Step 2

1.

In Orlando on June 12^th 2016, a man entered a gay night club in Orlando and killed 49 people with a firearm. Over 50 people was also injured. The FBI believes that he didn’t have ties with any terrorist organization, but that he was inspired by them. The attack took place between 2 am and 5 am.

In New Zealand on March 15^th 2019, a right-wing terrorist killed 50 people and injured 50 people when he entered two mosques with a firearm. The New Zealand police think he was on his way to a third attack, but they were able to stop him. The terrorist streamed the incident live over the internet and he also published a manifesto on twitter where he claims to have been in contact with Anders Bering Breivik. The prime minister of New Zealand has now made every firearm that was used in the attack illegal.

2.

I find the way the magazine Daily Mirror depicts the two different terrorists very disappointing and disgusting. Both terrorists are terrorists, they are both maniacs, therefore I find it very wrong to describe one of them as angelic. I also think that its wrong to show the terrorists face on the front page as a celebrity, because then we give them the attention that they want. I think that by showing their faces and making the famous, other people might try to do the same for attention.

3.

They try to make one seem worse than the other, when they both killed the same amount of people. One of them is described as a maniac and one is described as an angel. In the Orlando shooting, they wrote the death toll in the headline, but in the New Zealand shooting, they wrote it in small letters at the bottom. It comes off as very biased even if they didn’t do it on purpose.

Step 4

1.   Given last week’s news about the terror in New Zealand and Holland, do you fear for your own security here in Norway? Are you afraid of terror? Explain.

2.   Are you more afraid of terror when travelling? If so, are there any particular places you would not visit because of this? Explain.

3.   Why do you think people become terrorists?

4.   What can society and individuals do in order to prevent terrorist attacks?

I interviewed people in the lunch break

Question	Person 1	Person 2	Person 3
Given last week’s news about the terror in New Zealand and Holland, do you fear for your own security here in Norway? Are you afraid of terror? Explain.	No, I don’t fear my security here in Norway, because terrorist attacks don’t happen that often and Norway has only had one. I am afraid of terror, but not here in Norway.	Yeah, a little bit. Yes, I am afraid of terror, because I think its really scary to see it on TV and on the internet.	No. I am not afraid of terror. If it happens it happens, but the chances are so small that I don’t worry about terror.
Are you more afraid of terror when travelling? If so, are there any particular places you would not visit because of this? Explain.	Of course. I wouldn’t say that I fear for my life every time I go on an airplane, but it is in the back of my mind. I don’t like crowded places.	I am more afraid of terror when traveling, because what if they bomb the plane or shoot at people in the airport. Not any places in particular, maybe big open areas.	No, as I said, the chances are so small that I don’t worry about that. The only time I think about terror is when I am around a big crowd of people.
Why do you think people become terrorists?	I think they do it because they want the attention and they are brainwashed.	Because they are sick in their head.	I don’t know. I think there are a lot of different reasons, but to be honest, I really don’t care.
What can society and individuals do in order to prevent terrorist attacks?	They can be more aware of their surroundings.	I don’t know.	I’m not sure, but maybe we  can have more police where there are bigger chances of terror attacks.

Step 6

1.

Bush’s 911 speech and Jacinda Ardern’s Christchurch speech are both speeches that are made by the leaders of a country the day that a terrorist attack happened in their country. They both condemn the attacks and the people that did it and the people that support it. They both explain how they are investigating the attack and that they are after other suspects as well. Both speeches show support to the victims and their families and talk about how strong the nation is. The 911 speech is vaguer and isn’t as direct as the New Zealand speech.

2.

They are trying to convey a message that the terrorists didn’t get what they wanted and that its not going to change the freedom in the country. They are trying to condemn the actions and distance the nation from the terrorist. They are trying to say that people need to be strong.

3.

If I was head of state I would want to tell something similar to what Jacinda Ardern told. I would want to tell people that the situation was under control and that it was not going to affect our everyday life. I would have told them that they shouldn’t give any attention to the terrorist, because that is what they want and that they should rather focus on the victims.

what does the characters tell us about life?

The short story powder, is a short story about a father and a son that get stuck on christmas eve, because the road is full of snow. The mother is angry at the father and the father is afraid that if they dont get home to dinner, she is going to divorce him. They decide to make a run for it and drive past the police road block and into the snow. The road is covered in snow, so they can’t see it properly, but they carve their own way. The son is afraid at first, but towards the end of the story, he starts to enjoy driving through the snow.

What i described above is how the story is concretely, but if we analyze and read between the lines, we can discover that the story is trying to tell us something deeper about life. The part of the story where they carve their own way trough the snow can be interpreted as taking a risk to make your own decisions and explore paths that havent been taken before. When the son is afraid, it can mean that you are often afraid at first, but build confidence as you take more risks.

I think this is a great story, not because the settng or anything like that, but because it teaces you something deeper about life. The characters teach us to tak risk and build confidence in our decisions. The whole text is a symbol in it self i think.

The sniper is set in Dublin, Ireland in June sometime in the 1900s. It is dark except the dim light from the moon. It is about a republican sniper that lays on a rooftop and shoots at people and then suddenly an enemy sniper appears at the rooftop on the other side of the street. The characters in the short story are: The sniper, The enemy sniper, the old woman and the turret operator. Only the sniper and the old woman gets described.

The story begins with the sniper taking an eating, drinking and smoking break on the rooftop. Then he sees an old lady telling a solider in a turret where he is, so the sniper shoots both of them. After that an enemy sniper appears on the rooftop across the street and they start shooting at each other, resulting in the sniper getting shot, which is one of the two most significant events in the story. The sniper heals his wound and manages to shoot the enemy sniper by tricking him, but when he goes to see who the enemy sniper is, it turns out it was his brother, which is the second most significant event and also a plot twist, because it changes the whole story. The plot is very believable, because something similar to this could actually have happened even though this is not a true story.

It uses a lot of characterization on non-living things, for example: “a bullet whizzed”, “panting of the motor” and “the pain swept trough him”. It also uses a lot of symbols, for example: “broke the silence” or referring to the armored military car as “the grey monster”. I think that these linguistic tools are useful to get people to understand and to spice up the sentences, but I don’t think they are what makes this a great short story. I think what makes this a great short story, is that it builds up anticipation and releases it all with an unexpected plot twist at the end. I really recommend reading this short story, because it packs an entertaining story into a text that only take about 5 minutes to read.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton