title: the bluest eye ----------toni morrison. teaching aims: the teaching of this lesson aims to...
TRANSCRIPT
•Title: The Bluest Eye
• ----------Toni Morrison
Teaching Aims: The teaching of this lesson aims to enable students to master:
• 1 20 key words and about 100 other new words• 2 20 key phrases and their translations• 3 the way of analyzing the usage of metaphor in
this lesson• 4 the way of dividing the lesson • 5 the skills of translation in ten sentences• 6 the main idea stated by the author• The teaching of this lesson is divided into five pa
rts
Part One: Background Information(in one period)
• In this part, the teacher and the students are working together to offer as much information as possible in one period. Information comes in all directions. In this way , views of the students can be broadened and versions of the world can be easily seen. We follow two procedures:
• I: The teacher gives a brief introduction about the background information and guides the students to the text by asking some questions.
• Toni Morrison was born in Ohio in 1931. • This text is taken from her first novel The Bluest Eye (1970).• This novel is divided into four parts which were named after four seasons: autumn( sh
e went into the society with a wish that she would have the bluest eyes some day; winter(she was suffering parents’ beating, classmates’ scorn and adults’ coldness and was raped by her father); spring(she was pregnant); summer( she gave birth to a baby who was dead when she was 13). In the end she went into insanity.
• Seasons----nature----law----inevitable• Desire for the bluest eye: symbolize black people’s confusion and dislocation of values
when their own culture are restrained and restricted.• Centre on eye : symbolize how black people observe and perceive the white people’s w
orld• Her longing for eye: symbolize that she wanted to accept white people’s culture and w
anted to observe the world with their eyes• Her theme: history, destiny and spirit, or mental world• The people in today’s lesson :Louis and his wife, Geraldine with a son named Junior,
Pecola
• II: Some students are asked to introduce some important notes because they have got some relevant information from the internet to help understand the lesson.
• 1 About the author:• Present the picture downloaded from the internet
and try to make the author impressive in the students’ minds.
• 2 brown girls• 3 Lifebuoy soap, Cashmere Bouquet talc, Jerge
ns Lotion, Dixie Peach• 4 Washington Irving School
Part Two Detailed Study of the Text(in six periods)
• In this part, the teacher finishes the explanation of words, sentences, grammar in six periods.
• Approaches used in this part:• 1 Raising questions to make the students think differently;• 2 Explaining some points;• 3 Discussing some topics in pairs or with the teacher• 4 Communicating with the students by repeating some words, some sentences
or some explanations.• 5 Asking volunteers to read each paragraph or asking them to read together.• 6 Asking them to summarize the main idea in each paragraph and in each secti
on separately• 7 Asking them to seek some transitional paragraphs or sentences• 8 Asking them to analyze the rhetorical speeches used in some sentences and
master the skills used in organizing the ideas.• 9 Asking them to paraphrase as many sentences as possible• 10 Making them pay attention to the special usages of some common words
Detailed Study of the Text• Part (paras.1--9)Ⅰ• 1.How is the text structured?• Taken from a novel, our text is not exactly like a complete, well-structured story. We ma
y roughly divide the text into two parts. Paragraphs 1—9, which form the first section, describe a type of characters—the brown girls. Part two , which begins from Paragraph 10,tells the story about what happens to the little black girl Pocola in the house of such a brown girl.
• Para.1• 2.They come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Meridia
n. (1)They refer to a character type the author describes in this passage. The author pointsout, ”They are thin brown girls who have looked long at hollyhocks in the backyards of Meridian, Mobile, Aiken, and Baton Rouge. ”(Para.2)These brown girls have lighterskins than other black people because of their mixed blood. Many of them aredescendents of former slaves who were house servants. Working in the house rather thanin the fields, they were closer to their white slave owners than the field Negroes. It was acommon thing for a white master to have babies with black maids. These house servantsusually felt superior to field Negroes .
• (2)The author mentions several places: Mobile(in southwest Alabama),Aiken(in west South Carolina) ,Newport News(in southeast Virginia),Marietta(in northwest Georgia) and Meridian(in east Mississippi). There is one thing in common among them, that is .they are all towns in the Deep South, where slavery and the plantation system existed before the Civil War .The setting of the novel The Bluest eye is an industrial town called Lorain in Ohio, which is in Midwest and different from the Deep South .
• 3.And the sounds of these places in their mouths make you think of love .• When the brown girls pronounce the names of these places, they are full of affe
ction and make other people associate these places with love.• 4...they tilt their heads and say “Mobile” and you think you’ve been kissed.• They say “Mobile” with pride. ”You think you’ve been kissed “is another
way of saying “the sounds of these places in their mouths make you think of love”.
• 5.They say ”Aiken ”and you see a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing.
• (1) glance off: to hit a surface at an angle and then move away from it in another direction
• (2)a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing: Here the author uses a butterfly with a torn wing as a metaphor, meaning fragile beauty.
• (3)The implied meaning is that life in the Deep South seems romantic and fills them with sentimental nostalgia, although life there is not easy.
• 6.”Yes,I will.”• Again, this is associated with “love ”.When a man proposes marriage, he ask
s the woman, ”Will you marry me?” If the woman agrees to marry him ,her answer will be :”Yes ,I will,”
• 7...but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out.
• That means they say those names in a very gentle and tender manner.
• Para.2• 8. How does the author describe the brown girls from the Deep South cities in Paragrap
h 2?• In this paragraph the author gives a general picture of who these brown girls are , wh
at they are like, and how they live. The descriptions show that they are thoroughly assimilated into the white, middle-class way of life.
• 9. The sound of it opens the windows of a room like the first four notes• of a hymn.• hymn: a song of praise to God• When one sings a hymn, the very first four notes will fill one’s heart with an are of fres
hness, just like opening a window of a room. The sound of the four-syllable name of Meridian has the same effect.
