A poignant and profoundly human story in which Gaskell makes us see the fragility of life and the turns relationships can go through.
    
     Masterly written and extremelly touching - I hope you also enjoy it.
    
     To read the text, please, click The Half-Brothers

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

This story is shockingly interesting. It manages to make you think about human feelings. It also states how the influence of the social group can create feelings and attitudes that have no reason to exist. It makes clear how people prejudge and never give an opportunity to others. I think this story is a great debate enhancer.

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Dear All,
    
     This is a thought-provoking story. I really felt uneasy in reading and it has made me think how many we treat like Gregory we still have around us and how we can change this!
    
     I was impressed by the author's courage to bring this unhappy ending of a story with lots of confusing feelings. It seems the only one person who taught the half-brothers the true love was mother, and she was the one who influenced the last embrace between the half-brothers like it once happend in the past ...
    
     While I was reading down I felt the emotion of changing the end and give some different luck to Gregory, but then the story is there with its end.
    
     It's a parable that has come to stay in my mind. peharps I have a similar true story like this one - still untold!
    
     Thank you very much
    
     Tanguene

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

I agree and I found the build up of images of dullness, dreary, gloomy - created an active image in my mind of the poverty of the spirit echoed by Elizabeth Gaskell!

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Dear all,
     This is such a sad story but so true as stepsons do suffer this hatred of stepfathers too, even though we say' stepmotherly treatment 'commonly.
     Gregory is the typical self-sacrifing elder child.He also illustrates the truth that if we treat kids cruelly telling them they are no good they begin to believe this themselves.
     The Indian film "Taare Zameen Par", which was shown in UK too, tells of a dyslexic child ill-treated by the father till a bright sympathetic teacher came to restore faith in himself.
     Little boys love this story.Its not the relationships but the attitudes to children that we ELteachers should be careful about. Thanks for the story, folk.
     Iris Devadason

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Taking the story into modern society would we find it translated differently! Surely modern "step children" have the same rights as one's own children! Interesting points raised in this context help us explore different cultural attitudes to this subject!

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Hi All
    
     I agree with Tanguene that there may be many stories like this still untold - the setting and the motifs can be different but the shadows of segregation, prejudice and who has rights to what is still very present in our society. It is not just for fashion that there are many people fighting for equal opportunities among us...
    
     Cheers - Chris

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Dear All,
    
     Thanks Chris for sharing the view of other "Half-Brothers" stories still untold. We should be encouraged to tell stories that are still unstold for "the mouth's debt is telling stories" (Okey Ndibe)
    
     While I was reading this story I had a feeling that I knew a similar "true" one. The difference will only be that the half-brothers are of the same father and not mother. and the story of half-brothers is repeated in the next generation, I mean, the one who was the underprevileged half-brother is a father of two half-brothers and develop an understanding of things that happen in life that we don't choose. He even accepts that his father come and share his family home as a way of forgiveness. And in the end the father explains that the he did not choose that between his sons would be a previleged and an underprevileged one. The story of half-brothers can also be found in the following poem we once shared before:
    
     Their Difference
    
     I've two boys
     One Nero,
     One Hercules,
     Different boys, from mothers to age.
    
     Like the fingers of the hand
     Their difference,
     Natural difference!
    
     Tanguene
    
     Source: http://readersarena.blogspot.com/2008/05/their-difference.html
    
     Thanks for this opportunity for sharing.
    
     Tanguene

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

A messy business
     Whose child belongs to daddy?
     Or is it mother knows best?
     Lets all rest
     On success
     Of knowing ourselves well

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

A lovely poem this.Knowimg oneself is a bigger job than most think.Do we ever succeed in this ?
     Iris

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Thanks for the poem. I think mother knows best!
    
     Who can tell
     my story before I was born
     only mother can tell
     my story before I was born
     for she knew myself
     before daddy knew of myself.
    
     Tanguene

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Hi Tanguene, Chris & All
    
     Thank you for sharing another story, along with your views on it.
     A sad story, indeed, deserving another end (as Tanguene has already suggested). From prejudices starting within the family, expanding to school life, we are deeply sorry for the way other "Gregory" sons/daughters keep being treated.
     Should both this stepfather and schoolmaster try a more affective dialogue towards Gregory, seeking to understand his character, then the boy would certainly feel more confident, happier.
     Sometimes repentance comes too late...
    
     Best wishes,
     Maria

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

ive in the light of knowledge
     Forgive the darkness of doubt
     Feel the faith
     Of those who surround us
     Above all, live on ...

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Hi Tanguene & All,
    
     Nice to have you back sharing your sensitive views!
    
     Dear Tanguene,
     I can see your point here
     But wouldn't you mind if I added a detail now?...
     I believe it would be great if one's father were near
     To really check he also has a part to play, though...
    
     Best wishes,
     Maria

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Hi All
    
     Thinking of Maria do Ceu comment about school, I just wonder how frequently, as teachers, we underrate students and are unable to see beyond the convensional standards of performance. Also how much our educational systems, concerned with measurable performances, grades and accontability fails our children.
    
     Just thinking of the Cambridge Primary Education Review... check the link
    
     http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/
    
     Food for thoight
     Cheers - Chris

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator

Dear Maria,
    
     I share your point about the need of fathers to be near. That makes a better world. But my view about this issue is a bit realistic in my real world I live in. It might be result of poverty, but in my context fathers are stand away from children as a result of cultural biliefs too. I can explain this, in my context half-brothers have the same rights but don´t have the same opportunities, and mothers play the best role. In most cases fathers do not stay near children because the parents and relatives will not allow you to enjoy your happeness with your children unless you do everything they ask you to do like buying food and clothes for all the family where the child is living. it´s not enough that you take care of your children without helping those around the child. fathers only wait untill the child is grown up and have some understanding and voluntarily start to look for being near the father, but in most cases it happens later and the child is left with a norrow path to walk in life.
    
     In my culture we have a saying which is most used for boys: "One is educated in the streets, not home" It means parents don't talk and share the real challenges of life with children and they learn many things with friends and people they don't live with.
    
     I understand this shouldn't be so, but education in my country is still a challenge.
    
     Tanguene

Reply to this message

Alert a moderator