Unit 13 Christmas

1. Unit 13 Christmas • Contents • I Background • II Questions • III Text structure • IV The Writing style • V Language points • VI Discussion • VII Homework

2. About the author: Floyd Dell (1887—1969 ), U.S. versatile and prolific writer and an editor for several newspapers and magazines. “Christmas” is an excerpt from his Homecoming— An Autobiography (1933). I Background

3. About the author • Floyd Dell was born on 28th June, 1887 in Pike County, Missouri. His father, Anthony Dell, found it difficult to find regular work and the family experienced a great deal of poverty. At school Dell developed a love of reading. He later claimed that it was books by William Morris and Frank Norris helped convert him to socialism. At sixteen, he joined the Socialist Party and gave speeches on street-corners about his political beliefs. He also produced material for a small Socialist monthly, Tri-City Workers' Magazine.

4. About the author • Dell believed that the everyday life of the middle and working classes provided subjects worthy of serious literary treatment. Dell valued authenticity and accuracy of detail and welcomed those like Russell and Phillips who wanted to use literature to bring about social reform. • Dell, like most of the people working with The Masses, was opposed to USA involvement in the WWW I. After the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917, The Masses came under government pressure to change its policy. When it refused to do this, the journal lost its mailing privileges.

5. About the author • After the war Dell published the best-selling autobiographical novel, Moon-Calf (1920). Other novels such as The Briary-Bush (1921), Janet Marsh (1923) and Runaway (1925), were less successful. As well as writing for the left-wing magazines such as the New Masses (1924-39) Dell produced several non-fictional works including Upton Sinclair (1927), Love in the Machine Age (1930) and an autobiography, Homecoming (1933). Floyd Dell died in 1969.

6. II Questions • 1. What association of ideas does the word bring to you? • 2. How do people in the West usually celebrate Christmas? • 3. How did the child react to what the Sunday Scholl superintendent said? • 4. Why wouldn’t the child’s mother look distressed when she learned that he had written his name on the envelope? • 5. What are your impressions of the child?

7. III Text Structure • The text can be divided into six parts: • Part one(Line1—30 ): Those were hard times, poor children did not have enough to eat. The boy brought food and money to Sunday school as he was told. • Part two (Line31—46):The boy left school. He was anxious and frightened when Christmas is approaching. • Part three (Line 47—58): On Christmas Eve, the family was in the queer mood. • Part four (Line 59—74): The boy began to be aware of the family’s plight. • Part five (Line 75—84): The boy felt the cold emotion of renunciation. • Part six (Line 85—89): The second morning the boy received the present, but he no longer desired anything.

8. IV 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 thinking and manner of expression. • 1) The writer uses plain words, simple, unadorned sentences, short paragraphs, simple grammatical structures an clear and straightforward statements. He concentrates on narrating events with a minimum amount of comment and description. • 2) The style is distinctly conversational in tone. • 3) A considerable number of sentences begin with And or But to 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.

9. V Language points • 1. Hard times: times of money shortage, unemployment and times when the poor suffer a great deal. Times, when plural, is used to refer to the conditions of life, the circumstances of a period characterized by certain qualities, or a period of time, more or less definite, associated with certain events, circumstances, etc., e.g., terrible times, bad times, prehistoric times, the good, old times. The hard times mentioned in this excerpt most probably refer to 1893, when the United States suffered from a severe and prolonged depression. • 2. I supposed the poor children’s mothers would make potato soup out of them. • …out of—with (a material)/from (a material)

10. Language points • More examples: • Scarlet made herself a pretty dress out of the curtain material. • The stool was made out of the bits of wood the furniture factory had disposed of. My father was out of work and we hadn’t any money. e.g: The enemy surrendered as they ran out of rice, water and ammunition. He was out of breath when he climbed to the top of the mountain without stopping.

11. Language points 3. She wouldn’t tell me how much money she had put in it, but it felt like several dimes. feel like —seem like when touched e.g.: In pitch darkness when the wounded soldier touched the ground, it felt like water everywhere, Early next morning, his comrades-in-arms found him lying in a pool of blood. On Christmas Day my uncle gave me a parcel which contained something that felt like bars of chocolate. Feel like (doing) sth. means be inclined to do something. Peter is down with measles. He does not feel like eating anything.

12. Language points • 4. Some expressions and saying related to poverty: • 1) live hand-to-mouth • 2) eke out a living • 3) make both ends meet • 4) tighten one’s belt • 5) Poverty is no sin. • 6) Poverty is not a shame, but feeling ashamed of it is. • 7) lead a dog’s life • 8) be in financial straits • 9) be in a wretched plight

13. 5. up in the left-hand corner—Another way of saying this is “in the upper left-hand corner” 在左上角。 6）Quincy-- a suburban town near Boston，Massachusetts Language points

14. Language points • 7. the Santa Clauses and holly wreaths in the advertisements—In Western countries, during the Christmas season, there are always pictures of Santa Claus and holly wreaths in the advertisements. Santa Claus is an imaginary old man in read clothes with a long white beard, believed by children to come down the chimney on Christmas Eve to put presents in their stockings. The holly wreath is a ring of holly, an evergreen shrub with prickly leaves, small green flowers, and red berries. It might be said that Santa Claus and holly wreaths are symbols of Christmas.

15. Language points • 8. I didn’t want my father to have to keep on being funny about it—The two infinitives used here may seem confusing. The 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.

16. Language points • 9. My body knew before my mind quite did. This sentence sums up the ideas expressed in the preceding paragraph. 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.

17. Ann Arbor is a very beautiful city which attracts tourists from all over the world 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. 10. Ann Arbor: the site of the University of Michigan, one of the best-known universities in the United States. It had been the boy’s wish to go to Ann Arbor to attend the University. Language points

18. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

19. VI Discussion • 1. Discuss the boy’s life as reflected in the text. Why does not he know the real picture of the life? • 2. How did his parents reveal the practical life to the boy? • 3. What do you feel after you read this story?

20. Homework • 1. Finish the exercise in the workbook. • 2. Surf on line and find out the author’s autobiography. Then express the main idea of it. • 3. Imitate the author’s writing style, and give account of one event happened in your childhood.