• 10. Perhaps because they don’t have home towns, just places where they were born.• (1)This is perhaps because they only have places of birth, but not places where they fee
l at home and which they identify themselves with.• (2)This sentence presumes that America is a mobile society in which people tend to mo
ve around instead of staying at one place all their lives. Note the difference between a place where one was born and a hometown. In American culture, a hometown may or may not be one’s place of birth. It is a place of personal experiences, a place where one feel most at home and which one identifies with most. In Chinese culture one’s hometown is one’s place of birth or one’s ancestral place along with one’s family and cultural roots.
• 11.but these girls soak up the juice of their home towns, and it never leaves them.• (1)juice: the essence of anything;(slang) power and influence• (2)but these girls are strongly influenced by their hometown, and the influence stays wit
h them forever even after they leave their hometown.• 12.they have the eyes of people who can tell what time it is but the color of the sky.• 他们的眼睛可以根据天空的颜色判断是什么时间了。
• 13. Such girls live in quiet black neighborhoods where everybody is gainfully employed, where there are porch swings hanging from chains. Where the grass is cut with a scythe, where rooster combs and sunflowers grow Internet
• The yards and pots of bleeding heart, ivy, and mother in-law tongue line the steps and windowsills.
• where everybody is gainfully employed: where everybody has good and steady job每个人都有一份好工作
• gainful: producing gain, profitable • porch swings hanging from chains: • rooster comb: also called cockscomb, rooster comb is an ornamental plant of the a
maranth family, with tight clusters of red, pink or yellow flower heads somewhat like a rooster’s crest.
• Bleeding heart: native to woodlands, bleeding heart is a common garden perennial plant with the unique flowers which resemble tiny pink or white hearts with drops of blood at the bottom.
• Mother-in-law tongue: a tropical perennial plant. It is said the plant is called mother-in-law’s tongue because the liquid this plant contains is so poisonous that a small dose of it in coffee or other drinks would paralyze the vocal cords of the person drinking it.
• All the details about the quiet black neighborhoods, porch swings, neatly cut grass, and potted plants lining the steps and windowsills indicate that these brown girls live in pretty houses, according to the white middle-class values, a pretty and comfortable house is one of the essentials of a happy home. In the primer used at the beginning of the novel, the first thing of the happy family is a pretty house: “ here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.”
• 14 they have put in the window the cardboard sign that has a pound measure printed on each of three edges—10 lbs., 50lbs.—and No ICE on the fourth.
• (1) in those days when refrigerators were not available, iceboxes were used for keeping food cool. Every day the iceman would come to sell or deliver ice. These people, who could afford to buy ice, would put up a cardboard sign in the window to tell the iceman if they needed ice that day and how much. If they needed 25 pounds that day, they would turn the cardboard sign in a way so that the edge with 25 lbs. would be shown on the top of the sign in an upright position. The edges with 10 lbs. and 50 lbs. would be on the side while No ICE would be upside down. And the iceman would know that he should deliver 25 pounds of ice.
• (2) 他们在窗上挂了一块硬纸板做的牌子 , 上面的三边分别写着 10 磅 , 25 磅 , 第四边写着 “不要冰块” .
• 15 these particular brown girls from Mobile and Aiken are not like some of their sisters.• In a small town, the black people usually live close together within a few blocks in a neigh
borhood. They have a strong sense of neighborhood, or community. The women call one another “sister”. The brown girls from places like Mobile and Aiken are different from and feel superior to the other girls of their own race.
• 16 they are as sweet and plain as battercake.• (1) battercake: a plain cake made of flour, sugar and butter • (2) the author compares these brown girls to a battercake, describing them as being sweet
but plain and ordinary, lacking special or exciting qualities.• 17 they wash themselves with orange-colored Lifebuoy soap, dust themselves with Cashm
ere Bouquet talc, clean their teeth with salt on a piece of rag, soften their skin with Jargons Lotion.
• Lifebuoy soap, Cashmere Bouquet talc and Jargons Lotion are toilet articles that cost more and represent prestige, and are used by middle-class white people. These brown girls try to imitate the middle-class whites and to make themselves clean and pretty according the standards of beauty set by the dominant culture.
• 18 they straighten their hair with Dixie Peach, and part it on the side.• Like people of any race, the African-American people are born with certain physical traits.
They have dark skin, broad nose, thick lips and kinky hair, some black people try to alter their appearance and look more like white people because they are told that white is beautiful while black is ugly. so , they whiten the skin, or have surgery that makes the nose narrower and higher, or straighten their hair and maybe dye it blond. Here in this story, the brown girls straighten their naturally curled hair With Dixie Peach and part it on the side. These acts reflect the self-contempt existing in some African-Americans.
• 19. they do not drink, smoke, or swear, and they still call sex “nosey”.• Drinking, smoking and swearing are considered to be bad behavior. Therefore these brown
girls don’t drink, smoke or swear. They still think sex is vulgar and indecent. This is another example showing how the brown girls try to meet the conventional puritanical codes of moral conduct.
• 20 they sing second soprano in the choir, and although their voices are clear and steady, they are never picked to solo.
• (1) second soprano: 第二女高音• (2) choir: a group of singers organized and trained to sing together, especially in a church • (3) solo: to perform a solo 独唱• (4) a choir of a black church is quite different from a choir of a white church. The former is
much more lively and sings with passion, if any of our students have seen the movie “Sister Act” starring the famous black actress Whoop Goldberg, they should remember how the black choir sings with vitality and passion. Although their voices are clear and steady, the brown girls in our story can only sing the second not the first soprano, not picked to perform a solo because the solo performer, who plays the leading role in the choir, should have not only a good voice, but also great passion. The brown girls may have the former but not the latter.
