McDougal Littell - British Literature (5) 1201 - 1412.pdf - Antologie i opracowania - Patrusiak

Reading for Information

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE This excerpt from a newspaper article describes the

devastating effects of a tsunami that struck an Indonesian fishing village in 2004.

For Men of Seaside Village,

Lonely and Unfamiliar Roles

ellen nakashima

LAMTEUNGOH, INDONESIA. Baharuddin, the head

of this devastated Sumatran 1 fishing village,

gently lifted the limp remains of his 11-year-

old daughter, swaddled in a plaid sarong. 2

“She was my youngest daughter,” he said,

gazing down mournfully and tenderly at the

remains. “She was the most beautiful one.”

He placed her in a communal grave not

far from the sea, where a wall of black water

crashed ashore last month and killed his wife

and their five children. Baharuddin and two

other villagers laid two other bodies in the

grave and shoveled soil on top.

Then he and nine other men crouched

under the searing sun, hands outstretched,

palms turned up, and prayed.

When the tsunami 3 inundated the northern

and western coasts of Indonesia’s Aceh

province, killing more than 100,000 people,

most of the victims in seaside villages like this

one were women and children. Three out of

four of the survivors in relief camps are men or

boys, according to United Nations officials.

Many in these coastal towns were fishermen

who survived at sea or farmers in the hills

above the high water line. But their wives

and children were killed at home not far from

the beach when the driving waves turned the

village into ruins on December 26.

In Lamteungoh, there are 105 widowers

and only 19 widows. These rugged men

Survivors pray for their loved ones.

are now grappling with unfamiliar roles,

dependent on one another and uncertain

about what comes next. With their families

gone, some say their lives have lost purpose.

They are caring for children in communal

style and tending to the injured. They are

struggling to move through their grief and

reclaim their future.

“Life today has no meaning at all for me,”

said Baharuddin, 49, who has thinning hair,

a furrowed brow, and a fisherman’s lean,

wiry body, tanned to a dark chocolate hue.

“Now, suppose I find a job and make money.

To whom can I distribute it?” he asked

rhetorically, seated on a log in the rubble-

strewn village and smoking a clove cigarette.

“I have no wife anymore. No children

anymore.” . . .

Sumatran (sM-mäPtrEn) : referring to the large Indonesian island of Sumatra.

sarong (sE-rôngP) : a long, often brightly colored strip of cloth worn draped over the hips like a skirt.

tsunami (tsM-näPmC) : a huge sea wave caused by a great disturbance under the ocean, such as an

earthquake; sometimes called a tidal wave.

1201

Irish

Masterpiece

Pygmalion

George Bernard Shaw

1856–1950

about the author George Bernard Shaw might be described as a late bloomer.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, in the early decades of the Victorian age, it was not until the

dawn of the 20th century that he began to enjoy sustained success as a playwright,

winning both critical and popular acclaim and the 1925 Nobel Prize in literature for

plays such as Major Barbara, Pygmalion, Saint Joan and many others. By then, Shaw

had followed his mother to London and become a leading member of the Fabian

Society, which argued for peaceful social change. He was knowledgeable in art and

music, learning much about the latter from his mother, a music teacher. Another of

Shaw’s many interests was the English language and its peculiarities. Insisting that

English spelling ought to be reformed, he refused to use apostrophes in contractions

and once pointed out that as things stood, the word fish could be spelled ghoti, since

those letters spell the sounds of fish in other words.

about the play The English language plays a key role in Shaw’s Pygmalion. The

play’s title refers to the Pygmalion of Greek mythology, a sculptor who created a

figure of a woman so beautiful that he fell in love with her. In Shaw’s Pygmalion, a

confirmed bachelor and professor of languages named Henry Higgins “shapes the

clay” of a low-born young woman named Eliza Doolittle by teaching her proper

English. Eliza, who speaks the Cockney dialect of London’s East End, ekes out a

living selling flowers on the London streets. Insisting that speech determines social

rank, Higgins bets a fellow language scholar that if he teaches Eliza to speak properly,

he could pass her off as a member of genteel British society. Yet Eliza proves a strong

person in her own right, and during the course of instruction, her arrogant, bullying

teacher undergoes a learning experience of his own.

legacy of a masterpiece “The great dramatist has something better to do than

amuse either himself or his audience,” Shaw explained. “He has to interpret life.” To

the stage, Shaw brought the idea that comedies could be serious and still be funny.

Pygmalion, his attack on the British class system, is considered one of his funniest

plays; it is also one of his most popular. On Broadway, it was turned into the smash

hit My Fair Lady, among the most successful musical comedies of all time. In the

following scene, Henry Higgins, known at first only as “The Note Taker,” meets

flower-seller Eliza Doolittle among a crowd of people who have taken shelter from

a downpour on the porch of a church near London’s Covent Garden Theatre. Eliza

complains when she realizes that Higgins has been taking notes about what she says.

1202

from act one, scene 1

The Note Taker ( explosively ). Woman: cease this detestable boohooing

instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship.

The Flower Girl ( with feeble defiance ). I’ve a right to be here if I like, same

as you.

The Note Taker. A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting

sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a

human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native

language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and dont sit

there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

The Flower Girl ( quite overwhelmed, looking up at him in mingled wonder and depreca-

tion without daring to raise her head ). Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo!

The Note Taker ( whipping out his book ). Heavens! what a sound! ( He writes; then holds

out the book and reads, reproducing her vowels exactly. ) Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo!

The Flower Girl ( tickled by the performance, and laughing in spite of herself ). Garn!

The Note Taker. You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that

will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could

pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. I could even get her a

place as lady’s maid or shop assistant, which requires better English.

The Flower Girl. What’s that you say?

