英语小说选读主题总结.doc

Early autumn1.冲动是魔鬼。玛丽的冲动导致了她不幸的婚姻。首先从“她太老了”可以看出来，她的生活并不幸福。尽管她有一份不错的工作和收入（从“我在哥伦比亚的一家财务办公室工作。”可以看出来。）其次，她和比尔的分手源于一件微不足道的小事，年轻人爱赌气，但是千万不可随便赌上一生的幸福啊！2.年龄的差距可能导致情感分歧。玛丽和比尔可能年龄相差比较大。从“现在她不再年轻了，但是比尔依旧年轻。”可以看出。3.女性的自尊很强，但是通常男人了解不到。从“我现在居住在纽约，她说道。”和“我在哥伦比亚的一家财务办公室工作。”可以看出她强调自己过得很好，要知道，在美国能住在纽约是一件很不容易的事，而且她还在财务办公室工作，收入一定也不错。并且，他对比尔宣称的自己“我现在当律师，在NICE公司，位于市中心。”不甘示弱，因为NICE公司是一家非常出名的公司。4.曾经的感情越是甜蜜结果越可能不会有圆满的结局。分析一下他们俩那段曾经的感情，也是很幸福的，文章开始就说了“数不清的夜晚，他和她一起散步、聊天。”还有他们刚刚见面时，玛丽的不经意的一个动作“玛丽毫无意识地将头抬起，仿佛等待着一个吻”说明以前他们见面时，这是他们经常的动作。可是两人还是以分手告终。5.女人对于曾经的感情常常难以释怀，而男人却似乎很容易将其忘记。玛丽一直都爱着比尔，但是比尔已经将他们之间曾经的那段感情忘却了。从“许多年后，当她步行经过华盛顿广场的时候，第一眼便认出了他。”和“但是他第一眼却没有认出她，对他来说，她太老了。”两句可以看出。还有他们多年后的初次见面的问题，玛丽问“我总是在想你发生了什么，比尔。”而比尔却是问“你的丈夫呢？”还有他们见面是的玛丽那个不经意的动作“玛丽毫无意识地将头抬起，仿佛等待着一个吻，而他却伸出了手，她握住了它。”可是比尔用握手这个普通的、有礼貌的方式来对待玛丽。接着，两个人的互相邀请也大有不同。玛丽是“我现在住在中心公园西部，”她说道“有空儿来找我啊。”比尔是“你和你的丈夫晚上有空儿也一定要来我家啊，任何晚上都可以。露丝和我会非常欢迎你们的。”比尔的那句话是非常经典的、非常礼貌的交往中的一句明显的“废话”。还有结尾，玛丽哭了，是非常伤心的哭了，“大街上的灯开始变得模糊、清晰、模糊。”只有眼中噙满泪水才会出现这种现象吧。本来玛丽说“我的车来了”可能还存有一丝希望，希望比尔去挽留她，但是比尔却显得很潇洒，“他举起他的手，喊了声：再见！”痛苦的玛丽只能用尽仿佛最后一点力气，“最终她还是大声的叫了一声：再见！”。结尾处，点出最重点的“这时她才想起忘了给比尔她的住址也没有向他要他的地址更没有告诉他，她的小儿子名字也叫比尔”。6.糟糕的天气给人以糟糕的心情，小说都喜欢这样衬托氛围。“来来往往的人们经过他们身旁走向公园。人们之间都是陌生的。傍晚到了，太阳也快下山了，天很冷。”“几片树叶轻轻地落在广场的地面上，没有风，但是很冷。天黑了下来，她感到有点感冒。”“车开始动了。人们分在了两个世界，一个车内，一个车外。街上来来往往的人们，都是陌生的面孔。广场上的人群，淹没了她眼中的比尔。”7.文章中还有许多可以深挖的地方，如“玛丽！你从哪里来到这儿？”言外之意仿佛是“你为什么会在这儿？你不应该在这儿！”还有“你看起来非常”（他想说太老了）“好，”他说道。这是多么不礼貌！等等吧，其他的，靠读者自己想象了。还有，说说我自己的看法，虽然玛丽值得同情，但是，她的经历值得许多女孩子深思，这根本怨不上比尔，当然，即使玛丽不嫁给那个所谓的“她自认为爱她的男人”，也不一定还能与比尔在一起，但是，总不该那么随便而已。世间许多事情是无法说得清楚的，只能用心和经历去体会罢了。Two kindsChinese culture is respect, fidelity and patriarchal. And American are likely to show their freedom.INthenovelTheJoyLuckClub,AmyTanexplorestherelationshipbetweenmothersanddaughters.Thereare4mother-daughterpairsinthenovel,mothersarethefirstgenerationimmigrants,andthedaughtersareborninAmerica.TheJoyLuckClubmotherscomefromtheChinesetraditionalfamilieswhenthedictatorialChinesepowerisdestroyedbytheJapaneseinsurgentsinthe1940s.TheyescapefromthepoliticalupheavalofChina,buttheydontforgettheirChinesetraditionalculture,whiletheirdaughtersareborninAmerica,theyarethesecondgenerationimmigrants,andtheydontunderstandtheirmothersChineseculture,andtheirwayofthinking,sothereareoftenmisunderstandingsbetweenthemothersandthedaughters.InordertomaketheirdaughtersknowthemandtheChineseculture,theJoyLuckClubmothershavemadepain-takingeffortstoremovetheirdifferences.Theyseizeeveryopportunitytotelltheirdaughterstheirpastexperiences,demonstratetheircouragetochallengethefeudalsocietyandneverstopextendingmaternallovetotheirdaughters.Thankstotheirgreatefforts,theirdaughtersgraduallyunderstandthemandtheChineseculture.Therefore,culturalunderstandingandblendingbetweenthemothersanddaughtersareachieved.TheJoyLuckClubpresentsmanyconflictsinthemother-daughterrelationship.Theconflictsareembodiedin3aspects.First,themothersandthedaughtersareindifferentculturalbackgrounds,andthedaughterscannotunderstandtheirmothers.Atthebeginning,Jing-Meifearsthatshecannottellhermothersstorytoherhalf-sisters,which,infact,reflectsthefearofotherdaughtersoftheJoyLuckClubmembers.TheyhaveidentifiedthemselveswithAmericans.Jing-Meisfearalsoreflectsthemotherscommonfeelings.TheyofferthechancetogotoAmericatotheirdaughters,andmakethemself-sufficient;theywonderwhethertheyhavetheirdaughtersawayfromtradition.Sointhestory“TheJoyLuckClub”Jing-Meifeelspuzzled,“WhatwillIsay?WhatcanItellthemaboutmymother?Idontknowanything.”Thewayinwhichthemothersexpresstheirlovecannotbeacceptedbythedaughters.Jing-Meibelievesthathermothersconstantblameistheembodimentoflackingofaffection.However,infact,themothersseverityandhighexpectationsareexpressionsofloveandfaithinherdaughter.Othermother-daughterpairsexperiencethesamemisunderstanding.Insomeways,thismisunderstandingcomesfromculturaldifferences.TheChinesetraditionalconceptssuchasfilialobedience,criticism-envelopedexpressionoflovearealldifferentfromtheAmericanconceptssuchastheindividualism,freedom,self-esteemanddirectexpression.A good man is hard to find主题一:a good man is hard to find（好人难寻）的寓意就是让人看到自身的罪恶，认罪、忏悔。从而获得救赎。而获得救赎的重要的手段就是接受“暴力的洗礼”。虚伪、夸夸其谈的老祖母就是因为接受了“暴力的洗礼”才幡然醒悟使她能够在临死之前接纳“不合适宜的人”称他是“自己的孩子”。奥康纳通过暴力获得宗教救赎的观念虽然血腥、恐怖令有些读者难以接受，但是综合她的生活背景、宗教信仰以及当时的社会状况。宗教救赎是她能够找到的唯一拯救人类灵魂的方法和途径。她的自我探索、自我反映的精神值得我们尊敬！在奥康纳看来，此时此刻正是老太太的“天惠时刻”，在暴力的强烈冲击下，她忽然看清了自己，也看清了自己对面的“格格不入”，她突然顿悟了，发现自己本质上并不比这位逃犯高尚，她以前肤浅的价值观忽然被一种大爱所代替，于是她对身穿自己儿子衣服的“格格不入”说出了整篇小说中她说过的唯一一句真诚的、深刻的、发自内心的话：“你是我的儿呢，你是我的亲儿！”而这一时刻对于“格格不入”来说也是一种“天惠时刻”，虽然这位冷酷的虚无主义者并没有接受这一天惠，而是本能地开枪杀死了老太太，但是，这一时刻仍然撞击了他的灵魂，并有可能改变他的一生。在小说结尾，这位刚才还在宣称“不干点儿坏事儿就没乐趣”的逃犯此时却对他的同伙说：“人生没有真正的乐趣。”而接受了“天惠”的老太太虽然结束了生命，但她在生命最后的时刻超越了自己，她死去时已经不再是小说开始时那个自私、虚荣、肤浅、伪善、自以为是的人，她“像孩子一样”，“面孔朝向无云的天空微笑着”死去了，她应该能在天堂里享受快乐。主题二:奥康纳曾经说过：“我的读者是那些认为上帝已经死了的人，我很清楚自己正是为这些人而写作的。”在这样的暴力之下，奥康纳通过小说中女性角色所表现出的对人和事情冷漠。长期以来，在男性为中心的社会里，妇女事事都受控于男人，没有属于自身的社会地位和家庭地位。在战后美国的商业社会中，人和人之间被金钱关系所腐蚀，人变得冷漠和自私，信仰也逐渐缺失。女性在这样男权的金钱社会里，无所适从，只能随波逐流，做男性的附庸。小说中的老奶奶就是这样社会背景下狭隘、自私、冷漠的代表，她并不真正关心别人也没有真正地爱自己的家人，家人也不尊重她，但她却用好人的标准来衡量别人。在小说开头，老奶奶“想到东田纳西州去探望一下亲友，因此想方设法叫贝雷改变主意”，她试图利用报上看到的一个叫“不合时宜”的人越狱逃窜到佛罗里达州的消息让儿子改变机会，然而儿子和儿媳都没有理睬她，反而被孙子和孙女奚落了一顿。在路上，当她看到光着屁股的黑人小孩的时候，她没有同情，而是说：“乡下的黑崽子可不像咱们那样样样都有。我要是会画画儿，一定画这样一幅画。”当车到达图姆斯博罗郊外，老奶奶想去看她还是少女时候参观过的附近的一个古老的种植园，她知道怎么让儿子和两个孙子听命，因为她深谙那个时候的手段：金钱。所以，她用一个她知道的神秘、古老的种植园的故事吸引孙子和孙女。“她狡黠地说，说的并非实话，却希望人人相信，传说当年谢尔曼将军带兵过来的时候，这家人把银器全都藏在里面了，可是后来再也没有找到。孙子和孙女的寻宝好奇心顿时被激起，大肆地闹腾着要去看那栋带夹板墙的房子。最后儿子被迫答应掉头去了。”然而当老奶奶意识到自己记得的种植园不是在佐治亚洲，而是在田纳西州时，车翻了。在车祸后，一家人面对“不合时宜”的人时，老奶奶首先想到的是为自己开脱：“你不会杀害一个妇道人家吧？”甚至违心地尖叫说：“我知道你是个好人。你看上去一点也不像匪徒之辈。我知道你准是好人家出身！”而在儿子和孙子被拉到树林去的时候，她作为母亲和奶奶，没有为他们求情，而是“抬手整理整理帽檐，好像也要跟儿子一块儿进入树林，可是帽檐不幸脱落在手中，她愣在那里，瞪着手里拎着的帽檐，过了半晌才松手让它落在地上”；当媳妇、孙女和小婴儿被拉到树林里去的时候，一向话多的她却没有为她们求情，听到枪声响过，她念叨的也只是：“贝雷儿啊，贝雷宝贝儿啊”，老奶奶的自私、冷漠的人性一览无遗。