• 21 they are in the second row, white blouses starched, blue skirts almost purple from ironing. This is another detail showing these girls are neat and well-behaved.
• Para. 3• 22. what does the author tell us about the brown girls in paragraphs 3 a
nd 4?• In these two paragraphs the author shows that these brown girls have n
ot only assimilated the way of life but also the ideology of the white middle-class. They receive more formal school education than their poorer sisters, and as a result they are more alienated from their black cultural heritage and try to “get rid of the funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotions”.
• 23 they go to land-grant colleges, normal school, and learn how to do the white man’s work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul.
• (1) land-grant: an appropriation of public land by the government for a railroad, State college, etc. Land-grant colleges and universities were originally founded as of the 1860s by such government land grants on condition that they offer instruction in agriculture and the mechanical arts. They are now supported by the individual States and they cost less than the more prestigious private colleges.
• (2) home economics: a science and art of homemaking, including nutrition, clothing, budgeting, and child care
• (3) as these brown girls are from relatively better-off families, they receive more education than the worse-off blacks. They usually go to land-grant colleges or normal schools where teachers are trained. The purpose of their education is to prepare them to serve the white man with refinement. They major in home economics to do housekeeping for their masters. They are educated to be teachers so that they will teach the black children to be obedient. They are trained in music in order to entertain the white masters.
• (4) 他们就度于政府拔地建造的大学以及师范学院 . 他们学习如何把服务白人的工作做得更细致 : 学家政是为了给他们烧饭做菜 ; 学当老师是为了教育黑人孩子顺从 ; 学音乐是为了让疲惫的主人身心放松 , 为他那已麻木的灵魂提供消遣 .
• 24.the careful development of thrift, patience, high morals, and good manners.
• This is an incomplete sentence. A complete sentence would be: the education they receive at home and at school helps them with a careful development of patience, high morals, and good manners.
• 25. in short, how to get rid of the funkiness.• (1)this is another incomplete sentence. A complete sentence would be:
in short, the whole purpose of their education is to get rid of the funkiness. In the author’s opinion, getting rid of the funkiness is alienating from the black cultural heritage.
• (2) funkiness: see Note 12 to the text. “funkiness” is obviously an important word in our text. It is repeated three times in the next sentence, and the word “funk” is capitalized in paragraph 4. yet, it is hard to explain the exact meaning of this term, and even harder to find a single Chinese equivalent for it. “funky” has several meanings. It is associated with a jazz style having an earthy quality derived from early blues or gospel music. It may mean unconventional, eccentric, offbeat, etc. it also may mean very emotional, informal, relaxed, casual, etc. Funk is associated with spontaneity and sensuality. A number of Chinese terms may be applied to describe “funky”
• 26 the dreadful funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotions.
• The word “dreadful” is said in an ironical tone. That is to say, in the eyes of the middle-class white people and in the eyes of the brown girls, the funkiness of passion, nature and a wide range of human emotions is dreadful. Therefore, “wherever it erupts” they “wipe it away”. (para.4)
• Para.4• 27, wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away; wherever it crusts, they dissolve it; where
ver it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it and fight it until it dies. They fight this battle all the way to the grave.
• (1) erupt: to burst forth or out as from some restraint • (2) crust: to fall in drops • (3) drip: to fall in drops• (4) flower: to bloom; to reach the best or most vigorous stage• (5) cling: to hold fast; to stay • (6) the brown girls try hard to repress their emotions and passions. However, these natural hu
man emotions cannot be wiped out totally. Sometimes they will emerge and burst out. And they will develop, become stronger and stay with them. So whenever and wherever this funk bursts out, the brown girls will do their best to stifle it. Then it emerges again, and they will kill it again. The brown girls have to fight the battle constantly all their lives because funkiness comes back naturally.
• 28. the laugh that is a little too loud; the enunciation a little too round; the gesture a little generous.
• They make sure that they don’t laugh too loudly, don’t speak with their mouths opened too round, and don’t make too generous gestures.
• 29 they hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free…• (1) behind: (informal) bottom, buttocks• (2) for fear of a sway too free: if a woman walks with a free sway, moving her buttocks from si
de to side too much, she will be considered to be sexy. And this is what the brown girls try to avoid. So they hold their buttocks in when walking.
• 30…when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick… as they have thick lips, the brown girls try to make their lips appear not so thick by covering only part of their lips with lipstick.
• 31…and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.• What worries them most is their hair, which curls up at the edges. In paragraph 2, we see the
brown girls straighten their hair with Dixie Peach, and part it on the side like white girls.
• Para.5• 32 ． What is Paragraph 5 about?• This paragraph tells us although these brown girls never seem
to have boy friends; they always marry and become good housewives. Several concrete examples are given to show that these women are good at housekeeping. Note that the author begins to shift the plural “they” to the singular “she” in this paragraph, preparing for talking about one of such girls named Geraldine from Paragraph 10.
• 33. There will be pretty paper flowers decorating the picture of his mother.
• The paper flowers imply that these girls’ way of life is not natural but artificial, in contrast to the funk.
• 34.... that their Sunday shirts will billow on hangers from the door jamb, stiffly starched and white.
• On Sundays, people go to church in their Sunday best. Men usually wear white shirts. In the morning, the wife gets the husband’s white shirt ready. She has starched it stiff and put it on hangers on the door jamb for the husband to put on before going to church.
• Para. 6• 35. What does the author tell us in Paragraphs 6---9?• What men do not know is that the brown girl will make her home her own invi
olable world against any outsider, even against her husband. She runs the house in her own way. Although she keeps the house clean and tidy, she does not give it any warmth.
