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Sára Timár

In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, we learn how uneasy reality is for the characters and the period they live in. The quote “Human kind / Cannot bear very much reality,” from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, relates to every character in a particular way. Amanda Wingfield, the mother, who in my opinion lives in daydreams but still in a moral way, organises things which might not have anything to do with others’ reality, just hers that she wants to live in, that she wants to encourage in others or that she finds ethical. She is kind of stuck in the reality of her teenage life. She wants to plan her daughter’s future, Laura’s. But Laura expects nothing to come true of all these things her mother wants. “I want you to stay fresh and pretty—for gentleman callers!” and then Laura answers “I am not expecting any gentleman callers.” Amanda also finds it hard to live in peace with her son, Tom. They fight, because they always have distinct opinions. When Tom says “I’m getting a cigarette,” Amanda says “You smoke too much”. 

Laura, the sister in the family, finds it hard to bear reality. She drops out of school because she can’t deal with it, she wants different things from her mother, and she would rather something monotonous every day just to get away from reality. A quote from Amanda: “From half past seven till after five every day you mean to tell me you walked around in the park, because you wanted to make me think that you were still going to Rubicam’s Business College?” And when she actually realises that she might have a gentleman caller, whom she  knew from school, and that it is really happening, she gets physically sick.

It seems like every character has their own activities and habits of escaping reality, Tom goes to the movies—but too frequently, every day. Even his mother makes an argument out of this habit of Tom’s, because she doesn’t believe that Tom goes to the movies this often. “I don’t believe that you go every night to the movies. Nobody goes to the movies night after night. Nobody in their right minds goes to the movies as often as you pretend to.”

In the end, the play suggests that people find reality hard and boring, which it is in some ways, in fact, many ways. The characters try to have something different in their lives, because reality remains the same and if we all thought in the same way, there would be no creativity in life.

Nóra Solti

It was midsummer; my family had been planning a holiday domestically for months, and now the time had come. We had planned to travel to Pécs, because three years earlier, we went there and enjoyed it, so we wanted to experience it again. We had great memories, so we thought that it would be a good idea to spend one week of our summer break there. It was a little bit suspicious that we needed to leave really early in the morning, but me and my sister were too tired to worry about these things. We had been travelling for a long time when I asked my parents where we were, and they said, almost there. A few minutes later we stopped at a gas station; while we were there, I checked our location, and we were in the middle of Slovenia. I was totally shocked, wondering why we were here and why we didn’t notice it earlier. When everybody was back in the car, I asked why we were in Slovenia. My parents said that we had come here just to take a look at Lake Bled. I believed them because it made sense. Hours went by, and I checked our location again and realized that we were in Italy. I asked them again, and they finally told us the truth: that we were going back to Amalfi after last year, because my mother had fallen in love with that place. We booked a room in a smaller city, and then my sister found it interesting that we were literally in the same place as our best friends. We arrived at a campsite, and during the check-in our parents acted strange. They were too happy about things. After a long time, I suddenly looked up and saw my friends with their family in front of us. I couldn’t believe it, so my mouth stayed open. I was also a little bit sad, because we needed to leave the next day and go back to Pécs, to our original destination. After the confusing emotions, the adults explained everything to us: that we had gone there for one week and only to Italy. I was on cloud nine when everything came together. This was the biggest surprise in my whole life. Afterward i can say that I went through the best holiday that i have ever been on, because i was with the people i love in a beautiful country at a great time.

Zoárd Varga

It was a tough week for all the ninth graders. Every class was exhausted after the Kati week, but they still had to be strong for the final day. That day the students and teachers would vote to decide which of the four classes was deserving the first place.

Like all the other classes, the Class 9.B was nervous about the day. Even though they had prepared for this since the second week of school, they had their doubts about winning. What if their dance fell apart? What if they failed the quiz contest? They pondered these possibilities. Even though they thought they would surely fail, they were going to give it their best shot.

But the time for doubts was over. It was time for action. The quiz contest had started, and it was time for everyone to shine. The first few rounds weren’t all that promising. They were getting third and second places, but it wasn’t going to be enough for first place. However, they slowly started their upward climb through the leaderboard. It started looking like they would win, but in the last two rounds they failed to get enough points; thus they barely scored second place.

However, they still had the dance show to hopefully turn the tide of the race. They were prepared to do their best. Some were nervous, unsure whether the dance they had prepared was good enough for winning. But in the end they were reassured that even if they were to lose, everyone would still get cake.

