Aufgabenblock I

Outline the information about the store and what is happening there.

(30%)

Analyze how the mother’s feelings in the store are conveyed. Consider narrative technique and use of language.

(30%)

Choose one of the following tasks:

3.1

Taking the example of the narrator’s family and the disaster store as a starting point, assess to what extent investing in precautions against effects of climate change is an individual’s responsibility.

3.2

As an intern for Teen Ink, a teenage online magazine, you are helping with an issue covering various short stories, poems and cartoons about environmental sustainability. You have been asked by the editors about your opinion on a cartoon for the cover of that issue.

Write them an email in which you comment on the suitability of the cartoon for the cover.

(40%)

Man vs. Nature

cartoon description mecklenburg vorpommern

Keefe, Mike (2008): Manmade and Natural Disasters. The Denver Post. 09.07.2024

Helen Phillips: The Disaster Store

The story is set in the near future.

My daughter stands at my elbow, harassing me, demanding ice cream [...].

My daughter pulls at the fabric of my sweatshirt, making small sounds of yearning and anger.

Yet I must listen to the salesman, in the interest of my daughter and her little brother and the

man who enabled me to make the two of them. The salesman (he says) has recently been to

multiple sales conferences. And this (he says), pulling it down from the horrifying rack, is almost

universally believed to be the most effective model. For children, he adds, glancing coolly at

my daughter (who is asking, again, for ice cream). She yanks my arm so hard that my purse

slips to the concrete floor of the disaster store.

She does not apologize, but she does lift the heavy purse back up, returns it to my forearm. I

do not like to go anywhere nowadays without certain provisions, water, and pills, discreet in

the pockets of the oversize purse.

My daughter, too, has begun to carry a purse, a yellow pouch with a long strap and a pine tree

puffy-painted (by her) on the canvas. At first I thought my husband, during his insomniac

wanderings through the apartment, was dipping into the emergency supply of energy bars that

I store in my winter boots in my closet. After a few days, I discovered that my daughter was

moving the bars, one by one, into her purse. Not to eat, she explained when I confronted her

about it. Just to have.

I taught her the word hoard. [...]

However, the salesman — who is, it seems, electrified to the point of ecstasy by the fact that

his chosen profession is in a field where demand increases by the day — continues to rattle off

statistics related to icebergs, the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, tsunamis, wildfires,

earthquakes, superstorms, quicksand.

Quicksand? I echo. Wait, is that a real thing?

In general, I have been trying not to add anything new to my list of fears.

So this, he continues, is what we recommend for humans weighing between thirty and fifty-five

pounds. But if you get it with this, he says, see, there’s also the oxygen mask, included, you

see here, literally attached — he tugs on the rubber — so that in the event of, say, a strong

current or high toxin levels.

He insists that I, too, tug the rubber.

The oxygen mask is intensely bug-eyed.

What’s the, I pause, the price difference?

He stares me down before citing a number that, multiplied by four, brings tears to my eyes.

People go into credit card debt for this kind of thing, he says. Every day, people go into credit

card debt. I had a guy just yesterday, this guy says, what's credit card debt for, anyway? And

I thought that that was such a good point.

I look to my daughter, curious to witness her reaction — whether she trusts or mistrusts this

person. She is a more realistic judge of character than I, less likely to give someone the benefit

of the doubt. Is this man, for instance, trying to save our lives or to make a buck?

My daughter, though, is no longer at her post at my elbow, the point from which she once stood

loudly emitting her desire for ice cream.

My daughter, I panic, but the salesman’s affect flattens out, a real child of less interest to him

than the flotation devices invented to encase them.

What’s her name? he says, though he has already heard me use it several times. He repeats

her name dispassionately as I repeat it passionately, running down immense aisles stocked

with tarps, tents, collapsible rafts, water purification systems, freeze-dried food, hand-crank

radios, bullets and guns, lumber.

The salesman gets distracted in the lumber section — what the fuck, Chuck, he says into his

walkie-talkie, who can steal two-by-fours without getting stopped at the exit?

There’s been a run on lumber all over the city. It’s made headlines. We still have our boards

from the last three storms. Presumably my husband and son are well on their way to blocking

every sliver of natural light from entering our apartment. [...]

I find her in the hunting and fishing aisle, but it is neither the small-edible-mammal traps

(SQUIRRELS! RACCOONS! RATS!) nor the rifles that have her attention: she stands before

the towering rack of fly-fishing flies, iridescent and glimmering, thousands of colors.

Don’t ever go away from me!

I didn’t know they had cool things here, she says. Can we buy some?

(757 words)

Phillips, Helen (2019): The Disaster Store. (18.03. 2019)

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Note:
Our solutions are listed in bullet points. In the examination, full marks can only be achieved by writing a continuous text.

big shop, divided into several sections
Products include various items of emergency equipment, often expensive, and in rapidly growing demand
salesperson talks continuously to persuade customers of the value of the products
Customers are people who are preparing to survive environmental disasters
$\rightarrow$ prepared to go into debt to buy the products

Information about the disaster store

sales conversation takes place between a saleswoman and a mother with her daughter
mother is looking for emergency equipment for her family of four
daughter is showing no interest and interrupts the conversation
salesperson tries various strategies to close the sale, while the mother is distracted by other concerns
mother is unsure whether to make the purchase and doubts the sales assistant's trustworthiness
woman realises that her daughter has run away and searches the shop until she finds her
shop assistant is distracted by shoplifting

Events in the shop

The mother's feelings in the shop are conveyed through a combination of narrative techniques and highly effective language that paint a vivid picture of her emotional turmoil. The story captures her anxiety and distraction amidst the chaos of a busy shop. Her daughter's behaviour adds to her stress. By looking at the narrative techniques and language, we can see how the story conveys her emotions effectively.

Introduction

First-person narrator
$\rightarrow$ limited point of view
$\rightarrow$ use of present tense, e.g., "my list of fears" (l. 24), "brings tears to my eyes" (l. 32), "I panic" (l. 41)
$\rightarrow$ describes the mother's worry and feeling of powerlessness
$\rightarrow$ provides insight into her inner struggles

Enumeration
$\rightarrow$ e.g., "immense aisles stocked with tarps, tents ... lumber" (ll. 44-46)
$\rightarrow$ listing and capitalizing, e.g., “small-edible-mammal traps (SQUIRRELS! RACCOONS! RATS!)” (ll. 52-53)
$\rightarrow$ use of negatively connoted words, e.g., “horrifying” (l. 5)
$\rightarrow$ visualisation of the mother's feeling of being overwhelmed and rejected

Indirect questions
$\rightarrow$ "whether she trusts or mistrusts this person" (l. 36-37), "Is this man, for instance, trying to save our lives or to make a buck?" (l. 38)
$\rightarrow$ showing the mother’s doubt about the salesperson’s sincerity

Contrast
$\rightarrow$ "He repeats her name dispassionately as I repeat it passionately" (l. 43-44)
$\rightarrow$ emphasizing the mother’s frustration and anger at the salesperson’s lack of empathy and support

Imperative
$\rightarrow$ "Don’t ever go away from me!" (l. 55)
$\rightarrow$ expressing the mother’s fear of losing her daughter

Main Body
Narrative Techniques

Enumeration
$\rightarrow$ "for the sake of my daughter and her little brother and the man who made it possible for me to make them" (lines 3-4), "I'm not going ... without certain supplies, water and pills" (l. 9-10)
$\rightarrow$ Illustration of the number of people who need her support and precautions

Modal sentences
$\rightarrow$ "I have to listen" (l. 3)
$\rightarrow$ Expression of the pressure the mother feels to do something

Short, simple sentences
$\rightarrow$ "She doesn't apologise, but she takes off" (l. 9) in contrast to complex sentences with metaphorical language, e.g. "electrified to the point of ecstasy" (l. 19)
$\rightarrow$ make it clear how differently the mother experiences the daughter's and sales assistant's behaviour

Descriptive words and repetitions
$\rightarrow$ "My daughter ... pressurises me ... demands ... My daughter ... makes longing noises" (l. 1-2)
$\rightarrow$ Clarification of the mother's irritation at the daughter's behaviour

Comment
$\rightarrow$ "My daughter too ... pushes the bars ... in her handbag ... I taught her the word hoarding." (l. 12-18)
$\rightarrow$ expresses concern about how much her daughter has copied her behaviour

Use of language

To summarise, the narrative effectively captures the complex emotions of the mother in the shop through the careful use of narrative techniques and language. By allowing the reader to delve into her fears and frustrations and vividly depicting her inner conflicts and reactions, the story creates a compelling portrayal of a woman navigating a stressful situation while balancing practical concerns and emotional turbulence.