• 36. What they do not know is that this plain brown girl will build her nest stick by stick, make it her own inviolable world, and stand guard over its every plant, weed, and doily, even against him.
• (1) “What they do not know’ is linked with the last sentence of the previous paragraph. Although they are right in thinking that the brown girl can keep the house well and bear children easily, they do not know the brown girl will build her nest bit by bit and defend it as her own fortress world.
• (2) 他们有所不知的是 , 这个相貌平常 , 褐色皮肤的女孩将一点一点地筑起她的小巢 , 把家变成她自己的 , 不可侵犯的小天地 . 她守护着家里的一草一木 ,甚至对她的丈夫都有所防范 .
• 37.A sidelong look ill be enough to tell him to smoke on the back porch• (1) She loves cleanness and does not allow smoking in her house. She has so mu
ch authority in the home that a sideways look will be enough to tell him to smoke on the back porch.
• (20) 她只需斜眼看他一下 , 他就知道该到房后的走廊上去抽烟 .• 38.Nor do they know that she will give him her body sparingly and partially.• As the brown girl defines sex as vulgar and indecent, she will not enjoy norm
al sexual life thoroughly and wholly but will restrain herself in making love with husband.
• Para.7• 39. What is Paragraph 7 about?• In this paragraph the author describes how a cat might engage the brown girl’s affections. In he
r stifled womanhood, she denies herself of normal sensual experience and therefore can only find occasional sensual delight in a cat.
• 40.Occasionally some living thing will engage her affections.• (1) engage: to attract ,hold(the attention. etc)• (2) affection: fond or tender feeling• (3) In Paragraphs 5 and 6 we see how the brown girl takes good care of everything in the house.
She “stands guard over its every plant, weed, and doily’. But none of them are warm and alive. Occasionally some living thing, a cat, will engage her affections.
• 41. At her gentlest touch he will preen, stretch, an open his mouth.• (1) This shows the cat responds to her gentle touch with delight and satisfaction.• (2) 当他请轻轻地扶摸他时 , 他会满意地舔着毛 , 伸着懒腰 , 张开嘴巴 .• 42. And she will accept the strangely pleasant sensation that comes when he writhes beneath her
hand and flattens his eyes with a surfeit of sensual delight.• (1) writhe: to make twisting or turning movements• (2) surfeit: too great an amount; excess• (3)Note the use of the expressions of “pleasant sensation” and “sensual delight”. Sensual pleasur
es or delights are eruptions of the funkiness. The brown girl attempts to stifle them consciously. But she is a human being after all. Subconsciously she still wants them. As she can’t enjoy them in her relationship with her husband in a normal and healthy way, she accepts them as they come when she is playing with the cat.
• The next sentence gives more details about her sensual delight with the cat. From these detailed descriptions we can see the brown girl transfers her sensual pleasures that she ought to share with her husband to an animal. By describing her affections for the cat the author intends to show how the false social values can distort womanhood. Internet
• This sense, the brown girls are victims of false social values. At the same time, as we see in later passages this distorted personality victimizes other people.
• Para 8• 43…she sits reading the “uplifting thoughts” in T
HE LIBEITY MAGAZINE…• “uplifting thoughts”: see Note 13 to the text• 44. she will fondle that soft hill of hair…• Soft hill of hair: hair like a soft hill 像小山一样的
软毛• 45…when the intruder comes home from work…• The intruder is her husband. She has built her n
est, in which the only living thing that engages her affections is the cat. Before her husband comes home she has played and dozed with the cat.
• Para9• 46. for she does bear a child easily, and painlessly. but only one. A so
n, Named Junior.• She gives birth to only one child, a son, to fulfill her wifely duty. Actual
ly she is not interested in children and has no real affections for them, so she will not have more than one child if she can help it. The son is named Junior after his father, indicating the continuity of the family line.
• Para. 10• 47. What is the function of Paragraph 10? • This paragraph serves as a transition from the discussion of the brow
n girls Internet• General to focusing on one particular brown girl-Geraldine, who lives i
n Lorain Ohio with her husband Louis and her son Louis Junior.• 48. One such girl… who did not seat in her armpits nor between her thi
ghs, who smelled of wood and vanilla…• Who smelled of wood and vanilla: 散发出木头和香草的味道• 49 ． There she built her nest, ironed shirts, potted bleeding hearts, pla
yed with her cat, and birthed Louis Junior.• She is one of the regular brown girls who live a meaningless and mono
tonous life.
• Para. 11• 50. Geraldine did not allow her baby, Junior, to cry.• Like a typical brown girl, Geraldine did not allow any natural feelings to express themselves.• So she even didn’t allow her baby to cry.• 51. As long as his needs were physical, she could meet them-comfort and satiety.• (1) physical as opposed to emotion. She could only satisfy his physical needs such as his desire
for food, clothing, toys, etc. The implied meaning is that as a mother, she failed to meet her son’s emotional needs.
• (2) satiety: the state of being satiated• (3) if his needs were physical, she could meet them. She could make him comfortable and give
him enough or even more than enough to satisfy his physical needs.• 52, Getaldine did not talk to him, coo to him, or indulge him in kissing bouts, but she saw that
every other desire was fulfilled.• (1) bout: a period of time taken by some activity • E.g.: a bout of shopping • (2) this sentence shows that Geraldine failed to give her baby tender, motherly love.• (3) 她不对他讲话 , 不柔声哄他、宠他。但是她能确保他的其他要求都得到满足。• 53. as he grew older, he learned how to direct his hatred of his mother to the cat, and spent so
me happy moments watching it suffer.• (1) the absence of love breeds hatred. As the boy did nit know what to do about the situation,
he learned to direct his hatred to the cat, which he taught had robbed him of his mother’s affections, and which was weaker and more helpless than he. It is terrible for a child to harbor hatred for his mother, and it is even more terrible for a child to direct his hatred to a cat. With this detail, the author shows that the distorted motherhood further distorted the personality of the child. This detail also prepares the reader for what is going to happen late in the story.
