2 christmas

1、Christmas,Floyd Dell,,Discussion,What are your impressions of the child?Discuss the boy’s life as reflected in the essay. Why didn’t he know the real picture of the life?How did his parents reveal the practical life to

2、 the boy?What do you feel after you read this essay?,What is the style of this selection? Is it formal or informal? Why?What are the grammatical and lexical features of this selection?What is the tone of this selectio

3、n?,Autobiographical Essay,a term of Greek origin autobiography,,,,self,life,writing,the author’s own history,Biography,a form of nonfictional writinghard biography: like hard history and hard news

4、, present the facts, that is the wh-elements of the life of the subject, in an objective manner, without any subjectivity of the accountersoft biography: accounts the history of the subject, with materials selected and

5、ordered by the accounter, and with the accounter’s interpretation of the materials and his or her presentation of the significance of the subject,Biographical essay: essay of biographical content includes the hagio

6、graphy, the diary or the journal, the memoir, the character sketch, the anecdote, etc.,Floyd Dell,(1887—1969 ), U.S. versatile and prolific writer and editor for several newspapers and magazines,,Floyd Dell was born

7、in Illinois. His father found it difficult to find regular work and the family experienced a great deal of poverty. At school Dell developed a love of reading. Some books helped convert him to socialism. At sixteen, he

8、joined the Socialist Party and gave speeches on street-corners about his political beliefs.,Dell began his literary career as a newspaperman in Chicago on various papers including Evening Post. In 1911 he became editor o

9、f and chief contributor to Friday Literary Review. He promoted the works of writers such as Frank Norris, Jack London, Upton Sinclair, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane, George Bernard Shaw, et al.,Dell believed that the e

10、veryday life of the middle and working classes provided subjects worthy of serious literary treatment. Dell valued authenticity and accuracy of detail and welcomed those writers who wanted to use literature to bring abou

11、t social reform.,In 1914 Dell moved to New York and helped edit the radical journal, The Masses.In 1916 Dell became involved in the Provincetown Theatre Group. Dell’s King Arthur’s Socks was the first play to be perform

12、ed by the group.,Dell, like most of the people working with The Masses, was opposed to USA involvement in the First World War. After the USA declared war in 1917, The Masses came under government pressure to change its p

13、olicy. When it refused to do this, the journal lost its mailing privileges.,After The Masses was forced to cease publication, the same people began to publish a very similar journal, The Liberator.Floyd Dell was a shy a

14、nd sensitive man. He was conservative by nature, but intellectually a radical. He is keen, fearless and just.,After the war Dell published the best-selling autobiographical novel, Moon-Calf (1920). Other novels were less

15、 successful.As well as writing for the left-wing magazines, Dell produced several non-fictional works including Upton Sinclair (1927), Love in the Machine Age (1930) and an autobiography, Homecoming (1933).Dell continu

16、ed to publish both fiction and non-fiction until the end of his long life.,“Christmas” is an excerpt from his Homecoming— An Autobiography (1933).,Recommended reading,A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens,The story is to

17、ld in the ______ person.,first,Is the narrator young or old?,This selection is written through ________ point of view.,a child’s,Introduction to the Essay,What is Floyd Dell’s “Christmas” about? It is about how a lit

18、tle boy, who at first had no idea what poverty meant, gradually begins to realize that his family is very poor, how he comes to understand the social and psychological consequences of such a state, and how he grows matur

19、e in mind.,Where is the scene of the story set? The scene of the story is set in the boy’s home at Christmas during the hard times.,In “Christmas,” the overall tone and the tone that the reader is left with is one of

20、_______________________. The main character goes from a state of __________ to a state of _______.,despair and disillusionment,satisfaction,despair,He is initially satisfied, happy, and unaware of any great troubles in

21、his life. He takes it for granted that Christmas, as he has always known it, will come again. He starts as a naïve boy, and could not even understand his mother’s shame about their poverty. He fails to realize that

22、they are poor because he was kept uninformed and he had never experienced it before.,At the story’s end, however, he discovers to his great dismay that his family has become poor, and his story concludes with an attitude

23、 of “toughening up” himself and losing his childlike contentment with life. His late realization that he is poor comes as a shock to him, and it strikes him that he is now one of those “poor children” that he had felt so

24、rry for. There is a plain lack of hopefulness in the boy’s attitude as the story concludes.,Gist: Those were hard times, poor children did not have enough to eat. The boy brought food and money to Sunday school as he

25、was told.What does the first sentence suggest? What do the worn-down pair of shoes mean to you?,Part one,Sunday school: one (in a church etc.) attended by children on Sundays for religious teachinghard times: times of