孩子妈的第一次说话是拿着抢的“不合时宜”的人让她管住孩子，让他们坐在一起。在这样危险的时候，习惯于遵从男权命令的孩子妈马上就叫孩子：“过来。”第二次，当丈夫和儿子被枪杀后，“不合时宜”的人问她愿意和丈夫会合的时候，明知道去了就是死，她回答的却是：“行，谢谢。”这样的回答，既包括了对跟从丈夫死去的认命，也是对男性暴力的屈服。孩子妈的这些行为，就是屈从于男权的控制，冷漠地对待自身命运的表现。而红萨米的老婆在小说中话要多一些。但是同样的，她的行为和话语都表明了女性在男权的金钱世界中的附庸地位，冷漠地对待自身在家庭和社会的地位。当她问老奶奶的孙女是否愿意做她的小女儿的时候，得到的是小女孩否定的、粗鲁无礼的回答，她却还要彬彬有礼地做个窘相，害怕得罪客人。而红萨米还叫她“少在柜台那儿磨蹭，赶紧招待顾客”；她“端来吃食，没有托盘，居然一下子把五盘全都端来了，一手拿两盘，胳膊肘上还悬乎乎地托着另一盘”；但是，对于这么能干的老婆，红萨米却并不尊重。在红萨米和老奶奶说到报上提到的“不合时宜”的人的时候，红萨米的老婆说：“他要是听说有这个地方，准保会来的。他要是听说钱柜里只有两分钱，必定会”而红萨米却不给她闲谈的权利，支使她又去给客人拿东西，她也顺从地去了。这些都表明，红萨米的老婆认识的美国社会是金钱社会，丈夫对她具有支配权。当老奶奶试图说服贝雷去田纳西州时，琼斯塔的哥哥却建议老奶奶呆在家里，琼斯塔尖酸地说：“就是让她在家里当一天女皇，她也不愿意呆就是给她一百万块钱，她也不愿意呆在家里”；在红萨米的老婆问她是否愿意当她的小女儿的时候，她也是尖酸刻薄地说：“不，当然不愿意就是给我一百万块钱，我也不愿意呆在这样一个破烂的鬼地方！”琼斯塔不仅对人不尊重，没有爱心，对家乡事物也是一样的冷漠。对于哥哥约翰韦斯利说“田纳西不过是一块垃圾堆似的高低不平的山地罢了”时，她完全赞同，并帮腔说：“说得完全对。”不过，喜欢用“一百万块钱”来表达感情的琼斯塔虽然对老奶奶没有半点尊敬，倒是对她所说的“带有秘密夹板墙、藏有银器”的种植园充满兴趣，和哥哥一起蛮横无理地迫使他们的爸爸掉头转向那个“满是银器”的种植园。并且，在车祸发生之后，琼斯塔不仅不担心家人的安危，反而狂热地乱叫出车祸了，甚至失望地说：“真可惜谁也没死！”奥康纳透过美国经济繁荣的表象下人们的自私冷漠，信仰和精神世界的匮乏，在好人难寻塑造了具有代表性的女性角色，剖析了在一切以金钱和物质为中心的男权社会里，女性的心灵没有正确的价值观作为依托，不注重精神、信仰，冷漠地对待周围的人、事物以及自身的命运的冷漠。The lottery这是篇隐喻故事。故事设定在一个架空的，保留着古老传统的村庄。每年，族长都会从黑箱子里选出一个人来献祭。献祭的方式即是被所有其他村人活活砸死。你问的这个问题正是这篇小说的核心。为什么大家要用石头砸中奖的人呢？为了祭祀。但是祭祀本身就是一个相当古老的，已经过时了的传统。村民们自己估计也不知道为什么要保留这这么个传统，只是被动地年年重复着一个机械化的程序，甚至对死亡视而不见。这小说想讽刺的就是人类墨守着陈腐的老旧的事情的愚昧。一个表面上是幸运的,而实际上是荒诞离奇的故事,从而表达了故事的主题,即揭露了人类固有的愚昧无知和村民们之间的冷酷无情和漠然。ThenameSummershasimpliedusthesocialstatusandinfulencesofMrSummers,hewastheownerofthecoalbusinessandhadpoweronthewholetownpeople.Everylivingsummer,hegatheredthepeopletogetherandheldthelotteryceremonywhichcostonehumanbeinglifetokeepthestupidsuspitioussaying:lotteryinJune,cornbeheavysoon.ThegroupofpeoplelikeMrSummershadcontrolsnotonlyonthewholdprocessofthelotterybutalsotheeconomicresourcesevendestinies.Thelotterywasonlyakindofritualwhichwasusedtoblindtheirsouls,transfertheirdisatisfyaboutthereallifeandtakeouttheirangeronthemuchmiserierperson-thelotterywinner.TheoldmanMrWarnerwastheeldestpersoninthetownwhowassupposedtothewisdomincommonsense,insteadhewastherepresentiveofthemostfatuousandcruelhumanbeings.Hehasbeeninthelotteryfor77yearsqutoedwhathesaid:Seventy-seventhyearIbeenintheLotteryashewentthroughthecrowd:Seventyseventimes.Wecanunderstandfromadifferentview:Hehasbeentakingpartinkillingpeopletodeathformorethanseventytimes.Theluckinessofhecouldescapefromeachlife-riskinthelotteryhasbeentransformedintohugezealouspassiontokeepthisconventionanddefendanyonewhoeventhoughtaboutabandoningthisritualinhead.Thelotterytraditionhasbeenkeptyearbyyear,therewasahumanbeingwashittodeathyearbyyear,untilthisyearwhenthenarratorreportedtous,westillcouldnotseeasignthatitwouldbechanged.SothelotterywinnerTessieinthisyearwasjustlikeeveryoneinthepast,shewasthevictimforotherstokeeptheirblindritual.WedontknowwhythewriterchoseTessietobethevictim.TherewasnoanysingalwhichimpliesTessiewouldbetheonewhogotthelottery.Shewaslikeeveryonewhocameforthisceremonyasaparticipantandavindicatoraswell.Abstract：ThestoryTheLotterytellsthetraditionalannuallotteryritualinanordinaryAmericantown,butthewinnerwillbescrailcedforharvest.ShideyJacksonemploysheruniquestyletoconveytheinhumanity,crueltyofpeopleandvictimizationofindividual,andwinshermanyfamesandcriticiss.Thepaperappreciatesliterarydevicessuchasconflicts,sening,characterization,symbolismandironyinThelottery.The eggTheme1.宿命论determinism Life cannot be controlled. Man cannot conquer the desire.Theme2. 鸡蛋的象征意义(美国梦的破灭)1. The Eggs Symbolic Meanings to the Boy In the story, the boys life was haunted by the egg and gradually his own opinions of the egg were shaped; he had a complicated feeling towards the egg.1.1 The Egg: The ParasiteWhen his parents were raising chickens, he sighed that those chickens ate “quantities of corn and meal bought by the sweat of your fathers brow”, and most of the money that his father had earned by working as a laborer on neighboring farms during their ten years had been spent for remedies to cure chicken diseases, advertised products for raising chickens and various purposes to raise chickens. The egg and the chickens had eaten out what his parents earned. But to the boys disappointment, the chickens gave nothing in return. Some of them just became sick and died. Only a few of hens survived and another dreadful cycle began. The boy showed his sympathy to his father, for what he had earned had been wasted by eggs and chickens. Those eggs and chickens seemed like parasites, which always take but seldom give.1.2 The Egg: The RobberAccording to the boys introduction, he could feel that the egg had robbed both his naive childhood and his fathers cheerful nature.His first impressions of life were dyed with disasters and the darker side of life and he attributed it to the fact that he had spent his boyhood on the chicken farm. Those impressions were so deeply engraved on him that unconsciously he was often reminded of those disasters and the darker side of life. When he was in his gay mood, they would loom before him and drove his gay mood away; they would make him feel guilty for his stealing happiness; they would disable him of feeling happy. Or, they had robbed his right to be happy.Boyhood should be a naive one but the boy did not enjoy it. His boyhood was troubled by many philosophic thoughts. He realized the dreadful cycle, in which “the hens lay eggs out of which come other chickens”; when he was gazing upon the bald path on his fathers head, he would associate it with the road that Caesar had taken to lead his legions out of Rome; and when he looked at the egg on the table, he “wondered why eggs had to be and why from the egg came the hen who again laid the egg.” These philosophic thoughts should