The Note Taker. Yes, you squashed cabbage leaf, you disgrace of the noble architec-

ture of these columns, you incarnate insult to the English language: I could pass

you off as the Queen of Sheba. ( to the Gentleman) Can you believe that?

The Gentleman. Of course I can. I am myself a student of Indian dialects; and—

The Note Taker ( eagerly ). Are you? Do you know Colonel Pickering, the author of

Spoken Sanscrit?

The Gentleman. I am Colonel Pickering. Who are you?

The Note Taker. Henry Higgins, author of Higgins’s Universal Alphabet.

Pickering ( with enthusiasm ). I came from India to meet you.

Higgins. I was going to India to meet you.

Pickering. Where do you live?

Higgins. 27A Wimpole Street. Come and see me tomorrow.

Pickering. I’m at the Carlton. Come with me now and let’s have a jaw over some supper.

Higgins. Right you are.

irish masterpiece 1203

The Irish Literary Renaissance

86A>;DGC>6 R3.3, R1.2 (p. 1214)

The Demon Lover

Short Story by Elizabeth Bowen

notable quote

“Ghosts seem harder to

please than we are.”

fyi

Did you know that

Elizabeth Bowen . . .

• served as an air-raid

warden in London

during World War II?

• counted writers Edith

Sitwell, Aldous Huxley,

and Virginia Woolf

among her friends?

Elizabeth Bowen

1899–1973

in much of her fiction, which often

explores the themes of grief, displacement,

and lost innocence.

The Fulfillment of a Dream In 1923,

Bowen married Alan Cameron, an

educator. That year, she also published her

first collection of stories, Encounters; the

book was an immediate success, which

Bowen found very encouraging. She had

always dreamed of being a writer, once

stating, “From the moment that my pen

touched paper, I thought of nothing but

writing, and since then I have thought of

practically nothing else. . . .[W]hen I have

nothing to write, I feel only half alive.”

Life During Wartime In 1935, Bowen

and Cameron moved to London. Many

of her best works take place in wartime

London, a setting she presents with realism

and force. In fact, British novelist and

critic Angus Wilson asserted that the

short stories Bowen wrote during the war

provide some of the best documentation—

fact or fiction—of the psychological effects

war had on Londoners. Her acclaimed

novel The Heat of the Day (1949) also takes

place in the battered city.

Diverse and Distinguished Bowen’s

literary career was diverse as well as

distinguished. In addition to publishing

a new book almost every year, she wrote

essays and book reviews for prestigious

journals such as the Ta tl e r, the Spectator,

and the New York Times Magazine. She

also was appointed a Commander of

the Order of the British Empire and was

awarded honorary doctorates from Oxford

University and Trinity College in Dublin.

For more on Elizabeth

Bowen, visit the

Literature Center at

ClassZone.com.

One of the 20th century’s most important

Anglo-Irish authors, Elizabeth Bowen

published 10 novels and more than 70 short

stories. Her fiction, which deals primarily

with the upper middle class, is beautifully

crafted, with finely drawn characters and

detailed, evocative descriptions of setting.

Neither English Nor Irish Born in Dublin,

Ireland, of Anglo-Irish parents, Bowen

spent her early childhood at Bowen’s Court,

a large stately home that had been in the

family since the 18th century. Although

her family was well-to-do, her childhood

was unsettled. When Bowen was seven,

her father suffered a nervous breakdown,

and Bowen was sent to England with her

mother and a governess. Six years later,

her mother died from cancer.

The death of her mother was one of

the pivotal events of Bowen’s life. The

sense of abandonment she felt is evident

1204

literary analysis: foreshadowing and flashback

Authors of dark, spine-tingling tales like “The Demon Lover”

often rely on the following narrative techniques to engage

readers:

Explore the

Key Idea

How can a promise

haunt you?

86A>;DGC>6

• Foreshadowing— a writer’s use of hints and clues to indicate

events that will occur later in the story. Writers often

generate suspense, or excitement, through foreshadowing.

• Flashback— an episode that interrupts the action of the

story’s plot to show an experience that happened at an

earlier time. Writers often provide important background

information about characters in flashbacks.

“The Demon Lover” is set in

1941 during the Blitz, the bombardment

of London by the German air force.

Against this dramatic backdrop, the

story’s main character, Mrs. Drover,

recalls her romantic past, including a

dreadful promise made to a soldier

going off to battle.

DISCUSS With a partner, make a

list of short stories, novels, and movies

that feature a character making

an important promise. Discuss the

promise, the character, and the

character’s reasons for offering

the promise. Explain whether the

character keeps or breaks the

promise by the end of the work.

As you read, notice how Bowen uses both foreshadowing and

flashback to build your interest in the story.

reading skill: analyze ambiguity

In fiction, ambiguity refers to the way in which a writer

intentionally presents aspects of a story as confusing or open

to interpretation. Writers often create ambiguity with words,

phrases, and passages that have multiple meanings, as in the

following lines from “The Demon Lover”:

A cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye

watched Mrs. Drover’s return.

The phrase “no human eye” could mean that nobody watched

Mrs. Drover or something far more disturbing—that no human

watched her. As you read the story, create a chart like the one

shown to record and interpret examples of ambiguity.

Examples of Ambiguity

Possible Interpretations

the mysterious letter

(lines 32 – 51)

The caretaker, Mr. Drover, or an

unknown character left the letter.

vocabulary in context

Use context clues to figure out the meanings of the boldfaced

words.

1. Clearly he was no visionary, for his speech was prosaic.

2. The white moths had a spectral appearance in the night sky.

3. Never stingy, she gave without stint to many charities.

4. Official duties can circumscribe the life of a princess.

5. Brilliant ideas often emanate from creative discussions.

1205

KEY IDEA

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