hear somebody else say something in the book, from time to time. One thing that came up in lecture and which Bluecher also mentioned was the civilian suffering in Germany, mainly around 1914. (Lecture, 02-20-07)
As a nurse Brittain had seen a lot of casualties and a lot of dead men. Even thought she was not in the battlefront, she still had a pretty good if not a perfect idea, of what was going on at these battlefronts. The closest battlefront that Brittain had been was when she served as a nurse in the armed forces, in France. She had also served armed forces in London, and Malta. Brittain went to Oxford College in London, which was all women's college. She as a student at Oxford wrote for schools articles, and the article that got her recognized for the first time was called "The Point of View of a Woman Student", this article was published in the schools paper called the Oxford Outlook. That is when the editor of the weekly Oxford Chronicle, a local newspaper which represented both Town and Gown, sent for Brittain and asked her if she could do a small peace of journalistic work for the Oxford local newspaper. He basically wanted her to write a short half dozen paragraphs describing the activities at the women's college, similar to that habitually sent in by men. (Testament of Youth, pg. 500, section 8)
Testament of Youth and also An English Wife in Berlin, were books of a lot of similar writing. For one the women wrote both of these books. Bluecher wrote "An English Wife in Berlin", and Brittain wrote "Testament of Youth". Both of these writers were English or in the other words from Great Britain, the only difference between them, are that one of them moved to Germany and the other is still in Great Britain. So, we get a women's view on the First World War, which is very rare to find in now days, and yet they have a lot of similarities. One of the similarities that I have gotten out of these two books was about their home front; they basically had the same life styles and same experiences.
Like we learned in our Lecture on 1st, of February, about Militarism, a lot of this Militarism that we had covered in the lecture class was brough back in some passages of these two sbooks. But again mos tof this Militarism was brought back in the Testament of Youth. The fighting was said to be a men's job, women's job however was to be in the home front and treat the injured males, and worry about the kids, and the homes. A lot of militarism pracices were done in schools, all male schools.
If I had to choose or prefer to somebody between these two books, it would've been "Testament of Youth" by Brittain, Vera. Well this is just me, because I'm an action person and if the book does not give me enough action I probably will not read if I do not have to. But, after I read Testament of Youth, I found it really interesting and it was different in a lot of ways, because this was I believe, first book that I have read about wars which was not written by males, but instead it was a female author who lived through it and experience all this stuff. The books gave me a bigger picture and more ideas of what the war looked like in 1900s. And I would prefer them to anybody who is in history, especially "Testament of Youth".
One of my friends suggested that it's easier and more fun to read in your best fake Russian accent.
So, on a 100 point scale, what grade would you give to this stinkbomb?
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ferdinand1213) wrote,
