Lesson01 - Tickits

Nedenfor finder i et uddrag af en kursist-besvarelse.
Meningen er at den skal kunne hjælpe jer med jeres arbejde til mdtl. eksamen, hvis I nu skulle være såheldig at trække en tekst med det pågældende tema.

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•    2. Setting:
What sort of place does the story take place in? Country? What sort of family? What about the time of the story - old, modern? Time of day?
    I think the story takes place in a smaller town in America, because of the names of both Toby and the patrolman McVee, and the name of the tobacco shop, Charlie’s. Also because of the name of the Bank; First National Bank.

    Toby’s and his family comes from the social lower class. His mom is an alcoholic, maybe unemployed as she’s at home when Toby gets home. We don’t hear anything about Toby’s dad, and that could be a sign of, that Toby’s parents are divorced. Toby’s bad writing could be caused by a lot of absence from school, maybe because he needs to do some of his moms’ duties, when she’s unable to.

    I believe the story takes place in the middle of a working day. There are people in the streets and a patrolman at work. The only thing I can find, to settle the time of the story, is the Oldsmobile at the parking lot. It must be some years ago, definitely not modern time.

•    3. The main character:
What sort of person is Toby? What is wrong with him? What does he like and dislike? Whom does he look up to? What sort of things matter to him - and why do they matter so much to him?
    Toby is a boy, who walks around town; lonely, writing tickets to people that have done something wrong, according to Toby. He is not very good at spelling, and because he doesn’t say anything throughout the story, I assume he might also have some problems talking. Toby doesn’t like people who only think of themselves, and does things that are wrong, not only illegal things, but also things that are morally wrong.
    Toby is very fond of McVee the patrolman. Probably because McVee’s job is to write real tickets to people and Toby is acting like him because he want to be like him.
    I don’t think that Toby’s childhood has been pleasant, especially because of his mother’s obviously problems with alcohol, and Toby not having a dad around him. This might also be the reason to his bad spelling, if his mom never helped him learning to read and write. Toby has felt all of his mother’s bad habits on himself, and knows how terrible it feels; therefor he does the best he can, to prevent others from doing bad things.
    Looking good and acting nice matters so much to Toby, because these things are the exact opposites of how his mom behaves, and he doesn’t like the way she is.