btlew lesson 3-message of the land part three enter

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Lesson 3-Message of the Land

Part ThreePart Three

ENTER

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Text Text AppreciatioAppreciationn


I. Text Analysis 1. Style2. Stylistic feature

3. Theme4. Structure5. Further discussion

II. Writing Devices1. Simile2. Metaphor3. Personification4. Zeugma

III. Sentence Paraphrase

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Style: essay (in a very broad sense)

or interview

The interviewees: a farmer and his wife

(note: Since the World War II it has become popular for writers to interview people, record what they say and, after some, not too much, editing, publish these people’s stories in book form.)

I.I. Text AnalysisText Analysis

Style

The end of Style.

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colloquial


Please find

supporting details

in the text.

The end of Stylistic feature.

Stylistic feature

straightforward language

short sentences

small and easy words

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The text tells about the deep regret of the old people over the loss of traditional values and the way of life.

Theme of the story The theme is hidden in

the message of

the land.

The end of Theme.

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Structure of the text

Part I the wife’s speech (paras. 1—3)

(paras. 4—7)

Part II the farmer’s

speech (paras. 8—11)

The wife tells us briefly about her family and how all her children left.

This part focuses on the changes that she finds she can’t adjust to.

The farmer tells about what he thinks are the root of all evils and what joys he finds in life and farming.

The end of Structure.

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Changes in family

Changes in the village

The wife’scomplaints

Thefarmer’scomplaints

None of the children will come back to inherit the land.

• Greed, anger, and lust are the root of all evils.• No young man will care what message the land gives.

the loss of traditional values and the way of life

All four children went away. Children wear

jeans instead.

no barter, but cash no pay-free help plastic things instead only the old on the land no practice of the old customs no respect for the old

To be continued on the next page.

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What’s the message of the land?For further discussion


It’s our history, our culture, our tradition and our life. In a word, it is our root which we cannot live without.

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Yes, these are our rice fields. They belonged to my parents and forefathers. The land is more than three centuries old.

In Para. 1

Question: Why does the wife start her conversation with the talk about the land?

The wife has already regarded the land as part of her life. This is the land where her parents and forefathers lived and it is bound with family history and tradition. It represents the root of her family.


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Question: What’s the main idea of Paras. 1—3?

The wife makes a brief introduction of her family and tells us how all her four children left for cities. She feels sorry about this and she also feels sorry about the land. The land is no longer fertile, like her and her husband, getting old and exhausted.


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I.I. Text AnalysisText AnalysisPay

attention to paragraph organizatio

n.

Question: What is the topic sentence of Para. 4? What are the supporting details?

Topic sentence: “… we two haven’t changed much, but the village has.”

Supporting details:

• Cash instead of barter

• Paid help

• Plastic things instead of village crafts

• The old alone on the land

• Young people’s different way of thinking,

dressing and behaving


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I.I. Text AnalysisText Analysis Question: What is the main idea of Paras. 5—6? What is the function of the first sentence in Para. 5?

With the first sentence in Para. 5 serving as a transitional sentence, the wife shifts her talk to the things that should not change, which include people’s worship, and young people’s respect to their parents and the aged.


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Question: How does the wife present her speech? What is her attitude toward the changes around her?

By comparison/contrast and exemplification,

the wife presents her idea of this changing

world. She dislikes the changes around her.

She won’t accept the changes and even

refuses to change with the life.


Please find examples in

the text.

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Question: What can be inferred from Para. 10?

The farmer is very traditional. He still clings to the conventional idea of having a big family with children around him. Because of his strong attachment to the land, he wants his children to follow in his footsteps and be content with the farming life.


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Question: What can we learn from the

last paragraph?

The farmer nurses a strong love towards

the land. He loves the feeling when tilling

the land and the smell and sight when the

rice on the land is ripening. He feels so

close to the land that he can even read the

message of the land. He strongly hopes

that one day he can pass on the land’s

secret message to his grandchildren.


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I.I. Text AnalysisText Analysis Further study of the text

Question: What are the traits, as shown in the old couple, shared by other farmers?

In the couple we find traits that are shared by many farmers who till the land:

• love of land and physical labor, and love of family

• being honest and kind, and easy to be satisfied

• clinging to traditional values and the way of life

We can still find the common problems:

• generation gap

• confusion of the old towards the changing world

• young people’s quitting of the farming life


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What does the wife think of her husband?

How does the husband counterattack his wife’s opinion of him?

Does “a pair of jeans” carry any other meanings in the text?

How do young girls nowadays differ from those in the old days?

Why is the question “Are you happy?” never occurred to her?


Further discussion about the text


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What is the wife’s philosophy of life?

