Lesson2 two kinds-luo 现代大学英语精读5课件

1、Two KindsBy Amy Tan (谭恩美谭恩美 )From The Joy Luck ClubThe author About the author Amy Tan, Best-selling Chinese American novelist: born in Feb, 19, 1952, in Oakland, California. Her family lived in several communities in Northern California before settling in Santa Clara. Both of her parents were Chine

2、se immigrants. Her father, John Tan, was an electrical engineer and Baptist minister who came to America to escape the turmoil of the Chinese Civil War. The harrowing(miserable) early life of her mother, About the author Daisy, inspired Amy Tans novel The Kitchen Gods Wife. In China, Daisy had divor

3、ced an abusive husband but lost custody of her three daughters. She was forced to leave them behind when she escaped on the last boat to leave Shanghai before the Communist takeover in 1949. Her marriage to John Tan produced three children, Amy and her two brothers.About the author Tragedy struck th

4、e Tan family when Amys father and oldest brother both died of brain tumors within a year of each other. Mrs. Tan moved her surviving children to Switzerland, where Amy finished high school, but by this time mother and daughter were in constant conflict.About the author Mother and daughter did not sp

5、eak for six months after Amy Tan left the Baptist college her mother had selected for her and follow her boyfriend to San Jose City College. Tan further defied her mother by abandoning the pre-med course to pursue the study of English and linguistics. About the author She received her bachelors and

6、masters degrees in these fields at San Jose State University. In 1974, she and her boyfriend, Louis DeMattei were married. They were later to settle in San Francisco DeMattei, an attorney, took up the practice of tax law, while Tan studied for a doctorate in linguistics, first at the University of C

7、alifornia at Santa Cruz, later at Berkeley.About the author By this time, she had developed an interest in the problems of the developmentally disabled. She left the doctoral program in 1976 and took a job as a language development consultant to the Alameda County Association for Retarded Citizens a

8、nd later directed a training project for developmentally disabled childrenAbout the author With a partner, she started a business writing firm, providing speeches for salesmen and executives for large corporations. After a dispute with her partner, who believed she should give up writing to concentr

9、ate on the management side of the business, she became a full-time freelance writer.About the author Among her business works, written under non-Chinese-sounding pseudonyms, were a 26-chapter booklet called“Telecommunications and You” , produced for IBM. Amy Tan prospered as a business writer. After

10、 a few years in business for herself, she had saved enough money to buy a house for her mother. About the author She and her husband lived well on their double income, but the harder Tan worked at her business, the more dissatisfied she became. The work had become a compulsive habit and she sought r

11、elief in creative efforts. She studied jazz piano, hoping to channel the musical training forced on her by her parents in childhood into a more personal expression. She also began to write fiction.About the author Her first story Endgame, won her admission to the Squaw Valley writers workshop taught

12、 by novelist Oakley Hall. The story appeared in FM, literary magazine, and was reprinted in Seventeen. A literary agent, Sandra Dijkstra, was impressed enough with Tans second story Waiting Between the Trees, to take her on as a client. Dijlstra encouraged Tan to complete an entire volume of stories

13、. About the author Just as she was embarking on this new career, Tans mother fell ill. Amy Tan promised herself that if her mother recovered, she would take her to China, to see the daughter who had been left behind almost forty years before. Mrs. Tan regained her health and mother and daughter depa

14、rted for China in 1987. The trip was a revelation for Tan. It gave her a new perspective on her often-difficult relationship with her mother, and inspired her to complete the book of stories she had promised her agent.About the author On the basis of the completed chapters and a synopsis(概要）概要）of th

15、e others, Dijkstra found a publisher for the book, now called The Joy Luck Club. With a $50,000 advance from G.P. Putnams Sons, Tan quit business writing and finished her book in a little more than four months. Upon its publication in 1989, Tans book won enthusiastic reviews and spent eight months o

16、n the New York Times best-seller list. Paperback right sold for $1.23 million. The book has been translated in 17 languages, including Chinese.About the author Her subsequent novel, The Kitchen Gods Wife (1991) confirmed her reputation and enjoyed excellent sales. Since then Amy Tan has published tw

17、o books for children, The Moon Lady and The Chinese Siamese Cat and two novels. The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) and The Bonesetters Daughter (2001). The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, appeared in 2003. Her most recent book, Saving Fish From Drowning explores the tribulations （艰难）（艰难）experienc

18、ed by a group of people who disappear while on an art expedition into the jungles of Burma.About the Novel The Joy Luck Club Amy Tans first and most successful novel. The book comprises a series of short-story-like vignettes(a short effective written description (a short effective written descriptio

19、n of character or scene) of character or scene) that move back and forth in time and space, between the lives of four Chinese women in pre-1949 China and their American-born daughters in California. It tells stories about four pairs of mothers and daughters-Suyuan Woo and Jing-mei(June); Anmei Hsu a

20、nd Rose; Lindo Jong and Waverly; Ying-ying St. Clair and Lena. About the Novel The Joy Luck Club These stories are told by seven voices, those of the mothers and daughters except for Suyuan Woo, who is dead when the story begins in the book. The different points of view enable us to look at the bitt

