Gran Torino

Today we watched the movie "Gran Torino" in English class. The movie is a drama from 2008 directed by Clint Eastwood, who is also playing the main character, Walt Kowalski. Walt is a widow and a Korean War veteran, who is old and grumpy and has little contact with his family. His neighbors are Hmong people, which is an Asian ethnic group from China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

A young boy in the Hmong family, Thao, tries to steal Walt´s car, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. Walt catches Thao in action, and the car is saved. But Thao is really a very nice boy who struggles to fit in with the other teenagers. His cousin, on the other hand, is a real gangster. The cousin and his gang are always bullying Thao, and saying that he needs to be a real man. It was this gang that pressured Thao into stealing the car. Walt feels sorry for Thao because the gang is always bothering him, and the two of them become good friends.

Even though Walt first comes across as an old, grumpy and even racist man, he still appears to be a really good man inside. It´s almost like Walt feels that his final mission in life is to save Thao and his family. When Thao´s sister, Sue, is bullied by some guys, Walt shows up with a gun to scare them. And when Thao is beaten up by the gang, Walt tracks down one of the members of the gang and threatens him with a gun to his face. But this turned out to get bigger than what Walt probably expected. Next thing he knew, Sue was beaten up real bad by the gang, while the Hmong family´s house was sprayed with shotgun blasts by the gang. This made Walt very angry and sad, and he decided that he had to act. Thao wanted to kill the gang who had raped and beaten up his sister, but Walt wouldn't let him so he locked him up in his basement. I think Walt kept Thao away because he couldn't risk that Thao would end up spending his life in prison. Therefore, Walt had to deal with it himself. He wanted to put the gang members away for good, and he ended up sacrificing his own life. I think Walt did this both because he felt sorry for the Hmong family, and also because he wanted to make amends for all the things he regretted from his own life. Walt died as a hero, while he was trying to light a match.

I think the main theme of this movie is friendship. We see the friendship between Walt and Thao, an older man and a young boy. Despite the big difference in age and culture, they manage to develop a strong relationship. When someone sacrifices their life for a friend, it means that the friendship is very deep. I though the movie was very good and interesting, and I really recommend it!

I found the picture here

The Catcher in the Rye

The book I'm reading in English class this spring is called "The Catcher in the Rye". It's a pretty famous book and I'm sure many of you have heard of it. "The Catcher in the Rye" is a novel by J. D. Salinger and was written in 1951. The book has been translated into almost all of the world´s major languages, and over 65 million copies are sold in total. The book was originally written for adults, but since the main character of the story is 16 year old Holden Caulfield, the novel has been popular for younger people too. Holden is a student at a boarding school who really just wants to run away from everything in this world that thinks is “phony”. Holden gets expelled from Pencey Prep for failing, even though he appears to be a pretty smart boy. All we get to know about his past is that he has failed four schools, he has been visited by a psychoanalyst and that his brother died of leukemia three years before we enter the story. So far I think the book is very interesting and different from other things I have read. The language is good, and the fact that it’s written in first person with Holden as the narrator makes it very exciting to read, because it makes me as a reader feel like I understand what Holden thinks and feels. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

I took the picture here