• (2) 当他大一点时 , 他学会了如何把对妈妈的仇恨发泄到猫的身上 ,. 当他看到那只猫受折磨时 , 他开心极了 .
• Para12 • 54. junior considered the playground his own, and the schoolchildren coveted his fr
eedom to sleep late, so home for lunch, and dominate the playground after school. • 小路易把运动场看成是自己的 , 小学生们都羡慕他有这么多自由 , 可以睡懒觉 , 可
以回家吃午饭 , 放学后还能控制运动场 .• 55. he hated to see the swings, slides, monkey bars, and seesaws empty…• Monkey bars: an arrangement of horizontal and vertical bars erected as in a playg
round for children to climb on, swing from, etc.• 56.white kids; his mother did not like him to play with niggers.• The author emphasizes that the kids playing with him were white kids because his
mother did not like him to play with black children., the word “nigger”, originally simply a dialectal variant of “Negro”, is today accepted only in black English; in all other contexts it is now generally regarded as virtually taboo because of the legacy of racial hatred that underlies the history of its use among whites. The narrator suggests that Geraldine used the word “ nigger”, speaking like a racist white person, when she told her son not to play with black kids.
• 57. she had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers.• (1) the definition of “colored” is of a group other than the Caucassoid, in north A
merica, the term is mainly applied to the blacks several terms have been used to refer to the American black people. “colored People (NAACP), found in 1990 by W.E.B. Du Bois and some other social reformers,. The word “negro” is defined as a member of any of the indigenous, dark-skinned people of Africa, living chiefly south of the Sahara Desert, or a person having some African ancestors; a black. As explained above, “nigger” was originally a variant of “Negro” but is now a taboo, an extremely offensive word for a black person. “black” is widely used.
• Not only to refer to a black person but in certain set phrases connected with the black people such as black power, meaning political and economic power as sought but black people such as black power, meaning political and economic power as sought by black which is precise in meaning and connotes no prejudice.
• (2) when Geraldine explained the difference between colored people and niggers, she tried to distinguish the black people with brown skins like herself from the rest of the other black people, implying the blacks with lighter skins wrier superior to those with darker skins.
• 58. … his hair was cut as close to his scalp as possible to avoid any suggestion of wool, the part was etched into his hair b the barber.
• (1) in paragraph 2, we see how the brown girls straighten their hair with Dixie Peach, and part it on the side. Geraldine must have done this to her hair Now she was trying to make her son’s hair appear less like that of a back boy by having his hair cut short so that it was not long enough to curl up like wool and having a part cut into his hair by the barber.
• (2) etch: to make a drawing, design, etc. on metal, glass, etc. by the action of an acid, especially by coating the surface with was and letting acid eat into the lines or areas laid bare with a special needle; here used metaphorically to refer to the action of the barbers scissors
• (3) 他的头发肩的很段，仅仅贴着头皮，这样就显不出像羊毛般卷曲的样子， 发缝是理发师特意修出来的。
• 59 ． The line between colored and nigger was not always clear; subtle and telltale signs threatened to erode it, and the watch had to be constant.
• (1) telltale: revealing what is meant to be kept a secret• (2) 有色人与黑人的界线并不总是分明， 一些微妙的，能暴露秘密的迹象可能
造成这一界线模糊不清，所以要时时当心才是。
• Para.13• 60, more than anything in the world he wanted to play King of the Mountain and have
them push him down the mound of dirt and roll over him.• (1) king of the Mountain : a game in which each player attempts to climb to the top of
a mound of earth and to prevent all others from pushing or pulling home off the top • (2)Geraldine put ideas of racial prejudice into her sons mind. She also taught him to a
void the funkiness. When he was still a normally and innocent boy, he used to long to play with the black boys, and he experienced pleasure in playing with them. According to the brown girls, this was and instance of the eruption of the funkiness. Geraldine helped her son to get rid of it eventually.
• (3) 有色人和黑人的界限并不总是分明，一些微妙的，能暴露秘密的迹象可能造成这一界限模糊不清，所以要时时当心。
• 61. smell their wild blackness• 闻到他们身上的野味• 62. He wanted to sit with them on curbstones and compare the sharpness of jackknive
s, the distance and arcs of spitting.• Several details are mentioned here to show Junior was a normal boy and would have e
njoyed doing things just as any other naughty boys would like to do.• 他想和他们坐在马路的石牙上，比谁的折叠刀最锋利，谁的唾沫吐得最远，弧线最
好。• 63. He played only with Ralph Nisensky, who was two years younger, wore glasses, an
d didn’t want to do anything. • Judging from the name, Nisensky was a whire boy of European descent. He was diff
erent from the black boys Junior used in play with. He wore glasses, suggesting he was a good pupil who read a lot, and he was not wild or funky, but neat and quiet, and he didn’t want to do any of the things Junior would have liked to do with black boys. In short, he was just the type of boy Geraldine wanted her son to mix with.
• Para.14• 64. When the mood struck him, he would call a child passing by t
o come play on the swings or the seesaw• When the mood struck him: 当他来情绪时（或：当他心血来潮
时）• Para.15• 65. Alternately bored and frightened at home, the playground wa
s his joy.• 当他在家感到无聊，或者挨了责骂时，运动场就成了他的全部
欢乐所在。• 66. She kept her head down as she walded. He had seen her ma
ny times before, standing alone• Always alone, at recess. Nobody ever played with her. Probabl
y, he thought, because she was ugly.• at recess• The black girl kept her head down, showing she was very timid a
nd frightened. She was very lonely, too. At recess kids played together, but nobody ever played with her. She was “ugly:” because she was very black. All the kids, including Pecola herself, thought so because all of them were educated to internalize the white values that dictate standards of beauty.
