Book Report - Was würdet ihr verbessern?

[Maxfrisch]

Hallo,

ich mache in zwei Wochen eine Nacherzählung eines Engl. Buches.Der Name ist Onkel Toms cabine in deutsch heißt es Onkel Toms Hütte.Mein Referat sieht bis jetzt so aus:

My book is “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.The Autor was Harriet Beecher. Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield on June 14th in 1811 and died in Hartford on July 1st in 1896 at the age of 85. Harriet was the seventh child of Roxanne und Lyman Beecher. “Uncle Toms Cabin was published for the first time as continuation novel in an anti-slavery newspaper. 1852 it was published as book and became quickly very popular, in the United States over 500.000 books were sold within only five years, additionally it was translated into over 20 languages. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was often pointed out as release lever(=Auslöser) for the civil war.
The action tells the story of the slave Tom who works for Mr Shelby. Uncle Tom is a strong man who is very pious. He has a small hut. Each Sunday, slaves come together in this hut and Tom encourages them because they were badly treated by their masters. He reads out from the Bible and preached of God and the world. However its master, Mr. Shelby, has many debts and so, he borrows money from a slave trader. Mr. Shelby even wants to give Tom his liberty back. But Mr. Shelby cannot pay his debts because of a bad harvest. Therefore, Mr. Shelby, who really likes his slave, had to sell his best worker reluctantly (=widerwillig). But Mr. Shelby promised to redeem(= zurückkaufen) Tom a day. The slave trader takes Tom to the south where you get more money for slaves But in the south there are almost no as nice masters as Mr. Shelby. However, on the navigation(=Schiffahrt), a small white girl called Eva falls off the ship “Pirate” into the water. Tom jumped into the water, too, in order to save the girl who can’t swim. Tom is lucky. The father of the girl is rich and at once, he buys Tom. Tom now works as a coachman for Mr. Clare. Eva dies of tuberculosis because the medicine can’t heal this disease in those days. Her last wish is to dismiss Tom in liberty. But this wish isn’t realized. Mr. Clare dies of the injuries he gets during a fight. Now, Tom belongs to Miss Ophelia.
However, she has to sell Tom to reduce her debts. And now, he works for Mr. Skeggs, who is very cruel. It is said that no slave has been living more than 6 years with him. Tom is a good worker who works very quickly on the cotton plantation. But not each worker is so fast. You have to gather a special weight of cotton in the evening, otherwise, you get lashes(=Peitschenhiebe) by Mr.Skeggs. Tom never gets any lashes. But once, he helps a woman to get the weight. So the woman doesn’t get any lashes. So, Tom gets lashes two times. However, the second time has bad consequences.
The son of Mr. Shelby, Robert, who has been looking for Tom for a long time. Now, he wants to redeem him. But it was too late. Tom dies of the consequences of the second lashes.

The book is written very difficultly, so I had to read the first chapters two times to understand the text. It’s a very exciting book, where you are really displaced in the time of slavery. So, you get to know the injustice against the slaves.
Now, the story is over 150 years old, but it is still actual. Harriet Beecher Stowe´s description of the slavery in the southern states of the USA was read out as accusation(=Anklage) in those days. Today, it can be understood as a appeal for more tolerance. Although, Harriet Beecher Stowe used a very old stile for the present time, nobody should avoid this classic book of universal literature.

Wie findet ihr das bis jetzt? Konntet ihr alles verstehen und wo sind eve. Fehler? Vielen dank für eure Hilfe!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Max

[Delfino]

The book I'm going to talk about is “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. The author was Harriet Beecher Stowe, an US-American writer. She was born in Litchfield on June 14th in 1811 and died in Hartford on July 1st in 1896 at the age of 85. Harriet was the seventh child of Roxanne und Lyman Beecher. “Uncle Toms Cabin was published for the first time as continuation novel in an anti-slavery newspaper. Soon after it was published as a book in 1852 it became very popular. Within only five years over 500.000 books were sold in the United States only. Later on it was translated into over 20 languages. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was often pointed out as one of the causes for the civil war.

The story focuses on the (adventurous) life of the slave Tom who works for Mr Shelby. Uncle Tom is a strong man who is also very pious. He is always wearing a small hat. Each Sunday the slaves of his neighbourhood come together to talk about their situation. Tom tries to encourage them (to take actions) because they are badly treated by their masters. Tom reads out of the Bible and preaches about God. (They also talk about other issues in their hard lifes). However his master Mr. Shelby is in debts and needs to borrow money from a slave trader. Although Mr. Shelby likes him very much and thought about liberating Tom from slavery, he can't at the moment. After a bad harvest he falls into even deeper debt. In this situation he decides reluctantly to sell Tom, his best worker. Mr. Shelby promises Tom to redeem him one day. The slave trader planes to takes Tom to the South, where he can sell slaves for much more money. But in the South almost none of the white masters treat their slaves as nice as Mr. Shelby. Tom is placed on a riverboat called “Pirate”, which sets sail down the Mississippi River. While on board Tom saves a young white girl named Eva, who can't swim, after she fell into the river. In gratitude Eva's rich father Mr. Clare buys Tom from the slave trader and takes him to the home of the family in New Orleans. Tom now works as a coachman for Mr. Clare. Tom and Eva begin to relate to one another because of the deep Christian faith they both share. Eva dies of tuberculosis, because the medicine available at that time can’t heal this disease. Unfortunately her last wish to dismiss Tom in liberty isn’t realized. Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, he is fatally stabbed while intervening in a fight. Tom belongs to Miss Ophelia now, who reneges on her late husband's vow. She sells Tom to reduce her debts too. Now he works for Mr. Skeggs, who is a very cruel man. It is said that no slave has survived more than six years working for him. Tom is a good worker, who works very quickly on the cotton plantation. Not every worker is so fast. They have to gather a special weight of cotton until the evening, otherwise they get lashed by Mr.Skeggs. Tom never gets any lashes. Once he tries to help a woman to fulfil the daily target weight, to prevent her from getting lashed. He is caught and now Tom gets lashed two times. However the second round of lashes leave Tom very badly injured. The son of Mr. Shelby, Robert, who has been looking for Tom for a long time arrives. He wants to redeem him. When Tom dies of the fatal injuries Robert needs to realise that he came too late.

The book is written in a very difficult style. I had to read the first chapters twice to fully understand the text. It is a very exciting book, which makes it easy to understand the circumstances during the time of slavery. So, you can feel the injustice towards the slaves. Although this story was written over 150 years ago some issues and racial prejudice still remain. Harriet Beecher Stowe´s book is description of the slavery especially in the southern states of the USA must have sounded like an accusation in those days. Today, it is understood as an appeal for more tolerance and respect towards people of color. Although today's reader may not be used to the very old style of English, nobody should avoid reading this classic book of literature.