CHANGIN PLACES by David Lodge
Two main Characters: Personality, Family, Career
Morris Zapp
- 40 years old
- smoker
- he never left america so far
- long gorilla-like arms
- professor of English
- cannot swimm
- light-headed
- veteran of long distance flying
- he exaggerates
- he's got a wife (Désirée) and twins
- ambitious
- intelligent
- very successful
- highly respected
- don´t like the British
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Philipp Swallow
- afraid of flying
- 40 years old
- unaccustomed to traveling
- unconfident
- infinitely suggestable
- observes other people
- conservative/traditional
- married to Hilary
- three children
- good imagination
- professor of English
- excited about flying/travelling
- intelligence and ability, but lack of ambition and will (p.15)
- loves literature in all its diverse forms
- boring life and marriage
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University Life and Academical System
Euphoric State University
- exchange programm with Rummidge for many years
- beautiful landscape around
- one of America´s major universities (p.13)
- teachers don´t want to go to Britain
- pays the British teachers a huge salary for the exchange
- good facilities: libraries etc.
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Rummidge
- exchange programm with Euphoric State University for many years
- in an industrial city
- university of middle size and not good reputation (p.14)
- teachers are proud to represent their university in Euphoric State
- middle sized
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Life in the USA vs. Life in Britain
USA
- it´s easy to get a bachelor, but after that it gets harder
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Britain
- the British school system is very hard, because they have many tests at different ages (eleven-plus etc.)
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What parts of Zapp´s character as a teacher / academic become visible here?
There are several aspects which show Moriss Zapp´s character as a teacher. Morris is not very understanding. We can see that, when a student hasn´t done the right homework. He hasn´t understood the topic of his essay and therefore he wrote about a different subject. Morris can´t comprehend at all, why he can be too silly to get the topic. Moreover, he expects very much of his students, because he is very clever and passionate about Jane Austen. Furthermore, he shows the class that he has the power in the class room. As an academic he is respected and his opinion is very appreciated. Morris is able to find out about the most important facts in a text, so he is a specialist in coping with texts. This is why his colleagues have great regard for him.