• Para.27• 67. “ No. What is it?”• When Junior asked, “Say, you want to see something?” Pec
ola knew she’d better avoid thisboy by declining the offer, and so she answered “No” . But she couldn’t help asking, “What is it?” out of curiosity like any other kid.
• Para.31• 68. “Real kittens?”• Little girls usually like kittens. Real kittens were too great a t
emptation for Pecola to resist.• The mention of kittens reminds the reader of the primer at th
e beginning of the novel, which says, “ See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat. It goes meow-meow. Come and play. Come play with Jane.” After reading this part of the story, we know the author uses the primer ironically.
• Para.33• 69. He held the door open for her, smiling his encouragement.• Smile his encouragement: 他用微笑来鼓励她
• Para.35• 70. How beautiful, she thought. What a beautiful house. • When Pocola stepped into the house, she saw how pretty it was, and she was amaz
ed at its beauty. As she was admiring the pretty house , suddenly Junior threw a big cat in her face. Of course, it never occurred to Pocola that such a terrible thing would take place in this beautiful house.
• 71.There was a big red-and-gold Bible on the dining-room table. A color picture of Jesus Christ hung on a wall with the prettiest paper flowers fastened on the frame.
• The Bible , containing all the important teachings of Jesus Christ, is a symbol of Christian faith. However, the big red-and-gold Bible placed on the most conspicuous place in the room had become a showpiece. For the same purpose of showing off, a color picture of Jesus Christ hung on a wall with pretty paper flowers. It’s easy to see the irony here because Jesus. Christ teaches love of one another, love of your neighbors, but what Junior and his mother did to Pocola later before the picture of Jesus is just the opposite. They have nothing but hatred for this little black girl.
• 72. She was deep in admiration of the flowers when Junior said, “Here!”• 她深深地沉浸在对花的欣赏之中，突然，小路易喊道：“给你！”• he screeched.• To screech is to make a very unpleasant, high noise with one’s voice, especially be
cause one is angry.• She sucked inn her breath in fear and surprise and felt fur in her mouth.• 她又惊又怕，倒吸了口气， 这时她感到嘴里有猫毛。• The cat clawed her face and chest in an effort to right itself, then leaped nimbly to t
he fuller.– right itself: to restore itself in an upright or proper position– 那猫抓她的脸和胸，拼命想站稳，然后敏捷地跳到地面上
• Para.36• Junior was laughing and running around the room clutching hi
s stomach delightedly.• Junior was laughing so hard that his stomach ached. So he w
as running around the room clutching his stomach delightedly.• Para.37• “You can’t get out. You’re my prisoner,” he said. His eyes wer
e merry but hard.• (1) It’s terrible to see how a child could take delight in torturi
ng another child. It proved Junior to be a cruel, heartless boy. His character was all distorted. By describing this cruel act, the author shows what pernicious impact a loveless mother could have on her child. In the primer used as an introduction to the novel, there are these lines: “here comes a friend. The friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game.” Junior, instead of being a friend who would play with Pecola, play a nasty trick on her, and treated her cruelly as his prisoner.
• (2) His eyes were merry but hard.• 他的眼睛既快活又冷酷。
• Para.37• “You can’t get out. You’re my prisoner,” he said. His eyes were
merry but hard.• (1) It’s terrible to see how a child could take delight in torturin
g another child. It proved Junior to be a cruel, heartless boy. His character was all distorted. By describing this cruel act, the author shows what pernicious impact a loveless mother could have on her child. In the primer used as an introduction to the novel, there are these lines: “here comes a friend. The friend will play with Jane. They will play a good game.” Junior, instead of being a friend who would play with Pecola, play a nasty trick on her, and treated her cruelly as his prisoner.
• (2) His eyes were merry but hard.• 他的眼睛既快活又冷酷。• Para.39• 78. Pecola’s banging on the door increased his gasping, high-p
itched laughter.• (1) his gasping, high-pitched laughter: Junior laughed hysterica
lly.• (2) 佩克拉拼命拍门，这让他笑得更厉害了。他尖声笑着，几乎
喘不过气。
• Para40• 79 the blue eyes in the black face held her.• (1) What Pecola desired most was a pair of blue eyes. Now she
saw the blue eyes in the black face of the cat and she was attracted by them.
• (2) 黑猫脸上的蓝眼睛吸引了她的注意力。• Para.41• 80. he saw the cat stretching its head and flattening its eyes.• Flatten its eyes: 眯起眼睛• • Para.42• 81. His voice changed suddenly, when he saw the cat stretching
its head and flattening its eyes, he suddenly became very angry because he had seen that expression many times as the animal responded to his mother’s touch. Until this moment he had watched Pecola suffer with delight.
• 82. With a movement both awkward and sure he snatched the cat by one of his hind legs and began to swing it around his head in a circle.
• 他用一个既别扭又有把握的动作抓住猫的一条腿，开始在头顶上一圈一圈地抡。
• Para.43• 83 the cat’s free paws were stiffened, ready to gr
ab anything to restore balance, its mouth wide, its eyes blue streaks of horror.
• 那只猫没被抓住的爪子变的僵硬，时刻准备抓住任何可以使他恢复平衡的物体，它的嘴巴大张着，眼睛闪者一道道恐怖的蓝光。
• Para.44• 84. They both fell, and in falling, Junior let go the
cat, which, having been released in mid-motion, was thrown full force against the window.