26、 money shortage, unemployment and times when the poor suffer a great deal. The hard times mentioned in this excerpt most probably refer to 1893, when the United States suffered from a severe and prolonged depression.,How

27、 did the child react to what the Sunday School superintendent said?Quincy-- a city of western Illinois,Does the boy have any siblings? Where are they? Why do the boy’s parents send them away?Why did the child’s mother

28、look distressed when she learned that he had written his name on the envelope?,Part two,Gist:The boy left school. He was anxious and frightened when Christmas is approaching.How old was the boy?,Part three,Gist: On C

29、hristmas Eve, the family was in the queer mood.What were his parents like at that time?Why did his mother get up and walk out of the room?,I didn’t want my father to have to keep on being funny about it:indicate that

30、 this was unusualThe fact the boy was referring to was that his father “had to keep on acting strangely” about it, but the boy did not want his father to do so.,Can you feel festive atmosphere from this part?Why does t

31、he boy go to bed without having a light?,Part four,Gist: The boy began to be aware of the family’s plight.,My body knew before my mind quite did: This sentence sums up the ideas expressed in the preceding paragraph.

32、The boy was numb. He felt as if he had been hit by something. He found it hard to breathe. And he ached all over. When the pain in his body was gone, his mind began to work out the truth, and he was greatly shocked.,How

33、do you feel now that you know more about the “nourishing potato soup”? Do you feel kind of melancholy and bitter? Why does the boy whisper “We are poor!” over and over again?,When the boy was making himself get used to

34、the fact that they were poor, he used two similes: “pressing the tongue against a sore tooth” and “pulling the tooth”. What does Dell imply?,Ann Arbor:a very beautiful city which attracts tourists from all over the worl

35、d each year. The education there is good, hence many people would like to have their children attend the schools there, esp. the University of Michigan.,The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is one of the best-known un

36、iversities in the United States. It had been the boy’s wish to go to Ann Arbor to attend the University.,Part five,Gist: The boy felt the cold emotion of renunciation.,What is the feeling of renunciation like? How do yo

37、u feel if you choose to give up everything with numb and blank mind?What does the boy mean by “my fists clenched hard upon Nothing”?,Part six,Gist: The next morning the boy received the present, but he no longer desire

38、d anything.,Floyd Dell attempts to recount–in startlingly vivid terms–the series of events that led to a child coming to the realization that his family is poor.,As is typical of any child of a young age, the narrator li

39、ves oblivious to the circumstances that set him apart in society. He accepts the conditions in which he lives to be normal and finds no need to further question his situation.,Dell skillfully illustrates the various aspe

40、cts of the child’s life, incrementally revealing to the reader the extent of the poverty in which the narrator lives. The narrator examines these discrepancies individually, allowing the reader to connect with the chara

41、cter from the time the soles of his shoes are replaced with cardboard, to his embarrassment at having only pennies to donate to the poor, and finally—as all of the pieces drop into place—to the agonizing realization of w

42、hy his family couldn’t celebrate Christmas.,Innumerable contemporary texts have been written on the subject of the lower class and unemployment. While Floyd Dell could have easily written a dissertation on the hardships

43、 of poverty, he opted instead to show the reader a life of poverty in the most profound way that he could: from the eyes of a child.,The essay takes the reader from a plodding, uncertain beginning through increasingly po

44、ignant imagery, only to climax in a wave of numbness.,From this autobiographical essay we know that Dell’s early years were poor. Christmas was not acknowledged, meals were often scant, and the holes in the bottoms of Fl

45、oyd’s shoes were patched with cardboard. He wanted to use his words to bring about change.,The Writing Style,The story is told in the first person by the child himself. It is informal in style and reflects a child’s thin

46、king and manner of expression. 1) The writer uses _____words, ______, _________ sentences, ______ paragraphs, ______ grammatical structures and _____ ________________ statements. He concentrates on narrating events with

47、 a minimum amount of comment and description.,plain,simple,unadorned,short,simple,clear,and straightforward,2) The style is distinctly conversational in tone.3) A considerable number of sentences begin with And or But t

48、o show the boy’s attempts at narrative. 4) The writer produces a certain tension in the narrative by keeping the boy in the dark about his own plight while the reader is all the time being told the truth about it.,Assig

49、nments,Choose one from the following assignments:1. Compare the essay with the recommended reading. Please comment on them in terms of the content, theme, writing style, techniques, etc. For example, you can give your o

50、pinions on wealth and poverty, happiness and unhappiness, etc. while appreciating the two essays together.,Assignments,2. Are your childhood experiences bitter or sweet or both? Why? Imitate the author’s writing style, a