not have been related to a naive boy. Its the egg that had driven the boys premature growth.Besides these, he could also feel that the egg had committed a robbery to his father. His father was once a cheerful and kindly man by nature but “from long association with mother and the chickens he had become habitually silent and discouraged.” The boy could vaguely tell that it was because of his mother and the chickens or the egg that his father changed. And since his mother was obsessed with raising chickens and chickens came from eggs, the root of all the unhappiness should be the egg. It is the egg that had robbed his fathers joyful nature and his own naive childhood.1.3 The Egg: His Father & The Boy HimselfWe are told that the boys mother was incurably ambitious for his father and himself. Too much hope was loaded on them as well as on the egg. “Grotesques are born out of eggs as out of people”, however. Both his father and he himself became grotesques. His father became a grotesque in his insane crazy about those grotesque chickens and his abnormal behaviors to attract customers. And the boy was turned into a grotesque in his disabling to be happy and to behave as a boy should.Consciously or unconsciously, he found that his parents obsession with the egg originated from his birth. And when he lay beside his mother-in the days of her lying-in-she may have dreamed that he “would someday rule men and cities”. When he was older, his parents moved to a town to embark in the restaurant business. And there was another motive in it. That is his mother was ambitious for him. She wanted him “to rise in the world, to get into a town school and become a man of the towns”. Since his father failed to realize his mothers ambition, he became the last egg that was loaded with hopes.From the boys point of view, we find the boy could never love the egg or hate the egg, for it had been an inseparable part of his life. How could one abandon a part of his life? What he could do is to accept it and continue his life. And this helps us to understand why Sherwood Anderson chose the boy as the narrator of the story. The author wanted to tell us the boy was more influenced and suffered from the egg. Instead of commenting on the whole thing himself, he chose the boy as the narrator in order to make the reader think deeply and to find the root.2. The Eggs Symbolic Meanings to the Author & ReaderAdults thoughts are different from a naive boys. We have watched the whole development of the story and we have some information about that period of time when this story was created. With these, we can explore the deep symbolic meanings of the egg in the story.2.1 The Egg: Beautiful But Fragile American DreamThis story is from Sherwood Andersons The Triumph of the Egg, which was published in 1920s, when, with the rapid