• 他们俩都摔倒了，小路易到下去时撒开了抓猫的手，那猫在转了一半时突然放开了，结果，它结结实实地摔到了窗户上。
• 85. except for a few shudders, it was still.• 它不动了，只是抽动了几下。
• Para.48 • 86. She looked at Pecola. Saw the dirty torn dress, the plaits sticking out on h
er head, hair matted where the plaits had come undone, the muddy shoes with the wad of gum peeping out from between the cheap soles, the soiled socks, one of which had been walked down into the heel of the shoe.
• (1) This image of Pecola was disgusting to Geraldine. She had been trying hard to make everything, her house, her husband, her son, etc., clean and neat. Pecola represented an image of extreme ugliness and dire poverty, things she had avoided and hated all her life.
• (2) 她打量着佩克拉，看见她穿着又胀又破的裙子，头上扎着小辫子，有几根已经散开了，头发乱糟糟的，鞋上粘满了泥土，廉价的鞋底中露出一团胶块，袜子也是脏兮兮的，其中的一只还在走路时滑到了鞋的后跟。
• 87. She saw the safety pin holding the hem of the dress up.• Apparently the dress was not made for Pecola for it was too big for her. So a
safety pin was used to hold the hem up.• 88. She had seen this little girl all of her life.• Geraldine had seen black girls like Pecola at many places and many times in
the past.• 89. hanging out of windows over saloons in Mobile, crawling over the porche
s of shotgun houses on the edge of town, sitting in bus stations holding paper bags and crying to mothers who kept saying “shet up!”
• (1) Saloon: a place where alcoholic drinks are sold to be drunk on the premises; bar
• (2) Shotgun house: a long, narrow house with rooms arranged one behind the other
• (3) Paper bag: shopping bag
• (4) “shet up!” “Shut up!” pronounced with a black accent • (5) these details further describe the type of girls Geraldine had known all
of her life, in a black neighborhood of Mobile, where she came from, these girls could be seen everywhere. They might be hanging out of windows over saloons. They might be crawling over the porches of poor crowded houses on the edge of town. They might be waiting in bus stations with their mothers.
• 90. eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything.• This sentence contains an antithesis, a contrast of thoughts. The meaning o
f the sentence is ambiguous, one interpretation may be: on the one hand, they were ignorant and uncomprehending. They did not question why their lives were so miserable. On the other hand, as they were poverty-stricken and practically had noting, their eyes revealed their desire for anything that could make their lives easier
• 91. Unblinking and unabashed, they stared up at her.• (1) Unabashed: not embarrassed, not ill at ease, and not self-conscious • (2) The little girls stared up at Geraldine in that way because Geraldine, w
ho was nice, neat and brown, was so totally different from them that they were filled with surprise, curiosity and wonder.
• 92. The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in between.
• The author seems to say that in the eyes of these girls one can see that they were without any hope for the future and that their life would be nothing but a waste.
• para.49 • 93. They sat in little rows on street curbs, crowded into pews at chur
ch into pews at church, taking space from the nice, neat, colored children; they clowned on the playgrounds, broke things in dime stones, ran in front of you on the street, made ice slides on the sloped sidewalks in winter.
• (1) Pew: a long wooden seat in a church • (2) Clown: to act silly • (3) Dime store: five-and-ten-cent store where supposedly everything
costs only a few cents• (4)Geraldine listed things these black girls did to prove that they ha
d no manners and were not nice and quiet like brown girls,• 94. The girls grew up knowing nothing of girdles, and the boys anno
unced their manhood by turning the bills of their caps backward.• (1) Girdle: a piece of women’s underwear which fits tightly around
her stomach, bottom and hips and makes her look thinner• (2) Manhood: the state or time of being a man • (3) Bill: the peak or visor of a cap
• (4) As the girls were growing into young women, they had never worn girdles to make their figure look slimmer, and thus more elegant; and when the boys grew up, they just began to wear their caps with the bills turned backward to indicate that they had become adults. As we know, in some cultures, manhood is announced and celebrated with certain formal rites. However, for these poor black boys, there was no rite to mark this important stage of their lives, except for taking up some habits that adult men had, such as smoking or turning the bills of their caps backward.
• (5) 这些女孩发育成大人了，却不知紧身褡为何物。而男孩把鸭舌帽的帽檐转到后脑勺就算宣布自己是大人了。
• 95. Grass wouldn’t grow where they lived. Flowers died. Shades fell down. Tin cans and tired blossomed where they lived.
• (1) On the surface, the sentence means that these children roamed around among garbage thrown away tin cans and tires. They didn’t live in houses with well-cut grass and pretty flowers. On a deeper level, the sentence implies that Geraldine was blaming these black children for causing all the good things to die and band things to happen in the black
• 96. “ you nasty little black bitch. Get out of my house.”• Geraldine, who was supposed to have good manners, here used a very stro
ng swearword for• Pecola and ordered her to get out of her house at once. She hated this helpl
ess black girl so much because this little girl reminded her of her racial origins and racial identity which she had been trying so hard to forget.
• Para.52• 97. Pecola backed out of the room, staring at the pretty milk br
own lady in the pretty gold and green house who was talking to her through the cat’s fur.
• Here the word “ pretty” is used twice, and the fact the brown lady talked through the fur of the injured cat is emphasized. In this way a picture is created in contrast with the picture depicted in the primer used at the beginning of the novel, and an ironic effect is achieved. In the pretty green and-white house, Jane lives happily with her mother and father, a kitten and a dog. The lovely kitten goes meow-meow. A friend comes and will play with Jane. In Geraldine’s pretty house, the cat was mistreated by Junior, and Pocola was bullied by him and cruelly treated and deeply hurt by both the mother and the boy. In the end , she was turned out of the pretty house.