Why is the farmer at peace with his conditions now?

Does the farmer have any regrets?

What, in his opinion, is the root of all evils? Do you agree?

How does he feel about his wife? Do you think he loves her?

Why does he want to leave his land to his children? Why can’t he sell the land and give the money to them?

I.I. Text AnalysisText AnalysisFurther discussion about the text

The end of Further discussion.

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II.II. Writing Writing DevicesDevices

SimileExamples


A simile consists of two parts: tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the primary subject; the vehicle is the thing to which the main subject is compared to.

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Simile

The end of Simile.

subject /

tenorsimile

markerreference/

vehicle

Records (fell) like ripe apples (on a windy day.)

The data processing (is

going on)

as (slow) as a snail.

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Metaphor


A metaphor is also a comparison. The difference is that a simile compares things explicitly—that is, it states literally that X is like Y. A metaphor compares things implicitly. Read literally, it does not state that things are alike; it says that they are the same thing, that they are identical.

Examples

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Metaphor

subject / tenor reference/ vehicle

Cape Cod (is the bared and bended)

arm of (Massachusetts.)

He (is) a wolf (in sheep’s clothing.)


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Please find the sentences in the text which contain either simile or metaphor and point out the rhetorical device in each sentence.

1. Sometimes, they get bullied and insulted,

and it is like a knife piercing my heart. (2)

2. When each of them has a pair of jeans,

they are off like birds on the wing. (10)


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The end of Metaphor.

3. The soft cool breeze moves the sheaves,

which ripple and shimmer like waves of gold.

(11)

4. Yes, this bag of bones dressed in rags can

still plant and reap rice from morning till

dusk. (7)

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Personification

Our piece of land is small, and it is no longer fertile, bleeding year after year and, like us, getting old and exhausted. (3)

Personification is really a special kind of metaphor.

personificationReferring to inanimate things or abstractions as if they were human.


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Personification: more examples

As London increased, however, rank and fashion rolled off to the west, and trade, creeping on at their heels took possession of their deserted abodes.

The youth were singing, laughing and playing the music instruments. The trees and flowers around them danced heartily as if touched by merry mood.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!

The purpose of personification is to explain, to expand, and to vivify.

The end of Personification.

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The soil is not difficult to till when there is a lot

of rain, but in a bad year, it’s not only the

ploughs that break but our hearts, too. (3)

Zeugma: a single word is made to modify or govern two or more words in the same sentence

Zeugma


Examples

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II.II. Writing Writing DevicesDevicesZeugma: more examples


1.The senator picked up his hat as well as his

courage.

2. COATTAILS: Clothes that fit the man and the

times. (Advert. In New York Times Magazine, 1980)

3. Miss Bolo rose from the table considerably agitated,

and went straight home, in a flood of tears and a

sedan chair.

4. Ten minutes later, the coffee and Commander Dana

of Naval Intelligence arrived simultaneously.

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II.II. Writing Writing DevicesDevicesZeugma: more examples

The end of Zeugma.

Zeugma is a comic figure of speech. At its best Zeugma is witty and amusing, and it increases meaning by revealing hidden connections.

5. She had to swallow bread and butter and a

spasm of emotion.

6. He fought with desperation and a stout club.

7. Yesterday he had a blue heart and coat.

8. I got up yesterday and managed to catch a bus

and a cold.

9. … old people gathering in the social hall for

comradeship and a hot lunch.

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III.III. Sentence Sentence Paraphrase 1Paraphrase 1

My husband moved into our houses as is the way with us in Esarn. (1)

(When we got married) my husband came to live in our house. It was the tradition here in Esarn that the bridegroom should come to live with the bride’s family.

“As” introduces a defining relative clause and functions as its subject, representing

what is stated in the main clause.

go to 2

Examples


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III.III. Sentence Sentence ParaphraseParaphrase

1. As is known to all, Taiwan belongs to China.

(as—subject of the clause)

2. As is often the case, girls learn a language more quickly than boys.

(as—subject of the clause)

back to 1

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The rest, two boys and two girls, went away as soon as we could afford to buy jeans for them. (1)

Our other children—two boys and two girls—left as soon as we had the money to buy them jeans.

to have enough money to do

appositive of “the rest”

go to 3

the remaining people; the others

Examples


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1. Your father, a proud and unbending man, refused all help that was offered him.

2. Playing football, his only interest in life, brought him many friends.

3. A dry lightning storm, that is, a thunderstorm without rain, started a fire in a remote part of the forest in August.

back to 2

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It’s easier for my husband. He has ears which

don’t hear, a mouth which doesn’t speak, and

eyes that don’t see. (2)

News about my children’s problems doesn’t make my husband as sad as me. He doesn’t bother about what is happening around us and to our children. He never says anything about them.

restrictive relative clause

go to 4

parallel structure

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He has always been patient and silent, minding his own life. (2)

go to 5

present participle phrase functioning as adverbial of

accompanying circumstances

take care of; attend to

He’s always been patient and talks little. He

just does his duty and carries on his life.

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Our piece of land is small, and it is no longer fertile, bleeding year after year and, like us, getting old and exhausted. (3)

personification

Our land is getting poorer with each passing year, like us who are getting old, weak and tired.

present participle phrases functioning as a cause

go to 6

Examples


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1. They sent us their statement, hoping to get our support.

2. They went on with their struggle, thinking theirs was a just cause.

3. Not having received an answer, he decided to write another letter to them.

4. The doctor, not wishing to make her nervous, did not fully explain the seriousness of her condition.

back to 5

Present participle

phrases act as

adverbials of cause.

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… but in a bad year, it’s not only the ploughs that break but our hearts too. (3)

… but when there is a drought, the land is so hard that the ploughs break. And we become very, very sad.

emphatic structure

go to 7

zeugma: “break” governs both “ploughs” and “hearts”.

Examples


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III.III. Sentence Sentence Paraphrase Paraphrase 1. It was the policeman that/who caught a

pickpocket on No. 933 bus yesterday.

(The subject is emphasized.)

1. It was a pickpocket that the policeman caught on No. 933 bus yesterday.

(The object is emphasized.)

3. It was on No.933 bus that the policeman caught a pickpocket yesterday.

(The adverbial of place is emphasized.)

4. It was yesterday that the policeman caught a pickpocket on No. 933 bus.

(The adverbial of time is emphasized.) back to 6

The emphatic structure “It

is/was… that…” can be used to emphasize any

part of the sentence

except the predicate.

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Shops have sprung up, filled with colorful

plastic things and goods we have no use for.

(4)

Many shops appear in a short time. In these shops there are lots of colorful plastic things and things that are useless for us.

past participle phrase functioning as post-modifier to modify “shops”

go to 8

appear suddenly relative clause

Examples


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1. The men, soaked with sweat from an all-

night march, immediately went into action.

2. The substance, discovered almost by

accident, has revolutionized medicine.

3. The book, written in 1957, tells of the

struggle of the miners.

back to 7

A post-modifying

past participle

phrase corresponds

to an elliptical relative clause.

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If that kind of thing had happened when I was

young, the whole village would have condemned

such an ungrateful son, and his father would

surely have given him a good beating. (6)

In my day if a boy had screamed at his mother,

the whole village would have scolded him for

his lack of gratitude, and his father would

certainly have punished him. go to 9

subjunctive mood hit him as a punishment

scold severely

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Yes, this bag of bones dressed in rags can

still plant and reap rice from morning till

dusk. (7)

very thin

It’s true I’m not strong and my clothes are full of holes, but I can still work in the rice fields all day.

metaphor:

as thin as a bag of bones

go to 10

past participle phrase functioning

as post-modifier

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My eyes do see—they see more than they should. My ears do hear—they hear more than is good for me. (8)

I’m not what my wife says I am. I do see and hear—I see and hear too much evil, too many ugly and terrible things, things that I wish I did not have to see and hear. And this is not good for me.

“do” is used to emphasize

verb.

go to 11

“more than is good” is the same as

“more than what is good”.

Examples


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III.III. Sentence Sentence Paraphrase Paraphrase

back to 10

1. He drank more than (what) was good for

him.

2. Kate meant more than (what) was said.

3. Some of the stories were really more than

(what) could be believed.

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It’s good to smell the scent of ripening rice in

November. The soft cool breeze moves the

sheaves, which ripple and shimmer like

waves of gold. (11)

The ripening rice is so pleasant to smell in

November. In the soft cool breeze, the

sheaves move and shine in the sun like a

golden sea. go to 12

gerund functioning as

modifiernon-restrictive relative clause

simile

Examples


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III.III. Sentence Sentence Paraphrase Paraphrase

1. They were infuriated by this insulting

demand.

2. No soaking rain fell in the period.

3. Our industry is developing at an

astonishing speed.

back to 11

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Yes, I love this land and I hope one of my children returns one day to live on it, and produces a lot of grandchildren for me so that I can tell them what this land means to us. It is our history, our culture, our tradition, and our life.

The end of Sentence Paraphrase.

Yes, I love this land and I hope one of my children comes back one day to live, and gives me grandchildren so that I can pass on the land’s secret message to them.

hand or give sth. to sb.

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