economic development, America was emerging as an industrial giant. At that time, optimism was prevailing and people believed in their American Dream. Material pursuit became crazy while moral corruption, spiritual degradation and disillusionment arouse. Sherwood Anderson was one of those who kept sober and clear in mind and he saw the disillusionment of American Dream.In The Egg, no matter how hard the couple worked, their eggs would fail to meet their expectation. They were given hopes by the egg and by the advertised literature that is written concerning the hen. To them the egg conveys hope, for the hen can be hatched from it and the hen will lay eggs again. But they were not told that the egg had a very thin shell and was easily broken. They were not told that only a very few could succeed. Since the egg was the road to success chosen by them and they were doomed to pay for their choice, which meant the disillusionment of their dream. And the boys parents just represented those Americans who were pursuing their American Dream. Maybe the road taken by them had nothing to do with eggs, but their beautiful dreams were as fragile as the egg, too.2.2 The Egg: The Authors WarningIn the story, when he later read the literature of fortunes to be made out of raising chickens, the author warned us “Do not be led astray by it. It was not written for you.” If you believed in it, you will be like the father, who had been turned into a grotesque by his egg. Anyway, “Grotesques are born out of eggs as out of people”. If you believed in it, your children will suffer the way the boy had suffered and an endless dreadful cycle will be formed.This recalls us of the old warning “Dont count your eggs before they are hatched.” The author seemed to warn us “Dont touch the egg before it is yours”.2.3 The Egg: The Old Unsolved RiddleFrom the boys mouth, Sherwood Anderson raised the old unsolved riddle, “Why eggs had to be and why from the egg came the hen who again laid the egg?” And which one comes the first, the egg or the hen? He was in fact looking into the root of the problems existed in his time. American Dream was born out from another one and cycled on. But who should take the responsibility of peoples infesting the dream? Can we find the pull the root out and stop the dreadful cycle? These were Sherwood Andersons deep concerns.3. ConclusionMentioning the symbolic meanings of the egg, we tend to view it from our angle, or the adults angle, but neglect its symbolic meanings from a childs point of view. However, Sherwood Anderson purposely adopted the boys point of view to make us notice more. Childhood should be naive and happy, but this child could not feel any happiness after having witnessed so many deaths and grotesques. And he was deeply involved in the dreadful cycle. The “egg” was harmful to