21、ersweet mother-daughter relations from different angles. The mother and daughter treat one another cautiously, playing a game of love and fear, need and rejection. The older women, who suffered in Old China and emigrated to the United States with new hopes, are ambitious for their daughters, but whi

22、le they expect them to succeed in America, they want them to remain Chinese. The daughters consider themselves American and regard their mothers a source of embarrassment, for they speak fractured English, behave with Chinese manners, and wear funny-looking dresses with high, stiff collars and slits

23、 up the sides. They want to be different from their mothers, and break loose from their mothers cultural gravity. They yearn to leave tradition behind.About the Novel The Joy Luck ClubThe mother-daughter relationships are a mixture of love and hostility, expectations and disappointments, conflicts a

24、nd reconciliation. When the daughters become older and more mature, they begin to reconsider their identity and reevaluate their cultural heritage. They discover that their mothers are “in their bones”, and that heritage is not something they can ignore and shake off easily. After Suyuan Woos death,

25、 her daughter Jing-mei (June), is invited to sit in her mothers seat at the mah-jongg table. At first she feels uncomfortably out of place in this world from which she has struggled to distance herself. As the aunts talk over the mah-jongg game about themselves and their daughters, she begins to see

26、 her mothers generation in a different light. Finally the aunts inform Jing-mei that the two Half sisters her mother had been forced to abandon during the war are still alive and are living in Shanghai . In the last section of the book Jing-mei tells about he trip to China to be united with the two

27、sisters. “The minute our train leaves the Hong Kong border and enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin On my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course, my bones aching with a familiar old pain. And I think, my mother was right. I am becoming Chinese.”Plot “ Two K

28、inds” is a fiction. Although this passage is taken from a novel, it can be read as a complete short story. Because it has a complete plot of its own. As we read “Two Kinds” we will find that this story is carefully constructed, containing all the five stages of the plot. Epiphany Often it tells of a

29、n epiphany( a sudden clear understanding of sth) : some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation( the making known of the truth 启示）启示）by which a characters life, or view of life, is greatly altered. As we read the text we should try to see if there is a moment in the story that tells of an epipha

30、ny. Theme As we know, the theme shows what the story is about. The theme of a story is the general meaning, the central and dominating idea that unifies and controls the total work. Yet, it is usually easier to summarize the events than to state the theme in ones own words. Take our text here for ex

31、ample. Based on our first reading of the story we may retell the story in our own words without much difficulty, but to state the theme we have to read the story closely and think carefully. After reading and analyzing the whole story, we will find that the meaning of the title “ Two Kinds” is spell

32、ed out in paragraph 72: “ Only two kinds of daughters,” she shouted in Chinese. “ Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!” This is important for us in order to identify the central idea of the story, the theme o

33、f the story. We may try to formulate in our own words a statement about human experience that the author is trying to share with us readers through this work. Different readers may come up with different formulated statements, but they should express more or less the same general meaning. Here is an

34、 example of a statement of the theme of “ Two Kinds”: Theme The mother attempt to change her daughter into a prodigy and the daughters resistance to such a change represent a bittersweet relationship between mother and daughter and a sharp conflict between two generations and two cultures. Narration

35、 The story “Two Kinds” employs the first-person narration. The narrator, the daughter, is one of the main characters of the story. The whole story is narrated by the daughter. Though the narrator remains the same, the point of view may change. Most of the story is narrated from the point of view of

36、the daughter as a little girl and the last part is from the point of view of the same daughter when she has grown up. Narration We readers should distinguish between the first-person narrator “I” and the author who wrote the story. In other words, the fictional “I” and the real-life author are not t

37、he same person, though in an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel or story, many events that “I” experience are based on the authors own life experiences. Narration Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club has autobiographical elements in it , and for such a novel the first-person narrative is more eff

38、ective than the third-person narrative. As the first-person narrator is part of the story, she/he can move freely within the fictional world and approach other fictional characters. The first-person narrator addresses the reader directly. The immediate and compelling quality of the first-person narr

39、ation enables the author to capture the moment as if it were taking place this very instant and right here. The first-person is either a participant or an eyewitness of the events. So there is authority in the first-person narration. The first-person narration can also allow the reader to enter the

40、mind of the narrator. The narrator tells us what happens in the physical world as well as in his/her mental world. When we read this text, we not only follow the events, the external occurrence, but we are also able to perceive what is going on in the mind of the narrator, the internal progress of t

41、he girl as a character. However, the first-person narration has its restrictions. It is tightly controlled and limited in its access to information. Narration It can only tell us what the narrator sees and knows. It cannot let the readers enter the minds of other characters. So the first-person narr

42、ation is inevitably limited and may even be biased in terms of perspectives and observations. Two Kinds Part I- The beginning. Paragraph 1- 3 Part II- The middle. Paragraph 4-76. 6 subsections. Part III- The end. Paragraph 77-93. 2 subsections.Part I Paras. 1-3Main idea: It tells about the mother an