Conclusion

3.1

Climate change is having an increasing global impact on daily life, prompting people to take precautions against its effects. Shortly after the story is set in the near future, a visit by the narrator's family to a disaster store emphasises this urgency. This raises the question: To what extent is it the responsibility of individuals to invest in precautions against the effects of climate change?

Introduction

concerns and fear about the effects of climate change are forcing people to invest large sums of money
risking going into debt therefore or even leads them to steal goods from store
these kinds of shops attract often times anxious people who would do anything to protect their lives and possessions
$\rightarrow$ buying emergency equipment
self-responsibility to take care of family, home, and property
$\rightarrow$ e.g. make one’s home weatherproof
personal health and survival dependent on individual action
$\rightarrow$ e.g. informing oneself about risks and what one can do, being able to help oneself as other support, e.g. from the government, might take too long in an emergency
personal dedication to working rescue services and other (voluntary) organisations that provide help in emergencies
$\rightarrow$ e.g. first aid, fire brigade, technical relief organisation ...

Main Body
Individual responsibility to invest in precautions

not every individual is able to invest in precautions
$\rightarrow$ e.g. children and elderly, able to take precautions on their own or willing to do so if it affects one’s standard of living or socially weak people
those who are responsible for the climate conditions should cover the costs of safety measures/prevention
$\rightarrow$ e.g. companies, governments, individuals with harmful lifestyle
political action, e.g. laws, and research, necessary to improve a society’s chances of coping with critical developments and guaranteeing personal safety as one often cannot tackle such issues individually
impossible to take precautions against all eventualities because of unpredictability and large scale of climate change and its effects, e.g. floods, droughts, storms

Others are responsible for investing in precautions

In conclusion, it is clear that taking precautions can be very costly if done individually. However, the major authorities often do not cover these expenses and do not fulfill their responsibilities. It is therefore safer for individuals to take matters into their own hands and decide what precautions they are prepared to pay for.

Conclusion

3.2

Feedback for the use of the cartoon

Subject

Dear Teen Ink Team,

I am writing to provide feedback on the cartoon you are considering for the cover.

Introduction

The cartoon presents a powerful commentary on the interplay between natural and man-made disasters. It contrasts the uncontrollable forces of nature, such as volcanoes, typhoons, floods, and earthquakes, with the crises created by human actions, including war, pollution, overpopulation, and greenhouse gases. The depiction of "Man" acknowledging our self-created disasters with the statement, "We know how to create our own disasters, thank you… We don’t need any help," adds a layer of irony and critical reflection.

Description

the cartoon's illustration of volcanoes, floods, typhoons, and fires directly relates to the various environmental issues Teen Ink might cover, like climate change and deforestation
while specific events might age, the cartoon captures the essence of diverse natural disasters, making it relevant across time
imagery clearly emphasizes the destructive force of these disasters, highlighting the severity of environmental problems
cartoon's visuals and text are easily understood by a younger audience, making the message of human-caused environmental damage accessible
the cartoon uses symbolism and irony to attract the attraction of the user

Arguments for the use

cartoon's message could be seen as overly cynical and discourage readers from believing change is possible
if the cartoon is too busy with multiple elements, it might be visually overwhelming and difficult to understand at a glance, especially on a cover
caricature is not meant to be obvious, but it could be a good way to start a conversation about a complex topic
message might resonate with some teens, but younger readers might find the imagery scary or confusing
strong cover image should be powerful on its own
if the message relies heavily on the text, it might not be as effective visually

Arguments against the use

Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to use this cartoon for the cover rests with you. I hope these arguments provide a balanced perspective on its potential impact. As, in my opinion, it could be used as a starting point for discussion. However, for the cover, I would choose a simpler cover as it is quite loaded. I'm happy to discuss this further or explore other cover ideas if you'd like.

Conclusion

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