Anyway, it was time for the show. And soon, it was their turn to perform.

After the longest five minutes ever, they finished their performance. Everyone was excited, because they felt they had done an excellent job on stage. After the other classes had finished their performance, it was time for the vote. Everyone waited nervously as people voted for their favorite class. Soon they announced the winners.

To everyone’s surprise, the Class 9.B  won first place. The class was over the moon. They hadn’t thought they would win, but they did. Everyone celebrated this great achievement.

I, for myself, would never in a million years have thought we would win, but we did. And the best part is, we got to eat cake.

Márk Gál

Freedom: its meaning is complex: It could mean that a person doesn’t depend on another. The others cannot tell you what you have to do and what is allowed or not. Or it can mean that we are able to do something (for instance, physically). If people lack freedom, their lives are much harder and mainly filled with suffering. But sometimes too much freedom can cause as much trouble as the lack of it.

Lack of freedom: a simple example of the problem that arises when there are too many rules: dictatorship. Very hard to not break the rules because they forbid too many things; they are not fair, there are too many of them, etc. I also hate depending on other people, because I like to be self-sufficient and resent being restricted unjustly, even if I hate that/those restricted person/people/things.

Issues with too much freedom: If there are too many rules, we know it’s really bad, but sometimes the opposite can cause more and larger problems. There are many examples of this: If there weren’t physical rules like gravity, there would be total chaos in the Universe. If there weren’t laws, then there would be anarchy all over the Earth. A game without rules becomes very boring, hardly playable, and a lot of questions remain unanswered. If we cannot control a thing, it makes trouble.

I think the best is if freedom is balanced with rules; thus, we have to find equilibrium. For example: the earth temperature is optimal because it’s not too cold or hot. We need a well organised world so there is enough freedom for good people (those who want to help others, etc. or at least don’t want hurt anyone) to realize their dreams and enough restrictions to prevent troublemakers (those who want make trouble for others, love suffering of other people etc.) from completing destructive acts or moving on to even more harmful ones.

I hope there will be a world where this happens, but to some extent this is happening now.

Léna Varga

I was getting ready on a Friday evening to go out with my friends. I did my make up and listened to some music, then got dressed  as usual, as I did every day. I was wearing shorts and a pink t-shirt. I packed my bag and was so happy to finally go out with my friends. We agreed that we would meet in front of our favorite restaurant, which is near my house.

When I got  out of the house, I saw a strange man in the distance. I didn’t care about it, so I locked the door and started walking toward the restaurant. I saw the man pick up his pace. I was a little bit confused, but I thought maybe he was just running late. Then I looked back to see where he was. I saw that he was really close to me. I was scared. He came up to me and asked me where I was going. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew that I shouldn’t tell him the truth. I said that I was going to the mall, and I started walking faster. I noticed that he started slowing down, so I finally felt comfortable. I called my friend for comfort till I got there. When I arrived, I didn’t tell them what had happened. I didn’t think that it was a big deal. We went inside the restaurant, ordered some food, and gossiped  about what had been going on in our lives recently. We talked for about four hours; soon it was 9 p.m. It was getting dark, so we decided that we should go home. We paid the bill and said our goodbyes. One of my friends lives near my house, so we walked together half of the way home. She said that she was going to talk with me on the phone while I got home, but I said no. It was really dark on the street because our street is poorly lit. I saw that someone was walking far away. He was getting closer, and I noticed that he was the man who had come up to me before. I was shocked, scared, and didn’t know what to do. I was getting closer to my house, but I knew that I shouldn’t go home. So I stopped, pretending that I couldn’t find something in my bag. He was getting closer and closer, and then I noticed that he was in front of me. He said that I looked really good and asked me if I lived in this area. I said no; I was just at my grandmother’s house for the weekend. He started complimenting me and saying weird things to me. He also started touching me. I immediately grabbed his arm and pushed him away. I started running as fast as I could. I didn’t stop running until I got home.

While I was searching for my keys, I looked back to see if he was following me,but I didn’t see him. I got into the house, ran up to my room, closed the door, and started crying. Everything was a mess in my mind. I didn’t know what to do or what I should have done. I just cried as hard as I could; what had just happened five minutes ago replayed in my mind. I wish I didn’t have to experience this every time i went out.

I long for the feeling that when I go out, I can feel comfortable because men won’t compliment me. I won’t need to bring a “pepper spray” with me when I go out at night or even in the morning. That will be my freedom.