ACEW Lecture 8 Lesson 8
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Lv Jun Advanced English Writing Page 1 of 8 1 Topic/Title Lecture 8 Lesson 8 Loneliness…American Malady Teaching Aims/Objectives Students study the sample of definition and learn to write the essay
of definition.
Teaching Points 1. The organization of the essay 2. The analysis of some sentences 2. The analysis of diction Teaching Methods Discussion
Time Allowance 80 minutes Teaching Procedures:
1. Background
2. Organization 3. Sentence 4. Diction
I. About the author CARSON McCULLERS
Carson McCullers was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia, on February 19, 1917. Her small but significant body of work includes five novels, two plays, twenty short stories, over two dozen nonfiction pieces, a book of children's verse, a small number of poems, and an unfinished autobiography. Most famous for her novels The Heart is a Lonely Hunter《心是孤
独的猎人》，《天涯何处觅知心》（电影）, Reflections in a Golden Eye
《黄金眼的倒影》 《禁房情变》（电影）, The Member of the Wedding《婚礼的成员》《婚礼的参加者》（电影）, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe《伤心咖啡馆之歌》, and Clock Without Hands《没有指针的钟》, McCullers was also a playwright and a short story writer.
McCullers' life was blighted by a series of cerebral strokes caused by misdiagnosed and untreated childhood case of rheumatic fever. The first stroke occurred when she was only 24 years old, and within several years she was completely paralyzed on her left side. McCullers suffered a final stroke in August, 1967 and died at age 50 on September 29, 1967.
麦卡勒斯在她一首名为《抵押的心》（The Mortgaged Heart）的诗中写到： 在阴沉的雨天，去看两次果树开花。 与其它美国南方作家的作品所具有的特点相同，卡森·麦卡勒斯（Carson McCullers）的小说使读者深入体会到书中人物孤独、隔绝、易碎的处境。同时，她也揭开了覆盖在人物情感之上的表象。她所创造出的Lv Jun Advanced English Writing Page 2 of 8 2 人物很多是压抑的、卑贱的、肮脏的，甚至是残障的。其中，一些人整日沉默，但大脑无时无刻不在思索；一些人沉迷于酒精、暴力带来的遗忘，但从未放弃启示人们真理的野心；一些人行为乖戾，它恰恰掩盖了他们躁动的内心世界；一些人卑小、平庸地生活，就像小说中的黑人们，但实际上，他们有着许多悲伤与敏感（尽管对于他们的生活来说显得多余）。这些内心的真相，就像是被碾成灰尘大小的粉末，在沉闷的小镇街道上散开，逐渐无迹可寻了。可是，麦卡勒斯嗅到了它们。
II. About the text 1. The text is from The Mortgaged Heart
The Mortgaged Heart is an important collection of Carson McCullers’s work, including stories, essays, articles, poems, and her writing on writing. These pieces, written mostly before McCullers was nineteen, provide invaluable insight into her life and her gifts and growth as a writer. The collection also contains the working outline of "The Mute," which became her best-selling novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. As new generations of readers continue to discover her work, Carson McCullers’s celebrated place in American letters survives more surely than ever. Edited by McCullers’s sister and with a new introduction by Joyce Carol Oates, The Mortgaged Heart will be an inspiration to writers young and old. The poem:
The Mortgaged Heart The dead demand a double vision. A furthered zone, Ghostly decision of apportionment. For the dead can claim The lover's senses, the mortgaged heart.
Watch twice the orchard blossoms in gray rain And to the cold rose skies bring twin surprise. Endure each summons once, and once again; Experience multiplied by two--the duty recognized. Instruct the quivering spirit, instant nerve To schizophrenic master serve, Or like a homeless Doppelgänger Blind love might wander.
The mortgage of the dead is known. Prepare the cherished wreath, the garland door. But the secluded ash, the humble bone-- Do the dead know? Lv Jun Advanced English Writing Page 3 of 8 3 2. The structure of the text: Paragraph 1 The topic sentence: It has been said that loneliness is the great American malady. In sentence 1, she gives a prelude: eight million people live in New York. So, people should not feel lonely. In sentence 2, to our surprise, we find that her friend lived in New York for the purpose of “being so alone”, which is a paradox, and the key word “alone” appears last in this sentence. In sentence 3, she begins to repeat the key term: “the aloneness”. (While …my friend…., many Americans….) In sentence 4, repeating “loneliness”, she gives the topic sentence. In sentence 5, repeating “loneliness”, she asks a question about loneliness. In sentence 6, she answers the question: the nature of this loneliness is a quest of identity.
Paragraph 2 The topic sentence: the will of the individual to claim his identity and belong. Supporting sentence: From infancy to death, the human being is obsessed by these dual motives. Example: During the first weeks the baby compares the difference between his own body and the objects around him---self consciousness