43、d her hopes for her daughter. This paves the way for the development of the conflict between the daughter and the mother. These paragraphs show that the mother was very optimistic about the future, and in fact she was rather ambitious for her daughter.Part I Question: why did the mother place extrao

44、rdinary high hopes on the daughter? Part I 1. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could buy a house without any down payment(首付首付), that is, completely on loan. down: adverb. “in cash or when bought”(现款现款) e.g. e.g: You can pay five dollars down and the remainder in installments (On

45、e of a number of successive payments in settlement of a debt.分期付款清偿债务时分成分期付款清偿债务时分成连续几次付款中的一次连续几次付款中的一次).Part I 2. “ Of course you can be (a) prodigy, too.” Prodigy : n. a young person who is extremely clever or good at doing sth. e.g. Mozart was a prodigy.3.Family home. Here family is not redundant

46、. In China, a family home is one where a big, extended family with three or more generations live together.Part II Paras. 4-76 Subsection 1 (Paras. 4-11)Main idea: This part is about the mothers unsuccessful attempt to change her daughter into a Chinese Shirley Temple. In the beginning, the child wa

47、s as excited as the mother about becoming a prodigy. At this point, the conflict was not visible. Shirley Temple: an American actress, the most beloved child film star. Propelled by an ambitious mother, Temple made her debut at the age of three. Known for her blond ringlets(curled hair) and recogniz

48、ed for her ability to sing and tap-dance, Temple became a celebrity in the 1930s, and she appeared in a great number of movies. In the late 1940s Temple departed from Hollywood. From the 1960s she began a long and successful career with the United Nations and the U.S. State Department. Shirley Templ

49、e Successful career with the United Nations Subsection 1 (Paras. 4-11)1. Purse: v. to gather or contract (the lips or brow) into wrinkles or folds; pucker. 使皱起，噘起聚拢或皱起（嘴唇或眉毛）从而形成皱使皱起，噘起聚拢或皱起（嘴唇或眉毛）从而形成皱纹或褶；使皱起纹或褶；使皱起 e.g. She pursed her lips with dislike.她不高兴地她不高兴地噘起嘴唇。噘起嘴唇。 other usages: national p

50、urse 国库国库 Who holds the purse rules the house.有钱就有势。有钱就有势。 A heavy purse makes a light heart. 谚谚袋里有钱袋里有钱, 心里不慌。心里不慌。Subsection 1 (Paras. 4-11) 2. The Mission district: a district in San Francisco, it has been primarily a Hispanic neighborhood for decades, where interesting restaurants, bars and spec

51、ialty shops are often frequented by tourists. 3. instead of getting big fat curlsan uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz. Shirley Temple had blond hair in big fat curls. But the hair was done, the girl looked very different from what they had hoped. 4. She lamented, as if she had done this on purpose.

52、lament: v. to lament is to express annoyance or disappointment about sth you think is unsatisfactory. The use of the words shows that the mother was dissatisfied and disappointed with the daughter. The word appears again later. The girl felt that her mother blames her for this initial failure. Later

53、 on we find that the mother and daughter often blame each other in their intense relationship. To regret deeply; deplore非常懊悔；痛惜非常懊悔；痛惜 e.g. He lamented his thoughtless acts.他非常懊悔自己轻他非常懊悔自己轻率的举动率的举动. 5. Peter Pan: Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldnt Grow Up(1920) is a dramatic fantasy by J.M.Barrie. Th

54、e boy-hero, Peter Pan, has run away to Never-never-Land to escape growing up. Here he lives as the leader of a group of lost children. While in search of his lost shadow, he encounters Wendy, Michael, and John. He instantly befriends and teaches them to fly. They have many adventures. This extremely

55、 popular book was made into a play, and Peter Pan became a well-known figure in Disneyland. Everybody was familiar with Peter Pans looks with his short hair and a few straight-across bangs above his eyebrows. Peter Pan Subsection 1 (Paras. 4-11)6. The instructor of the beauty school had to lop off t

56、hese soggy clumps.（1) lop off: v.phr.: to cut a part of something off, esp. a branch of a tree(2) soggy adj.: unpleasantly wet and soft. e.g. The ground is soggy from the rain.(3) clump n.: a group of trees, bushes or other plants growing very close together. Here “lop off” and “clump” are used figu

57、ratively.Paras. 4-117. In fact, in the beginning, I was just as excited as my mother: Explanation:Her mothers attempt to change her into a prodigy roused in her many fanciful ideas and made her quite excited.8. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, trying each one on for size:

58、 Explanation: I imagined myself as different types of prodigy, trying to find out which one suited me the best.Paras. 4-119. The Christ child lifted out of the straw manger: This is a biblical allusion about the birth of Jesus Christ. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were marri

59、ed, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit. An angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid to talk Mary to be his wife. For it was by the Holy Spirit that she had conceived. At the time when Jesus was about to be born, the Emperor of the

60、Roman Empire ordered a census to be taken throughout Paras. 4-11 the Empire. Everyone had to register himself, each in his own town. While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her son, wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger- there was no