• 98.......Jesus looking down at her with sad and unsurprised eyes......
• Although Jesus Christ felt sad and was sympathetic with Pecola, he was not surprised at what had happened inn the house because he had seen too many tragedies in the world.
• Para.33• 99.Outside, the March wind blew into the rip in her dress.
She held her head down against the cold. But she could not hold it low enough to avoid seeing the snowflakes falling and dying on the pavement.
• (1) In the concluding paragraph of the story, the author loads meanings into the description of how Pecola walked away from the house in cold wind. A cold wind was blowing and snow was falling. The snowflakes were falling and dying on the pavement. Why is the would “dying” chosen for describing the falling snowflakes? Doesn’t that imply that something in the heart of Pecola also died? We can see that the cold wind and snow reflect the coldness Pocola felt after the event; the coldness in nature reflects the coldness in human relationships.
• (2) 外面， 3 月的风吹进了她撕破的衣裙。她顶着冷风，垂着头。不过，头垂得再低，她也看得到雪花纷纷飘落到人行便道上并立刻消融。
Part Three: Summary of the whole lesson and the discussion of the questions
( in two periods)
• In this part , the teacher is summarizing the whole lesson to make the students aware of the thoughts and ideas offered by the author and make the students know what we should learn from the lesson.
• Finish the quiz for Lesson 4
• Find the English explanations for the following words:• Gainfully fretful soprano enunciation erupt dollop retrieve caressSurfeit
scalp telltale curbstone laurel alternately recess radiator Whine streak hem unabashed1 complain in a sad complaining voice
• 2 colored line• 3 sth used for heating a room• 4 not ashamed, not self-conscious, not embarrassed• 5 edge of a piece of cloth• 6 revealing what is meant to be kept as a secret• 7 achievements• 8 skin of head• 9 happening every some time• 10 a time for rest between lectures• 11 burst forth or out as from some restraint• 12 pronouncing words clearly and carefully• 13 high singing voice• 14 anxious and complaining• 15 mass of soft food• 16 find sth and get it back• 17 too great an amount; excess• 18 touch gently• 19 producing gain or profitable• 20 edge of the part of a road where people can walk
• II: Phrases:• 1 a torn wing• 2 nod in the wind• 3 be gainfully employed• 4 blunted soul• 5 home economics• 6 wear lipstick• 7 inviolable world• 8 a sidelong look• 9 engage one’s affection• 10 comfort and satiety• 11 take a shortcut• 12 smile one’s encouragement• 13 beat sb witless• 14 suck in one’s breath• 15 on street curbs• 16 the soiled socks• 17 flatten its eyes• 18 singed fur• 19 at recess• 20 telltale signs
Part Four: Key to Exercises• 1 This is perhaps because they only have places of birth, t=but not places where t
hey feel at home and which they identify themselves with. But these girls are strongly influenced by their hometown, and the influence stays with them forever even after they leave their hometown.
• The brown girls try hard to repress their emotions and passions. However, these natural human emotions cannot be wiped out totally. Some times they will emerge and burst out. And they will develop , become stronger and stay with them. So whenever and wherever this funk bursts out, the brown girls will do their best to stifle it.
• if his needs were physical, she could meet them. She could make him comfortable and give him enough or even more than enough to satisfy his physical needs.
• Geraldine had seen black girls like Pocola at many places and many times in the past.
• on the one hand, they were ignorant and uncomprehending. They did not ask question why their lives were so miserable. On the other hand, as they were poverty-stricken and practically had nothing, their eyes revealed their desire for anything that could make their lives easier.
• in the eyes of these girls one can see that they were in despair, without any hope for the future, and that their life was nothing but a waste.
• as the girls were growing into young women, they had never worn girdles to make their figure look slimmer, and thus more elegant; and when the boys grew up, they just began to wear their caps with the bills turned backward to indicate that they had become adults.
Key to translation• A. Phrases• 他们可以根据天空的颜色判断是什么时间了• 每个人都有一份好工作• 用铁链悬挂的游廊摇椅• 像小山一样的软毛• 她散发出木头和香草的味道• 避免显出像羊毛般卷曲的样子• 当他心血来潮时• 他用微笑鼓励她• B． Sentences• 1．他们在窗上挂了一块硬纸做的牌子，上面的三边分别写着 10磅、 25磅、 50
磅，第四边写着“不要冰块”。• 2． 她们就读于政府拨地建造的大学以及师范学院。她们学习如何把服务白人的
工作做得更细致；学家政是为了给他们烧饭做菜；学当老师是为了教育黑人孩子顺从；学音乐是为了让疲惫的主人身心放松，为他那已麻木的灵魂提供消遣。
• 3． 她只需斜眼看他一下，他就知道该到房后的走廊上去抽烟。• 4． 小路易把运动场看成是自己的，小学生们都羡慕他有这么多自由，可以睡懒
觉，可以回家吃午饭，放学后还能控制运动场。• 5． 她最喜欢玩“山大王”的游戏，喜欢被他们推下土山坡，让他们滚在他身上。• 6．她深深地沉浸在对花的欣赏之中，突然，小路易喊道：“给你！”• 7． 佩克拉拼命拍门，这让他笑得更厉害了。他尖声笑着，几乎喘不过气。• 8．不过，头垂得再低，她也看得到雪花纷纷飘落到人行便道上并立刻消融。
Part Five: Assignments
• In this part, all the assignments will be listed , the teacher will assign them to the students after each two periods.
• 1 seek out some information about each note on the internet and hand them in to the teacher
• 2 read the whole lesson• 3 memorize the new words• 4 prepare for the discussions• 5 do the exercises• 6 pre-review of the next lesson• 7 prepare for the quiz• 8 prepare for Lesson Ten