. . . . . that Space Cadet Glow . . . . .
Ideas, everybody, ideas ...
Below are some classroom ideas on how to approach "The Wall"
(written by students).
We'd love to receive more methodological 'sparks of divine fire'.
How would YOU like to present 'The Wall' to YOUR students???
Note! You don't have to be a teacher to join in!
AND - as usual when reading poetry - just forget everything you
have been told about THE meaning of the text. It's your own experience
which is the real thing - for you!
Some examples:
1. The Thematic Approach
I'll just try to outline some of the more basic ideas presented by my
students when working with the essential question:
'What is this really about?"
'PSYCHOLOGICAL' interpretation
- It's about the eternal conflicts between GOOD and EVIL
in Man's mind
- It's about how interaction with other people might wound
you so violently that you choose isolation as self-defence
- It's really about mobbing
'SOCIAL' interpretation
- It's about how society alienates and mentally breaks down
individuals (and)
- How modern society creates a basis for extreme organizations
like e.g. the neo-Nazis
- It's about how money and power represented by the Capitalist
system and the Establishment ruin 'ordinary lives'
- Actually, it is about the established generation's efforts to
raise obedient and submissive, brainwashed and disciplined
citizens who willingly accept the established order by crushing
every spark of their originality, individuality and creativity.
- Really? It's definitely about everybody's 'modern life'.
We are simply crushed by the increasing demands for more
efficiency. We get too much to do and we can't maintain our natural
social networks any longer, and we replace the 'Empty Spaces' with
junk, drugs and traditional human ill-behaviour (racism, scapegoats,
prejudice, discrimination, etc. etc. - The Old, Eternal Stuff).
'RESULT'
- a feeling of 'emptiness' - not to belong - being an outcast
creating a desire for order, unity, discipline and community,
and an urge for gaining acceptance through action against those
who don't fit in.
'MESSAGE'
- Negative: It all goes in circles. Nothing may really be done.
Human nature is in general negative, and usually leads us
towards a rather gloomy fate.
- Positive: The 'Trial', and the end of the movie, indicates clearly
a hope for the future, especially represented by the children in the
last scene.
Essay by Petter Pettersen
Essay by Stine Ersvik
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